Sunday, September 30, 2007

A Thought for Sunday - Satan’s Illusions

Of all the pleasures in my life one of them, is to sit by our church’s water display and think about God.
One day I was wondering as to why satan did not see our Lord’s death on the cross and resurrection coming?
A thought came to me, which stated “it is because he can not tell the future”.

This led me to more thoughts about the power of God and satan’s war for souls?
I understand the difference between heaven and hell and I believe and know that through Jesus Christ our Lord I have been saved from such a fate by my belief in Him.

In my younger days a Rolling Stone song “Sympathy for the devil” haunted me with these lines:

“Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game?”

Not that I get many biblical references from rock songs, but one can not help to be affected from moments that come to your attention through daily events.
Still the question nagged me as to “Is the nature of my game?” part of these lyrics.

In Job 1:12 the Lord said to satan “See, I give all he has into your hands, only do not put a finger on the man himself. And satan went out from before the Lord”.
This means that all of satan’s power comes from our Lord God, whose purpose I do not know yet.
God who made all of us and all things and by God, satan was cast out of heaven. Ezekiel 28:12-17

Another thought, informed me that all of satan’s evil is only shadows and wisps of smoke, basically illusions.
Illusions that have inspired the likes of, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Jeffrey Dahmer and child pedophiles and murderers to give only a few examples of followers of the 7 deadly sins. Proverbs 6:16-19.
Satan uses Illusions to entice us into doing vile things. It is man who makes evil reality and by doing so, assists satan in the mocking of God!

Even simple every day acts of cruelty and lies carried out by us are just as sinful as the murder of 6 million people or helpless children.

Proverbs 6:16-19
16. There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17. haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18. a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19. a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up dissension in the community.

So my advice to you my sisters and brothers is to be very, very careful as to what thoughts you put into practice.
For as the song says “Ah, what's puzzling you, Is the nature of my game?”
Take heed, as you can easily and inadvertently assist satan in the mocking of God!

By Richard Abbenbroek...
It’s one thing to know there is a God; it’s quite another to know the God who is.
As I am before God, mere "Writings in Dust"...

Saturday, September 29, 2007

My first steps as a Volunteer for Child Find Alberta and Team H.O.P.E.

It’s hard to decide where I should start and at the same time very easy for it’s all there. All the memories - pain, fear, stress etc. - are just a recalled flashback away!
My story started simply enough: a failing marriage with a spouse who threatened to leave at any moment and with the spoken and unspoken threat of, “when I leave you will also never see your daughter again!”

Boom! It happened and as I was too close to see, or I did not want to believe, I was taken by surprise!
I shall not go into the reasons or the mental avalanche that I went through. It was hard 15 years ago, for as a male I was told by one Police officer to be happy, that since the old lady and kid were gone, why don’t I go have a beer? At the same time I am a male and the stigma of my gender and at that time, people thought I must have done something wrong to bring this about. Hey, you’re a male, just for that alone you probably deserve it!
The fact is that I did not deserve it and no one, female or male deserves it, ever!!

My main concern was for my child. Remember the issues that I did not go into? Well they were many and safety of my daughter was paramount. This person did not take and deny me my daughter because she wanted exclusivity. She took her to extract some sort of warped infliction of pain on me. The proof of this is that in the 18 years plus since I got my child back, she has never tried once to see our daughter. Not that you cannot find me either, as I am not that hard to find or that she was denied.

For the parents like myself who have lived through this hell, they know what I am talking about. We are all members of an exclusive club (family) that has the highest entrance dues imaginable: the temporary or permanent loss of your own child. Your own flesh and blood taken due to whatever horror that you can come up with.

After my daughter Jessica was returned to me I wanted to repay those who helped me!
Eric Sommerfeldt at Child Find Alberta listened to all my rants, frustrations and pain. During all hours, many days and through many tears.
Even through hard work and a steep learning curve for myself, in a system that at that time had all the odds stacked against me.
I was blessed with the return of my daughter Jessica.
I also had help from prayer, my co-workers, family, friends, lawyers, judges, police and many people who I would never have met if not for this tragedy.

I had made 2 promises to the Lord, that if my prayers were answered and my daughter was returned to me safe and sound, then I would make sure that no one I ever came across would have to go through this horror the hard way, like I did. Promise 2, is that I would also become a follower of Jesus Christ.

