Browsing Tag

Contest

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The Lily Annette Contest!…Go!

She will be here next month! Lord willing, some time around the middle of March, Lily Annette Colley will grace our family with her sweet presence and this mammy, whose name is Cynthia ANNETTE Colley, cannot wait. Her North Jackson family has given her every material thing she could need for the first year of her life (at least) and her older siblings, Maggie and Ellis have been thinking a lot about how to be the best-ever sister and brother. Lily will be a blessed baby, for sure. God is supreme, of course, in all His care. But he exhibits his marvelous wonder, perhaps most of all today, when he breathes into tiny lungs the breath of life and lays a baby in the arms of a Christian mother for the first time. Glenn and I are already praying for heaven for Lily. 

So, in the tradition of The Colley House, we will present the best “weight-guesser” upon Lily’s arrival, with a $50.00 gift of choice from www.thecolleyhouse.org. Any item(s) you want from the site with a combined value of $50.00 for the one who most correctly guesses the birth weight of Lily. Please also guess the time of day of her birth, in case we have a tie. All submissions must be sent to byhcontest@gmail.com and must be received at least 24 hours prior to Lily’s birth. SO go! We need a birth weight and a time of birth (not a date…too much pressure there…just the time of day). 

Blessings and prayers for all the spring babies! So many sisters are carrying, in wombs right now, the next line of Spirit sword-bearers for the greatest Cause!

(Colleyanna is going first. She says this Lily-cousin will weigh 7 pounds, 6 ounces and be born at 3:30 pm. Good luck, Colleyanna!)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep: Here’s the Table of Contents! (Congratulations, Lori Morris!)

Note the deadline: If you want to order a shirt or hoodie, this MUST be done by September 7th. This is your four day heads up! No orders taken after the 7th. Thanks for helping us get completed packages all out to you!

Here are the entries for the missing  Table of Contents for this year’s Digging Deep study guide. Just print your favorite and paste in your new book!  (These are from the ladies who submitted before the deadline and remembered to convert to jpeg prior to sending.) I love the way everyone went with the theme! They’re all great! Pick your fave. Copy, paste and print digitally  Then paste, in the old-fashioned way, with your Elmer’s or your Scotch tape. It will be the retro-page of your book. I hope the rest of the book will be retro, too: right back to the Book!

 

Entry #1–Kylie Frazier (Kathy Frazier’s daughter):

Entry #2–Amy Judd:

Entry #4– Rachel Valentin:

Congratulations to Lori Morris, The “Contents Contest” winner. Here’s hers:

I love that she thought of the little check boxes for podcast date reminder and completion. Lori, message me with your hoodie size and your address!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Patience is a Virtue. =)…and here’s a fun CONTEST!

Yesterday, we began getting those letters from ladies saying they ordered a week ago and have not received their new DD books. I love you for your zeal to get started! I would mention that  I don’t see how you ordered a week ago, since the new book was not on our site until last Saturday. Next, we are not home from PTP yet, so we cannot begin that massive job of mail-outs till we get home. My husband has to speak at  an immediate funeral when we get home and then must preach all day on Sunday. The good news is–the study doesn’t officially begin till the 1st of September. We are going to do our best to get those books to you by then or early in September. In the meantime, remember you can download the study free of charge and get started. The Word is so very good…so good. You will be glad if you can see a way to study all the way through with us. You will grow.

I am sorry, for the PTPers, that we ran out of books again. We brought more than last year, but still did not have enough on that trailer. I know that’s a good problem. but still, we would love to have had enough, to put them into all PTP hands. We have plenty at home and will ship and ship and ship, as quickly as we can. We also ran out of  hoodies and are quickly running out of shirts. We will reorder, according to the orders we receive online. SO if you want a shirt or hoodie, please order online. If you have already ordered online, please don’t re-order.

We really do our best to make you happy. If, for some reason, we send the wrong item or an incomplete package or your order doesn’t arrive at all, know that it is sometimes the postal service and your package may  sit in Atlanta or  some other large facility and then get sent back to us next February. (It happens, rarely.) But let us know and we will do our best to make it right, in whatever way we can. If you get the wrong thing in your package  (This is rare, too.), we will quickly make that right, too. We love women who are in the Word!

