Wedding Song - God Knew That I Needed You

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

A GOOD DAY!


This is a GOOD day!

A huge load has been lifted off us today :-D

We had to submit some more financial papers to the hospital financial administration office this morning; and when we did, the financial administration aide ((((cleared us 100%!!!)))) While she was talking to us, she was also deleting every single bill from the hospital docket. I just burst out into joyful tears and praising Elohim, I was so relieved; Hubs has been so worried – I watched him shake the heavy burden off his shoulders and every muscle in his body physically relaxed before my eyes. I know that as Christians we are not supposed to be anxious for anything, but as humans it is not that easy when you are sitting under a dark cloud that is raining on your parade. Now his heart is lighter and we can breathe easy again.

((((PRAISE ELOHIM AND THANK YOU YESHUA!))))

We did a little shopping in town too before coming back home. We stopped at Lowe’s to grab 2 dozen packing boxes which I will start loading sometime this week with things we aren’t using on a daily basis so we can pack and go when we get the green light and won’t get tripped up with frenzied last minute packing when the day arrives; the call to "come join us!" could be next week, it could be months down the road: but whenever the call comes, we will be ready to load and boogie …


Our next stop was Safeway, where we bought some protein drinks for Hubs to rebuild his strength since his bland diet is putting him off and his appetite has fallen by the wayside. He does seem to enjoy fresh fruit though, so … we grabbed some black grapes, cantaloupe, fruit mixes to be blended into tasty fruit drinks, and a strange and weird looking Korean Melon too – never had it before, so we’re curious ;-)


And while we were in town … loading the car with cases of bottled water at Wal*Mart – where one expects to see strange things – I was amused to see what was parked in the parking space next to our car; only in a small town trying to pass itself off as a small city, would something like this even happen:


Back home, I drained my full rain barrels – that was hard to do (200 gallons of water wasted!), but it had to be done: can’t load and unload full barrels at our age. And Heron Pointe manager has been formally informed (Bylaw requirement) that we would be selling, and moving, as soon as Hubs is able to safely travel; if we find a new home that allows it, we will take the rain barrels and the 6 new & empty planter boxes to our new locale – the patio Apple trees, Blueberry bushes, and Strawberry jar will go with us regardless; but the 6 boxes full of soil will stay behind.

And a surprise awaited us in our phone message: we’ve have another ‘shared-living’ arrangement floated our way from an unexpected couple. We are going to have to pray long and hard about both offers. Both offers are workable, but we want to be in Elohei’s Will no matter what happens: prayer is definitely the only way to assure that we will be ;-)

But for today, I am happy to see my husband relaxed and in a happy mood again.

Today is a GOOD day :-D

Monday, September 24, 2018

FINE FISH CHOWDER Recipe


This is a hearty soup that is both easy to make and delicious to eat :-D

The recipe comes from my ‘Jane Brody’s Good Food Book – Living the High-Carbohydrate Way’ cookbook because my husband needs a high-carb, low-salt diet at the moment.

I did not use salt or wine, since those 2 things are taboo at the moment, and the soup was very good without those ingredients.


FINE FISH CHOWDER ~Serves 6 to 8

1 Tablespoon Butter or margarine * 2 cups peeled, cubed Potatoes (2 medium) * 2 cups sliced carrots (3 medium) * 2 cups sliced Onion (2 large) * Salt, if desired, to taste * 2 whole Cloves * 1 teaspoon dried Dillweed or 1 Tablespoon fresh snipped dillweed * 1 Bay Leaf * 2 Tablespoon Flour * 2 cups boiling Water * 1 pound thick Fish fillets (halibut, cod, Pollock, rockfish, ect) * ½ cup dry White Wine * 1 cup skim Milk * Freshly ground Black Pepper * 2 Tablespoons minced Parsley

In a large Dutch oven, melt the butter or margarine, and add the potatoes, carrots, onion, salt, cloves, dill, and bay leaf; saute, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Add the flour, and cook for another 30 seconds.


Add the boiling water, and cover the pot tightly. Simmer the chowder over very low heat for about 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.


