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"November 30, 2019"   "Prompt: Look out your front window or door and describe the weather. If there are animals or birds visible, how are they acting?""The weather outside is rain. The animals all have better sense than to be out in it so I don't see any animals. I probably wouldn't see them anyway because I am on the side of my building away from the forest. There are trees on my side but there is a lot of human activity and animals typically steer clear of it. Marvin D. Schrebe, RBA PSS     |
| "November 29 Late entry" November 29, 2019 Prompt: "What are your five favorite movies for a family movie night?" I was sick yesterday (the day this was actually due) so I did not enter it. I guess between being sick and working 60 hours per week, I may have to take a break from my blog. I don't want to because I know I have fans. It is what it is though and right now I need to concentrate on earning a living. I don't do a family movie night as my family is all grown up and out on their own. I have basic cable but don't watch much actually. If anything I will turn on Music Choice and listen to Christmas songs today. I have a Pandora app on my phone and usually just listen to it. Most of the time I am working and listen to the music at work or listen to people's stories. My job essentially is building relationships with people. I am a peer support specialist,meaning I have been through a lot of what my clients are going through and I know how to help them. Movie nights? Not for this man. Marvin Schrebe, RBA PSS |
| "November 28, 2019" Late entry NOVEMBER 27, 2019 Prompt: Turkey, Dressing, Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate crème pie What does Thanksgiving Dinner look like at your house?” Thanksgiving dinner here at the West Virginia Veterans Home will be served at 445PM Eastern Time (WDC time) It will consist of all the above. They usually only serve turkey once here because they know a lot of churches and civic groups will come in to honor the veterans here and those groups will be bringing turkey and ham over the holidays. By January most of us feel like we are about to start gobbling or growing feathers! We love it though. After that we spend two months losing weight! As usual my entry is late. I worked yesterday until 12:00noon. Then I had homework to do. I am sweating it out in my science class. It looks like I will pass but it will be close. I have a high D in there now. I need at least a D on the final to pass. The class is not hard, but the tests are monsters. I believe it is the way they are designed and the amount of material we cover. Anyway, I will blog as I am able. The next few weeks are going to be especially crazy. Along with working 66 hours per week, I am also going to have finals. One final is a fifteen-page paper she is waiting until the last minute to assign. If I do not blog, you will understand why. Marvin Schrebe AKA Jamison Christian “Chris” Breva, RBA PSS |
| "November 26, 2019" “Prompt: What is your favorite Thanksgiving memory?” I have this week off at Marshall University for Fall Break 2019. I am still working at the Salvation Army and leave for work before daylight every morning so my entries will consistently be late. I am off work today for a dental appointment and will be off Thursday for Thanksgiving. My entries will be put in then and on Saturdays for the week. A lot of people may not like this but my favorite Thanksgiving memory is deer hunting. It is always buck season for guns in West Virginia the week of Thanksgiving and my family always depended on the meat we could harvest during deer season. I always lived far enough out in the country that I usually did not wait to see antlers. I killed as many illegal does as I did bucks, but again my family depended on these things. I was the oldest of nine siblings and we had three adults in the house. Meat was a necessity for us. We raised a lot of our own food, but deer season was a must for us. My favorite memories are of hunting and coming in for a hot meal. If I was late for a meal my family knew I had bagged a deer. November 25, 2019 Late Entry Prompt: Use the following words in your blog entry: Stew, admonish, quirky, moonlight, summon, tall, brooch, command.”I am a soldier in the Salvation Army as most of my readers know. My faith in Jesus Christ is the center of my life. As a soldier I am involved in the Army’s social services program. I am about to go on the payroll in some type of peer support role. Right now, I am a volunteer and do support services such as food boxes, handling donations, etc. As a soldier my primary purpose and the main mission of the Salvation Army is the salvation of souls. We admonish people about the need to be saved and summon them to a new life in Jesus Christ. Sometimes it may seem a little quirky to walk into the Corps to get a food box and find yourself in a conversation about your spiritual needs, but the salvation of souls is my primary focus. I guess you could say I do case management and moonlight as a preacher. I like to think it is vice-versa however. I know living as a Christian is a tall order. The fact of the matter is that it is impossible for a human being to live as a Christian. The only way we can do so is with the aid of the Holy Spirit who indwells us when we repent and believe with our hearts that Jesus Christ died for our sins and raised from the dead. If we can do that we are saved and the Holy Spirit enters our hearts, empowering us to live