Austin Gardner

When God created the dog He said:

‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.’

The dog said: ‘That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?’

So God agreed..

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

‘Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.’

The monkey said: ‘Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?’

And God agreed. On the third day, God created the cow and said:

‘You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.’

The cow said: ‘That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?’

And God agreed again. On the fourth day, God created man and said:

‘Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you twenty years.’

But man said: ‘Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?’

‘Okay,’ said God, ‘You asked for it.’

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family.. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

by Carolyn Mahaney
Surprise! We find ourselves engaged to be married but without a degree in homemaking.

Girls often spend years of intensive study for other professions and yet are completely unprepared to assume the career of homemaking. As I wrote in my book Feminine Appeal, “Isn’t it telling that our culture requires training and certification for so many vocations of lesser importance, but hands us marriage and motherhood without instruction?”

Those early habits, which would have made domestic care a light and easy task, have never been taught, for fear it would interrupt their happiness; and the result is, that when cares come, as come they must, they find them misery. I am convinced that indifference and dislike between husband and wife are more frequently occasioned by this great error in education, than by any other cause.

But the truth is that homemaking involves so much more than just cleaning a house. The commands in Scripture to love, follow, and help a husband; to raise children for the glory of God; and to manage a home encompass a vast responsibility. Homemaking requires an extremely diverse array of skills everything from management abilities, to knowledge of health and nutrition, to interior decorating capabilities, to childhood development expertise. If you are to become an effective homemaker, then you must study these subjects and many more.

So homemaking is a career that demands considerable expertise, may encompass decades of our lives, and has the potential to spread the gospel to our families, churches, communities, and future generations. Now that’s a career worth preparing for, wouldn’t you say?

the point is that we must not pursue any career to the neglect of training to be a homemaker. God has called us to be the keepers of the home; thus I want to urge you to give careful attention to your education for this profession.

Scripture says that the older women should teach the young women to be effective home managers and to love their husbands and children (Titus 2:3–5). As with all other aspects of biblical womanhood, it is the mother’s job to teach and the daughter’s job to learn.

And what an exciting task this is! We have the privilege of training our daughters to do what we love to do best to be homemakers and world-changers for the gospel.

We should speak often to them about the joys of being a wife, mother, and homemaker. Because when you hang around someone who is enthusiastic about her career, it rubs off on you. So let’s spread some homemaking enthusiasm to our daughters.

This means—and I know this might be a radical concept—that our daughters need to be at home sometimes.

This is a great article that everyone of our ladies should read. Just click on the link above on the author’s name. I would love to see the ladies of Vision get together and discuss this entire article.

Mr BELOVED BROTHER RICE :

In encouraging other young men to come out as missionaries, do use the greatest caution.

One wrong-headed, conscientiously obstinate fellow would ruin us.

Humble, quiet, persevering men ; men of sound, sterling talents, (though, perhaps, not brilliant,) of decent accomplishments, and some natural aptitude to acquire a language ; men of an amiable, yielding temper, willing to take the lowest place, to be the least of all and the servants of all; men who enjoy much closet religion, who live near to God, and are willing to suffer all things for Christ’s sake, without being proud of it, these are the men.

But O, how unlike to this description is the writer of it!

Still, however, I am, with never ceasing affection, Your most affectionate brother in the Lord,

A. JUDSON, JR.

I am reading a biography of Adoniram Judson by Francis Wayland. I found this to be very interesting. He writes a letter to Luther Rice who is helping him raise up men to work with Adoniram in Burma.

Read carefully what Adoniram wanted Luther to look for. I could certainly work at cultivating these characteristics.

Miguel and Liz serve as missionaries with Vision Baptist Missions International. They are church planters in the city of Arequipa. God has greatly used Miguel both in the Bible College as well as in Hunter Baptist Church and the planting of Smyrna Baptist Church.

Betty and I have known Miguel and Liz for many years. We love them very much. Today is their wedding anniversary. God bless both of you in all the work that you are doing.