Add the fish and wine. Cover the pot, and simmer the chowder for another 10 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Discard the bay leaf.


Add the milk to the soup, and cook the soup, stirring, until it is hot.

Season the chowder with pepper, and serve sprinkled with parsley.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

TURKEY BALLS Recipe


Still sticking to a diet, but adding a few spices here and there to make the bland menu a bit more tolerable for Hubs; not too heavy on the spices, but just enough dash of flavor to make the dishes palatable.

Tonight we had Turkey Balls with a light sauce to finish up the leftover rice and veggies from previous meals. With just the 2 of us, even “small’ recipes become 2 or 3 meals. I froze half the Turkey Balls for future meals.

This recipe comes from my “Eat Right, Eat Well – The Italian Way” Cookbook. I like this cookbook and it is well dog-eared and many of the pages are marked with margin notations noted over the past 25 years; LOL

While the recipes are easy, simple, light, and have nutritional information tacked to the end of each one, what I really like is that none of the recipes are seasoned with an excess of salt – in fact, many do not even use salt as a staple ingredient. A definite plus!


TURKEY BALLS ~serves 4

1 pound ground Turkey * 1 Egg White, lightly beaten * 1 teaspoon grated Lemon Peel * 1 Tablespoon finely chopped Italian Parsley or fresh coriander * 1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh Ginger * ½ teaspoon minced Garlic * freshly ground Black Pepper to taste * Truffled Sauce (recipe follows)

In a medium size bowl, mix all ingredients together; form 12 count golf-ball sized balls.

Bowl water in a steamer. Steam balls in covered container for 2 to 4 minutes – do not overcook.

Serve with Truffled Sauce.

Per Serving: calories – 588; cholesterol – 321.0 mg; protein – 116.3 gm; carbohydrate – 3.2 gm; total fat – 9.2 gm; saturated fat – 2.9 gm; mono triglyceride – 3.4 gm; poly triglyceride – 1.9 gm

TRUFFLED SAUCE ~Serves 4

My husband is  on a strict diet following the hospital ordeal, so when I made this sauce I used butter flavored cooking spray, omitted the olive oil, used scallions, halved the Marsala cooking wine and replaced the other half with water, replaced the broth with water, and replaced the truffles with fresh white mushrooms … and it was quite tasty. Definitely a repeat recipe ;-)

1 Tablespoon Butter * 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil * 4 Tablespoons finely chopped Onion * 1 teaspoon minced Garlic * 1 Tablespoon minced Italian Parsley * 4 Tablespoons imported sweet Marsala or port * 1 teaspoon Flour * 2 Tablespoons chicken or beef broth * freshly ground Black Pepper to taste * 2 Tablespoons thinly sliced white Truffles

Heat the butter and oil in small saucepan, then add onion. When onion begins to brown, add garlic & parsley and cook about 10 seconds. Add marsala and flour, stir well; add broth and pepper. Cook about 1 minute, stirring often. Turn off heat and add truffles.

Per Serving: calories – 265; cholesterol – 31.0 mg; protein – 1.1 gm; carbohydrate – 10.5 gm; total fat – 25.0 gm; saturated fat – 8.1 gm; mono triglyceride – 13.7 gm; poly triglyceride – 1.4 gm

To understand what triglycerides are and why they matter, follow this link: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/triglycerides/art-20048186

Friday, September 21, 2018

MOD BLACK CATS/PUMPKIN KITCHEN TOWEL SET

I love Fall, and I like black cats and pumpkins; so when I saw this graph on Pinterest a few weeks ago, I knew I would have to use it somehow. 2 days ago I decided to use the graph for a kitchen towel set – I think it turned out real nice ;-)

$10 for the set (choice of Dishrags; both will match nicely)
I made a large crochet 'button' to mimic a full moon and sewed it in place.

