I was raised in a home where the Bible was read and my parents were born-again Christians. I went to church meetings and Sunday School all my life. When I was five years old, I thought that I had gotten saved. A few years later, I was very upset when I realized that I hadn’t. When I was ten, I began to feel that I was being picked on about not being saved, and I made up a story about being saved so that people would stop bothering me about it, but I knew it wasn’t true. I was never really troubled about where my soul would be when I died, but sometimes I was afraid when I thought about the Lord’s coming back to take all the believers to heaven. I knew my parents would be gone and that I would be left behind.
When I was 13, we went to a Bible conference in Tracadie, New Brunswick, and stayed a few days after. On the Tuesday, we went to a gospel meeting that was held in a house in Néguac, N.B. My father preached first, and told how he got saved (I think), then Mr. Bert Grainger spoke. The passage he read was the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. As he spoke, I realized that, just like the man in the parable who was going down, I was was on my way down to hell. I felt a sense of urgency to be saved, but then realized that I had already tried all I knew to be saved. I had tried to believe, to come, to trust. I had done my best. I just gave up and thought, “Well, I’ll just have to go to hell because I can’t get saved.” Then I realized that there was nothing I had to do because
Jesus had already done it all when he died in my place on the cross. At that moment I was born again.
I didn’t tell anyone right away because I wanted to be sure I had it this time. Back home a few days later, when I was reading the Bible, I came across the verse in John 6:37 where Jesus said “...him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.” I knew that I had come, and that I would be His forever.
This is my Veronica "Giles van Hees". It really hasn't grown much since I planted it; hopefully it will do better next year.
My daughter, son and I each planted some squash seeds. Something ate mine before the plant got very big, my son's is still there but it didn't get very big, but my daughter's is huge and going strong. The blossoms are rather nice but, unfortunately, only last one day.
The hollyhock is blooming well. My neighbor down the road gave me this among several other plants.
I planted a package of morning glory seeds to try to cover a low cement wall until my honeysuckle gets big enough.
My husband loves (at least the idea of) growing roses. We only have one rose bush so far and it had abundant blooms.
Impatiens bloomed nicely. I put them in to fill in space until I have enough perennials.
This is echinacea. I have two plants: one that I bought and one that my neighbor gave me later.
This is some kind of mum, I guess. I got some from my aunt who was dividing them in her garden and wanted to give them away. They have put out lots of new shoots around the base.
This is a flower in my chives. I have a few herbs mixed in with the flowers.