You still have eight days to finish “The Crown”. You’ll be richer if you get to the end. So much encouragement emanates from the finishers. You are great examples and motivators to me!

Pray for the study. Pray for growth in all the best ways. Pray for heaven for more souls. Pray for health and His mercies on us all as we move forward with a new study that promises to make us closer to the father, Son and Holy Spirit. We live in the shadow of lingering miracles. The Bible we open to study is the product of many miracles. It is living and it can work powerfully in your life.

About that table of contents….The contents are all there. The table is not. The table of contents is the last thing you add into a book, because, obviously, you don’t know page numbers until the book is completely designed. We all forgot to go back and put it in.  I checked over the book two or three times and failed to notice it was missing. So, all of you artsy people out there, design us a beautiful table of contents that we can all attach to the inside cover of our books. Send us a jpeg or a png to byhcontest@gmail.com. The winner gets a free hoodie! We’ll make the submissions available to all of  you so you can print and paste.  Let’s have all submissions in by August 31 at midnight.

I’m glad DD is not dependent on my having it all together!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

On the fifth day of Digging Deep (and a hymn lyrics contest!)

On the first day of Digging Deep, this digger got to  see… A new deluxe edition for me…

On the second day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see…two giant swag orders and a new deluxe edition for me. 

On the third day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see …three posted dig-a bits, two giant swag orders and a new deluxe edition for me.

On the fourth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see …four sample screen-prints, three posted dig-a-bits, two giant swag orders, and a new deluxe edition for me.

On the fifth day of Digging Deep, this digger got to see…Five Golden Crowns!!!!…four sample screen prints, three dig-a-bits, two giant swag orders, and a new deluxe edition for me.

I love Kathleen Ferrell. I love her beautiful songs! She brings our God glory.

Maybe you have a talent for writing poetry or lyrics and, perhaps, you could bring that talent to the table for use in worship and praise.

Here’s your venue. It’s a lyrics contest and the talented winner will be published in the fifth volume of Pure Joyful Music. I already know that there are some pretty talented poets who read this blog regularly. So get your breath back after your summer chaos, pour yourself  a cup of coffee and take a therapeutic poetry writing break.

All instructions are below.

Pure Joyful Music
Song Lyric Opportunity

2024

Pure Joyful Music is inviting lyric writers to submit poignant, deeply spiritual
song lyrics for an opportunity to have those lyrics written into a song that will
be published in Volume 5 of Pure Joyful Music. Songs may be submitted as
poetry or in verse/refrain format.
All submissions must be on this attached form either emailed to:
purejoyfulmusic@gmail.com or mailed by 10/1/24 to:
Kathleen Ferrell, Pure Joyful Music, 3529 Timberlane Drive, Stockton, CA 95209
Only one (1) song lyric submission per person, per year.
Finalists will be contacted by 12/1/24 to establish that no other composer is
working with these lyrics and that they are original and exclusively owned by
the lyricist.
All production costs for recording and publishing this song will be paid by
Kathleen Ferrell, Pure Joy Publishing (ASCAP). This is an extremely expensive
$$$ and time-consuming process that takes many months.
While the chosen lyricist will be given lifetime full credit for their submission
in all publications, the lyricist will not receive ANY financial remuneration for
this contribution. If any financial benefit might come from this song, all
proceeds will be donated to a suitable work of the church of Christ that is
agreed upon by the lyricist and composer.
An All Rights Reserved copyright – that permits duplication for acapella
worship will be maintained by Pure Joy Publishing (ASCAP).

Pure Joyful Music Song Lyric Submission

Name__________________________________________________________________________________
Email address_________________________________________________________________________
Mailing address_______________________________________________________________________
Suggested title for the song__________________________________________________________
Suggested style/tempo/feel (optional)_____________________________________________
LYRICS:_________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
In signing this form, I confirm that these lyrics are original, not plagiarized and wholly
owned by me. Mail or scan/attach to purejoyfulmusic@gmail.com
Signature and date ____________________________________________________________________

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Colley House Gift Cards are Here! Annual Christmas Contest is Now!

