8-27-16 Sat

Another week gone by. It's interesting how we measure time by certain events that have happened in our lives. Of course I'm thinking about when Harriet died and we had her funeral service. I would guess as time goes by, things begin to fade away in our memories. Not that they are not important anymore, it just seems that time dims the memories.

Speaking of funerals, we are having a funeral at our church today for Shannon. She was a good friend of Frank DeLorenzo. She was only 55 years old.

Tomorrow's message at church will be "The Joy of the Lord". Do you enjoy going to the house the Lord to worship the Creator of the universe and our redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ? Or is it a chore? I was reading about a recent survey that was just released and it listed the reasons why people don't go to church. It reminds me of that saying, "Excuses,................ everyone has one". I realize I can't write what goes into that blank area because it's very rude, even though it is true. In life we either find reasons why we should go into the house of the Lord or we make up excuses why we don't have to or shouldn't go. How about you? I encourage you to be in the house of for tomorrow to worship our Lord Jesus Christ.

So I'm ending this on a thought-provoking image I received this past week. There used to be a saying when you have a difficult situation in your life, "What would Jesus do?" Now read the little cartoon below.

I hope you have a great week.

Maranatha,
Frank

8-20-16 Sat.

It was a busy week. There is just a lot of things that needed to be attended too which our church related. You know when I was teaching 3 Bible classes per week it was much easier than the actual overseeing is small church. Unfortunately operating a church is like a running a business. That of course is the business side. The other side of the business and I hate to even call it that, is meeting the needs of the people. Both parts are important. One is for the physical operating and keeping track of all expenditures for the IRS. The other part of course is so important because of the different needs within the church.

On a lighter note, my friend Andy has twisted my arm and is forcing me to go to Hawaii. And be has taken up the sport of kite surfing and he would like to go to Hawaii because of the great conditions there. So it looks like and He in his wife will come over approximately the 1st full week of January. I'm planning on being there for about 11 days during that same time.

A great story I want to tell you about concerning our friends Andy and Autumn. Approximately 7 or 8 years ago we are planning on making a trip to Hawaii and in he expressed interest in going there during that same time. But when it came down to it he said that he couldn't make it because of his business. But because we are going there during our anniversary, he said that he wanted to pay for our dinner at Turtle Bay Restaurant, which is on the North Shore of Oahu.

When the actual date of our anniversary came I remember it was raining that evening and I did not want to drive from the South Shore to the North Shore in the traffic and rain, but because we promised that we would be there Harriet and I made the drive. We got there when the restaurant 1st started serving dinner which would be 5 PM. They seated us at a window table overlooking the ocean and it was really beautiful.

Harriet and I were talking before we placed our order and all of a sudden Harriet stood up abruptly from the table. I did not realize it but Andy and Autumn surprised us and came through the door and my back was to that door, but Harriet could see. I thought I'd kick her leg under the table or something because of how fast she jumped up. We had a really nice dinner and they stayed for about 3 or 4 days. This was the neatest surprise. The picture below is of Harriet and Autumn. If you've been watching the blog recently or over the past year you'll know that the picture that I used for Harriet's memorial service was this picture, cropped so that only Harriet was visible.

I also made reservations to go to our nephew's wedding. Harriet's brother John's, son Caleb is getting married in October. So I made reservations to fly up to Oregon. Both Harriet's brothers John and Jim live in Halsey Oregon. After much thought I decided to fly into Portland Oregon and drive down instead of flying to Eugene Oregon which is a lot closer, but it requires a layover of hours and then a short flight of about 30 minutes. It's just hours faster to fly into Portland Oregon and drive down.

Tomorrow's message at church is  titled, "Why Pray?" That's really a good question. It will be thought-provoking message. I hope you can make it. Regardless of whether you're at Maranatha Bible Church in Santee, or another church I hope you go to the House of the Lord on Sunday morning.

Maranatha,
Frank

8-13-16 Sat.

"Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!"  I hope you've had a great week. Some longtime friends came down from Simi Valley California. I've known these friends for over 50 years. They wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant in old town, so we went to La Pinata Mexican Restaurant. I remember my dad and mom taking Harriet and me to this restaurant decades ago.

We then went up to the mission at the Presidio Park. I took a picture of them. They are Bruce, Susie and her grandson Sean.

It's probably been more than a decade since I've been up there. It's still a nice place to visit.

The message I'm preaching tomorrow morning is "What Would You Have Me Do Lord?". Often times we ask God what he would like us to do. I think it can best be summed up that most Christians are educated way beyond their level of obedience to what they already know to do.