Tonight I worked out a colored graph for a Thanksgiving kitchen towel set; I’ll start work on that set tomorrow.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

WALK IN THE PARK


The other day we were downtown paying the water bill, and I saw this questionable cloud formation as I was buckling my seatbelt … so I got back out of the car and snapped a pic of it. It fit the day perfectly. And it still fits our days … as we do what we can do and wait patiently for Elohei to work everything concerning us out.

I gotta tell you … patience is not my strong point: waiting is very hard right now. Especially with the astronomical hospital bills flooding the mailbox and the $$$$$ hung up in bureaucratic red tape (if we were freeloading illegals or America-hating terrorists, I am sure the money would flow like a flood); but since we are Americans, receiving money WE PAID INTO Medicare and Medicaid all of our working years is NOT available to us without making us jump through governmental hoops designed to make us do unnecessary backflips, barking, and clapping like trained seals); the $$$$$ we are asking for is OURS BY RIGHT and should be put into effect immediately. Instead we are treated like criminals by desk jockeys for even asking for some of it.

Plus, everything Hubs went through in that stupid hospital was brought on by the doctors who misdiagnosed and mistreated him from the get-go thinking they had a human guinea pig to practice on and we should be thankful (they were wrong on both counts) – why should we have to pay for their screw-ups? I am still peeved; and HUbs refuses to go to anymore doctors for anything. And I am okay with that, considering doctors don't know what they are doing/push drugs/and did their best to kill him with their scientific guesses while he was under their 'care'Patience; not one of my strong points:


Hubs is eating a little more everyday now – and it is staying down – and he is walking a bit further every time we go to the Park to feed the little furry beggars; LOL

We have been to the Park twice this week; today is the furthest Hubs has walked. I am real proud of him. He is not doing anything foolish or risky like some men do when faced with death and dealing with fear, but he IS determined not to let fear get a foothold. We are taking 1 day at a time, doing what we can with the new limitations, and giving the rest to Elohei – trusting in His care and resting in His perfect peace that passes all human understanding. We know that given the situation 2 weeks ago, Hubs is alive for a specific reason and he will remain so until his mission on earth is completed. For that we are thankful and bless Elohim every day.

And we laugh that Hubs is wearing his sweat pants in public. Why? Because when he retired 7 years ago, the grandkids (22, 17, & 15) asked, “You aren’t going to wear sweats everyday now, are you? And you aren’t going to go out in public wearing sweats … are you?” We both said, “No;  just around the house.” But since Hub’s hospital ordeal he has been so weak, and pulling sweat pants on is just about all the strength he has to dress with, we just don’t care anymore what people want to think when we are out and about.

Sunday, September 16, 2018

SHEPHERD’S BEEF PIE Recipe


Getting gutsy and spreading our wings with the monitored meals :-)

We think this meat-n-potatoes-dish will do as well for tonight’s Supper meal as the fish dish did last night. I am using buffalo instead of beef because the fat content in buffalo is quite a bit leaner than in beef, and my Blackfoot blood appreciates the buffalo when I can get my hands on it; LOL

This dish also comes from my ‘Weight Watchers 365-Day Menu Cookbook’. And it freezes well too.


SHEPHERD’S BEEF PIE Recipe ~ Makes 4 servings

12 ounces cubed sirloin of Beef * 1-1/2 cups Beef Broth * 1 teaspoon Salt * 2 bay Leaves * Dash Thyme leaves * 2 whole Cloves * 1 cup sliced carrots * 1 cup sliced mushrooms * 1 cup diced Celery * 1 cup diced Onions * 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Flour * 1 pound peeled, COOKED Potatoes - mashed * 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Margarine * ½ cup skim Milk * 4 ounces grated Cheddar cheese * 1 Tablespoon chopped Chives

Prepare and boil potatoes. When potatoes are fork tender, mash with margarine, milk, chives, and cheese. Put in refrigerator.


In a medium saucepan place beef cubes, broth, salt, bay leaves, cloves, and thyme leaves. Cover and simmer for approximately 1-1/2 hours.



Take mashed potatoes out of ‘fridge and allow to soften at room temperature while finishing the shepherd’s pie filling.