I’m happy to announce this new gift idea from The Colley House. We’ve never offered gift cards before, but here they are! Available in several different denominations, printable and digitally downloadable, it’s one easy way to get the best kinds of gift materials into the hands of people you love. Just in time for the holidays, you can surprise people across the miles with gifts for the soul! 

Find them here.

Next, here’s the holiday contest for this year! With a nod to our DD study of COMFORT this year, I’m asking for your best Holiday comfort recipes. Submit the recipe for your favorite holiday comfort food and, in 50 words or less, tell us why this recipe/food brings you joy, nostalgia, good memories and/or comfort during the holidays. We’ll choose five great recipes, share them with you, and award those who submitted them! Five winners will each receive $25.00 digital gift cards from The Colley House. We’ll try to share lots of the submitted recipes via this blog! 

Deadline for submitting your recipe is December 5th. Winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Submissions must be sent to byhcontest@gmail.com. Any submissions sent to any other address or text number or message will not be retrieved. (You ladies are all over the board and I cannot keep up with you!)

I hope your early merry is coming on you unexpectedly! But there are many readers who are struggling. Death has take loved ones of several who read this blog in the last few days. I am shocked and saddened at the early passing of some great Christians. I am profoundly thankful for the hope that anchors those left behind. There are others who wake up every day to a different kind of “lonely”. Some are finding themselves in marriages that are being ravaged by sin. Some face Satan’s attempted manipulation in intense ways.  Some are keeping vigils in the NICU or in the Pediatric ICU. Some are saying the slow good-bye that accompanies a parent with dementia. Some are battling cancer. Some are realizing that their children may never come back to holiness. The list is not exhaustible. But our God is good and He knows. I am praying for sisters who are fighting the depression that comes with holidays that are not filled with “merry.” I hope you are studying with me the “Father of Mercies” this month and trying to remember that the trials of this life are preparatory and brief, in comparison to our “stay” in the place where tears are banned!

I anxiously await that place. 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Ellis Glenn Colley: Seven Pounds of Perfect!

…And the winners are…Nancy Johnson Koester and Tonja McRady, both of whom exactly nailed the length, weight and hair color of Ellis Glenn Colley! Born at 12:36 pm on Tuesday of this week, this now three-and-a half-day-old bundle has already brought three-and-a-half lifetimes of contentment and gratitude to this mammy heart of mine. His big sister Maggie, is perfectly proud of him— gentle and sweet—so far. 

We got the word that Ellis was on his way very shortly before Glenn’s plane landed in Huntsville, Alabama on Monday afternoon. He had been preaching in Houston for a few days, so we hurried home from the airport, threw a few bags of dirty laundry out of his suitcase, replaced the dirty with clean, and started the nine-hour drive to Orange Park, Florida. In only a scant 48 hours, we were making the trek again in the opposite direction. We drove 17 hours for 17 minutes of baby-hugging, and it was worth every mile! (We’ll be returning again soon for another dose of Ellis and Maggie….So thankful they have another set of grandparents who came even further than we did!) We praise God, from whom all blessings flow, for this healthy and blessed child. In advance, we praise God for every opportunity he will have to convey His gospel to those who did not have the blessing of being born to faithful parents. We pray that our little troupe could grow into a channel of His blessings for those whose hearts are open to the will of the Father.  As two-year-old Maggie said in her prayer recently, may we all “help the bad people to get repenting.”

When Ellis got home from the hospital, his Papa read to him—two letters that we wrote to Caleb, Ellis’ dad, back in 1983. (Ellis was not so attentive, however.) The letters were dated (one from me and one from Glenn) two days before Caleb was born. It was sweet to finally open up that envelope that had been sealed for 37 years and be reminded of how very little we knew (I mean next nothing!) about raising kids prior to the birth of our first son. 

But our Father does have all the answers to all the problems before the challenges surface. May every mama and grandmama who’s reading do the James 1:5 prayer every single morning. And may He give His people wisdom for day-to-day parenting challenges like never before. The “roaring 20s”, this time around, are full of the roar of 1 Peter 5:8. May we be ever vigilant, ever protective of the most innocent and most vulnerable among us.

P.S. Nancy Johnson Koester, I need your home address!