righteous, holy lives. The Salvation Army is a holiness movement. We believe people can live lives free of sin with the help of Holy Spirit. He is our power source. He transforms hearts and minds into the image of Jesus Christ. Does the mean that we believe Salvationists (soldiers) are sinless? No! Soldiers fall short of God’s glory every day. It does mean that we do not have to be the slaves of sin. We can be slaves of righteousness as the Apostle Paul says (Romans 6:15-23} and we can grow toward spiritual maturity. I know that I will not be totally transformed into the image of Christ while I am still living in this body but thank I God that people can see Christ in me now. The Christian life is not a theory. It is a practice. It is real and anybody can have it. Nobody needs to wait until they get their lives together to become Christians. Only through the Holy Spirit can we get our lives together. He is the only One who can fix broken lives. If you have never had a relationship with Jesus Christ won’t you let Him begin transforming, you right now? If you will then pray with me: Jesus I give you my life, my brokenness, my all. I repent of my sins and ask you Jesus to remove my sin as far as the east is from the west from your memory. Father sprinkle me with the blood of your son for without bloodshed there can be no forgiveness (remission) of sins. Hebrews 9: 22 tells us this. I believe that Jesus Christ was the perfect Lamb of God, and that He shed His blood as a substitution for my own. Through this I believe I am saved. Thank you, Father. Holy Spirit I invite you to dwell in my heart and show me how to live like Jesus. Allow Jesus to be seen in me. Thank you, God for sending Jesus to die on the cross in my place. In Jesus’s name. Amen. If you just said that prayer with me and sincerely meant it then contact me. You can use my e-mail here, which is checked periodically or you can use my g-mail, which is checked almost hourly. It is marvinschrebe@gmail.com or chrisbreva1@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you! I would also want to pray for you and share some scripture with you. |
| November 19-23, 2019 "November 23, 2019" Prompt: “What is your favorite or most thought provoking quote from a book you ever read and why?”Matthew 6: 12 says “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”, This passage of scripture hung me up for years. I knew I was unwilling to forgive those who had harmed me in any way and yet I was asking God to use the same forgiveness I gave to others to forgive me? If I wasn’t willing to forgive, I knew God would not forgive me. I also knew Hell was a very real place! I shuddered every time I said the Lord’s Prayer. Finally I was able to do a thorough recovery program and learned how to forgive others. The Bible is Christianity taught. Early 12 step programs and many 12 step recovery programs today are Christianity practiced. I was fortunate. I found a sponsor who knew the 12 steps were applications of Christianity and he taught them to me as such. Now I am willing to teach anybody else who wants to learn. Hit me up on here about it. Marvinschrebe@writing.com or marvinschrebe@gmail.com or chrisbreva1@gmail.com November 17, 2019 Late Entry I haven’t blogged all week because I am working two jobs and finishing my bachelor’s degree at the same time. Saturday is really the only day I can blog. I hope nobody minds if I do all my blogs together and enter them on Saturday morning. This blog will contain November 17, 2019 through November 22, 2019 prompts and responses. I really have no alternative. Although I am working my butt off, I have no income yet. My Internet is shut off. The facility I live and work in has a computer room, so I plan to type my responses on my computer ,save them to a flash drive, take them to their computer room, and upload them there. I will label each entry according to its date and enter them as one entry. Prompt: “The most exciting things about the winter holidays are…Finish the sentence and tell us why.”The most exciting thing about the holiday this year is that I get to be a part of it for so many families. I am a peer support specialist at the Salvation Army Huntington Corps. As such I have taken part in the Angel Tree program, which locally signed up over 3200 children for Christmas presents. What angel tree does is help needy families provide Christmas for their children. The families come in during sign ups which usually take place in September. They sit with a specialist who takes their application. On the application it asks for clothing sizes, shoe sizes, etc. along with what the child wants for Christmas. Each child is allowed three items. These are then printed, and paper angels are made from them. The angels are hung on Christmas trees at Wal-Marts, malls, and other stores. Then customers can come into the store and choose (adopt) and angel from the tree, shop for that angel, and either take the items to the local Salvation Army or have the service desk in the store keep the items for later pick up. The angels who are not adopted will receive their gifts from the Salvation Army itself. If you see a tree in a store with papers hanging on it please consider adopting an angel! You will make a big difference in a child’s Christmas and help the Salvation Army in its mission of “Doing The Most Good”. Thank you! Christmas for me was never a good time but since I have started working for the Salvation Army as a volunteer, soon to be full time staff, I have found that I am looking forward