“The RoseBouquet”

Yesterday I was asked to view a piece of film from a security camera. I watched as someone I know did something she should not have done. There will be meetings tomorrow and a decision made, but I sense intuitively that I will be asked to convey that decision to her.

When I went to bed last night I got to thinking how all of us, no matter how well-behaved we think we are, so morally correct, and ethically upright, there are moments when we think no one sees us and we may just decide it’s okay to take something, or to destroy something that doesn’t belong to us, or whatever the temptation. Yet, even though we may not be constantly observed by a security camera, the watchful eye and ear of God records our every thought, word, and deed. If we do not repent and confess them, we may find one day God will play His recordings for us as incontrovertible evidence.

Some friends get peeved at me sometimes for being such a stickler for doing things legally, honestly, and correctly as much as we know how, but I find an incident like that a strong reminder – to humbly live an upright life, morally and ethically in business and in my personal life.

I bet you don’t want to be on the receiving end of a visit either, the essence of which is to say to you, “We have evidence of your wrong-doing…” What do you suggest can be done to see that never happens? How do you keep your reputation clean?

Hey, if I should get a good selection of answers, I could use them for an article, or even an e-booklet to offer to those are not sure.

Sometimes you get this idea for something that could work as a business online. Something you could run from a website. You might realize that there would be a learning curve to start this up, but what if it really worked and paid off in the long run? You could give up your hard physically straining job, or the stress of working with co-workers who wear you down emotionally and spiritually.

I can tell you where to go to see if it COULD work. Find out! Get your Questions answered

Most assuredly, those people are ethical and above board, in all their business dealings. You will get good advice and not be taken advantage of in any way.

On Tuesday when I got home, I found a box in my front porch with 200 Ugandan paper bead necklaces in it! I knew they were coming but I had no idea how many that would really be.

You see a few months ago, Pastor Isaac Oyako in Uganda, for whom I build and maintain a website as my Saturday evening ministry, wrote to ask if I would be willing to sell these necklaces that the poor women make there to support their families. I declined, thinking I did not have time to run around selling jewelry to my friends. It just sounded like ‘another job’ to add to my busy life.

But I did start a weekly ezine, using my devotionals on joy as the article (I have 180 of them), and then adding a bit about the Revival Time Ministry and what their needs are – all in the hopes of building a strong support base. It’s been running for some months now, however, still only a handful of subscribers.

In reading up on how to promote an ezine, I came to the suggestion to offer a free gift to those who subscribe, even if you make it a time-limited campaign. Normally you would offer a free download, so as to have no expense. I got to thinking; I’ve called the ezine “Joy Gems” so maybe some of those Ugandan necklaces would be suitable thank you gifts?

So I sent Pastor Isaac an email asking if he could send me a handful few to use that way.

Long story short someone else had 200 of them that they were not able to sell. He would have them send me that batch. Well, here they were! Now what do I do?

First I spread the bunches hung from black plastic loops all over my desk and examined them. Very interesting! Most looked quite lovely, of good quality. Since I’ve made paper beads before I was able to see that these have quite good workmanship, and the little sparkling spacer beads really made these attractive. The colour selection is vivid and quite wide.

I soon had a plan; I would advertise them on the website at $12 each. (Other agency websites are doing it for that price too). I would offer them to friends at $10 each, as that would save me the postage to mail them. And, any who sign up for the Joy Gems ezine in the next while shall receive a free necklace.

The subscribe page on the site, http://revival-time-ministry.info/Subscribe-to-Joy-Gems.shtml is updated to show this, and I’m prepared to correspond with them to get their mailing address.

I did some research and worked with photos of the necklaces, but didn’t get the sales page done on Saturday. Hopefully this next Saturday it will be complete.

Meantime, I’ve been showing them around at the office, and have already got $90 in and someone is coming by later to pay for some he selected last night after the Board meeting. I will be sending this money off to Pastor Isaac to help get one of the eager, waiting girls into school!

