Beau and the Chickens

Life in Paris revolved around many activities at The Salvation Army.  One of those activities was the participation in La Musique Nationale – the French national Salvation Army band – of which Glen and John were members. In 1990 Elizabeth, too, joined the band.  Often Elizabeth and Eleanor accompanied them on various outings with the band.  One such outing was the annual music workshop weekend of the band held at Morfondé.  Morfondé was a large residential centre for adolescents operated by The Salvation Army in Villeparisis, not far from Charles de Gaulle airport.  The campus covered several acres with residential buildings, administration building, an auditorium self-service restaurant and barns which were part of a working farm which figured in the training for the adolescents in the program.  Barns, of course, meant animals. And Beau, as a Brittany spaniel, had a penchant for hunting.  In Beau’s mind space to run and animals were made for each other.  It seemed logical to him.

The program for the weekend was intense – with rehearsals on Friday night and all day Saturday, a worship service on Sunday morning and a concert in Paris on Sunday afternoon.  The members of the band stayed at Morfondé and ate in the self-service restaurant there.  Most of the resident adolescents had gone to be with their families for the mid-winter break on this first week of March, 1989. 

The weather was glorious.  The whole family was there and Beau had come along for the Sunday.  He stayed in the car for a while during the activities, and we let him out during the lunch-hour break.  A lunch hour break in France meant time for a proper meal – with bread, salad, entrée, cheese, dessert and a long, slow coffee.  The Sunday meal was roast chicken – a good feast as I recall.  We had Beau out for a sprint as others were going through the line in the cafeteria.  At six months, Beau had grown and now had the sprint of a gazelle.  He criss-crossed the spacious terrain with glee. Then he spied a live chicken, which had escaped from the chicken coop.  Chickens, it appears, are like dogs in their desire to get out of enclosures and run around.  The hunter genes took over and Beau was off like a rocket.  Without breaking stride he took the chicken in his mouth and gambolled across the grounds with John, Elizabeth and Glen in frantic pursuit. 

The sure sign of a good hunting dog is a soft mouth so that the game is not hurt – just held.  Beau had the soft mouth of the hunting dog.  He also had the speed and agility of a hunting dog. There was not a chance of our catching him.  What if he ran into the dining with the chicken in a terrified squawk between his teeth as our colleagues finished their chicken meal?  What would this do to Beau’s welcome in the environs?  What would it do to our family’s reputation as responsible dog owners?

Glen was in a state of total despair.  It was left to John to save the day.  Out of the corner of his eye as we tore across the field in pursuit of Beau John spied an empty watering can.  Grasping it as he ran he aimed at Beau and flung the can, catching the dog in the right hind leg.  Beau opened his mouth to bark his protest.  That second was all the chicken needed to go free.   Our relief was palpable!

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Human Interest Article

Winner of 2011
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Christian Leadership

Beau the Digger

 

The house where we lived, at 5 Claude Debussy was one of five row houses in the west-end Paris suburb of Rueil-Malmaison.  The main living space was the ground floor and the first floor.  There was an unfinished basement with the furnace, storage areas, and a play area for Elizabeth, and, at the time, the washing machine.  As noted earlier, the back door in the basement had been redone when a carpenter came and installed a swinging door to facilitate Beau’s comings and goings.

Through the door was the yard – some flowerbeds, a small lawn and fence.  The fence was about two metres high and fitted snug to the ground.  Perfect for a dog. We figured there would not be the slightest concern for Beau’s safety.  He could walk through the swinging door and out into the garden with no risk of his getting away.

It appeared that we had not incorporated paws – front paws specifically – into our calculations.  Even if we had overlooked it, Beau had not.

He might have been small, but his busy little front paws did the trick.  He dug, and he dug, and he dug. Beau discovered that it was not necessary to move all that much earth to make a hole adequate for a pup to squeeze under and go to explore the larger world.  Imagine our shock when we came home a found him sitting outside on the front sidewalk.