to the holidays. Bah-humbug has gone from me and I am enjoying Christmas. Perhaps it was because I have never been able to give anything and this year I have been able to give something far more precious than material gifts: I have been able to give the love of Jesus Christ away to thousands of people. November 19, 2019 Late Entry As I said before I am just going to make all my entries for the week one long entry, and label each of them for their date. I apologize to my readers, but due to the type of disability I was on I lost my check. I used my check before to pay my bills while I devoted my time to writing. Then I moved to the West Virginia Veterans Home. It is a facility similar to domicile living with round the clock care. The facility pays for everything one could possibly need. Since they pay for everything, I no longer qualify for my check as my basic needs are met. Like anybody else I want some spending money, so I went to work. I am currently the floor leader here at the home, which pays enough to basically cover my Internet. I don’t get paid for the first two months however as it pays monthly, and they hold the first month back. I also volunteer 32 hours per week at the Salvation Army where I am a peer support specialist. That position is set to become a paid position soon, but again it takes time for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn so it could be sixty days before that happens. During the meantime I am working two hours per day as floor leader, spending 14 hours per week in class finishing the last semester of my Regents Bachelor of Arts degree with a minor in history, and working 32 hours per week at the Salvation Army. The only possible time for me to blog is Saturday, unless I get up early (0330) and blog. Like most people I like to sleep some. Saturday it is then! November 20, 2019 Prompt: “Black Friday. Are you going out to shop, or are you staying home with a good book and a plate full of left-overs?” I will not do either of the above. I will be working that day. I work from 0830 to 1630 (8:30AM to 4:30PM) Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. As well as 1300 to 1630 (1:00PM to 4:30PM) on Tuesday and Thursdays most weeks. This week I am off Tuesday for a dental appointment and work Thursday 0830 to 1630. It’s break week at Marshall University. Most weeks I attend class from 0830 until 1215 Tuesday and Thursday. The good news is that I graduate in three weeks. After 15 years of pursuing it off and on, I will finally have my bachelor degree. My bachelor will be a Regents Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis on Psychology and a minor in history. After this I plan to pursue a MSW degree and eventually a doctorate, possibly psychology. Anyway, I will be working Black Friday. My first job will begin at 0430 Friday morning and last until 0530. Then by 0830 I will be at my second job. No shopping for me unless my boss wants to go to Wal-Mart. I believe the plan is to avoid doing so though. November 21, 2019} Prompt: “Have you used any new writing tools or applications recently that have improved your work flow?”No I have not. As I said I have been working extended hours trying to get some income coming in. I was on disability but due to the type of disability it was (basically a check that I had not earned) it was taken away when I moved into a facility I could live in for free. I am very blessed to be where I am and if I did not want to work I would still have all my needs met. I like to have a little income and it had gotten to the point in my recovery and my Christian walk, where it was time for me to stand on my own two feet. Due to this I began looking for ways to generate some income or at least be a productive member of society. The floor leader position on my dorm became available so I took it. It pays a stipend but that is all. I only work about half an hour per day doing that. I also went to work as a part time volunteer at the Salvation Army locally. My commanding officer had told me back in the summer that she had me in mind for the position and was working to find funding to pay me. I am currently volunteering for the position 32 hours per week. I also attend Marshall University 14 hours per week. What it all boils down to is that I am so busy I don’t know whether to scratch my watch or wind my rear end most of the time. I haven’t had time to checkout any new writing apps. I doubt I would use them anyway. I find most apps are junk, especially for androids. Then I text so slowly that a writing app would be useless. November 22, 2019 Prompt: “What are you looking forward to in December, besides not trying to meet the NANO deadline?”December for me is a busy month. For one thing it is the month I graduate from Marshall University. I won’t get my actually diploma until sometime late in January but my transcript will show that I graduated once my final grades from the two classes I am in now post. One of those classes is Oceanography, because like anybody seeking a bachelor degree I am required to have a minimum of two science classes. Science is not my strong point and I was certain I was failing the class. I spoke to my Oceanography professor about it Thursday after class and my grade was higher than I thought it was. He said that if I can pull at least a D on the final exam that I will likely have a C in the class. An F on the final would still allow me to barely pass with a D. No matter which way I go I am going to graduate this December. Graduation is December 14, 