On Saturday morning, in my prayer time I had an idea for a vacation. I rather like it! So I ran the idea past two mission workers over lunch yesterday and then also the Board in the evening meeting. It seems everyone else is urging me to do it. Except they said to call it a “Focus week” – it’s not a true vacation by their definitions.

I retorted that I don’t know how to lie still on a beach. Doing work I love is my kind of vacation.

I’m thinking I’ll do it the week of the holiday in May. That’s 5 weeks from now. However, I want to make sure it is the least disruptive for the mission and my other clients, etc., so I’m not making any firm announcements just yet. I will be cancelling the RoseBouquet issue for that week, but I will let you know when I have planned the timing of this idea more fully.

Yep. I’m asking you to wait and see.

Our Canadian mint has announced that it will stop making pennies after a certain date. This leads to talk that it will be hard to get change back into your hand when you go shopping. Prices will be so high.

Did you know that when you go shopping online you can get change (rebates) on almost anything you want to buy? That’s right!

The secret is to sign up with some rebate sites, and click on their links to your favourite online shops before you go to buy anything. Then, in due time (some weeks later) they will send you a percentage of your purchases as a rebate. That’s your cash-back or change.

I do it all the time when I order my supplements from Puritan’s Pride.

You can join any one, several, or all of these (and others you may find too). Use the one that gives you the best rebate rate.

BigCrumbs.com

eBates

www.GreatCanadianRebates.ca

Did your Easter weekend have a variety of activities in it too?

I went to church on Good Friday morning, and mostly spent the day in prayer. (Well, I got a refreshing nap in there too).

Saturday was my domestic nesting day. I baked some healthy bread, and some Angel Food cupcakes (which spilled over in the oven!) and I tackled a spring cleaning of the plants in the pantry window and the shelves just to the right of them. Some of the dust was thick enough to write in! So I washed one batch after another of large containers, mixing and serving bowls. I was rather exhausted by evening, but felt great to SEE my progress in my spring cleaning.

Sunday morning I helped in the church kitchen for the continental breakfast, and attended church, and then spent the better part of the afternoon getting an Easter supper ready to take to my brother Tom’s place. This time it was ham and scalloped potatoes with Angel Food cake, strawberries, and whipped cream.

While I cleaned up in his kitchenette I recalled that it was just a year ago that I burned my left hand right there. But no problems this time. When I got home I did the dishes in the sink, and finally settled down to check for emails at the end of a pleasant and blessed weekend.

Mostly, I rejoice at renewed confidence that God will provide generously – according to my faith.

Yesterday was a holiday for many, but I was in the office and quite busy trying to sort out which of my subscribers to my ezine, Aloe Vera Tips & Solutions, were to receive my offered gift of a small aloe vera plant. You may recall that I made that offer when I started that new monthly ezine in January. Four people accepted my offer, so I sent out plants, but most of them did not fare too well in the winter weather.

So I called for a halt until the weather was warmer. Last week I announced in that ezine that I was ready to start up my experiment again to see what I can learn about the sending of aloe vera plants by mail. By midnight last night I had six names and addresses ready and so this morning I packaged up these tender plants and took them to the post office.

I’ll be watching for their feedback over the next few weeks as that will help me to decide whether I will be ready to sell any of my plants from that site, (www.aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com) or not. Sometimes the idea seems like so much fuss and bother. To be fair, I thought it wise to have a trial period with people who have promised to let me know when the plants arrive and in what condition. I’m also discovering the shipping costs.

In reference to what I shared with you last week, I was declined for the business account I had applied for, but then made another application at another bank chain. I am waiting for their reply this week.

If you have wondered about building your own web business, but were afraid of having to take time to learn all that techie “HTML” lingo and stuff first, I’ve got good news for you!

