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*Yoder the Amish Beagle* 2/25/02 ______________________________________ If you enjoy this free daily email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of many! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, join the thousands of HeartTouchers.com readers around the world by sending an e-mail with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@aol.com Visit our inspirational web site and read all the past stories in our archives at: http://www.HeartTouchers.com ____________________________________________ From now on we will be offering our book, Straight From the Heart "A Celebration of Life" for only $13 (instead of the regular price of $14.95), and best of all, we will pay the shipping! So if you have any interest in purchasing an autographed copy of the book for yourself, or as a gift for your loved ones, now is the time to get it! To order your autographed copy send a check or money order for $13 (We pay the shipping!) for each book made out to Michael T. Powers, and then send it to: Michael T. Powers 1918 Liberty Lane Janesville, WI 53545 To preview the book by reading some of the stories visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/michael_t__powers/ AOL Users Click below: Straight From the Heart: A Celebration of Life _________________________________________ Yoder the Amish Beagle By Kenneth L. Pierpont Beagles are great dogs. They are bred to chase rabbits. But if there aren't any rabbits around they will chase cats, cars, and boys. And if they are really bored Beagles have even been known to chase girls. Now the nice thing about beagles is that they are short and they stay short all their lives so they are just the right size for little boys. They are brown and black and white and they have long ears that flop when they run. We wanted one. One day, driving the back roads in the Amish country of Ohio, we found one. We bought him from a nice Amish farmer so we named him Yoder. Yoder love to romp with the kids. We took him with us on our full-moon walks and we even took him fishing once. We had a day of it. He ran and romped and tumbled and hiked and played all day and then on the way home he fell asleep in the car on Kyle's lap, spent from his exploits. The sad fact is, days like that were rare for Yoder. Soon after the little dog came into our family, we moved to town and Yoder had to live on a chain in the back yard. We didn't like the arrangement. It was a beautiful house in a very nice part of town and the neighbors were delightful people, but we longed for the country. We were grateful for our home but we began to pray regularly for a place in the country. We recorded the request in a prayer journal we were keeping. In a few weeks our prayer was answered in a wonderful way. We were able to lease a nice old two-story farm house on a dead end road. The house rested in a valley. Traffic was sparse. Unless someone was lost or coming for a visit, we had only two cars a day on our road. We had a daily visit from the mail man which was an event. And every day or two a man from the gas company would check the well. We let Yoder off his chain and let him run. He climbed hills, chased rabbits, swam in the creek and followed the kids on their explorations. He was in Beagle heaven. If you had any imagination at all you could see the joy on his face. But his happy days would be few. One rainy Saturday morning I was working at the study in town and I got a sad call from home. I came home right away. When I got out to the house the entire family was still in tears. Between sobs they told me what happened. The man had come as usual to check the gas well. As he was leaving he looked over toward where the children were playing. I assume he was checking to see where they were and when he was satisfied all was clear he gunned the engine of his truck toward his next stop and drove away fast. But Yoder was still in the lane. The little dog was not visible over the hood of his truck. He ran right over him in full view of the children. Kyle who was about eleven at the time ran to the lane, fell to his knees and gathered his little dog to his chest. Yoder looked up at Kyle, let out a weak yelp and died in his arms. Kyle carried him over and laid him down in the straw of the corn crib where he usually slept. When I got home I wrapped him in a blanked and gathered him up and we all walked back to the creek and buried him there. The mint grows there and it smells sweet in the spring. Yonder liked to roll in it. We all held hands and we each prayed and thanked God for bringing Yoder into our lives. Before we left we made up our mind that from now on no matter what other people called the creek, we were going to call it Yoder Creek. Then we walked back home. We all sat in the house and hurt and remembered our little pet. His life was so short. It still hurts a little to think that Yoder lived most of his life confined to a little circle defined by the length of his chain and he really had only a few weeks of freedom his whole life. This sad world is full of people running in circles. Their ability to experience the joys of life is limited by the chains of their own sin. I remember a man like that. He had four beautiful children and a loyal wife who would have opened her heart to him. But he never tossed a ball with his son. He never walked on the beach with one of his beautiful daughters on his arm. He never held his grandchildren in his arms or watched them play ball or took them fishing because he was confined by the chains of drunkenness and pride. On the day of his funeral I looked at his body and thought he seemed weary from straining toward life on the end of a chain but never really living. I guess I've been that way myself more than I like to admit. Limited to a small circle defined by the length of my chain. That's the way our adversary the Devil wants it. He delights in seeing us continually defeated by sin and burdened with guilt. Jesus said he is a thief who came to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to limit us by the chains of our unforgivness, lust, greed, gluttony, impure speech or other sins and