From 1989 to 1991, I helped out with finger printing other people’s kids for Child Find Alberta. That was nice and my daughter had fun helping out as well. It was not really what I wanted to do though and it did not fill the parameters of my self – made promise.
I nagged and nagged the office and In 1991 I became a card carrying volunteer of Child Find Alberta.

I was trained by Dave Credland to be a volunteer Case Manager for parents of all missing children. I am on call 24 hours a day and seven days a week (as I still do), for Alberta, British Columbia, N.W.T.'s and the Yukon.

While I assist these parents in exploring their options to locate their children. I also give them emotional support while giving/taking information, for essentially I am just a good listener.
Though I am not a trained social worker/psychiatrist or lawyer, what I do let them know is that I am a parent. Who like them, has already gone through the same fog of despair of a missing child. I give them my hand and together, we walk as far as we can.

After I gather the necessary information I send it to the full time staff and investigative unit via whatever means possible. From that point the case managers then set up appointments and start the process to hopefully recover the Child.

Since then, I have taken 400 plus calls all hours of the day and night and in some of the strangest places.
Once, I was out of town and on a power pole assisting in the installation of a new power line to my parents new garage. I was passed up a cell phone with a distressed parent of a missing child on the other end. I relied on my memory of the conversation to write my report. At that time of Child Find Alberta’s operations, I was afraid that I would lose the call, if I moved or hung up for a moment. So I stayed on my pole and the bonus was that I also had a great view of the Rockies!

One of my scariest calls and we all have one, is a call that I received at 3 AM from a young man who informed me that he had run away from out of province and he had just arrived in Calgary. He went on to inform me that he was getting no help from anyone even though he was a reported “runaway”. The Police and drop in centres would not help him and I was his last resort!
With help from my current wife I was able to contact the Calgary City Police Services and they were going to send a car around to this young man.

He threatened suicide if I did not come down to where he was and help him out. I explained that I could not come down to where he was and that the Police would soon be there to help him out. Then he abruptly said well, “That’s it!” “Thanks for nothing!” “My death will be on your hands” and he hung up.
I sat there in the dark enveloped in the chilling silence and just did not know what to do.
The Police dispatch said that a car was to be dispatched but how long would that take and was this young man still at that location??

Both my wife and I just stared at each other and I was torn about going but that was not in my training, as I had done all that I could do.
I did not sleep much that night and the next day I was informed by Dave Credland that when the Police arrived at that young man’s location.
That there were not just one young person but also several others. Who, if I ignored my training and went down to assist him, they would have promptly robbed me for my efforts. This young man not only was a runaway from out of province but one with a long list of warrants for his arrest.

These are again just two of my bizarre stories that we, who do this kind of volunteer work sometimes, come across.

Through all of these calls and experiences I was lucky enough to keep my promise.
Which again, was to make sure that no one that I ever came across would have to go through this horror the hard way, like I did.

I then had the honour in March 2003 to be chosen to attend training and become a member of an organization called Team H.O.P.E. (Help Offering Parents Empowerment) this organization is just one part of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, which was co-founded by John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted”, after the murder of his son Adam.

I take all calls related to missing children. I am able to handle these through the extensive training that I received. Also I am now proudly part of the team called the “Grief Busters”, which is Team H.O.P.E.’s most western group of volunteers. Within this organization I have worked on missing children calls all over North America.

From which, I have brought these new skills to Child Find Alberta and I use them regularly. For I now have more knowledge to offer and I am making great headway to keeping my self made promise. For my promise continues and will probably continue till I do not.

Also recently in 2004, I became a Christian at Centre Street Church, to keep my second part of my 2 promises. I am very proud of this and I am also in awe at how far that have I come since I was the very distraught parent of 18 plus years ago.

Richard Abbenbroek

Friday, September 28, 2007

Elbow Falls


Man pleaded for daughter's safe return

Calgary man vowed to become Christian & help others if young girl was returned safely!