To the beef broth, add carrots, mushrooms, celery, and onions. Simmer until veggies are just tender. In a small bowl mix flour and some of the beef broth; stirring constantly to form a smooth paste – add to beef and veggies; simmer 5 minutes longer.


Spoon beef mixture into a casserole dish.


Top with potato mixture and bake at 375-degrees F for 10 minutes … or until heated through …


… then broil 6 inches from source of heat for 1 or 2 minutes to lightly brown the potato topping.


PER SERVING: 373 calories; 26 g protein; 17 g fat; 30 g carbohydrate; 916 mg sodium

FILLET OF SOLE FLORENTINE Recipe


We started solid foods for Hubs at Suppertime yesterday; it’s dicey because he has to be on a high carb/low sodium diet with limited potassium intake, so … my cookbooks are getting a workout. LOL My goal is to keep him kicking for a while longer if Elohei is merciful – we know HE is faithful and that is why Hubs is alive and back at home now after much corporate Believer prayer and petition. To HIM goes all the glory and honor; and if everything we are going through at this moment is for a witness and testimony to Elohei’s faithfulness and mercy, then our complaints will be far and few between. As Hubs says, ‘though He slays me, yet will I serve Him’. We know that Lucifer can only torment us for a little while, but he cannot take our lives; our lives are held securely in the palm of Elohei and HE has the final say one way or the other. We are okay with that. Amen.

Hubs also has to lay off fatty beef & pork, and start eating more chicken, fish, and greens to lose weight and regain his health so his heart, lungs, and kidneys do not have to work in overdrive; I have been hounding him for YEARS to lose weight, so hearing it from someone else was a silver lining out of this entire hospital hell nightmare we struggled through recently. Hubs isn’t very happy right now about his choice of menus, but he knows he needs to go down this road if he’s to regain a firm foothold again in the land of the living, so he’s trying. The chicken and some fish is okay with him – the salads, not so much, though he is a good team player and is valiantly choking the salads down. He likes spices, but his stomach does not at this time, so tonight I cut back on the spices when I made this fish recipe and it was delish! MPO is that the full amount of spices called for may have overwhelmed the dish. In any case, the meal (served with a side of ½ cup mashed potatoes – so Hubs wouldn’t feel too picked on, LOL) went down and stayed down :-D Fillet of Florentine is definitely a repeat ;-)

This recipe comes from my ‘Weight Watchers 365-Day Menu Cookbook’.

Fillet of Sole Florentine

FILLET OF SOLE FLORENTINE ~2 servings

2 teaspoons Margarine * 1 Tablespoons Lemon Juice * ½ teaspoon Salt, divided * ½ teaspoon Cornstarch, dissolved in 2 Tablespoons Water * ½ cup COOKED and well-drained Spinach * ¼ cup sliced Mushrooms * 12 ounces fillet of Sole * Dash EA of: White pepper/Garlic Powder/Paprika * Thin Lemon slices & chopped fresh Parsley to garnish

Preheat oven to 400-degrees F. Melt margarine in a small saucepan; add lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon of salt, and dissolved cornstarch; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Spread spinach over bottom of shallow 3-cup casserole dish:

Spinach in casserole dish; I grew this spinach, so I know it is not infected with e-coli or processed to death

Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt and spread mushrooms over spinach:


Place fish fillets over vegetables:

Fish fillets over veggies; 12 ounces of sole is a LOT of fillets!

Pour prepared lemon sauce over fish and sprinkle with seasonings ...


... and bake in oven for 15 minutes – or until fish flakes when touched with a fork; then broil 1 minute. Garnish and serve.

Per Serving: 189 calories; 30 g protein; 5 g fat; 4 g carbohydrate; 910 mg sodium

Thursday, September 13, 2018

FALL CLEANUP AND MOVING FORWARD ...


