"Trust In You"

Yesterday while driving to work I heard a really beautiful song.  I would like to share the words with you:

Trust In You

by Lauren Daigle  

Letting go of every single dream

I lay each one down at Your feet

Every moment of my wandering 

Never changes what You see

I've tried to win this war I confess

My hands are weary I need Your rest

Mighty Warrior, King of the fight

No matter what I face, You're by my side

When you don't move the mountains I'm needing You to move

When you don't part the waters I wish I could walk through

When You don't give the answers as I cry out to You

I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!

Truth is, You know what tomorrow brings

There's not a day ahead You have not seen

So, in all things be my life and breath

I want what You want Lord and nothing less

When you don't move the mountains I'm needing You to move

When you don't part the waters I wish I could walk through

When You don't give the answers as I cry out to You

I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!

You are my strength and comfort

Your are my steady hand

Your are my firm foundation; the rock on which I stand

Your ways are always higher

You plans are always good

There's not a place where I'll go, You've not already stood

When you don't move the mountains I'm needing You to move

When you don't part the waters I wish I could walk through

When You don't give the answers as I cry out to You

I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!

I will trust in You!

I will trust in You!

I will trust in You!

What beautiful words and just so perfect for where I am at right now.  I have been leading a Bible Study at our church and the group just decided to study "Prayer".  Last week we hadn't all received our study guides, so we all just brought some verses about prayer and discussed them and discussed what we hoped to learn about prayer and how we hope to change our prayer life.  When I heard the song "Trust In You" I just felt like God was showing me once again what prayer is all about.  It is carrying our needs to God but then releasing them into His caring hands and resting in His love and compassion to take care of everything in His perfect way.  I'm reminded of our Lord when he was nearing the time of the cross and how He prayed for the burden to be lifted and taken away...but only if that was God's will.  But as we know as Christians, it wasn't God the Father's will to take it away.  We all praise God that the Father didn't take it away, because it was through the death and resurrection of Jesus that we can truly live and look forward to life in Heaven for eternity.  

Jesus knew His Father had the perfect plan, and He TRUSTED His Father.

We can rest in God's perfect plan every day of our lives.  We can TRUST.  Praise the Lord!!! 

I have another "C" word.....cataracts.  Hum!  I thought that was for old or should I say older people.  But seems I have them.  I have my first surgery on Tuesday and ask for your prayers.  I know that God is the great physician and that He will hold the surgeon's hands and I will trust Him and His perfect plan for my life.  

Blessings to you all.

Beeeeautiful Time of Year

Beeeeautiful Time of Year

     Can you believe that we are almost to April 2016.  We have been praying for more rain, because California is in a long drought.  We have had some rains, which we are thankful for.  It has made California the beautiful state that I remember from times past when we would come for a visit and I always was so excited to come in the winter when it was so cold and everything had turned brown for winter in Colorado.  But since we have been living here it has been hard to watch the hills turn brown and the danger of fire high. However, right now is indeed beautiful.  The hills are all that beautiful spring green and it is a wonder to see.  We are blessed to see the hills a lot when we are driving to Atascadero nearly every Sunday for church.  I usually drive so Wayne can work on his sermon and Bible class.  

     We have been preparing for and getting bees since November.  Wayne and I decided to try our luck at bees again.  We had bees for a short time in Colorado, but the bears ruined our hives and we lost our bees.  So once again you may see us in our yard in full bee suits going to work on the hives.  We have seen many bee videos and you see the keepers with no bee suit, but we are not ready for that.  Wayne has gotten stung when we were visiting someone else's hives and our son Ben got stung once from our bees here in our back yard.  We decided to just wait for swarms rather than go to the expense of buying bees.  After quite a long wait and several calls that just didn't work out Wayne and a friend finally went and were able to get a swarm out of a large street water meter.  They had to pull off the heavy lid and there was brood and honey right there hanging on the lid.  So they used rubber bands to attach the brood and honey comb to our hives and the bees gradually went into the hive.  That night Wayne returned and sealed the hive and brought it home.  Quite an experience for Wayne since we had never done that before.  We were able to keep the first hive going through our mild CA winter.  Then just a few weeks ago our neighbors called and said "There is a swarm in our tree in the back yard."  So Wayne was able to just go next door and cut off a small branch of their tree and put the bees into another hive.  We now have two hives and Wayne just went and got a few more parts to complete a third hive in case we get any more calls about swarms.  We are fortunate to have a friend that has some old bee hives and we got them and cleaned them up and repainted them and then bought some tools and frames, etc.We also purchased a new type of frame where you don't disturb the bees so much when you harvest their honey.  We are getting excited about trying to get that assembled and put on the first hive when they begin to run out of room in the bottom brood chamber.  So as you can see it is a BEE-autiful time of year for our bees too.  Because of all the pesticides that are used all over the country many bees are being poisoned and dying off.  We hope to help by providing a safe pesticide free place for bees.  