Published: Saturday January 07, 2006 in the The Edmonton Journal & Calgary Herald

A living nightmare starts at the point where reality and nightmares merge. The victim cannot distinguish the horrors of the day from the horrors of the night. 18 years ago, my wife abducted our children. The grief of losing the children, combined with the some-times incompetent and perhaps uncaring attitudes of city, provincial, and federal officials could have potentially allowed me to descend into an abyss too great to escape. Fortunately for me, there is God and a few people in this world who held out their hands to me and kept me from drowning in a sea of despair and insanity. by Richard Abbenbroek.

Edmonton/Calgary -- Racked by fear and sick with grief over his missing child, Richard Abbenbroek made a pact with God: If he got Jessica back safely, he would become a Christian and find a way to help other parents going through the same hell.

It's been 18 years since he got down and prayed for the return of his daughter, who is now 22. Richard has kept his word -- he attends Centre Street Church in Calgary, he is a Case Manager volunteer for Child Find Alberta and a member of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children's Team HOPE (Help Offering Parents Empowerment). This is the U.S.-based centre that was co-founded by John Walsh of America's Most Wanted after the murder of his son Adam.

Richard wanted to make sure no one "would have to go through the horror the hard way, like I did," after his former wife left their Calgary home, taking his daughter and step-son with her.
He had been with Jessica's mother and her young son for five years when she became pregnant. They married a year after Jessica was born. Until then, their relationship seemed happy and normal, he says.

Then his wife became severely depressed and started drinking. His happy relationship crumbled. She constantly threatened to leave, saying: "When I leave, you will also never see your daughter again!"

On May 30, 1989, Richard arrived home to find clothes, bedding, food, and other odd items missing. Richard’s wife and the kids were gone. Richard felt the whole house closing in on him.
Trying to explain his feelings at this point, he says, “I just sat in the kitchen and cried for myself and the kids, and the family. How could I explain this? Where have they gone? Is this the end of the relationship? As I sat, tears fell like rain, sobs loud, my head hurt. I couldn’t think; I only could cry. . .
I feel so ashamed. Not for any-thing I did, but more for what I could not prevent.”

He searched the house frantically for a note or some clue as to where they may have gone — nothing. Richard’s wife had even taken the phone books, which listed the numbers of friends and family. Once the initial shock had worn off, Richard was able to recall a few of the numbers from memory. He discovered through mutual friends that his wife and the kids were still in Calgary but were staying with relatives.

Knowing it wouldn’t do any good to try to convince her to come home, and not wanting to cause further harm to the children, Richard applied for and received an interim custody order for Jessica. He was devastated to learn that his wife had then, taken the children to British Columbia. This rendered the order useless. Richard’s wife must first be served before the order could be in effect.

How do you serve someone you can’t find? The relatives were un-cooperative when Richard inquired as to his wife’s whereabouts. He feared she would go to the United States, making his search even more difficult. He had to act fast. Child Find B.C. helped him file an interim custody order with the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Doing much of the legwork himself, Richard constantly badgered the Calgary Police or any Police, RCMP, county sheriffs and lawyers. The stress was so great, his weight plunged from 240lbs to 150lbs. It was at that point he made his pact with God.
Richard said he was appalled at the lack of aid and information available to parents in abduction cases. Many of the agencies he dealt with were less than helpful; some were totally unresponsive. One police officer even told him with a straight face that he should be happy. "Since the old lady and kid were gone, why not go have a beer?"
His case was further complicated because he was a father looking for his daughter while battling a common -- and sometimes misguided -- perception that children are better off with their mother.

To get the system to take action, Richard was forced to get police to lay child-abduction charges against his wife. Even this charge was difficult to enforce Canada-wide. It required an order be filed with the BC Supreme Court to make all law enforcement agencies act on the warrant for his wife’s arrest.

Legal technicalities and financial difficulties hindered Richard’s search. His wife had left him thousands of dollars in debt. With no funds, no credit, and bills to be paid, Richard was left with virtually no money to use to locate his daughter.
On Aug. 10, 1989, 72 days after she disappeared with Jessica, Richard's wife was tracked down and arrested. She was charged with parental child abduction, but never showed up in court.
Richard obtained a divorce the following June, along with full custody of Jessica. His step-son returned to his biological father.

