As I walked out of the terminal, I realized that this was old-school flying.  I was going to have to walk up the stairs just like they did in the old movies, which was in character with this tiny airport.  TGNR  Thank God no rain.  As I went up the stairs I admired the brand new tires, and the shiny plane from the outside.  As an airport worker with a safety vest on was scurrying  around underneath the plane, I joked that everything checked out.  He chuckled and seemed like a pleasant guy.

As I went to my seat, I noticed that I COULD ask the aisle guy to move so that I could take my window seat, OR take the window of the exit row ahead of him.  Guess what I did?  Yep, got the exit row.  All of the crew was very upbeat, almost as if they loved their jobs.  I was told that I was in fact in an exit row, and could I perform the necessary procedures?

I laughed at the idea of a water landing, from Long Beach to Salt Lake City (SLC).  I was transfixed by the view of the brand new blue engine out my window.  When I asked, the gentleman told me that the plane was 13 days old (young).  Brandy New!

As we were informed of the proper procedures, I ignored them as always.  As we were getting ready to get ready to take off, I heard from the captains mike, "Buehler,   Buehler,   Buehler"  I heard some other chuckles, these guys just like to have fun.

The take off was prefect and we gradually climbed, leaving the LA area.  I kept staring at the blue engine as it shined when the sun hit it.  Did I mention I LOVE half full flights?  I know that JetBlue doesn’t like them as much as I do.

Each seat has its own TV, wow.  I did NOT get the headsets, and I planned to get some work done on the short hop to SLC.  Unable to ignore the TV, I was forced to endure 15 minutes straight of Martha Stewart.  When did she get out of jail?

OK, back to staring out the window.  It seemed like every 15 minutes there was another body of water.  I didn’t have a map. so I would only be guessing which ones they were.  At the beginiong of the flight they said "in the event of a water landing…." and I laughed.  I figured there was a better chance of Jet Blue buying Continental then us doing a water landing, but you never know.

I was given my drink and some cashews which I liked and got more.  They had other choices, and I REALLY liked that I did not get those teeny packages of pretzels this time.  I enjoyed the upbeat attitude of the crew.

Anyway, the descent into SLC was smooth and following some braking on the runway we were taxiing over to the terminal.

As we exited the plane following the great photo oppportunity, I felt they were sincere in offering up the pleasantries.

Thanks Jet Blue! 

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Hope For The Islands!

Guest Editorial: Kyle Bartholomew

Kyle and Joan Bartholomew with their son Brett

(On Sunday June 1, 2008, the Honolulu Mission Team will be sent out! On that historic day, it will be my honor to appoint Kyle as an Evangelist in the Kingdom of God. Kyle was born in Hilo, Hawaii on October 2, 1981 to Jay and Cindy Bartholomew. He has an older sister Robin and two younger brothers. Throughout his life, Kyle’s passion has been basketball. Following in his father’s steps, Kyle played at the University of Hawaii – Hilo. He was a three year starter, two time All-Conference selection and captain of the team in both his junior and senior years! It was in college that Kyle was baptized by Chris Teves on July 29, 2001. Before he graduated in 2003, he baptized his brothers, Evan and Levi. On August 14, 2004, he marrried an awesome disciple, Joan Udtohan. God blessed them with Brett on March 15, 2006. Later that year, Kyle became the full-time minister for the Hilo International Church of Christ. When the Bartholomews left to train in Los Angeles in 2007, Evan and his wife Kelly began to lead the Hilo Church. This past year in Los Angeles, Kyle has been abundantly fruitful at Cal State Fullerton. With their “Hawaiian warmth” both Kyle and Joan have endeared themselves to the entire Orange County Region as their leaders. Though Kyle has remained a Cleveland Cavalier fan resisting the Lakers’ resurgence, he has become a very close friend and dear son in the faith! I am so looking forward to being “partners in the gospel” with Kyle in the Islands and throughout the Pacific Rim.) KM

“My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.” Isaiah 51:5

In this prophecy of Isaiah, we learn that it is and has always been God’s heart to bring His righteousness, hope and salvation to the nations! God’s heart for the nations is reflected in many other passages such as Acts 1:8 – the command to take the gospel to the “ends of the earth”; Acts 2:39 – the promise that the gospel message would reach “all who are far off” (Gentiles); and perhaps most familiar, Matthew 28:19 – God’s command “to baptize… the nations”! Since I was born and raised in Hawaii, the most exciting aspect of Isaiah’s prophecy is that God’s arm will extend out even to “the Islands”!

