KATHRYN PINK!

Guess who called me today? The beautiful Kathryn Oder Vickers in Blacksburg.

She had just returned home from work and thought she would give me a call. She was calling to check up on my progress. She is one of the sweetest young women I know. She and Jason were married recently (see previous blog entry). They are

getting ready to go to El Salvador on July 11 for a week with the young singles mission team from First Baptist Church in Newport News. She has been so supportive during my illness. She is on Facebook and I am on there and I can keep up with her and her friends there.
They are such wonderful Christian young people. They have a real heart for God. They are always ministering to others and going on mission trips, even if they are in the local area. It would be wonderful if all the young people in Newport News had Christian parents who raised their children the way these young people have been brought up.

I met a lady named Melanie on Facebook from Birmingham and we have been chatting. She mentioned that she actually lived in a small town South of Birmingham, called Columbiana. That is where my sister Jan grew up. Even though Melanie is a little younger, she remembers Jan. Six degrees of separation? I have connected with Gerry Moore, who used to be a close friend of my brother in Columbus MS and with my best friend, Beverly Miller, from high school. I gave Gerry my phone number and he called me, then he called Sonny. It is nice to connect with people who used to be an important part of your life. Moving around so much when we were growing up, almost made it impossible for us to keep up with people. I envy Ray who graduated from Newport News High School in 1955. He knows so many people. Of course, I have been able to meet a lot of really nice people.

I started my term as President of the Newport News Host Lions Club on July 1. We have our first meeting next Monday night at Angelo's Steak and Pancake House on J Clyde Morris Blvd at 6:30 p.m. We will be having our installation of officers, presentation of awards, and a program on Diabetes Screening. We will be trained at the Fall Conference this year to screen for diabetes in addition to eye and ear screening. I am actually starting a blog for our club today. Members will be added so they can comment, add pictures, make changes, etc. Others will be able to comment. The good news is that any Adsense money made from the blog will go to the NN Lions Club.

My sister Jan is in Atlanta this week. Woody is training there and she went to look around and see what has changed in the past 20 years since they moved. I can't wait to talk to her and tell her about Melanie in Columbiana.

I sent an email to Christy and Jeff Sanborn in NC. We will be going down there in August to Smithfield to hear some motivational speakers. They are so excited. Ray really wants to do this. I think his business is wearing him thin. He works all the time and won't let me help until I am well. Since our initial investment was over 2 years ago and we have saved more than that over the past 2 years, we are starting on a pretty level playing field. We really think we can do this and do a bit of traveling too. Jeff is calling my son Jeff and he is supposed to give Jim a call. Things are looking up. If things go well, we should be able to pay my hospital bills in short order. I will be doing a blog on this too.

I really would like someone to help me get straight with my Adsense/Google thing and also with Amazon. I like to write and I think I can keep it up ad infitum. I have created a website, "Designing Barbara." I will put the link as soon as I get it ready to go.

Beverly has been wonderful. She emails me every day. We got the Young Singles website up and and I have been working on the Hispanic Site. You can check out the Music Site on the http://www.fbcnn.org/ Website. Just click on the music tab. We had such fun doing the sites for the church.

Ray's business is growing so fast; I will be so glad when I can help out. God is providing for us in so many ways. I am able to rest without worrying too much about money. Although some doctor bills are threatening my security. Tomorrow is money day, pay the bills, check everything out. I hate paying bills, but since I took it over a few years ago, we have a class A credit rating. I made some investment mistakes, like letting someone else do it for me and lost money. But, they say that we learn from our mistakes, so I am teaching myself to handle our business.

I have decided not to renew my contract with XanGo. I think that it was a distraction from what God wants from me. I was on a clear path and allowed myself to be distracted with marketing the juice. I think it is a great product, but selling is just not my purview. The problem with network marketing is that most people fall for the hype and fail to realize from the beginning that you have to WORK IT to MAKE IT. My problem is that my heart was never there and it just wasn't my passion.

So, if you have recently signed on to XanGo or are just a customer and would like to purchase some XanGo products at cost (minus shipping), send me an email at barbara.p.duke@gmail.com and I will give you a call. I have the juice XanGo, Glimpse (non-toxic skin care), 365 Vitamins for men & women, CDs, promotional tools, etc. All monies will go to pay my medical deductibles and for the BRCA Genetic test.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!