This week we will be blessed, Lord willing, to have Travis and Teri Snode with us. They are members of Vision and missionaries serving in Northern Ireland.

This Sunday, Travis, will teach the combined teen and adult Sunday School. Then he will preach in the evening service. We will also be having a Blessing Service for him.

That is the service where we will present him with the sword and the letters and notes for the memory box. I hope you will make special plans to be with us. This is always one of the sweetest times we ever have as a church. Travis and Teri are our missionaries. We will also take a special offering for them.

You will enjoy this special Sunday. Not only that this will be a Sunday to remember as it will be our first Sunday in our new home.

God has given the Snodes some fine young people. Here is a picture of them at their youth retreat.

God is also allowing the Snodes to build an international church with people from all over the world.

You are going to love getting to spend time with this wonderful family. They are great friends. They are great servants of God and very down to earth. You will love your time with them. Come help me be a blessing to them that they will not forget.

Invite your friends to our first service in our new building and also Travis Snode Sunday.

This is your new home for Sunday. I am really excited about the new place that God has given us. Don’t forget that it is at the new location.

Vision Baptist Church
1125 Alpha Drive
Alpharetta, Georgia 30004

It will take several weeks to get things organized like we want. But it is going to be beautiful. It already is. Many of us will be traveling to the Summit this weekend which means that we will have to put off the things we would like to set up better.

Come Sunday knowing that you are the children of Vision on your way to the promised land. This building is a real tool for us to accomplish that.

God has been so good. You have worked so hard and it is worth it.

I want to really like Brother Gene. He is at the church even as I write this working. He is in his mid seventies and nothing stops him. He is one of the finest men that I have ever known.

Thank you to all of you!

Mark it down. We are in the process of updating all the web page information and Internet listings, but it will take a few hours and then maybe days for it to all filter through.

Vision Baptist Church is now located at 1125 Alpha Drive, Alpharetta, GA 30004

The A in the flag is the location of the church. This is from google maps.

Our first service in the new building will be this Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 9:30 AM. It is going to be a wonderful day.

I look forward to seeing all of you!

Tonight was our last service at the old building. This Sunday Vision Baptist Church will meet at its new location. I am very excited to see what God is going to do. He has been doing some unreal things in the last couple of months.

I am so proud of our people. They have worked so hard. The old man came on home at about 10:40 pm but people were still working at both locations.

All I can say is to thank Mark Coffey and Micah Rastelli for all they have done to head up the work. I want to thank all of you that have given so many hours. From young people to our oldest people, everyone has been at work. I have seen God draw us together like never before.

Well thank you so much and God bless each and everyone of you.

Stacey just posted the following on her facebook page:

Stacey Johnson Howeth they are going to take the external fixator off & put a cast on temporary until he has his surgery for the ilizarov in 2 weeks….he is so excited about getting that huge thing off for a couple of weeks.

Please continue to pray for the Howeth family. The bill have started coming in now. They need God to move on the doctors and hospitals to accept what the insurance company will pay. They are still in need of funds.

Thank God someone sent $1,000 just last week!

Vision Baptist Church has been working hard to move into the new building. That is very exciting for all of us. Here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment by Tracey Paver:

Lang wiring up the plug ins on the platform

Adam working hard moving things in.

Church work can be similar to county work as seen in this photo. One working and the others looking. Not really all the men and women worked very hard and have continued to do so day after day. I have been so blessed and pleased with the way our people have gotten under the load.

The one guy that was working has gone to sleep on the job.

After long hours of work the men took a break-and really it was a needed break.

Little Tabatha worked hard too!

Jonathan bought enough pizzas to feed an army.

It took truck and trailer load time and again to finally move everything. It would shock you how much stuff a 3.5 year old church can accumulate.

God has been good to us. I love the new building but the thing I love the most is that God has given us such wonderful people.

Thank you to each and everyone that has worked so hard. There is still a lot to do but it is going to be fun.