Tuesday, September 24, 2024

RECOVERY OF FOCUS

After much thought, I came to a pleasant resolve that having this measure of Vision loss is the proverbial slow  walk in the park compared to losing one’s mind. I had a close friend who was going through Alzheimer’s and I knew of her struggles into the last days of her life. Terrifying to see her struggle through such every day experiences that I quickly ascertained this is a hellish disease. One’s mind is their treasure and to lose one’s mind is to lose everything. For without one’s mind, memories cannot be recalled cognition of the former self is non-existent and then it’s final days it all but erased, the person of whom it had affected.

So for this day, I am at home in the company of my mind. That’s and creativity. I am presently working on my book and working on my next painting. This is hunting season and we go together and enjoy it  and I am so grateful for this life.

As my mother once told me, we are as happy as we make up our minds to be, and I am going to live this Exceptionally beautiful life, with vision loss,  happy, blessed and fulfilled. This is my life. 



Tuesday, September 3, 2024

The Daily Grind

 I know many have asked and in hoping for a more optimistic answer, I have been silent on the matter. But now to explain the nitty-gritty and daily grind of legal blindness; I can not photograph the hours I have poured over my little iPhone searching for an assistive computer technology.  There is no photograph or image to express the frustration and waste of time I experience on a daily basis. There are no "blind" software applications that I have found. The best hope I have is that tomorrow morning I wake up with the same (or better) visual acuity as I have today, but really I have no choice in the matter. I am not void or absent of joy the majority of my day, but I do experience little or no resolution to the problems I face.

Should anyone reading this have suggestions for me, please email my husband. I'd appreciate that.

Jim Davis ~ ptadavis1949@gmail.com



Thursday, January 25, 2024

The Unfortunate


I emerged from a troubled past, a dysfunctional home, yet I still had a happy heart. An old, beat up folk guitar provided a new interest, somebody had given it to me. I knew nothing of playing the guitar, but I quickly found out that it needed to be tuned and I needed guitar chords. A few friendly souls sketched out some basic chords for me on scraps of paper and demonstrated how to play them. I remember thinking back those many years ago, "That's not so hard, I think I can do that."

I needed a song to play, I would have to learn it by repetition. This was achieved by checking an album out of the library. Having no money because I was only 14 and had no job, I did have a library card so I checked out a Bob Dylan record. I read the Bible daily and that along with the lyrics of one of his songs would develop my first musical objective. The song was "There But For Fortune". That song and the Word of God began to form in me a deep sense of empathy for the unfortunate.

Over the next few years, I checked out several Dylan albums and acquainted myself with songs that I liked and were innocuous to my teenage years. I would sing his lyrics as I walked around town, and the images were very meaningful in fact; they helped me memorize the words. My mother was not against his music or me listening to it, as they formed no rebellious attitude in me. There was nothing to be on guard of. There was no violence in his music, no sex or drugs. There was, however, the rich tapestry of human life and its struggles, which I found very kindred to my own life. It provided a glimpse into the lives of others around me and so I walked with the narrative of the Bible and Bob Dylan lyrics, side-by-side, straight into adulthood.

In 2020 I wanted to listen to some of his more recent music and I came upon the album Modern Times. I was filled with great delight as I listened to it because I could clearly hear a very spiritual undertone and God all the way through it. It was very spiritual.

This month I came upon a phenomenal reality...Bob Dylan is a confessing, born-again believer and has been sharing his convictions since 1979 when he came to Christ as his Savior. I knew he had received Christ in 1979, but had heard that he had walked away from his faith. In actuality, he never did. Today, when he has a concert, he shares his beliefs in both word and singing Gospel songs, including old hymns such as "Rock of Ages" and "Pass Me Not". Check out this book, Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life by Scott M. Marshall.



"Never before has a book like this one delved into the spiritual odyssey of cultural icon Bob Dylan. Tracking an American original--from his Jewish roots to his controversial embrace of Jesus to his enduring legacy as the composer of the Tempest album--Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life delivers the story of a man in dogged pursuit of redemption. Based on years of research and original interviews, this book sorts through the myths and misunderstandings and reveals Dylan to be both traditional and radical in the way he expresses his spiritual quest for purpose and meaning."



Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Lillie Ruth

 Our third great grandchild...



This little beauty was born to our family on November 6th and her arrival was an anticipated one. She is the third child in the family, born to loving parents and two loving brothers.
Oh, how she has captured our hearts!
And, I believe Lillie could hear her Creator's voice as he spoke to her in her spirit. 
She has a peaceful and calm presence.
Father in Heaven, Thank You for the gift of Lillie Ruth!


Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Community & Learning

This past June I spent time with a pastor’s wife in a remote area of our island. It was a very depressed area, and a poor community, and the members of the church were representative of this. The fellowship and joy the pastor's wife and I experienced together was special, as seen on our faces. I have learned through the loss of others, through distress and adversity and how it affected them, that if they endure with a vigilance of prayer and self-control they will achieve its reward.


My education continues through books which I've read expeditiously with my Audible.com app. I can say, with a smile on my face and countenance, the world of Learning is open to me again through this app. I would like to recommend these books which I have posted from my reading list for you to enjoy & learn from. I do not read fiction books, but only those that relate to our lives and times.


In the first major biography of Bonhoeffer in 40 years, New York Times best-selling author Eric Metaxas takes both strands of Bonhoeffer's life - the theologian and the spy - to tell a searing story of incredible moral courage in the face of monstrous evil. In a deeply moving narrative, Metaxas uses previously unavailable documents - including personal letters, detailed journal entries, and firsthand personal accounts - to reveal dimensions of Bonhoeffer's life and theology never before seen.





What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."

The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.








ECPA BESTSELLER • A compelling emotional and spiritual case against hurry and in favor of a slower, simpler way of life






In their own words, recorded in the famous journals of Lewis and Clark, the members of the Corps of Discovery tell their story with an immediacy and power missing from secondhand accounts. All of their triumphs and terrors are here: the thrill of seeing the vast herds of bison, the fear the captains felt when Sacagawea fell ill, the ordeal of crossing the Continental Divide, the misery of cold and hunger, and the kidnapping and rescue of Lewis' dog, Seaman. The natural wonders of an unspoiled America are here, and the lives and customs of its native peoples also come vividly to life, making for a living drama that is humorous, poignant, and, at least once, tragic.






Dr. Miriam Grossman is a child and adolescent psychiatrist whose practice consists of trans-identified youth and their families. In Lost in TransNation, she implores parents to reject the advice of gender experts and politicians and trust their guts—their parental instincts—in the face of an onslaught of ideologically driven misinformation that steers them and their children toward risky decisions they may end up mourning for the rest of their lives.






The Return of the GodsCahn takes the reader on a journey from an ancient parable, the ancient 
inscriptions in Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia that become the puzzle pieces behind what is
 taking place in our world to this day, specifically in America.

Is it possible that what we in the modern world take as nothing more than 

ancient mythology could actually possess a reality beyond our fathoming?




Monday, August 29, 2022

Tour of Life

 The beggar, who is crippled of legs.


Prior to leaving for the Philippines last June, God’s Holy Spirit put on my heart, a certain lame beggar,
I have known of since 1987, bringing to my mind several times for no apparent reason, a strong desire to see him and share the Lord. This was a very intense feeling because I sensed the urgency of it to share with him face-to-face.
I knew literally nothing about this man. I did not know his name I did not know his language, literally I knew nothing about him but that he was gentle and easy to approach. In the first week of our being there Jim and I found him. I had brought a tract to give him, and to my joy he started reading it! The tract had the two hearts and he looked up and said aloud, “I have a good heart." I was shocked as I didn’t know he could speak. I took my sunglasses off and bent down low enough for him to look into my eyes and to see if he recognized me. Yes indeed he did and made sounds of delight! However the most important purpose still lay ahead. We had to arrange a meeting with our staff pastor and the beggar, so that the pastor could explain the offer of forgiveness and the gift of salvation!. I wanted to have the assurance that Leonardo would be in heaven at the end of his days.