Maranatha,
Frank

8-6-16 Sat. Harriet Died One Year Ago Today

An entire year has passed. I was thinking about this blog during this past week and what I was going to write. I really don't want to memorialize Harriet's death, rather I would like to say a little something about her life.

First and foremost I wanted to say that Harriet was the best part of my life. I don't say these things just to say nice words about someone who died and is no longer with us. I say these things because they are the truth. Harriet was one of the most disciplined persons I know. Hard-working, she kept our home no matter where we lived during the 44 years, whether it was a rental or our own home, she always kept it spotless. She fed us. There was a time period where for years she would make homemade bread. Once a year we would buy the wheat in large 50 pound bags, enough for the entire year to feed a family of 6. We bought the equipment to mill the wheat just before the bread was actually made. It was so good!

Harriet also spent time homeschooling our kids and teaching them all to play the piano. She did all that was necessary so that I could teach Bible classes and home fellowship groups. She exercised 6 days a week. Some of you know that when I was teaching Bible classes on Saturday night at Sonrise, she would prepare the food and cook enough food for at least 50 people every Saturday for 3 years. This is no small feat. She would start on Thursday doing all the preparation work and then on Saturday she would cook and have everything piping hot for Saturday night dinner. I know I took some pictures, but I don't have them right now maybe I'll take a look and see if I can find them. She had the ability to make a multicourse meal and have everything that is supposed to be hot served hot. We had multiple heating trays to keep the food warm what was being served. I found some pics of Sat. Bible Class.

There's not a day that goes by that I do not miss Harriet. So I think I'm going to add some pictures that you've already seen but it's the best I can do. I know that Harriet has touched many people's lives. Daniel and I were it our good friend Mike and Kathy's a couple a weeks ago and Kathy reminded me of the impression Harriet had made in her life. Harriet always had the time to help other people. This is truly a great quality.

I will always miss you my love!

Maranatha,
Frank

7-30-16 Sat

Most of you probably heard that pastor Tim LaHaye suffered a major stroke about a week and a half ago and died this past week. This is the man who made a real impact not only in my life but the lives of millions of people. He wrote the Left Behind series of books along with a couple of dozen other books concerning prophecy, marriage and spirit control temperament.

Before I was saved, I remember working in my dad's little upholstering shop and on Saturday mornings pastor Tim LaHaye used to have a question and answer program on the radio. I was forced to listen to it because my dad wanted to hear it. It's interesting how your mental attitude changes from  BC (Before Christ) to after you get saved.

So about a year after I got saved I was looking for a church to go to and I remembered pastor Tim LaHaye. So I started going to Scott Memorial Baptist Church where he was the senior pastor. Of course that's where I met Harriet. I joined the college age group. I was very active in that group. And when Harriet asked me to marry her, just kidding. I asked Pastor LaHaye to marry us. I looked through the wedding album of pictures which, still to this day is kept by her nightstand and I found only one picture of our wedding party that included pastor Tim LaHaye. I'm going to include 3 pictures, the 1st one shows Pastor LaHaye in the wedding party during the ceremony. You'll see that the 2nd picture is very faded because Harriet used to have it out on the counter and light just faded the picture. And the last picture is of the wedding party.

  Big Larr's wife Judy, took the faded picture and worked on it and sent it back to me. It looks much better.

This past week was very busy. But, I did something fun on Tuesday morning. My friend, Lawrence of La Jolla, commonly known as Big Larr, invited me to go stand up paddling in Mission Bay. He came by and picked me up at Zero dark 30 in the morning.

He has two stand up surfboards. I'm still having problem with my right hip. It's technically not the hip replacement I had done about 6 years ago,  it is the muscles in that general area have tendinitis. So my right leg has very little strength when I'm stepping up. Walking is perfectly fine no problem. So stepping up onto the surfboard was the most difficult part. Because the surfboard must be in knee deep water.  I made it without any problems and then we paddled around the bay. We stopped off at one of the points and then headed back.

 It was so beautiful out there, perfectly glassed off and we watch the sun rise. It's really kind of cool because you can talk to the other person while you're paddling along. Big Larr has a sports GPS watch that actually tracks your movement. It tells you your speed and how manhy calories you're burning and so on. When I got home he sent me the link and I thought it was really cool. So I'm including the link and if you click on it you can see the exact route and all the information. Technology is great!

https://mysports.tomtom.com/app/public/activity/perm_Cq6cYYuIx-_ZoEktf_8k9uG9i_sxuvk79-VVF7e514naeI5gzpjue3MUrPU4qKa3s4BrlJwFBeNIU5gp9lcXuA/

Today I'm taking 4 of the grandkids to see the newest installment of the animated movie Ice Age. We always have so much fun together. I love sitting with the boys and feeding the 2 littlest ones the nachos. The youngest grandson that comes with me is Ethan and he loves those nachos more than anybody else in our group.

