What is the world of Sal the ALS Gal? Well lately I have been so, so busy. There is always work to do. We Catholics Christians are still celebrating Easter! This was our sixth Sunday of Easter celebrations. We are waiting for the Ascension of Jesus celebration and of course Pentecost. Pentecost is the end of our Easter season so we have a lot of Easter parties left to do. It seems the only places I find peace these days are at my church or in my prayer Spots. It is just a mad, mad world out there!
I feel like such a bad teacher. Here it is at the end of the year and I just haven’t been able to write. I’ve had so many tough things to deal with in my life and am trying to give these to God. His yoke is easy. Students, you shouldn’t let negative things get in the way of doing good for others. It is our job as we go through this thing we call life. Lately I have been invisible to a lot of you, but know that I have been very busy. I am starting a community garden in my neighborhood. God has given me two gardeners, I call angels, Alan and Marcelo. I hope that the people I live with in this neighborhood will use it to teach especially the children and each other how God provides through gardening. It always makes me think that our hearts and souls are Gardens. They become weedy and lots of the good stuff gets choked out but that’s what Jesus does for us. He de-weeds our horribly weed choked hearts. Let’s not forget the Holy Spirit; it flows through each of us and all around us every day. It is what the beautiful things in the world are created of: the Holy Spirit. The breeze we feel but we cannot see: the Holy Spirit. When I go to a prayer spot or church I let Jesus in my heart and I allow Him to take all those weedy things out that keep me from being close to Him: death of loved ones, diseases that are incurable, senseless violence within our world, and the ever raging wars. The Earth is crying for us to embrace her and to take care of her because our days will be over very soon. Yet our children’s days are all on the horizon. This lets us know that we should teach our children every single day. We are to teach them and guide them until our very last breath. Even the way we die will speak volumes to our children and grandchildren. The way we live speaks even louder. If you are a parent and you are reading this I know that you have a very serious job that will last your entire life. Take heart because that is a blessing. Every child is a gift from God. Whether that child is wanted or not. Remember those widows and orphans of the world just like I preach so much about and don’t forget your immigrants either because we should love each other and help each other to do the good that needs to be done. Remember we are all sojourners on this earth.
Another thing that I have been blessed to do recently is to give out scholarships again from the race for ALS awareness and also for my beloved friend Bart Williams. Reading through all of the applications and then being able to go and put a face to an essay was exhilarating. That is just the teacher in me of course. It just made my heart so big to see so many young people ready to go on their next Journey. God is really so good. I am so blessed to live in such a little place in West Tennessee that has a tremendous amount of love for each other. This is something that is becoming such a rarity. Places like these have enough love to cover so many shortcomings. If you don’t have it where you live you can come live here or you could start trying to build it where you are. This is our commission to do the good work. The good work also comes at a price. This price is a lot for some people because you have to think of yourself last. This is the opposite of what the world is telling us. I hope many of you are learning to winnow what you hear because the easiest or should I say the most clever deceiver ever has set us up for a huge battle. This battle is for our children. I may lose a lot of readers from this point on because it’s so hard to believe in something so much bigger than you. With everything we have today it seems like God could be a fairy tale. God could just be mythology remixed according to intellectuals. All I do know is that I do feel God and I do feel that he lives within my heart. So many people ask me how could you do what you do? The answer is so simple; it is not me who drives my heart and my soul and my body. It’s no longer I; it is Christ who lives Within Me. So students just give it a chance. Come see me come; talk to me. I’m still here but one day, one glorious morning my soul will rise.
Another thing that I will be doing during this summer is passing out food for three weeks in June and three weeks in July to students who are currently in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade along with review material for the upcoming school year. If you would like to be a part of this or if you know someone who would benefit from this please contact me. You can do this on Facebook Messenger or ask someone for my number. It is all free. We will feed the families of these children for 6 weeks out of the summer as well as give them materials to continue to learn while they are out for the summer vacation. The great thing is if these children need help they will have a teacher at our church to help them aka me and a lot of my students from my religious class will be helping to serve all of these children this summer. If there is a child or family with older children I will get those materials and will give them food as well for the week. Please just contact me. God will provide.
Last but not least I will continue a Bible study at my house throughout this summer on Mondays. This feeds my soul to be able to discuss things together about God. We are currently doing The Chosen series. It is so important students to surround yourself with people who genuinely care about you. This could be in your family, your friends from school, or your work friends. I was just telling my husband that I was so blessed to be surrounded by teachers that knew what was important. If I had not had Labrenda, Tammy, Clara, Andrea, and Mandy I don’t know that I could have continued teaching and blessed more without knowing that God was with me through you. The Bible study is helping me deal with some really hard seasons in my personal life. Most of you know that it is not only me that is sick but also my husband. Barring a miracle this time is becoming shorter each day, but we all understand that death is such a part of life. We are trying our best to live and love each day and enjoy the days we have left together. So if you love my husband or if you know him please reach out. You could call him or come by and visit. Long visits are really hard but he would love to see some of you, read a text, or email. You see his mission field was totally different from mine. He was out there with the common laborers or the people that make this country and so many other countries work. It has been really hard for sure. I think it is just part of the guy thing; girls we always are ready to hug and love each other, but for men it’s a different way to show that you care. Just pray for us because we do know that God is so much bigger than all of these problems. All problems are just Earthly problems. We were told in order to get to see Jesus we had to carry our crosses. I think my husband and I have done a good job of carrying these crosses. We understand that we do not build Treasures here but we build them up in heaven by our acts of kindness and goodness to promote the kingdom of God here on Earth. It is about to be summer break students, but for sure I will be giving you more and more lessons as long as I have breath to breathe. Love to all of you and God bless and keep you.
Sarah Anderson Alley
“And though their love was hanging on a limb she taught him how to dance and start again.” Neil Young
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