Diary Report 263 (for May 2014)
May 26, 2014
To: Carolyn, Cliff, Pauline, Chet and Dolores, Lori, Alan, Marcia, Pastor Adonis, David, Stan and Barbara, and Doris
Greetings! I plan to put Prophetic Message #726 from Father God into the June Garner News, so I will put Prophetic Message #727 from Lord Jesus and #728 from Father God with this Diary Report. I now have the 13 prophetic messages ready to mail to the largest 269 newspapers in the United States, which is mailing number 27 of the 28 needed for the seven-year quarterly trial of mailing them out. It is to be mailed out the first Wednesday of June, and I will not return from my ten-day trip to Israel until the following Friday. Karen plans to take them to the back of the Brentwood Post Office and mail them for me while I am gone. Praise God that they will be mailed out on time.
I arrived home from my 13-day driving trip to Georgia and Florida on late Wednesday afternoon, May 14. We four siblings had our annual Garner Reunion in Orlando, Florida this year, which was Carolyn Hill age 79 from California, myself age 76 from Tennessee, Cliff Garner age 74 from Florida, and Pauline McCulloch age 67 from Oregon. Pauline’s husband, Phil McCulloch age about 69, also joined us. Carolyn flew from Sacramento to Orlando, and Pauline and Phil flew from Portland, Oregon to Orlando. Cliff lives only about an hour south of Orlando, so he drove. I also drove, so that I could visit with my daughter Lori and her family in Marietta, Georgia on the way down and back. I left on a Friday afternoon, drove the four hours to Lori’s house, and spent two nights with them. I fixed supper for us the first night with food that I had brought with me. The next night we went to a supper fund-raising event for a man who has Alzheimer’s, with Mexican food served. We met John’s sister Rosie and her daughter there. We had a good visit. On Sunday morning, I went with John to their large Methodist Church service. Lori went to the early service, and John and I went to the later service.
After lunch, I began my seven hour drive to Orlando. I drove about four hours and then spent the night in a motel. The next morning, I praised the Lord for two hours, as the Lord wants me to do every morning while I am traveling as I do every morning while I’m at home, and then continued my drive on I-75 South toward Orlando. Just before I crossed over into Florida, I saw some signs that read, “All new books under $3.00 each.” So, being the book-a-holic that I am, I needed to stop and have a look-see. I couldn’t believe what I saw! Two large warehouses in a strip mall, full of new books of all kinds, with most of them priced at 99 cents each, with some priced at $1.99 each. I bought several of the Christian books by famous current authors for only $11.00 total. Then I was given a free book from the other warehouse, so I went there, got myself several other books, paid for them, and was given another free book from the first warehouse, so I went back and got it. Proceeds from the sale of these books go to support cancer research at Emory University in Atlanta. I asked the clerk how they could sell the books so inexpensively, and she replied, “The publishers over printed, and when they didn’t all sell in the regular book stores, they were sent back to the publishers, who let us have them.” Praise the Lord for such great bargains!
After stopping for lunch, I drove on to our rented apartment near Orlando, paying three tolls on the toll road. My computer printout of directions was very helpful, and I found the place Okay. Cliff had arrived there earlier and had gone to the Orlando Airport to pick up Pauline and Phil who were to arrive at 7:00 p.m. He brought them to the apartment, and then went back to the airport and got Carolyn who arrived at 9:00 p.m. We all had a wonderful get together, and stayed seven nights at the apartment, which had three bedrooms and 2 ½ bathrooms, right on the lakefront for only $1,000.00, including tax, divided four ways. It was complete with a kitchen and laundry facilities. Cliff brought some food with him, and we bought more at the nearby grocery store. We usually ate breakfast and one meal a day at the apartment, and ate out one meal a day. I offered some free new books to our group. Carolyn took two, Cliff took one, and Pauline and Phil each took one to read on their plane trip home. The others, I plan to read some, and take some to our Garner Reunion in Mississippi in August. Joy!