2019. This is the biggest event in December for me. I am also looking forward to the arrival of a contract at work in December. The contract will be a contract between my employer and the agency that is providing a grant to give me a salary for on the job training. After the contract expires my employer (The Salvation Army) will pick up the tab. I knew the Salvation Army was a non-profit organization and that we operate on donations and grants. I also knew that I needed a job and that the local corps needed a peer support specialist, but was struggling to find the funding to pay the position in this budget. I went to the agency that will fund it, for which I was already a client, and asked them if they could fund it. Essentially, I raised the funds for my own salary. The contract should arrive at the corps sometime in late December. I look forward to that because I need the money coming in. I can live here at the veterans home for free since it is a state agency which, houses veterans and I am a veteran. However, I have no money on me, including money for my Internet, which I depend on. The cable here is free but Wi-Fi in the rooms is extra. I do not currently have Wi-Fi. This will all be transferred to a flash drive and taken to another building. Once there I will use the facility computers to upload it. Doing so is very inconvenient and inefficient, when I could have Wi-Fi here. I will have when I get an income back. Thank you if you have read all these entries. I wish there were another way, but currently see no alternative short of not blogging at all. Thank you for being my dedicated fans! Marvin Schrebe RBA |
| "November 11, 2019" Prompt: "Veterans Day" I don't recall doing an entry for November 11. I left early that morning to go to work. Thank you Applebee's for the delicious sirloin for Veteran's Day and thank you Golden Corral for the buffet in honor of Veteran's Day. I am a veteran who lives at the West Virginia Veterans Home in Barboursville WV so every day is veterans day to me. I served in the US Army for a very short period of time and was injured so I was discharged. Even though I brought the injury on myself by making choices I would not make today, the guys here at the veterans home assure me I am just as much a veteran as somebody who served in combat. They all tell me I became a veteran in their eyes the moment I raised my right hand and took the oath to serve. The fact that I was discharged from Basic Training due to injury/illness that made me unfit for service does not seem to pause them. I often beat up on myself for not being able to complete the course but they do not. Perhaps they are correct. What makes us veterans is not necessarily how long we served, but the fact that we served at all. I still would have liked to have carried out my intentions and made a career out of the military, but it was not meant to be. Today I serve in the army of the Kingdom of God. The branch I serve is the Salvation Army, a universal evangelical movement started by General William Booth in London England in 1865. The Salvation Army is best known for the benevolence programs we offer, particularly the Christmas programs and feeding the homeless, but we are so much more than that. We are also a church that holds regular worship services. Our officers and soldiers are our ministers. The officers are the commanders in a hierarchy just like the army, but we are all Christians united to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the end of the globe. I have been a soldier for two years and likely will remain a soldier until the day I close my eyes in death. I serve the Huntington WV Corps, Maryland-West Virginia Division, USA Southern Territory. I am the corps community outreach coordinator, welcome sergeant, men's minister,men's club treasurer, and adult Sunday school teacher. As the Community Outreach Coordinator my duties include nursing home ministry (I am chaplain of the West Virginia Veterans Home under the Salvation Army umbrella, jail ministry), and other outreach programs. As a soldier I signed a covenat with the army called a Soldier's Covenant declaring that I would abstain from certain activities and intentionally carry out other activities. For example a soldier does not use tobacco or alcohol/other drugs and a soldier does not divorce. A soldier walks a Christian walk and reads the word of God, preaches/teaches the word of God, and maintains a level of integrity. I am humbled to be a part of this organization. |
"November 16, 2019"  Prompt: "Why do you blog?"I blog for the same reason I do any other writing: I enjoy it! I also like competing and winning prizes and titles such as Blogger of the week. Maybe it's a bit vain and I don't usually go for vanity in myself, but I thrive on the idea of winning prizes for my writing efforts. I have been a writer for nearly fifty years and have yet to be paid any real cash for my efforts. The only pay off I can reallly get it in the comments I receive from others and knowing that possibly, just possibly, something I said or wrote may have meant something special to them. I am a peer support specialist vocationally. My whole life is wrapped up in supportive services. If my writing can in some way help another person achieve something good in their life then that is all the pay off I need. Of course winning some prizes or titles along the way is also very beneficial because it tells me that I am on the right track. It also strokes my ego and we all need our egos stroked from time to time.  