SBI! has completely re-built, re-designed the block-builder online method for building not just a website but a web business. Before some people turned away from using the block-builder because …well, it just seemed clunky/slow. Now the BlockBuilder 2 is the best training system, teaching you, block by block, how to assemble a good page that gets the keywords correct so the search engines will send you quality traffic. We refer to it now as BB2, and some die-hard HTML uploaders are turning to this as the better way to build their (not just a business brochure/site) – their web business!

I also read just yesterday that if you learn to do the monetization stage just right, you should be making a dollar per month for every daily visitor once you reach about 1000 a day. Wow! That’s the stage I’m in now, and already my aloe vera site has over 600 visitors a day, and climbing every month. I can hardly wait to be making $1000/month from that site!

First, an apology to Lois. Usually I don’t discuss friends here in this public spot, but I got carried away in my enthusiasm last week, and because I was in a hurry I didn’t stop to think.

You may think that I talk about myself and my doings far too much. I do have lots and lots of friends, but generally I try to protect their privacy by not discussing them in the open like this. That does create a bit of a problem sometimes as other friends just love to see their name in print. It’s hard to tell where to draw the line.

So back to chatter about myself and my doings. This last Saturday I gave myself a perm at home. Something I haven’t done for years as I couldn’t seem to find them in the stores any more. Then a friend told me where to look. (Sigh) I confess I’m out of practice. I used my biggest rollers and they kept falling out before the perm was done so I have tufts pointing in the wrong direction… however, I have an appointment for a haircut and trust Doris can fix my job. I will certainly have more ‘body’ to my hair for a while.

Also, on Saturday night there was a ladies only event at church called a Chocolate Spa. I couldn’t resist so I invited another friend, and we had a good two hours there. All the chocolates we could eat and drink! And oh the variety, including a special chocolate mousse from a chocolatier here in the city! Yummm!

We could have our nails done, but that table was so full of the younger girls that we skipped that. At another table we could make our own natural scrub for skin care, but we skipped that too, and stayed at our table to make friends with three Chinese ladies. We also watched the entertainment which was a small troupe of cognitively impaired (downs syndrome) women, aged 19-29 who danced to three songs, with a costume change after each one. There is a course for them at the university and they have been doing this since 2001. They are called Spirit Flyers. One of the girls I knew from back in my Hague/Neuanlage church days. They are great at memorizing their steps and moves, and have no fear or self-consciousness. They just get totally into the music.

Last week I got an affiliate commission check made out to my business name instead of my personal name. That doesn’t happen that often, but it seemed like more bother than it was worth to send it back, and to ask for another one. I used to have a business account, but gave it up when I saw monthly charges and didn’t have funds going into it. (Duh?) However, I got to thinking that it might be time to open one again if I could only find one without monthly charges. So I went online to check it out.

Sure enough, HSBC offers a Business Direct account that would suit me just fine. I applied online, but have to wait for a phone call now to come to the local bank with my business documentation to show that I really own this business. I want to confirm some things, but it appears this will make international transfers much easier too! A good thing at a good time.

This week is leading up to Easter. As you may know, I prefer to celebrate it as a Christian holy time, not as a spring holiday. I know I don’t have to wait until Good Friday and Easter Sunday to dwell on greatest events in this earth’s history to date, but it is good that we have these annual holy days – otherwise many of us would simply be too absorbed in our personal lives and forget to remember what Christ did for us on the cross.

Most importantly He did not stay dead. Christ arose giving us eternal life too if we believe that He died and rose for us personally!

Easter used to mean the house was full of siblings coming home with their families, so it was a busy social time. Now I take an Easter Sunday meal to my brother Tom’s apartment for he’s all alone and in a wheelchair. I’ve already bought a ham for that meal we’ll share. Otherwise I hope to spend some leisurely time in prayer and delighting in our risen Lord.

I hope you will be able to find some pocket of time to do so too, even if your house is full of company most of the weekend.

My Easter Missionary Prayer letter is available as a PDF document for you to read if you are so inclined; Easter Prayer Letter 2012