Even though he had his daughter back, Richard said he lived in fear for years afterwards, always looking over his shoulder in case someone again tried to take Jessica.
Before the 1983 abduction of six-year-old Tania Murrell of Edmonton, there were no organizations in Canada that helped parents like Richard and other families of missing children. The forerunner to Child Find Alberta was established shortly after Murrell's disappearance. It wasn't until 1987 that the RCMP began keeping statistics on the country's missing children. That year, there were 57,233 reports of missing children. In 2004, there were 67,266 children reported missing in Canada.

The majority of missing children in Canada are runaways. Of the 67,266 missing-children reports in 2004, 52,280 were runaways and 76 per cent of those were habitual runners who generated a report each time they took off (thus inflating the numbers). The majority of these runaways were located within a week of leaving home.

The next highest number of missing-children reports in 2004 -- 11,373 -- fell into the unknown category. Another 671 young children wandered off, 27 were reported missing as the result of an accident such as drowning, 31 were kidnapped, 332 were abducted by parents and the remaining 2,552 went missing for "other" reasons.

Marlene Dalley, a researcher with the RCMP's National Missing Children Services based in Ottawa, says runaway children should be a societal concern because they are vulnerable on the streets.
"They become victims of pimps who are searching for girls to work in prostitution. Many of these children have been living on the streets for some time, and are involved in criminal activities and the drug trade," she says. "I must caution not all runaways are involved in prostitution and drugs, but the influence of the street life is very compelling.

The federal government spends about $700,000 a year on the RCMP's missing children's registry. The small group of RCMP and civilian staff work out of Ottawa collating information, and linking national and international law-enforcement and child-find groups.
The registry works closely with the Immigration, National Revenue and Foreign Affairs departments, but it does not actually search for missing children. That is left to the local police forces, parents and groups like Child Find and the Missing Children Society of Canada.

Calgarian Kathy Morgenstern and a small group of volunteers founded Canada's first non-profit missing children's organization, Alberta Friends of Child Find (later shortened to Child Find Alberta), about nine months after Tania Murrell disappeared. Today, there are more than 60 Child Find organizations across the country.

Since it was incorporated, Child Find Alberta volunteers have registered 883 families looking for 1,068 missing children, who include runaways and abductees. They have located or closed the files on 833 families involving 1,001 children. At the end of 2004, the agency was working on 50 files involving 67 missing children.

In addition to providing fingerprinting services, education and prevention awareness, the agency is responsible for the poster campaigns seen on the sides of trucks and in public places. Child Find Alberta distributes 4,500 posters for every missing child registered with its group. The organization depends entirely on corporate and public donations for its funding.

Another group, Missing Children Society of Canada was founded in 1986 in Calgary by a woman who was moved to take action after watching a television show profiling missing children. She volunteered with Child Find Alberta for two years before founding MCSC in 1986.
MCSC's mandate is slightly different from Child Find's, says spokeswoman Liz Ballendine.
"We actually have a team of investigators who travel around the country helping the police and searching families looking for missing children, whether that means doing interviews, helping in a ground search, taking a dive team to search a body of water, or working with embassies to get a child back."

(Child Find Alberta also has investigators who search for missing children, but they do not travel across the country.)

Although parents fear their child will be grabbed off the street by a stranger, such abductions are rare in Canada -- about three a year, according to RCMP statistics. Most times, the predator is known to the child as a relative, friend of the family or someone who lives in the neighbourhood.

But it's the so-called stranger abductions that get media attention, because the child is almost always found sexually assaulted and murdered, which only heightens the public's hysteria, says Ballendine.

"As far as we are concerned, parental abductions are much more serious and problematic, partly because it's not always done in the best interest of the children. I know people think, 'Oh it's all right. They are with a parent. ...' Well, there have been cases where the abducting parent has killed their children or hurt them, so it is not always all right. And it certainly isn't all right for the other parent."

Abducted children often live like fugitives, and are taught not to trust anyone or talk about their past. Their appearances may be altered. Their names may be changed and they may be stripped of their true identity and roots. Their health may be medically neglected for fear of discovery. Their education may be unstable and they often have no friends because of frequent moves. Some are lied to by the abducting parent, who poisons them against the left-behind parent.

"We need the general public to realize it is not OK for one parent to take a child and leave. When you try and reunite the children with the family or the other parent, they often have a slew of emotional and psychological problems," Ballendine says.
Even if a parent is lucky enough to be reunited with a missing child, life is never the same for the family. They must start over, undergo counselling and live with the fear the child could be abducted again.