Everything in Scripture points to the love of God for the individual. God is interested in the individual. He is not impressed with our education, the way we look for the pedigree that we come from, but God is interested in our heart and how we respond to him.

Indeed it says in the Bible when one sinner repents the angels in heaven rejoice. That is the act of one. Jim and I looked for this man every day, first in the morning hours and then later in the afternoon hours up and down the street and could find him nowhere. The following day we did the same, pursuing where we thought he might go to have the most foot traffic.We were very diligent to go out into the town and scour the different blocks looking for him with great intent all to know if we would find him before we had to leave.

I could not know what the days ahead would bring for my friend, Leonardo but August 10th, I heard from our Office Manager in the Philippines that our pastor had found Leonardo! He shared the gospel with him, he listened and then prayed to receive Christ!

It really is the love of God that reaches out to find a lost soul, comforts them with his grace and makes provision for them to Himself. Is this not why we love the Lord? He is all about the individual. Even when that individual is not presentable, has not eaten food in several days and is not eloquent of speech, God is waiting for such, that the man would simply call out to God for help and God hears him! “ This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” I John 4:10

“His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his delight in the legs of the man;
the Lord delights in those who fear him,
    Psalms 147

Me giving Leonardo the tract in June


Leonardo Praying with our PTA Pastor last week! Praise God!




Friday, March 25, 2022

Spring Arrives!



Spring arrives! The forest in the woodlands will soon erupt with the sounds of newborn fawns and small mammals. In our backyard the birds have premed their nest as baby birds hatch, soon to fill the air with chirps and bird songs.

New life is the sign accompanying Spring here in India. In the north east where we gather with friends enjoying Indian tea, we were stirred into enthusiastic conversation about the new life in the Bible studies and the churches. The kind of life that happens by being born again. That sweet fellowship flourishes among the believers and joy fills the room. The transformation of such believers delivered from darkness know now that they live in His glorious light and life.

A Hindu priest positioned in the temple to execute a macabre act of child sacrifice…his own daughter who was seven years old. Her father was a Hindu priest and he told her there was a special service that night at the temple so he went and bought her a new dress for the occasion. Little did she know that her father‘s plan was to sacrifice her that night to the Hindu gods. When they arrived at the temple the little girl said, "Father, where are all the people?" and he said, "We are early." He took her in and there were only other Hindu priests and they went to the altar and he told her to put her head down and began to get ready to cut her head off with a big sword. She saw the sword and started to cry and pray, "Dear Jesus, save me!" When she prayed all the articles of worship and the incense holders fell on the floor. They put them back in place and as they proceeded a second time, it happened again as she prayed a second time, "Jesus save me!" The priests stopped the sacrifice ritual. The other priest told the father, this is a bad omen, and they could not sacrifice her. Her father was very angry and ended up cutting his own flesh to give blood to the gods. He continued in his anger and took her home and locked her in her bedroom for two days with no water or food. She had heard from a friend at school that Jesus is the loving powerful Lord who answers prayer. Today she is a beautiful believer and is loved and has a prayer ministry praying for the sick to be healed.



The woman next to me is that "little girl", she expressed to our team that she could not let me go but wanted me to stay with her.

In our friend's home, just as dinner was being prepared for us, I saw a quiet man standing aloof, so I went over to say hello. He was polite but reticent to speak. Then very slowly he began to tell me his testimony. His joy was now all over his face and he was saying “Yes, yes! I too know! Very, very happy I have joy now. It's Jesus I have now.”

This man was a high cast Brahman and in that status receives praise and privileges in this Indian culture. But he chose to give it all away and put it aside for Christ as his Lord and Savior. He has walked away and is denying himself of all that could be his to follow Jesus. As the Bible says, "Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will lift you up.” James 4:19

This believer who came out of darkness and evil because he saw the love of God extended to him through believers in Christ. Please pray for India, there are over 1 billion people who do not know the love of God in Jesus Christ.