Today Hubs is much stronger and able to do more on his own, so I decided that today would be ‘Fall Clean-up Day’ here :-D


I kinda rushed it because I didn’t want to leave him alone for too long even though I had my phone and he would call if he needed me to come back inside. But it was seriously “touch-and-go” all of last week in the hospital hell he was thrust into, and he is just now getting his strength back after all the misdiagnoses and mismanagement of the local hospital staff: he went in for a simple ER exam to find out why he was vomiting so violently, and they pretty much held him hostage while they practiced medicine on him “since he has not seen a doctor in 8 years time”, until I insisted they ((((STOP!)))) all the drips, IV’s, monitoring, and misdiagnosis crap his 2nd day in ICU. He made it clear that if he was dying (and he was thanks to the hospital 'helpers' – I even called our children and grandchildren to the hospital to see him one last time; and my sister and BIL came and sat with us too), he wanted to die at home. I am on board with that decision (we have a standing DNR Order and once the doctor was aware of that, he respected that decision) – the hospital had him on his death bed in a very short period of time with their {help}, which (caused my husband to go into heart, lung, and kidney failure in a matter of hours, as well as a drug-induced fog that scared the kids and had the doctors thinking he was ready for the psych ward!). So I made the “executive decision” and decided to honor/enforce the DNR Order since a death watch was in effect. Once the drips were shut down, the IV’s pulled, and the monitors shut off … Hubs did a total turn around overnight, becoming his normal self again with ALL vitals on a ‘normal level’, which shocked the attending doctors and technicians … to the glory of Elohei, Who is The Great Physician and Healer! Since he left that hospital hell-hole, he is doing much better. Praise Adonai :-D But my in-laws (MIL and SIL’s) who do not approve of the DNR Order, seriously overstepped Hub’s wishes and my decisions the entire week of that hospital nightmare – going so far as to attempt a hospital kidnapping to rush him to another State & another hospital of their choosing (!), and for THAT attempted coup, they have had their welcome cards pulled indefinitely at this point. Hubs made THAT very clear to them yesterday when they called to talk to him AFTER being told they were not welcome in our lives following the failed kidnapping coup. Some people just never learn >:-P Their drama was ridiculous. And infuriating.

We know who and what caused the stress-related vomiting (we did not understand why the vomit looked like it did, hence the ER trip that was a major mistake), and we are dealing with the situation that brought on the stress-related reaction; and praying for guidance concerning toughing the situation/person out … or moving to another locale. BIG decision as we will lose a considerable amount of $$$$$ if moving is our only hope of getting away from Candy Scott’s harassments. Everything she was bitching about and making a scene about was approved by the previous manager – she refuses to acknowledge that. Had she spoken with the previous manager as we requested she would have also known that since my husband has died twice (on record with said hospital as well known by previous manager) she would perhaps have gone about her power drama differently. Maybe; on the other hand, knowing Candy, probably not. She is a power-drunk egomaniac, with no people skills whatsoever. People like Candy should NEVER be placed in positions of power … not even a little bit of power.

So today I mailed a letter to Candy …

{{September 12th, 2018

Candice Scott, Manager
Heron Pointe

Regarding the accusatory confrontation that took place on our front porch when you visited at our home, August 29th, 2018 to make silly assumptive charges of tomato and apple trespass as well as baseless accusations of lidless rain barrels – demanding that we remove both along with the planter boxes that offend our next door neighbor Ron, and the resulting emergency admittance of my husband to St. John’s ICU Unit September 1st, 2018 brought on from the stressful fallout of your visit, I have spoken with The Judge this evening of September 12th, 2018, and He has advised me to forgive you and move forward. I can do that, hence this letter stating so. You are forgiven. And I am moving forward.

NO EVIDENCE of Candy's accusations, insinuations, or assumptions. None; Nada.
LIDS on ran barrels are CLEAR to SEE ... all her accusations were false and aimless.

It was further advised that you and I continue all future communication via paper trail to be reviewed by your corporate attorneys as you wish; that way there will be no misunderstandings from hereon. I agree and concur with The Judge that a paper trail communication is the best way to move forward with ease for both of us.

I am also requesting that you remove me from the upcoming holiday Bazaar table-holding and open my Bazaar Table reservation for someone else as I will not be attending where you are in residence due to your reticence to work with us on any issue concerning us here, at Heron Pointe. I believe that will suit you also.

