“The spiritual training of children must be selfless service. You work for the years you do not see. But you work for the Invisible all the time so it is worth it.” ~ Elisabeth Elliott

HT ~ Julie

Listen to this week’s podcast featuring homeschooling mom, Whitney Bennett, as she shares a testimony of God’s goodness and grace to their family through the adoption of their daughter, Ellie. This is part four in the series Treasures of a Mother’s Heart Day of Encouragement retreat 2009.

Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede

BY JOE GOULD
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Friday, November 28th 2008, 9:30 AM

“A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said.

The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

“He was bum-rushed by 200 people,” said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. “They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too…I literally had to fight people off my back.”

Nassau County Police are still investigating and would not confirm the witness accounts. The Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death. Police did say there were several injuries but weren’t more specific.

Jessica Keyes was among the shoppers. She told the Daily News she saw a woman knocked down just a few feet from the dying worker.

“When the paramedics came, she said ‘I’m pregnant,’” Keyes said.

Paramedics treated the woman inside the store and then, according to Keys, told the woman:

“There’s nothing we can do. The baby is gone.”

Before police shut down the store, eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the store clerk’s life.

“They were working on him, but you could see he was dead, said Halcyon Alexander, 29. “People were still coming through.”

Only a few stopped.

“They’re savages,” said shopper Kimberly Cribbs, 27. “It’s sad. It’s terrible.”

This story hit me on a personal level because one of my sons worked the night shift at Wal-Mart and I could easily have seen him trying to manage the crowd. Many of his co-workers would have done the same thing. I can’t even talk about the woman who lost her baby. So, so sad.”

I had never been shopping on Black Friday until this morning when I drove 30 miles at 5:00am to stand in line at Lowe’s. I could hardly believe what I saw. There were hundreds of, if not a thousand, people waiting for Target to open next door and there was already an ambulance and other rescue vehicles at the Best Buy. The Wal-Mart parking lots were already filled to capacity. I had absolutely no idea that this is what I would see. All I wanted was a Christmas tree I had been waiting to buy on sale and it only took me a couple minutes to put it in the cart and get through the line. This will be my first and last experience in this sort of madness. What kind of a culture do we have that values a bargain so much more than human life?

The past couple of days have been busy, trying to finish up some school work before a holiday weekend and preparing for today’s feast. But it doesn’t mean I haven’t been thankful! In fact, I have had much time to contemplate some of the areas of my life that bring me a deep sense of gratefulness and I am overwhelmed. Today I am thankful for the work of my hands and for the changing seasons the Lord has graciously given to me.

On my dining room walls I have a collection of Pilgrim pictures, my favorite one being The Landing of the Pilgrims. The colors are dark and intense and they help tell the story of the rugged crossing, the storms at sea, the fortitude of the passengers. At the center of the picture is a woman being helped to shore, her face full of hope and determination. She leaves the ship, fulfilling her purpose, knowing why she was called to this place at this time in history. She is one of my role models.

During those days when everyone was still at home and we had toddlers and babies who didn’t sleep at night and teenagers who wanted to chat into the wee hours of the morning, I was sometimes overwhelmed with all that there was to do. The laundry was never under control. Ever. There were always meals to plan, shop for, and prepare, not to mention the clean-up. There were lessons to teach, books to read to pre-schoolers, and babies who seemed to nurse all day long. But, as tired as I was much of the time, it was a good tired, the sort of tired where you really have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I typically have a few times when I long for those days, work and all. I wish everyone could be around the dinner table each night. I wish I still had diapers to fold and Leggos to pick up. I long for the noise and the banter and the pace of life. That was the work of my hands that the Lord gave me during the season of intense teaching and training of children. But now the Lord has given me different work to do and I am also grateful for that, too, for the changing of the seasons, the time to enjoy, with thanksgiving, all the gifts God has lavished on me.

Today I am cooking a smaller turkey, making less stuffing and baking fewer pies, but, with a thankful heart, am blessed that the Lord still calls me as His own. As the older children have grown and established their own homes, the Lord has inspired me to do new things for His glory, has shown me a different calling, has handed me new roles to play, but has kept me in His service, fulfilling the one true purpose for which He made me, to glorify Him. And for that I am thankful.

Here are a couple clips I think you will enjoy. It sounds like it could have been written by a homeschooling mom but the author is Charles Schultz, who was a Christian. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for:

The gift of music ~ This weekend we officially began listening to Christmas music. All kinds of Christmas music from the King’s College Choir to John Denver Christmas. And I love all of it. Truly, we listen to such a wide variety of music in our home that we never get tired of the wonderful gift that music is to us. Music had the ability to inspire us, comfort us, lead us in worship, and to fill our hearts with the joy of memories, especially during the holidays. Today I am thankful for music.

The gift of artistic expression ~ Since God is the first and best artist, we who are made in His image have been gifted with amazing abilities to express ourselves creatively. I love to see how this happens in such a variety of ways within families. We are blessed with musicians and artists in our home, children who reflect the image of their Creator in wonderful ways. Some of my most treasured possessions are things that have been made, or performed, by my artist children. And I know that not only is art what it is when it is being made but it becomes artistic expression repeatedly as it is taken in by the rest of us, blessing and inspiring us over and over again. Today I am thankful for the gift of art and creativity.

Today I am thankful for families, especially children!

A dear friend of ours, a 79 year old saint who has walked with and served the Lord for decades, went home to be with Jesus this week. As we sat in his funeral, I couldn’t help but think of how precious it will be to worship the Lord with Frank again one day in heaven. How beautiful heaven will be!

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