On Tuesday morning, we all got into Marie’s Camry that she let Cliff drive, and drove to two art museums in Orlando. (Marie is Cliff’s sister-in-law who lives across the street from him. She broke her foot in three places and is living for several weeks in a rehab place while Cliff is taking care of her house, pets and mail for her. Instead of Cliff renting a SUV, Marie loaned to him and us the use of her car for the week.) We enjoyed touring an art museum of fine art paintings. Then we visited the very lovely Tiffany glass museum.
On Wednesday, we toured the Holy Land Experience that Carolyn especially wanted to see. Daily tickets had gone up to $50.00 each from the $35.00 each when I was last there a few years ago. We toured the shops, the streets, the history museum, and saw the crucifixion of Christ in the new sanctuary. It was very powerful to watch. We ate lunch there at the Chic-fil-A restaurant outdoors while looking at the water fountains in the lake on the grounds. The whole Holy Land Experience streets and buildings and stores were all beautifully decorated, and it was a joy to just walk around and see it all. The new sanctuary that seats several thousand had been newly built since I was there last, so it was a joy to experience it. In the evening, we ate supper in the apartment, had a good visit, and watched the news on TV.
On Thursday, while I loaned my car to Pauline and Phil and they drove to St. Augustine, toured it and spent the night, Cliff drove Carolyn and me to the Kennedy Space Center on the Atlantic Coast, where we spent the day. The admission was $50.00 each, but with our senior discount, it was only $48.00 each. We took the bus tour and saw many older buildings on the grounds, and had a lecture with the guided tour, and learned a bit of history of the space program. Then we toured the main space center with many rockets and posters of the history of our U.S. space travel. We saw a movie of the history of the progress of space travel with its successes and failures along the way, until the team working together finally was able to send man to the moon and back home again safely. At the blastoff for the moon, it was told that it took 2,000 systems working in harmony to send man to the moon and back to earth again. Then God spoke to me and said, “At the moment of conception, more than 2,000 systems have to work in harmony to create a person’s life.” Praise God that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made in our God’s image by our Holy Triune God. We ate lunch there in their cafeteria before returning to our apartment. We greatly enjoyed the tour. Cliff has been there many times in the past, as he lives about three hours from there, having lived in Florida for more than 45 years.
On Friday, Carolyn and I stayed around the apartment together and read our books and watched TV. Pauline and Phil were touring St. Augustine, and Cliff drove back to his house to take care of Marie’s house and pets, and get his house ready for our cookout the next day. Pauline and Phil arrived back at the apartment that evening.
On Saturday, we followed Cliff’s directions and the four of us drove in my car to Cliff’s house. Pauline drove us while Phil told her Cliff’s written directions. We found his house in Bartow, Florida about an hour’s drive away from Orlando. We went in and met Cliff, his wife Ginger, his son Jeff, and his two red-haired grandsons of Ben age 14 and Sam age 12. Ben and Sam are Jeff’s sons. It was the first time that Carolyn, Pauline, Phil and I had ever met these grandsons. Jeff’s wife could not attend as she had a sore foot and must be in bed with it for three days. We have never met her, and hoped to meet her. Cliff and Ginger’s daughter Jennifer, who lives in Gainesville, northern Florida was unable to attend as she was on call for her job as a surgical nurse. Cliff cooked some cheeseburgers on the outdoor grill, and Ginger served some baked beans and potato salad that her friend had made for us. She fixed all the extra food for us. We had a good visit as we ate our delicious lunch in their dining room. We had a good visit with Jeff about his new job as supervisor over six people in his office who make loans for home purchases. We had a good visit with Jeff’s sons, Ben and Sam. We enjoyed seeing Cliff and Ginger’s home where they have lived for 45 years. Cliff built extra rooms onto it and enlarged some of the rooms. He made the carport into a family room. He built on another bathroom. He added a screened in porch onto the back of the house. He took out his in-ground pool and later added an above-ground pool. Sam took a swim in the pool, as it was warm weather there. Sam enjoys writing, so I want him to write for our monthly Garner News on a regular basis. Cliff turned one of their bedrooms into an office. He looked up on the computer the prices of Carolyn’s previous houses in California. We enjoyed seeing how Ginger had decorated their home so beautifully with her family photos and her auto collections. We went to the front yard and made a group photo. We drove back to our apartment in our two cars and spent the night.