Ron's strobing carport night light that wakes us up in the wee morning hours - it even defies window blinds and curtains! Candy does not have a problem with this ...

Again, I forgive you. And I am moving forward. I expect you will do the same.

Sincerely,}}

… and then I headed outdoors and tackled Fall chores:


This afternoon I pulled my potted Geraniums off the Front Porch/steps and will overwinter them under the porch; backside of porch.
This geranium is pretty tall - it may suffer some frost damage even under cover. We'll see come Spring. Either they will be set out IF we stay - or they ill be packed up and moved to thrive elsewhere.
This one, on top of the contained geraniums, might get a little frostbit too ...
While dinking around with the geranium storage, I moved the Strawberry Jar too that is (according to Candy Scott) giving jerk neighbor Ron, heartburn.
And while I was at it outside, I snapped a pic of the clearly defined Boundary Marker - CLEAR EVIDENCE that Ron is stealing our property and his bitching is ridiculous - my planter boxes are at least 6- to 8-inches away from the marker ON OUR SIDE as is shown CLEAR TO SEE in the next picture below - yet Ron claims we are trespassing. HE is the 'trespasser', not us. It won’t matter with Candy … but I am filing it anyway ‘just in case’ they want to push a civil suit. Morons.
That white rock that Ron is claiming as his is on OUR side of the line. The boxes are NOT going to be moved. End of story.
Expecting rain sometime today, I also started harvesting the few carrots I was able to get planted this season - they are a fair size. Just the right size actually for what I use them for ;-)
Not a bad haul: I managed to harvest half a grocery bag of carrots for baking, soups, and salad crunchies. They were planted late, so this is a good haul ;-)
I cut a few sprigs of Rosemary too, to root in water indoors, and pot up inside this Fall-Winter. It will go outside in the Spring.
Pitiful harvest of Parsley, but it will do.
Last of the Onions.
And I pulled the hummingbird feeders down from where they hung in the Front Porch. Later tonight I will clean and store them until Spring. If we stay ... otherwise, they will be packed and hung in a new locale.
Whewie! Around 4:45 p.m., a rainstorm arrived and started kicking up a fuss ...
Overhead, gray clouds saturated with water are letting loose. Thunder too.
Don't know what's wrong out there ... but the street is not draining properly and the deluge is deepening with every second. The Park makes us all keep the debris out of the storm drain pathways, so I don’t know why the rain is piling up instead of draining. It’s raining pretty intensely … maybe the drains can’t handle the volume?

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ACTS ~ Chapters 16


I was not able to post last week’s Scripture reading because I was at the hospital on death watch as my husband’s body began to shut down following a malicious confrontation at our home as well as from hospital ‘health’ ministrations that did more damage to him than good – when his heart and lungs went into failure in ICU, I had all drips, IV’s, and monitors turned off and called our children and grandchildren to come see him before he passed. BUT Elohei intervened and my husband recovered and is safely at home recuperating.

He will NEVER go back to doctors for anything ever again! They almost killed him with aimless ministrations and misdiagnoses by too eager ‘doctors’. We are thankful that nightmare is over!

But it did move my husband to trust 100% IN Elohei as I walked with him through the shadow of the valley of death during an entire terrible week. And we found out who our friends are, and who are loving family members are, when they dropped everything and came immediately to be by our sides … and we learned that enemies are in the family camp – and their welcome cards have been indefinitely pulled for the stunts they tried to pull that disregarded Bob’s wishes, and disrespected both of us.