This development clearly called for remedial action.  A quick trip to Truffaut, the French home improvement store at the local shopping centre, Parly II and we returned with a quantity of bricks.  The earth was returned and a brick was put in place over the former hole at the bottom of the fence. “Gotcha”, thought Glen as he came inside.  The pup shall wander no more.

Unfortunately, it was not quite as simple as that.  Beau found other places where the fence did not go too far into the earth, and once again the paws went to work.  In the space of about two months, the back yard fence was ringed with bricks to prevent the digging of holes as escape routes for the wanderer.  More holes, more trips to Truffaut, more bricks; it seemed as if it would never end.

Fortunately the pup was growing through all this – a diet of the finest canned dog food and some supplements of fine French cheese (camembert was a particular favourite of the pooch) or meat.

Eventually his size got the better of him and he ceased from his escapades.  It might have been discipline that subdued, but, based on the evidence, size would likely be a better explanatory variable.  He would, however still indulge in the occasional digging frenzy, storing away a tasty crust of baguette in case of sudden famine, or une pénurie de croquettes, should the family not care adequately for his needs.  Periodically such tasty treats would be unearthed months later, and Elizabeth would come home from school to find a soggy, mouldy old crust of bread languishing on the basement floor or occasionally on her bedspread.  The pooch always enjoyed well-aged food, after all.

Winner of 2011
Word Guild Award
Christian Leadership

Winner of 2009
Award of Merit
Human Interest Article

UN BEAU SOUVENIR - Brownie Comes Home

 Some members of the family were aware of the scheme – some were not.  The Shepherds were living in Paris in 1988.  Elizabeth was 11 and was going into 6ieme, the French equivalent of junior high school.  Word was that it would be a difficult transition.

She had asked about having a dog on a number of occasions, and each time the answer had been a polite no – with maybe a fish or a turtle thrown in to soften the rejection.  In the fall of 1988 the “dog” question came up again.  Eleanor saw Elizabeth’s point of view.  She decided to pray about the subject – if God could send a dog who would cost nothing to procure, maybe that would be a sign that Elizabeth should have her dog. 

When school resumed at the Lycée International, Allison Dearborn, Elizabeth’s friend, came back to announce that Laura, their collie, had given birth to a litter of pups.  News of the event shook our house at 5 rue Claude Debussy.  Elizabeth saw her dog. Eleanor’s prayer had been answered. The only barrier was convincing John and Glen.

One day after school Elizabeth went to the Dearborns and saw the pups.  All were black except one, appropriately named “Brownie”.  Elizabeth remembers holding Brownie up.  The rest of the litter was fast asleep, while Brownie, true to his nature as we were to later find out, was wide awake, and barking for someone to come and get him out of the tedium of the pen.  No sleep for him.  Elizabeth held him up, and he peed all over her – no doubt a sign of appropriation of his new found human.  Her skirt was wet, and her heart was set.

After much discussion the decision was made.  The dog would come home. We would give it a try.  John and Glen reluctantly acquiesced, but set a condition.  His name would be Beauregard, after the illustrious pooch of Pogo cartoons – Beauregard Bugleboy Bloodhound.  And so we made the trip to Maisons Lafitte to the Dearborns to get Beau.

He was ours, a tiny ball of fur with big dark eyes and the energy of a bomb.  The Dearborns said goodbye to “Brownie” and we put “Beau” in our car. 

Life was never the same after.   Applications of Javex to the basement floor to teach him to attend to his needs outside, and the doggie bed basket chewed to bits.  The little mutt seemed to be all teeth.  But when he cuddled into you – the wreckage did not matter.

Beau was given his bed in the basement and spent the night there – reluctantly admittedly, but he did it – for all of about 2 weeks.  After 15 sleepless nights due to whimpering and scratching, Beau’s sleeping quarters were relocated up 2 flights of stairs, next to the humans.  Within no time he was sleeping on the various beds, relocating himself throughout the night to make sure all was well and ensuring a warm spot on the bed for all. We had the door from the basement into the back garden redone to put in a swinging door so that Beau could come and go as he pleased.  The swoosh could be heard as he trotted in and out, scouting out the events in the back yard and alley.