On Sunday morning, Mother’s Day, we went to the church service in the small auditorium at the Holy Land Experience. Although the place was closed to the public on Sundays and Mondays, we were allowed to walk through it to the small sanctuary. There were about 50 of us in the audience. We sang some familiar worship songs with recorded music with a woman song leader with printed words on the overhead screen. We took turns telling our names and where we were from—all over the USA, with very few from Florida. We heard a good sermon on the book of Ruth in the Bible. We were told of their missions that their church sponsors, and were invited to give offerings in the basket on our way out for them. All the mothers and ladies present received a gift on the way out of a necklace with a key on it. These were left-over monthly gifts that had been given to the donors of TBN. These left-over gifts are usually sold in their gift shops for $2.00 each. Since I already had received one from TBN, I gave mine to Lori when I saw her on the way home. We ate out on the way back to our apartment. We had a good visit in the evening and watched the TV evening news. We went to bed early, as Pauline and Phil had an early flight out the next morning back to Portland. I needed to take them to airport.
The next morning on Monday, we checked out of our apartment at 5:30 a.m., and Pauline drove Phil, herself and myself to the airport in my white Corolla. It didn’t get light until 6:30 a.m. We paid for three tolls on the way to the airport. I dropped them off at 6:00 a.m. and drove back through Orlando, looking for the toll road that would take me to Ocala on I-75 north. I got a bit lost, so I stopped at a service station to ask directions.
The Lord had told me on the trip that one of the 12 tests that I needed to pass was to lead a stranger to salvation in Jesus. In my past, I’ve never had any trouble talking to Christians about Jesus, but I always have trouble talking with strangers about Jesus and Christianity. I prayed about God leading me in this and giving me the right words to say. When I parked my car near the service station, right in front of me on a bench sat a young, well-dressed, black man, with a small travel bag by him. I saw another black man hand him a coin. When I came out of the store, he was still there. When I was unlocking my car door, the Lord said to me, “Give him something.” I put a $10.00 bill in my hand, walked up to him and asked him, “Are you traveling?” He answered, “Yes.” I said, “God wants me to give this to you,” and handed him the cash. I asked him, “Do you know Jesus?” He replied, “God wanted you to give this to me. Yes, I want to know Jesus.” So I said, “Repeat after me,” and I led him in a prayer of salvation and asked God to protect him as he traveled. Praise God that He made it so EASY for me. He left as I left.
I was given the right directions, so I drove on north, paying the road tolls as I went. I drove on north over the Georgia state line, and again stopped and bought several of the inexpensive books about Christianity and some on politics. I spent the night in the same motel that I had stayed at on the way down, watched the TV news and read some good books. The next morning, I praised the Lord for two hours, and as I was checking out, I held the hands of the lady clerk, and said a prayer for her. I left, drove on north and had breakfast at a Waffle House. Then I drove on to Lori’s house in Marietta arriving in the afternoon. Lori was still teaching school. I waited for about an hour until John brought the boys home. I read some of my books while waiting. Lori came home a bit later.
John had a Cub Scout meeting that evening with Joshua’s group. They met at Zaxby’s, an ice cream place, ate snacks, and had their meeting. Lori, Jacob and I went and had supper at a Chick-fil-A, and then joined John and his group for ice cream. After the meeting, we all went to Lori’s place where I spent the night. I gave Lori 2 books and John 4 books and the boys a CD. I spent the night with them. The next morning Lori and the boys went to school, and I drove toward home. The boys have 1 ½ weeks more of school and Lori has two more weeks. Then they will have two months off for summer break! Joy!
On the way home, I stopped in Murfreesboro at Old Time Pottery to check out their framed prints, that I use to frame my paintings. They have a great variety of frames, different sizes of wooden frames, at very reasonable prices. I bought a couple of items, then drove home.
At home, I then had 13 days to finish up and prepare for mailing the 13 prophecies to the newspapers, mail out my 100 charity checks, mail out 200 copies of the Garner News, and mail out eleven copies of this Diary Report, before leaving for Israel with Pauline on May 27th. Joy! Karen plans to take me to and from the airport. We will mail these Diary Reports on the way.