Richard says after he was granted full custody of Jessica, he thought he noticed people watching his house and the day care Jessica attended. He worried constantly that his ex-wife would exact revenge by taking his daughter again. This is after she told Jessica that she was going to steal her back from Daddy.

"For the parents like myself who have lived through this hell, they know what I am talking about. We are all members of an exclusive club (family) that has the highest entrance dues imaginable: the temporary or permanent loss of your own child!"
Posted by Sir Richard

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Gulf of Mexico - My Katrina Story

By Richard Abbenbroek…

On August 29th 2005 a Hurricane with a force 4 rating hit the US Gulf of Mexico coast. The eye of this Hurricane Katrina passed over Waveland Mississippi, a small bedroom community that is located to the west of Gulfport/Biloxi Mississippi.
29,000 homes were destroyed in some form and a total of 400,000 homes up and down that entire coast from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to Texas.
I watched in horror of the images on the TV and was shocked and moved to compassion for the poor people who were suffering.
At my Church (Centre Street Church) we are taught to “Love Thy Neighbour” and when I found out that we were sending a team with Samaritans Purse Canada, I jumped at this chance to Volunteer and help out.
These are few shortened passages of my journal entries of my experience:

November 19th, 2005.
I am at the airport and I miss my family already. Besides feeling excited and not knowing what I am to really expect I have my fear of flying to deal with in a few moments.
“Whew!” I survived another plane trip and our second connection was made easier to handle, thanks to the good humour of a Steward named Jennifer in the second Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Gulfport/Biloxi.
As soon as we arrived Samaritans Purse Canada gave us an orientation and then took us on a quick tour of the effected areas in Gulfport.
We passed through many National Guard and Police check points that we had to show our pass privileges to enter.
From the beach and back as far as 20 blocks all that you could see was a garbage pit of people’s lives.
I even saw a house that had floated in a 35 foot deep storm surge to finally rest itself onto railway tracks a mile away from its original location.
They say there are still deceased people who have not been recovered yet in the debris field!
Cell phone contact today is down again as the towers are still not working well. Most of them have been destroyed and landline use is limited.
CB radio traffic is for mostly the Military to use but we can use it when needed, if we follow the proper procedures.
I was up most of the night before and I miss my wife Joyce and family, and I am very tired. Lights out is at 11PM but I do not think that I will make it past 10PM.

November 20th, 2005.
Today we did our first of many “Mud Outs” of a home and how this name explains it all.
The house was in less than 30 feet of water in this area and the mud was up to 5 inches deep, everything was dirty, stinky and bad!
This was not the worst for the fridge had been without power and full of food since August 29th/05. Dripping out of this smelly box of gut wrenching smells is what we termed as fridge juice. The reason we wore spray paint masks and gloves (complete with surgical gloves underneath) was because of the very toxic, noxious smells and mould located everywhere.
We could see a TV that must have been floating in the water because it was no longer on its stand. Pots and pans, vacation trinkets, everything that was once someone’s possessions scattered about and it reminded me of home.
We removed everything from this house from ceiling to floor down to the studs. After which we sprayed bleach to arrest the mould from growing more. Once down to the studs then it would be re-inspected and more active mould removal could take place before new dry wall was added.
Everything that we took from the home except for tubs and toilets and sinks that was salvageable was put into a pile in front of the house by the street for the US Army Corps of Engineers to take away.
We did this every day all day from 8AM to 5PM when the sun gave us no more light, as the streetlights were all gone.
I cannot imagine doing this clean up in hot weather! As it is, I am being eaten alive by tiny bugs called “No See Ums”. These tiny pests live to lick off deep woods off and then, to add insult to injury, they bite you!

November 21st – December 3rd 2005.
I have done a lot of research for this trip but nothing has prepared me for any of this!
The work is very hard and much harder then I am used to. I am fed well and I sort of sleep at times as the thoughts of the day sort of invade my thoughts before bed.
I finally was able to call home as the cell towers are starting to come back on line.
Only the strength of prayer has pulled me through all of this as I have seen a car with flowers on the windshield. The story about the car is that: I was on my lunch break and as I stood looking at the car wondering about the flowers, a local walked by and said; "If you all want the story about that car, well, a lady done lost her life in that car, a-huh”, hence the flowers.