Four weeks later we went to London, England for the weekend and took Beau back to the Dearborns to stay with them and Laura, his mother. Laura had welcomed him back with maternal concern – regurgitating her food for her pup in case the new humans were not feeding him properly.  As our plane touched down at Charles de Gaulle airport coming back we couldn’t wait to get out to the Dearborns to pick him up and bring him home.  The dog had won our hearts.

He was not what you would call a well-disciplined dog.  In fact, that objective would never be fully realized.  There are lingering differences of opinion in the family about why that was so.  But the beast remained independent to the end.

Winner of 2011
Word Guild Award
Christian Leadership

Winner of 2009
Word Guild
Award of Merit
Human Interest Story

Praying for Those Who Are Unemployed

           When I began my ministry of intercession, I never imagined that a time would come when I would have a whole list of people to pray for who needed employment, but with the changing economy, every day my prayer list includes the name of someone who needs work. 

            As I scan the list, I find many different reasons people are searching for work and came to the position where they currently find themselves.  When I think of my own situation, I realize how fortunate I was to find three different part time jobs I enjoy.  Without them, my story might have ended quite differently when I was laid off my last full time job in the spring of 2011. 

            What are the concerns of those for whom I pray?  Rose (not her real name), wishes to find another job, that would give her the kind of responsibility that she had in her accounting job in her own country.  When she immigrated to this country, the skills she learned in her home country only qualified her for a clerical position here, without any of the responsibilities that she had in her previous employment.  I pray that she will find a position offers her with the fulfillment of feeling that what she does matters.

             Another jobseeker, also an immigrant, after landing a good job following years of training in the information technology field, left to join his wife in this country.  Although he has had a few short-term contracts, including one in another city, he has not found a permanent position.  Their situation grew more serious when their first child arrived a few months ago. 

            Jane, who worked in the banking sector for many years, felt that she would find more satisfaction in working for a non-profit.  When she sent me her CV to pass on to my contacts she expressed her desire to do work that made a difference in the world.  Her experience would make her an asset to any non-profit, but her acquired skills are not an easy match for a position that would be at her income level in the banking world. 

            Corinne is limited in her employability, since she has been trying to find work in a bilingual city and she is unilingual.  After scouring all the possibilities she could find, she finally chose to set up a business for herself.  Since it usually takes a while for such ventures to become profitable, in the meantime she procured a part time position that requires only the language she speaks. 

            Andre had a good position in marketing, but when the economy weakened, the company required him to lay off his whole department.  He knew that meant the handwriting was on the wall for him.  At the same time, his wife who had lost her job was hired to work in another city nearby.  It was logical for Andre to look for work there too.   However, this is a smaller city and does not offer as many opportunities as were available in the advertising sector.  He will likely need to find how transferable his skills are for other sectors. 

            Norman was also a victim of societal change, when the video rental store that he managed was closed.  It looked for a while like there might be a possibility that he could take over management of a store in another city, but that job went to someone local. 

            Each of the situations is unique.  Some are related to the current economic downturn and some are not.  In each case, the need for work is obvious, but the job openings seem to be scarce. 

            My conviction is that the Lord is aware of each person, each situation, each family and their needs.  My prayer for them varies according to their particular circumstances.  I also recognize when I pray that I only know a small portion of their story.  Only God knows all of the details and I believe I can trust him to work all things out for their good. 

            I know that does not mean that these friends will avoid the worry and stress of financial need that accompany loss of employment.  However, as I pray for them, my prayer is that they may remain calm and confident that the One who knows them better than they know themselves and who will not leave them without hope.  Since I experience lay offs twice myself in the last three years, due to a lack of funding available to employ me, I can perhaps pray for my friends with a little more empathy, than I might have before this happened to me.

Winner of 2011
Word Guild Award
Christian Leadership

Winner of 2009
Word Guild Award of Merit
Human Interest Story

Praying for Families

Praying for Families

            Included in the lists of those I pray for every day, are at least thirty families.  However, I do not pray for every member of every family each day.  Sometimes, I pray for one member of the family each day in a rotation, so if a family has three members each person is prayed for every fourth day.  However, if a family has nine members, it will be a longer time between when each individual is remembered in my prayers.  Nevertheless, each family member will be prayed for by name at regular intervals. 

