Getting Started on 2016

2015 was an absolutely incredible year for IBTM.  With over 3,000 baptisms reported to us and 55 new congregations of the Lord's church established, it was easy to get excited.  If you haven't read last month's report then you can see it by clicking here:

The Seeker - January 2016

And 2016 is starting off just as exciting with January being another incredible month.  The newest edition of our newsletter is available by clicking here:

The Seeker - February 2016

Of course, all of this excitement makes for some rather busy days for me.  The online student enrollments took a huge jump upward as soon as the new year began - not unusual with all those New Year's Resolutions being made - but here it is February and they haven't slowed down yet.  Yay!

 I've stayed busy as well when I wasn't working with IBTM students and teachers.  I was blessed to enjoy a train ride on the Polar Express with all three of my grandsons at Christmas.

Cole and Jasper were both so impressed that they immediately wanted to go again.  In January I traveled with the whole family again for a quick weekend in Texas.  3 adults, 3 boys and a large dog driving for 8+ hours through a monstrous thunderstorm is many things, but certainly not boring.  But the weekend was wonderful.  We were attending a conference to learn more about essential oils so I came away with some good information.  Unfortunately, being in Texas meant that we missed the snow in Mississippi.  Bummer! I really enjoy watching it fall.

EO Kit

Why do I keep a small pack of essential oils with me at all times? This conversation with my 3-year-old grandson, Jasper, is one of the reasons.

Yesterday Jasper found a dried kernel of something on the bathroom floor of a restaurant and picked it up, of course. I told him it was nasty so he threw it in the toilet . . . but then stood there gazing at it.

Jasper: I think I want to stick that in my nose

Me: No! That would be nasty. (Jasper just stared at me, obviously unconvinced that this would not be an exciting thing to do.) You should never stick things in your nose. They could get stuck in there and then someone else would have to get it out. That wouldn't be fun.

Jasper: If I stick a sharp knife up my nose I can just take it back out and throw it at the wall.

Me: No! No! No! You must never stick something sharp up your nose! That could hurt you. You might have to go to the hospital and you wouldn't like that.

Jasper: Well, the doctor can just take it out and then the doctor can throw it at the wall.

Yikes! I need to refill my Geranium bottle in that EO kit NOW!

December 2015

I apologize for not keeping in touch quite as much as I used to do.  I really do mean to keep up with this blog but my days stay incredibly hectic.  I haven't seen the bottom of my email box in months and my desk is piled high with . . . stuff.  I'm not even sure why some of this stuff is here except that I have been having repairs done in my office so right now I can't even get to the cabinet where some of these things go.  Maybe some day I will manage to get things as organized as I picture them in my head, but it won't be this week.  

Still, some exciting things have happened with the mission work.  A few weeks ago we recorded the 1 millionth visit to our websites.  Those visitors have come from 233 different nations or separate dependencies around the world representing over 13,600 cities.  So this mission outreach truly is international and global.  In fact, of the top 30 cities to send visitors to our websites only one of them is located in the USA.

Two weeks ago I received 25 applications in the mail to become an IBTM online teacher, all from one congregation of the Lord's church.  What an amazing response to an appeal for teachers!

This past Monday I conducted my first ever telephone interview for an article I wanted to write for our newsletter.  That was fun.  The newsletter is posted online now although the printed version probably won't be available for another week.  You can read it by clicking here.

And my exciting news of  yesterday?  I assigned our 20,000^th online student to a teacher! When you add in the postal students as well we have close to 22,000 people who have enrolled in our study. I am still amazed at how quickly we got to this number.  When I finally finished uploading all of the course materials and the first tracts and articles IBTM had available so that my husband, Jimmie, and I could start recruiting teachers it was well into January of 2011.  By the end of that month we had 10 teachers in place – and 7 students.  Now we have around 125 active teachers – and our students have grown just a bit.  It can certainly keep me busy.

I stay fairly busy on the home front as well.  I mentioned repairs in the office, but my office is in my home and repairs had to be done all over.  I guess older homes are like people - they can develop problems as they age.  My house was built in 1902 and I love its Victorian farmhouse charm, so I want to keep it in good condition.  I had quite a bit of work done inside the house before I moved in 2 years ago, so most of the repairs now were things that had to be taken care of underneath the house.  Really hard to get excited about that but it needed to be done.  Still, this summer I did get a bit of sprucing up done to the outside.