Kyle and Joan on their wedding day!

When I was baptized as a disciple on July 29, 2001 through the efforts of the Hilo International Church of Christ (ICOC), I was blown away by the commitment, passion and love that I saw in each and every disciple. What inspired me most was the dream that each disciple shared to evangelize the Islands, the Pacific Rim and ultimately the world in their generation. In 2001, there were about 60 disciples in Hilo, 75 in Maui and around 1,000 in Oahu – every disciple believed this dream was possible, and so did I. 

Sadly, in November 2002 after the ICOC leadership’s decision to return to a more mainline Church of Christ theology, as well as the advent of the “Kriete letter” in early 2003, so many beloved aspects of “my church” began to change. Gone was a fellowship where every member was a practicing disciple of Jesus. Gone was the deep love for one another through discipling relationships. And gone was the dream to evangelize the Islands and the world.

By 2006, membership was declining at an alarming rate! Oahu dropped from 1,000 disciples to 200; Hilo went from almost 60 disciples to 38; and Maui was reduced from 75 disciples to 25. Oahu went from six full-time couples to two, and both Hilo and Maui went from a full-time couple leading each congregation to untrained volunteers, as vision and then contribution plummeted. Baptisms became extremely rare, restorations were almost non-existent and there had not been a single church planted from the Islands for over six long years. It was obvious to me that something needed to change!

Kyle and his brothers Levi and Evan!

In late 2006, I was asked by the “leadership group” of the Hilo ICOC to be the minister. They were indeed desperate as the Hilo Church had not had a baptism for over a year! Since I was untrained, I was convinced we needed additional help. Therefore, in considering which church to ask for help, I decided to attend the Portland World Missions Jubilee. I was so in awe of God so obviously working through the Portland Church, as the fastest growing church in the ICOC at that time, that I asked Kip and Elena to disciple Joan and me. Thankfully, they agreed.

One month later, the McKeans came to help us rebuild the Hilo Church’s foundation to be composed of only disciples (1 Corinthians 3:10-11). After an eventful weekend of Kip and Elena’s preaching, God left us with a “Gideon-like” twelve disciples, whose dream was to once again evangelize the world in our generation! The other 26 members, many of whom were lukewarm, started a new congregation with the help of evangelists from both the LA ICOC and the Oahu Church of Christ. Not having a baptism for over a year in Hilo, yet starting with twelve sold-out disciples, God blessed us with 20 baptisms that next year! Sadly, yet to the point, the congregation that was started in opposition to Kip’s and my vision of world evangelism through God’s plan of discipling, still has not seen a baptism to this day.

Kyle making two points for UH-Hilo!

Visiting that fateful weekend, during the calling out of the remnant, were Chris Teves and Joe and Mary Santos from Honolulu. Likewise, discouraged by witnessing only five baptisms a year on Oahu, they made the decision that weekend to start a new congregation of only sold-out disciples in Honolulu. Heart-breaking for me, after just one week, Chris Teves under overwhelming pressure from close relationships, decided to give the Oahu Church of Christ another try. Therefore, starting with only Joe and Mary, God has grown the group in Honolulu to 16 disciples!