            A variety of situations have brought these families to my attention evoking a sense of my need to pray for them.  Some families have needs that revolve around illnesses of various kinds, both physical and emotional.  When one member of the family suffers, the pain affects all others.  Illnesses, accidents or age and infirmity can lead to death and here again a family needs the support of prayer as they take that particular journey of grief.  Other complex family situations that are addressed by my prayers include marital discord and other relationship challenges.  My prayers are for the healing of broken relationships and the necessary wisdom and discernment to address courageously complicated and longstanding issues.

            Let me give you some specific examples of families with prayer concerns who have requested my intercession.  One request came to my husband, Glen when he ran into some friends when he was in Europe on business.  Their adult daughter was suffering from severe clinical depression that debilitated her so much; she was unable to care for her own family.  Her desperate parents asked Glen to pray for her and for the whole family and to ask me to pray for them as well. 

            Another example of a need is that of my friend whose is the mother of a young man who has developed a gambling addiction.  She asked my prayers for him and for his wife as the addiction has placed their marriage in jeopardy and the innocent victims will be their young children.  The whole family is caught in the midst of a maelstrom that threatens to overwhelm them.  Prayer seems to be their only hope right now. 

            An elderly woman who decided a few years ago that she wanted to become a church member labours under the weight of guilt and a sense of failure.  Having raised her children as a single parent, she fears that it is her fault that she is unable to build a meaningful relationship with her adult daughter.  She is heart-broken about this and asked my prayers that somehow they might learn to love one another.  

               One family that has been a part of my prayers for many years includes a daughter who in her rebellious teen years alienated herself from her family by choosing to have an illegitimate child.  Eventually this young woman returned to the faith, married and had her own family.  When her children were in their teens, she again wandered and pursued an affair that destroyed her own family as well as another one.  It was tragic.  The devastation of the choices she made is extensive and I include all members of all the families involved in my prayers.  My focus is on the healing of relationships, forgiveness, reconciliation and the dawning realization of the unconditional love of God for each person concerned.  Only God can bring these about, and so to Him we make our requests.

            Other parents ask me to pray for the children who have made bad choices and now must live with the consequences of those choices.  Parents are aware of the danger that their children may make the wrong choices.  Their request is that I pray for the protection of their children.  These parents are aware of the choices bombarding their children and fear they have not adequately prepared them to choose wisely.  We know only too well that we are all susceptible to influences from others and vulnerable to temptations.  Prayer can help us hold steady.

            The Bible talks of the power of a father’s love and a mother’s compassion.  Images of family help us to understand the nature of God. 

           One of my greatest joys is to see the gratitude of family members as they see God answering prayers in the lives of their loved ones.  In my book More Questions than Answers, Sharing Faith by Listening, I tell the story of a young man who came to faith and prayed for his father for ten years.  The father then embraced the faith and today the father rejoices in the little grandson who he prays will one day also come to faith.

            God created families and He works to strengthen them as we pray.   

            

More Questions than Answers,

Sharing Faith by Listening

Winner of 2011 Word Guild Award  

"Living  Outside our Comfort Zones"

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Intercession for Our Children

My prayer lists include over 120 names of people I recorded because parents expressed concerns to me for their children.  I am always amazed how often in conversation with other parents, we find ourselves talking about our children.  Our concern may be for their physical well being particularly when their children face health issues that cannot easily be resolved.  I know this challenge well because of my personal experiences.  Other times the worry is about the emotional health of a child.  Sometimes this is a huge frustration for parents as we are unable to remove the cause of illnesses like depression and we feel a sense of guilt that somehow we bear responsibility for the anxious state of our child.  Many times our burden as parents is for the spiritual health of our children.  

We realize that when God entrusted the children to our care, we needed to do everything in our power to enable our child to maximize every opportunity and enjoy a full and satisfying life.  The first few years we devoted ourselves to seeing that they developed into healthy, happy human beings.  Then they began to discover their own unique identities.  In adolescence, we fear that in discarding the identities we to some degree shaped and helped them create in order to find their uniqueness, they will also abandon the roots that can hold them firm in the challenges life brings their way. 