And my grandsons . . . they tend to keep me busy, too.  It is so much fun watching them grow and discover new things.  This past weekend I took the oldest two to see The Peanuts Movie because I've long been a Snoopy fan.   I loved hearing them laugh at all those endearing characters I have enjoyed for years.  It was nice to see a movie that was actually funny where the only violence was Lucy yanking that football away just as Charlie Brown was trying to kick it.  You know that scene had to be in there or it wouldn't be a Peanuts gang story.

Words

I love words.  I love reading them, writing them and putting them into poetry.  I'm not real keen on speaking them aloud before a crowd of people but barring an audience, I love playing with words. Yet after I wrote my last post in February I really thought perhaps I had written enough words on this blog.  That one happened to be #300 so it seemed a nice round number and a place to stop.  Then recently I happened upon the traffic stats for this site and realized that more people are continuing to come here than I expected.  I either need to close this site completely or start writing again.  I guess I'll go back to playing with words.

This year I have had two main missions.  First and foremost of course is my work with International Bible Teaching Ministries.  IBTM is now starting its 9th year as a mission effort and I am just barely into my 5th year with it.  When I started volunteering my time in 2010 to get tracts, articles and Bible correspondence courses uploaded to a new website I never anticipated how quickly that site would grow.  Today I am expecting to see the 250,000th visitor for this year alone, but we are close to having 1,000,000 since the IBTM and ICOTB websites opened in January of 2011.  Wow! We have also had more than 20,000 people enroll in our correspondence courses since then.  The work has grown rapidly and continues to grow so it is exciting being a part of it.  But reporting on what I do . . . not so much.  I assign students to teachers, manage the websites, handle email, upload new materials and do a variety of clerical tasks.  Those things don't exactly make for thrilling reading so I'm often at a loss when it comes to reporting on my work.  But they are necessary things to keep the work going and I love that I am dealing with souls.

You can read the newest newsletter and learn about some of the many things IBTM is doing by clicking here.

My second part-time mission is also exciting - Essential Oils.  I have been learning as much as I can about them and the more I learn the more I am amazed.  God placed these wonderful liquids in the plants when He created them and when they are removed carefully so that they retain the properties He put into them they are incredible.  Essential oils have made a huge impact on my wellness.  So now I want to share with others about these oils and how they can support the body. As Christians we can do so much more for the Lord's cause if we are strong and healthy.  If you want to know more about essential oils then ask me in a comment, include your email address and I will get in touch.  I also have a public Facebook page that has tips and info at this link:  Essentials for Life YL.  

My only regret with essential oils is not learning about them years earlier.

February Update

Where did January go?  I know it was busy, even busier than usual.  My two youngest grandsons both got RSV, one after the other, so that certainly kept the whole family hopping.  Fortunately, essential oils helped the boys with that mess and they came through it pretty quickly.  Baby Henry continues to grow waaaaay too fast but gets cuter as he does it.

He's  the cuddliest teddy bear.

I was also extra busy with the mission work, so January just whizzed by.  The month set a new record high of website visits, the BCC students now number more than 17,000, and the college work continues to grow.  You can read more of the latest news on IBTM/ICOTB in The Seeker by clicking here.

Christmas 2014

2014 has been a very full, very busy year personally.  I finally got all of those boxes unpacked after my move, although my house is not officially “finished”.  I have a number of craft/painting projects I want to do but for the past couple of months every time I could manage the time I worked on a playroom for my grandsons.  I say "worked" but it felt more like play decorating the room with characters and airplanes and creating a kitchen where both boys love pretending to cook.  Of course my house decorating plans came to a complete standstill when Henry was born.  Now deciding between painting a chair or rocking Henry to sleep is a no-brainer.  I thoroughly enjoy having all three grandsons close.  And they thoroughly enjoyed Christmas!

Thanksgiving

In just a few minutes it will officially be the season of thanksgiving.  So before the rush of cooking turkey and eating far too much desert I want to take a moment and mention some things that I was very thankful for today.

• Living in a small town - People are friendly and getting around is a breeze.  I rushed out this morning to do some errands.  Made 3 stops including buying some last minute grocery items and was still home in 30 minutes.
• Living in the same small town as my daughter - So I get to see her often and we are close enough to lend each other a hand when needed.  She was also the first in our family to discover this small town that I think is pretty cool.
• Grandsons - There is nothing like grandkids to keep life interesting . . . and exhausting.  Mine kept me busy today.

Speaking of grandsons, I now have 3 of them.  Henry was born 2 weeks ago and he is adorable.

• IBTM - It is a wonderful mission work and I'm pleased to be a part of it.  I've just posted our latest newsletter and you can see it by clicking here.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!