     We mentioned that Wayne was diagnosed with prostate cancer when we wrote in January.  We have since been trying some more natural things to prevent it from progressing and hoping to reduce the PSA.  We are happy to say that something is working, because Wayne's PSA went down from a 5+ to a 3+ level.  We are praising the Lord for this.  God is so...good.  

     It is also a beeeeautiful time of year in our gardens.  We still have kale and some spinach from our winter planting, and now we are getting fresh strawberries again and our lemon tree has had quite a few lemons, plus 4-5 grapefruit on our tiny little grapefruit tree.  Our large orange tree (which was here and well established when we bought this house) is loaded with juicy oranges and also little green oranges and now we have the beeeeautiful smell of the orange blossoms.   I have begun to plant  Spring things in the garden: garlic, radishes, more strawberries, carrots, peas, onions, spinach, potatoes.  We are already seeing garlic coming up and a few peas and radishes.  We are watching as the blueberry plants are beginning to show signs of life and also the other fruit trees: pomegranate strawberry guava, fuji apple, peach, apricot, plum, tangerine.  It is always so exciting to see the new life in the garden and watch how God provides fresh delicious food.  We love eating things right out of our gardens.  

     We are so thankful for a beeeeautiful place to live surrounded by God's beauty.  

     We have just celebrated EASTER and we realize anew how truly beautiful God's love for us is.  We pray that your Spring is a time of beauty and new life.  God's richest blessings.   

Where Has the Time Gone?

Oh my goodness!  Where has the Time Gone?  My old blog Costa Rica Adventures and Beyond Pismo Beach, California somehow got deleted and/or I cannot add to it anymore...could it be because I haven't done a blog for around 3 years.  Sorry!
My last blog was about going to Hawaii and staying for 6 weeks and helping Bethel and Derek with coffee trees and finding out that Bethel and Derek were going to have a baby.  Wow!  That makes me realize how long it has been.  Since that time little Owen Jerald was born in July of 2013 and now in November of 2015 Daniel Wayne was born and Bethel and Derek have moved back to Westcliffe, Colorado.
During this time, Aaron and his wife Faith and their family have gone to Costa Rica as missionaries for 1 1/2 years and now returned to the states and are living in South Carolina where Aaron is once again an Insurance adjuster.  They have 4 children.
Our next son, Ben and his wife Shannon live here in Nipomo only a few blocks away and just had their 4th son, Oliver Daniel, in August of 2015.
Our next son, Andrew and his wife Hannah live in Alabama with their 2 sons and Andrew is an insurance adjuster and Hannah sells real estate.
Our youngest son, Abe just got married 1 week ago to Hannah Elizabeth Couch...we call her Hannah Beth so we don't get our 2 Hannah's mixed up.  Where has the Time gone?  Our baby is now married.

Here is a picture of Abe and Hannah Beth and all 12 of their Riddering nieces and nephews!
We had a wonderful family reunion in Florida when we went for the wedding. It had been since Bethel and Derek's wedding 5 1/2 years ago that we were all together at one time.  It was wonderful and we hope to get together more often...5 1/2 years is just too long.
Our family now has 24 members.  Where has the Time Gone?  The Lord has blessed us with 4 wonderful daughters-in-love and one son-in-love, plus 12 grandchildren.  We Love our large family.

In our last blog we also mentioned buying an older home and beginning to fix it up.  The Lord provided many who came at just the right time to help in different areas.  Especially our brother-in-law Jim Mackereth.

The Front of our house with some improvements.

One of many "Family and Friend" gatherings in our back yard.

Our cinder block gardens and chicken coop in the back.

In the last 3 years Wayne has been called to be the Associate Pastor of Outreach at our church in Arroyo Grande, CA.  He loves being back in the ministry, part time, and serving God and God's people.  For the last year Wayne has also been filling a vacancy in a church about 45 minutes away, in Atascadero, CA.  So for being retired he keeps very busy. Ha!  But he is so happy to be a Pastor again.
I have been keeping busy with being the President of our LWML at Peace Lutheran Church and also leading a Women's Bible Study.  I also have a part-time job helping a friend when she has guests at her vacation rental. 
The "C" word has once again been found in our family.  Wayne was diagnosed with a very minimal prostate cancer.  It is the least aggressive type of cancer.  We trust in the Lord and know that God's plan in our lives is always for our good.

As I said in my other blog "The C Word!!!" when I had some cancer...remember there are many other words that start with "c":      We CARE about each one of you and want to say that we CHERISH the memories of times spent with all of you.  God's CHURCH is an awesome place and God's people are what make the CHURCH.  So be CONTENT with where God has you right now and be COURAGEOUS in your faith and witness. Remember that there are no COINCIDENCES in our lives...only God-incidences.  God is in CHARGE.  Let God be the CAPTAIN of your life.  May God richly bless each of you and your families. 

In CHRIST (the greatest "c" word)  DeDe Riddering