Most impressive is that four former full-time ministers are now solid members of the remnant group: Joe and Mary Santos, Jody Tyrell (restored in January) and Chris Teves (who recently decided to rejoin us after a failed attempt to reform the existing Oahu Church of Christ).  Dr. Malia (Millard) Emmerich, who was on the original Oahu COC planting back in 1989 is a part of the Honolulu Intl. Christian Church as well.  Truly God is faithful to His promise to gather His remnant, when we repent and begin to seek Him with all our heart (Nehemiah 1:8-9).
After a long talk with Joe and Kip in the summer of 2007, Joan and I decided to move to Los Angeles to receive the training needed to lead the Honolulu Church, which will become the pillar church for the evangelization of the Islands and the Pacific Rim. We borrowed $20,000 from a home equity loan to train full-time. We have been fortunate over the last several months to lead both the Cal State Fullerton Campus Ministry and then recently, the Orange County Region. We will be forever grateful for Kip and Elena, the Comisfords, the Hardings, the Kirchners, the Underhills, the Hernandezs, Vic and Aurora Gonzalez, and many other brothers and sisters who have helped us learn how to be more effective disciples and church builders.

Jody and U’i Tyrell with their three daughters,
Makana, Sera and Gabby!

On Sunday June 1, the Honolulu Mission Team will be sent off by the Holy Spirit from the City of Angels Church to join the remnant group in Honolulu! The Honolulu Mission Team includes four incredible young men in Albert Wagers, Lorenzo Prueitt, Josh Aguirre, David Rysdet and three awesome young women in Joy Axelson of Maui, Naveh Pilate of Honolulu, and “CL” Salamanca, and of course, Joan and me. The Inaugural Service of the Honolulu International Christian Church will be held the following Sunday June 8, 2008 at 10 am at Maunakea Chapel, 1330 Maunakea Street! It is at the corner of Maunakea and Vineyard across from Zippy’s.  We would like to invite all of you who still believe in the dream to evangelize the Islands of Hawaii to join us!

This is not a matter of salvation if you are a faithful disciple, but joining us will allow us all “to win as many as possible” (1 Corinthians 9:19) through multiplying disciples as a movement of God. Our prayer is that through our efforts God will be glorified by His righteousness, hope and salvation returning to the lost Islands of Hawaii! If you are interested in joining in our efforts please give me a call @ 808-217-3904 or Joan @ 808-271-5577. Aloha!

Kyle Bartholomew
www.honoluluicc.org
kyle@honoluluicc.org

Rick Emmerich’s note.  One can certainly contact me as well for info, and questions about the church.  808 371-6501.  Obviously we’d like to invite you to the service this Sunday the 1st too.

The deal was almost too good to be true.  JET BLUE, going into Salt Lake City, exactly where I wanted to go.  At a very reasonable price.  What was the catch.  Well, there happened to be two.  First of all, I had ten days in which to make the purchase and I wasn’t sure were the money was coming from.  Second, it was going out of Long Beach CA.  It did not seem right. I kept the ticket in mind and made some other plans for the trip as the day quickly approached.  The day before I had a tiff, (a tiff is a term for a fight, but not a big one), with my wife.  I could tell she was not completely on board with my decision to go to Salt Lake City for the first annual convention of our network marketing company, Zrii. She would not help by buying the ticket for me, and eventually I called my old buddy Paul.  Paul was my business associate and had stood up in my wedding 3 years ago.  We were going to convention and we were rooming together. So he had an interest in helping me.  In that trusting and loving way he agreed, and charged the ticket for me.  What a guy. Now, about the Long Beach detail.  What kind of rinkydink parking lot looking small airport was this?  Was this a hidden gem someohow forgotten from the 50s and even WW II?  Who went to it anyway? As my awesome friend Lance quickly frove me from Huntington Beach to the airport, I noticed that it was a big parking lot, that was not properly marked with signs.  Maybe a secret place that only locals knew.  As he pulled right up to the only possible place to unload, all you-know-what broke loose. WWIII was led by one, not so bad looking male cop with a mustache, and a morbidly obese Rambo wannnabe who started to waddle over to me with an angry look on his face.  We moved, darnit, and I had to walk a ways back with my stuff.  Well as things returned to normal, and the security threat was lifted, I focused on the building. I left them dreaming of their next artery-clogging dozen crullers, I navigated the checkin process to perfection.  The smiling Jet Blue employee not only helped me very efficiently, she pushed others through (with check in luggage).  People like this are solid gold, all companies need them. It was small,  like a barracks.  It was one level, and I guess around 4 gates.  CUTE.  And what a cutie ahead of me.  A young mother was training her tiny child to be ‘big girl’ right in front of me.  The experiment was working, and this little doll was imitating her mommy at every opportunity.  Mind you, somtimes these exercises go terribly wrong.  I’m usually the one behind something like this, but for once it was refreshing…. I started to hear the announcements for the Jet Blue flights and lots of light-hearted comments were tossed around, making me smile.  I could see the attitudes of almost all of the fliers.  They were upbeat.  In fact these were very attractive people, who probably all had shopped at Irvine Spectrum or were holdovers from Sharper Image.  They looked like actors, I expected a movie set to be unveiled at any minute.  And themn the announcement.  This was the innaugural flight to Seattle from the cute little airport and "would you like a piece of cake?"  Now I know that I was going to SLC, not Seattle but I felt that I totally could have a piece.  But no.  I’m watching  my girlish figure.  I had discovered where the roly poly fat cop got HIS figure-the free cake parties. What a deal, a party at the airport.  Usually the scene of uptight  TSA types and tense passengers that left 20 minutes too late from their home.  I liked it.  I started out toward my flight. See Part 2,   soon.