The main reason I write nowadays is to have the opportunity to brag about what Jesus Christ has done in my life. I don't want to come across as "preachy" but my life has changed so drastically since I became a Christian that even I do not recognize myself. I was a train wreck before to put it very mildly. I was mean, evil, right down cruel. All of that has changed since I was saved. I love to brag about Jesus and writing gives me the venue to do so. Today I hold down two jobs, one part time and one full time. I also attend college two days per week as a part time student and will graduate in December 2019 with a Regents Bachelor of Arts degree and a minor in history. None of this would have been possible without Jesus. Writing gives me the chance to express my gratitude and just possibly shed some seeds of light for others to follow. I know there are people who read my blog who struggle daily. Those struggles may be addictions or other life related problems.. I overcame both a mental illness (bi-polar disorder) and drug addiction. Part of my solution was my faith but I did not start my journey to recovery through faith. I started it by applying principles to my life that literally changed my thought patterns and behaviors. I am more than happy to share those with anybody who wants a non-religious solution to life's entanglements. Just hit me up and we'll talk. Prompt: "Do you wander when you go shopping, or are you focused on a prepared list?"I hate shopping, so I go in, get what I need, and get out of Dodge! |
| "November 15, 2019" Prompt: "What’s the greatest advice you’ve ever been given? What if you lived solely according to it?" The greatest advice I have ever been given was to trust Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I did so and my life and my personality have completely changed. At one time I was addicted to drugs and I was the epitome of evil. I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief. I would steal from you and then help you look for whatever was stolen! I would fight at the drop of a hat and it did not matter to me who you were. I would fight a man, woman, or even a child. I believe I would have fought a buzz saw if it had crossed my path in some way. I was lazy, useless, and a drain on society. I used mental illness as a cover and spent my days getting loaded. I am not saying that mental illness did not play a role. I have bi-polar disorder and many addicts use to self-medicate. I may have done so as well. I do know that I often used mental illness as an excuse and used it to get my way. I no longer do so. Today I try to be a productive member of society. I hold down two jobs, go to college part time, and write for several websites including this one. Jesus is the one who changed all of it for me. When I was lost He found me and changed me into the person I am today. It was a slow process because I am hard headed and had a long way to come. I made it though and am continuing to grow in Christ. Prompt: "What was the strangest thing you’ve ever seen in public?"I once seen a pink elephant. No, I literally see a pink elephant every time I go down Route 60 in Barboursville WV because there is one standing in the yard of an insurance agency here. It makes a terrific landmark. You simply say "Behind the pink elephant", "south of the pink elephant" or whatever and most people here know what you mean. We also had a bar called the Purple Pig and a place that has a huge green giraffe standing by it! You name your poison we probably have it! Image #2187503 over display limit. -?- Image #2187984 over display limit. -?- |
| "November 14, 2019" Image #1997652 over display limit. -?- Prompt: "Do you look for the best in a situation or prepare for the worst?" I like to think I am a pretty positive person so I usually look for the best in a situation. As a Christian I know that no matter what happens God has it all under control. I know some people question that, particularly in the face of tremendous suffering. They question why God would allow such a thing to happen to them. Sometimes there is no real explanation. Sometimes God tests us because He knows we have it within us to take anything Satan can dish out. Look at the example of Job! If any human being ever suffered it was Job, yet God allowed Job to suffer. We must remember that God did not spare His own Son from suffering, but rather willed that Jesus die on the cross. As such God Himself suffered and died on the cross. If He is willing to subject Himself to such tremendous suffering why should I expect to get through life without suffering loss, ill health, poverty, or the myriad other problems we suffer? The thing is that I can choose to suffer and accept the suffering or I can choose to suffer and be miserable. Either way I am going to suffer. I choose to do so with dignity, integrity, and grace. Image #2098718 over display limit. -?- Image #2118746 over display limit. -?- Image #2147967 over display limit. -?- Image #2187503 over display limit. -?- Image #2187984 over display limit. -?- |
| "November 13, 2019" Image #1997652 over display limit. -?- "Prompt: Use these words in your blog entry: confidence, peace, thrill." Jesus Christ is my confidence: He gives me strength and peace. It is a thrill to be a Christian! Image #2098718 over display limit. -?- Image #2118746 over display limit. -?- Image #2147967 over display limit. -?- Image #2187503 over display limit. -?- Image #2187984 over display limit. -?- |
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