he is looking forward to our company in hell when we die. But Jesus came to set the captives free. I don't know about you but I intend to enjoy my freedom. Jesus paid for it with his life and I like to imagine He smiles when he sees me running free. Kenneth L. Pierpont ken@kenpierpont.com Write Ken and let him know your thoughts on his story! ------------------------------------------------- Ken Pierpont is a pastor, writer, and communicator who lives in Fremont, Michigan with his wife and their eight children. You can visit him on-line at www.kenpierpont.com or send him a note at ken@kenpierpont.com He publishes the Stonebridge Newsletter every Monday morning with a new, original story and it's free. _________________________________________ Reader Feedback! RE: Follow My Heart by Becky Holloway Please tell her that that blessed me more than it could ever have blessed Mrs. D. I started teaching in 1943 at Western Pilgrim College, and have pastored, taught, and evangelized ever since. [I count 31 pastors and 3 missionaries, besides the many teachers (from my pastorates), untold numbers of teachers (from my teaching at WPC, Pacific States U., Kingswood College, and Penn College), as well as Church leaders and pastors, and many Christian leaders from all three. But it is only persons like she is who have publicly thanked me or any of the others of their teachers. My teachers number scores, and most of them have been told, publicly, how they have touched my life. [For the record, I have served in most capacities in Junior High School, High Schools, Colleges, and St. Petersburg Theological Seminary, where I am President emeritus, Professor of Theology, and Chaplain]. GOD bless you, too, for your wonderful work. WWWPres@aol.com _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "The world wants your best but God wants your all." Verse for the Day: "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." --Matthew 22:37 Kid's Thought for the day: "If you want someone to listen to what you are saying, whisper it." Parent's Thought For The Day "Men who have fought in the world's bloodiest wars....are apt to faint at the sight of a truly foul diaper." --Gary D. Christenson Coach's Thought For The Day "Competition is the spice of sports, but if you make spice the whole meal, you'll be sick." --George Leonard Writer's Thought For the Day: "If you're a singer, you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes." --Mickey Spillane Deep Thought For The Day: "If thine enemy offend thee, give his child a drum." -- Fran Lebowitz ___________________________________________ REQUESTS: Dear Michael I have an urgent prayer request for one of my Sunday school students, Jonathan Lau aged 12. He fell into coma a few days but now he has awaken but he could not recognize 'people' and he can't move his legs. The parents have decided to bring him to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow for further diagnosis and treatment. Jonathan is with our church children choir and member of the Boys Brigade. May our Lord have mercy and extend His Wonderful Hands to heal him. May our Merciful Father be with his parents who needs strong faith, good health and wisdom to take care of Jonathan. Thank you & warm regards Ma Nar lhling@pc.jaring.my ___________________________________________ _ /_/\/\ MICHAEL T. POWERS \_\ / HeartTouchers@aol.com /_/ \ "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no \_\/\ \ longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I \_\/ live in the body I live for the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 ___________________________________________ The copyrights to the stories that appear in HeartTouchers.com are owned by the authors and are used with their permission. We refuse to run stories without the author's permission and contact info listed after the story. We also refuse to publish stories listed as "author unknown." (All of which violates Copyright Law and the rights of the authors.) This e-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but please do not cut and paste the stories to be used elsewhere unless you have contacted and been given permission by the individual writer. Thank you so much for honoring the rights of those writers who graciously share their stories with us! __________________________________________ Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business "I thought of you first after my family sat down to watch the video we gave them. They loved it, to say the least! Within thirty seconds my mom was crying and my dad did too. They said it was the best Christmas gift we could have given them!! You did such a beautiful job! They were so surprised and so touched--they really, really, really loved it. Thanks for helping to make it so special to us all. My mom mentioned how the songs were perfect for the video too! Thanks again!" Kelli-- College Station, TX Let me make you a video from your pictures or home movies! Check out the web page for Michael's video production business! Visit: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery/ AOL Users click here: Video Imagery ___________________________________________ Would you like to see your story in HeartTouchers.com? Writer's guidelines can be found on our Web site here: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/guidelines/ AOL Users click here: Writer's Guidelines ___________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE: "I need a daily source of inspiration and encouragement in my life!" To become a HeartTouchers.com Member send an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@AOL.COM Then get ready to laugh, cry, and be deeply touched by some of the best stories on the Internet! __________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: All you have to do is send an e-mail with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@aol.com Give it a day or two to be processed... __________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm AOL Users click here: The Four Spiritual Laws __________________________________________ |
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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