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Here we are in a small, but beautiful office space for the Innaugural meeting of the San Diego International Christian Church.  It is cramped, hot and we wouldn’t have it any other way.  The room is full with the spillover into the hallway.  We have outgrown the space in the first week!

 I am so blessed to be here to hear God’s Word preached.  Waiting in  the wings is Kyle Bartholomew, who will soon be heading up to share the first message.  This is the San Diego house church and some of the remnant from San Diego are participating.  Visitors from Tijuana, Hawaii, (me), Calgary, Canada, and of course, LA have raised the enthusiasm to one that can be felt by all.

Kyle is the soon to be lead evangelist in Hawaii.  He started with Rev. 1:9  John speaking…sending the scroll to the seven churches.  Kyle relates the actual history of John from the Isle of Patmos.  After the evil emperor Domitian tried to kill John, he finally gave up and John wrote Revelations.  Continuing from verse 12.  His face like the sun…..

Continuing from verse 17….

There are about 50 of us, psyched for the message that our fired up brother is sharing.  For an ‘unschooled ordinary man’ Kyle has perfected his ‘relatablity’ with the averae person.

Pt. 1  Suffering Paves the Way:  Rev 2:1  and following              You have forsaken your first love (something no one wants to hear about ‘their’ church,   from the mouth of Jesus).  At first commended for their work and faith, they were now enduring hardships.  The story that Kyle related was amusing, and convicting.  Suffering and hardships await us on our walk with Christ.

1 Peter 4:12  Dear friends, do not be surprised,     rejoice…….   rest on you.  We are following a crucified messiah.  Many of us lose faith when the recession hits and it takes a shot at our pocketbook.  Kyle had gotten bitter at God, and Joan told hm to pray,      and then pray again.  Life is not an easy stroll down the garden path as a disciple.

Do we understnd God’s plan of suffering?  We are wiser when we come out of sin.

Deut. 8:2                               Israelites (God’s People)   Remember….

Kyle knows now that he has not trusted God totally financially recently.  God tests us to find out what is in our heart.  When He sees it we see it too.  Do we obey his commandments?  Suffering paves the way.

Rev 2:4       (false prophets)  the church chased them off, which they were commended for.     Jesus looked at that church with blazing eyes……”Yet if hold this against you….first”

They feel in love with something (else) that replaced God.  What is it?  Pornography, Pleasure, Careers.  Whatever, it takes us away from our God.  Kyle sinned and fell out of his first love. 