One day I stood in an area that once held a Condo unit. I knew that I was working in a landfill and at times I could feel that I was also in a cemetery.
For some reason earlier that day I could feel that we were near dead people! I did not know how or why I knew, so I just got down on my knees and prayed for them.
Later that afternoon the Coroner came by and was ticked that we had moved part of the debris field to get into this home. It was then I knew that I was totally correct in my feeling of the dead being near by.
The Coroner informed us that in this location 10 people were still missing and what we were to look for and if any more rubble was moved we were to call the Coroner to be present. Note: “A body was found the next day in this location under the rubble behind the house that we were working on.”

So much devastation so much to do and I feel like a changed man after this experience. We worked on 70 homes in our 2-week tour of duty in Mississippi for our Lord. A drop in the bucket to be sure but Samaritans Purse plans to keep sending team after team to this area until not needed.

For Pictures go to:
Just click on Katrina Pictures #1 on this blogs "Links".
Then just click on a picture to enlarge it and it is also slide show capable.

As my final personal note, I believe that we all can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help others.
To start, you could travel 2 blocks anywhere in any down town and you will see people who need your help, globally the need is endless!
Just pick any place, where you can help others, assist them with your own God given talents and because of this, for many there will always be Hope!

Richard Abbenbroek
Samaritans Purse Canada
Katrina Disaster Relief Team #5 - Group #3
Biloxi/Gulfport Mississippi USA
November 19th/05 - December 3rd/05

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Arkansas Sunset & Units of Time

Years ago, I wrote the below for a troubling time in my wife Joyce's life. I became aware of it during my child's aduction and I now use it for Family Members of the Missing whom I have the honour to work with.
I hope, that this may be of some comfort to you:

Remember Units Of Time

Remember that it is always darkest before the dawn as I believe that there is a purpose for everything and everyone.Today, you may even see a little of the light that will guide you out of your tunnel.As you know, I have been there myself so I have an idea of this pain.
The only quick advice that I can give, is that this nightmare shall pass.
To do this you may have to break your day down into units of time, and at the passing of each unit, note that you are fine.First there are seconds that will pass and please note, that you are still fine.Then a minute will pass by and please note, that you are still fine.
After 60 minutes you have an hour and please note, that you are still fine.The hardest is the night but as you are tired ( and even in the day light, that's normal as it is called depression ) but you will get through this as well, by sleep and when you wake up, note that you are still fine.
Then 24 hours = a day shall pass and please note, that you are still fine.30 days = a month and please note, that you are still fine.12 months will go by very quickly and please note, that you are still fine! :)
Then one day you will be in my league (18 years this year) and as each decade passes please note, that you survived this and you are, still fine...Keep focused on this and your child, who will love you no matter what!
As you will one day, be re-united and all be fine.
For I really believe this and because of this, there is always Hope as needed, each time.

There is always Hope,

Richard Abbenbroek...
It’s one thing to know there is a God; it’s quite another to know the God who is.
As I am before God, mere "Writings in Dust"...

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

A Shared Commonality

This is just a short note, for tonight while I was talking to one of my families, who are missing a loved one.
It was brought up, that they did not know how I could do what I do?
That is, volunteer to work with people who are missing loved ones.
They said that they could never do this, ever!

I then brought up what they do for others.
For I know that they volunteer to comfort people living at a hospice.
I also informed them, that I could never do this, as I would be a blubbering mess!
As such, the only ones who would benefit from me, would be the tissue makers.

Our commonality is what brought us together in the first place and that is.
We are now, or have had, someone we love go missing.
Even though volunteering is another shared commonality of ours.
We both have individual strengths to assist others in need.

Commonality in caring and comforting and even giving those in need, Hope!
As we were both forged, out of the horrors and personal blows of each of our pasts.
Just the same as a sword is heated, folded, hammered again and again, within a master sword maker’s furnace we were both strengthened.
Through God’s will and then given a purpose, of a shared Commonality.

Remember:
"That the will of God will never take you, where the Grace of God will not protect you"

Vaya Con Dios!

From Richard Abbenbroek…