Sunday morning I'm preaching about the apostle John, the beloved apostle. What a great guy.

God bless you and I hope you have a fantastic day!
Maranatha,

Frank

7-23-16

Thank you for your responses concerning the story about how our family came to the United States. A good friend of mine, David read the blog and had a interesting comment. His wife is from Chile. So of course when he read the blog he made the comment that I would've been a Chilean. Never thought of that. I'm glad to be here in the United States.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I was talking to Daniel and he brought up an interesting fact. Every letter my father wrote to Daniel while he was imprisoned, at the bottom of the letter he would write down how many years that he's lived in the United States and how thankful he was to be here.

Early this past week I decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich. This is really a learning experience. So I started cooking the sandwich on the 1st side. I thought I'll go check the computer and see if there's anything I need to attend to while it's cooking. Bad idea! Ladies, never leave your grilled cheese sandwich cooking while you go and check your computer.

Because when I came out to check on the sandwich it was smoking and you can see from the picture above it was way over cooked. I hate to throw food away, but this was beyond saving. I decided to try again right away and the sandwich came out really good.

 

Daniel stopped off after work on Thursday and I asked him if he would like me to cook something for him for dinner?  I don't think those words have ever come out of my mouth before. I suggested a grilled cheese sandwich. I really don't keep a whole lot of food around here to cook because, well you can tell I'm not very good. He said yes and because of my experience earlier in the week I was able to cook a perfect real cheese sandwich, one for him and one for me. 

It's almost 4 AM here on Saturday morning. I told my friends that I was going to come down to the beach this morning and do a drive-by. So I need to leave by 4:15 AM. A lot of good friends that I have made over the years.

I hope that you have a really great weekend and don't forget to be in the house of the Lord on Sunday morning.

Maranatha,
Frank

7-16-16

I thought of a couple of more stories to tell you about "The Old Country". Since I have all these neat pictures I thought I'd share some with you. Hopefully you have been reading the last 2 Saturday blogs, because this is a continuation of the story.

This 1st set of pictures were taken in Hungry. The picture in the upper left corner is our father holding my brother as a baby along with his mother and 2 sisters. The picture directly to the right of that is our mother and father and my brother. The reason I want to share these pictures with you is because of the one on the bottom row in the center. That's my brother "the big guy" feeding the ducks. Very cute!

In Austria to make extra money my father made some camera cases out of genuine leather. These were custom leather cases to protect the camera. He would get paid in cigarettes. One cigarette equals 1 hour wage. So a pack of 20 cigarettes was a lot. He would take the pack of cigarettes and give it to the lady I mentioned last Saturday who owned the castle. Her name is Frau Mayor. (The pronouncement of her last name is different than it looks). Frau Mayor would then convert the cigarettes into food or useful items.

I remember my father telling the story of how she would go to town. She would have her driver bring the horse and carriage around.  When there was snow on the ground it was obviously very cold in Austria. She would get in the carriage and take out her bottle of schnapps. She would take a drink and then pass it to the driver and he would take a snort. This is how they kept warm on their trip to town. No heaters in the carriage.

Since I know there are quite a few ladies that read the blog I'm going to include a picture of my mother and father on their wedding day. So the ladies you may see the type of wedding gown that was popular in hungry in the late 30s.

This next picture was taken in the backyard of my parents 1st home in the United States that they purchased. My mom, myself and my brother. The back story is of the car in the background (no pun intended). It's a 1933 Chevrolet. The picture was taken in the mid-50s. The gentleman that owned the car, his name was Edward. He had 2 sisters. They were always very nice to my parents and us. When Edward died he willed the car to my dad and mom. I still remember as a little kid when they went to pick up the car. My father did not have a drivers license that's why the cars in the back yard. It's a 3 speed stick on the floor. He had to learn to drive and of course driving a stick.

My father used the car for many years and when my brother turned 16 he learn to drive on that vehicle also and I did to when I turned 16. After high school I joined the Coast Guard. My father had purchased a newer vehicle in 1953 Chevrolet station wagon. My father asked my brother and I if we wanted that car the 33 Chevrolet and both of us were terminally stupid, we said no and my father sold the car to a sailor for $300. I still kick myself in the butt and wish I had the car now.

That's about it for going down memory lane for the day. The message for tomorrow morning at church is "Overcoming Financial Worry". What does the Bible say about worry and fear? That's a good question. I hope you be in church tomorrow morning and take the time to praise the Lord. He is worthy of all glory and honor and praise!

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Maranatha,
Frank