All we can say now is, “GOD IS FAITHFUL, His mercies to rain down on us”. He hears AND ANSWERS prayers, and restores health to the dying. One night of fervent prayers from here at home to all over the world … and Bob is back among the living! Praise Adonai Yeshua Ha’Mashiach! The doctors cannot deny that a miracle happened overnight – we went from mourning to praising literally overnight ;-)

**********


THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO Acts ~ Chapter 16

Saul (Paul) came to Derbe and then to Lystra. There was a disciple there named Timothy, whose mother was a Christian Jewess, but his father was a Greek. The brethren at Lystra and Iconium held in him high esteem. Saul wanted him to be his companion, but first he had him circumcised because of the Jews that lived in those parts, all of whom knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way from town to town, they encouraged the keeping of the rules adopted by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. And the churches were thereby also strengthened in the faith and daily increased in membership. In this way they journeyed through Phrygia and the Galatian countryside, but they were forbidden by the Ruach Ha’Kodesh to preach the Word in the district called Asia. When they came to Mysia they tried to go on to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Yeshua would not let them.

Then they went right on through Mysia till they came down to Troas. That night Saul has a vision. He saw a man from Macedonia standing there, pleading with him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us!’ After he had seen this vision, we concluded that Adonai had thereby called us to preach the Gospel to them, and we tried at once to get over to Macedonia. So we left Troas, sailing straight across to Samothracia, and the following day we went on to Neapolis. From there we went on to Philippi. This was the chief city in that part of Macedonia, and a Roman colony. We stopped here in this city a number of days. On the Sabbath day, we went outside the city down to the river, where there was a meeting place for prayer. Some women had already come together there and we sat down and talked to them. One of the women who were listening was a seller of purple fabric, from the city of Thyatira. Her name was Lydia, and she was already a worshipper of God. Adonai now opened her heart so that she could pay attention to everything that Saul was saying. When she and her family had been baptized, she said to us urgently, ‘If you are convinced that I am faithful to Adonai, come to my house and stay’. She induced them to do so.


Then, one day as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a girl who was possessed by a fortune-telling demon. Her masters made much money by her predictions. She followed after Saul and the rest of us and kept on crying, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God and preach the way of salvation’. She kept this up for many days. It bothered Saul considerably. At last he turned around and said to the demon, “In the Name of Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, I command you to come out of her!” And the demon came out at once. When her masters saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Saul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the city officials. They placed them before the authorities and said, ‘These men, who are Jews, are stirring up a lot of trouble in our city. They are advocating the customs which we, as Romans citizens, cannot legally accept or follow.’ A mob that had gathered rose up against them, and the court officials ordered them stripped of their clothing and beaten with rods. Then, when they had beaten them with many blows, they cast them into prison and gave the jailer orders to keep them safely. Thus instructed, he put them in the inner dungeon and fastened their feet in stocks. Towards midnight, Saul and Silas were engaged in praying and singing praises to Elohei, while the other prisoners were listening to them. Then, suddenly, there was a great earthquake, so violent as to shake the prison foundations, and immediately every door was thrown wide open and everyone’s chains were loosened. The jailer, as he was roused from sleep, and saw the prison doors wide open, thought that the prisoners had escaped and so drew his sword, intent on committing suicide. But Saul shouted at him, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” The jailer called for a light, rushed in and fell trembling at the feet of Saul and Silas. Then, as he led them out, he asked, ‘Sirs, what must I be to be saved?’

“Believe on Yeshua Ha’Mashiach,” they answered him, “and you will be saved, you and your family.

Saul then spoke the Word of God to him and to all those in his house. Then, tough it was the dead of night, he took them in and washed their wounds, after which he and his household were all baptized without delay.  He brought them into his house and set food before them, while he with all his family rejoiced at having become believers in Elohei.


When it was day, the police magistrates sent an officer to say, ‘Release these men.’ The jailer reported this order to Saul. ‘The magistrates have sent word that you may be discharged’, he said. ‘So you may now come out and go your way in peace.’

“No,” said Saul, “we are Roman citizens and you have given us a public flogging without trial, after which you cast us into prison, and now you want to thrust us out again, but secretly. No, indeed! But let them come themselves and conduct us out!” The officers them went and reported this demand to the magistrates. And they became alarmed when they learned that they were Roman citizens. But they came, duly apologetic, and brought them out, also begging them to depart from their city. When they left the prison they went to Lydia’s home, after which they met with the brethren and comforted them, and then left town.