These fears can be acute among Christian parents.  We desperately want our children to understand and embrace the faith that has given meaning to our lives. We do not want our children to shrug off with the vestiges of their childhood the sometimes tenuous faith they have begun to develop and thereby miss discovering those realities of eternal value.  Along with our fears is the awareness of our engagement in a cosmic struggle. 

I have often observed the point where the Enemy chooses to attack us is in the area of discouragement.  The domain where this can flourish is in our relationships with our children.  We invest heavily in their well-being and if He can capitalize on our fears for their future, He can immobilize us. 

Especially as our children begin to emerge into adulthood or any time when they are facing physical or emotional challenges we feel so helpless.  The only way I know to find our equilibrium when we face overwhelming fear for our children is to place them once again in the hands of the One who entrusted them to us.  That is much easier to talk about than to put into practice. 

Many parents tell me how they have surrendered their children into the care of the Lord in prayer, in the same way I have.  No sooner do we open our eyes, than once again we are gripped by fear and concern for our children.  It seems we have to keep on surrendering them and through that exercise, we gradually build our faith and confidence that He will work out His purposes in their lives.

In my intercession, I have literally taken a page from the book of someone who has written about how to pray for our children.  I use as my own a sample prayer adapting it to my situation.  I choose to do so because I realize that in praying for my children in this way I am able to enter into spiritual warfare on their behalf. I am not one who spends a lot of time delving into the occult, but I do have the discernment to recognize the attacks of the Enemy in trying to immobilize me by discouragement over the spiritual condition of my children.  My greatest weapon in retaliation to this attack is to arm for spiritual warfare.  Thus I pray in this way, speaking aloud in an affirmative tone.  

The first part of the prayer is an establishment of the authority by which I am able to address the forces of evil.  I state that I am doing this in the name and under the authority if Jesus.  I know that He is the one who has authority over the spiritual realm and all spirits must bow to His authority.  I bind these spirits under His authority and refute their influence over those for whom I am praying, identifying the objects of my prayer by name.

I then name the specific spirits that I am binding.  The list includes spirits of witchcraft, occult activity, satanic interest, mind control, fantasy, lust, perversion, rebellion, rejection, suicide, anger, hatred, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, pride, deception, unbelief, fear, sensuality, greed, additions and compulsive behaviour.  Then I add others that I feel to be appropriate to the situation. 

Having bound these sprits, I then declare that under the authority of Jesus, I break their power and affirm it is null and void in the lives of the people whom I name.  I revoke the blinders that the Enemy has placed on them.  I avow that those whom I name will see the light of the gospel of Christ.  They will be taught by the Lord and their peace will be great.  These declarations agree with the Scriptures in Isaiah 54: 13. 

From the evil spirits, I then turn to God our Heavenly Father.  First of all I express my thanksgiving to Him for the gift of those for whom I am praying, again using their names.  Then I ask for His protection of them.  I request for them the support of Christian friends who can have a godly influence on their lives.  I pray for discernment to know when they need my prayers and my help.  I also pray for wisdom to be the person they need me to be in our relationship.

I conclude my prayer asking that our Heavenly Father will fulfill His plan and purposes in the lives of those for whom I am praying, and that His Spirit will be upon them.  My final action is to release these gifts He has given me (those for whom I am praying) and place them in His hands.  I acknowledge that He loves them even more than I do and that according to Jeremiah 29: 11 His plans for them are for welfare and peace, not for evil and that He will give them a hope and a future.  Then I try to leave them there. 

MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
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  Christian Leadership Category


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Living Outside Our Comfort Zones
The Word Guild Award of Merit 2009
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100huntley.com - Learning To Listen - Eleanor Shepherd

Here is an interview that I did for Huntley Prime about my book More Questions than Answers, Sharing Faith by Listening. I just found it online. I hope you enjoy it.

100huntley.com - Learning To Listen - Eleanor Shepherd