“Remember the heighth from which you have fallen.”  Kyle had one sin, but did not repent and cure his heart.  He then got into internet gambling.  When asked to do a study in the midst of all that, he was totally convicted.  He and his brother had to face the fact that they needed to give their lives back to God.  Funny how the Discipleship Study can convict the one leading it.  (And the one taking notes.)(And the one blogging.)

How are our spiritual decisions working for us?

“Repent and do the things you used to do.”  Kyle reminds us of a person with a severe injury relearning his motor skills, as he redid the things he had done at first from QTs to sharing faith to tithing.

“I thought you were committed to Jesus.”  That hurt.

No more excuses, back to where he had started,  What about us?

We can make the same decision.

Acts 3:19.  Repentence (is a good thing)  Our sins are wiped out and times of refreshing come.  God says he erases them!  He forgives, forgets and we are free.  Repentence renews us day by day.

Pt 3 __________________”If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand…..A church in a state of unrepentance will have its lampstand removed.  Verse 7…..

“Lukewarm”  Kyle’s 28 of 40 followers left from the Hilo Church. It is on the person…..

A man can overcome or he IS overcome.

2 Peter 2:20  “If they have escaped……..than to have known it and..dog returns to its vomit……..

Make a decision and turn and run from sin, or we’ll get entangled in it again.

Genesis  Adam and Eve:  Two trees.  Their days were numbered when they ate from the wrong tree.

We will die.  That day we will be judged, and it will lead to our final destination.

Rdev 22:1  “The angel showed me……down the middle………healing of the nations.  No longer will there be…and they will reign for ever and ever.”  What an image.  Now we can approach God.  Once that privalege was taken from us.  WE can again, but we have to overcome.

If we have to have trials and give up what we do on Earth, and      Many have not chosen the path of righteosness, but have taken the wider road to hell.  Many will trade their 80 years of live for an eternity with God.

Earth is like the shower cold water, short time, as the hot water comes through like the joy of Heaven.  Choose God or Satan, Heaven or Hell.  See you next week, San Diego.

Now, what has changed, and why am I grateful?

I was grateful that I came out of the procedure without too much damage, heck I was breathing.
I’m grateful that so many of my bros and sisters in Christ saw fit to visit me. My mom, and two of my sisters made the drive up from Chicago (to Milwaukee).

I took another look at my life, and eliminated most if not all of the stress. Eventually people stepped up big time to help reassemble my poor condo.

Less than one year after the visit to the hospital I married the most wonderful perfect woman for me. And she is a Holistic Chiropractor. I live in Hawaii. God has been very very good to me.

The changes I made right after I got back home from the hospital included adding fruits and vegetables and cutting out the red meat for the most part.

Then Dr. Malia and I met in person. The moment I saw her at LAX, I said “She’s the one for me!” She said to herself “He’s OK.”

She gave much more advice about nutrition and gave me adjustments. She also introduced me to NET,(Neural Emotional Technique.) I felt more love and encouragement the more we got to know each other. We are a great match.

I work at home (do you call this work?) so most of the frustrations from a job are gone.

The beauty, the skies, the beaches the air so wonderful, the trade winds, the temperature here in Hawaii obviously blows away the gray, too cold or too hot, rush hour traffic life in Milwaukee. I know there are good things there too, of course.

I want to share my life, my knowledge of health, my wife’s knowledge and advice. I want to help those I can. I know the Bible a little and find that that is a major help in my life. I am willing to share that too. (I don’t think God let me live to just kick back and watch ESPN.)

Sharing YOUR story will be refreshing and will help others. You definitely CAN become a part of a published book, Thank God I had a heart attack. (If that is your passion.)

We will get some audios, some videos and some pictures of other survivors. The top pic is me and my lovely bride, Dr. Malia walking down the aisle. I guess you will see others.

I have lost 20 pounds with the help of some herbal tea, and I can share that with all of you. The Holy Tea can be found on my blog.

I use a health formula, a liquid nutritional, called Zrii and that has really impacted my health.
Go to http://www.rickemmerich.myzrii.com for details.

I’m starting Yoga and can’t wait to get back into a workout routine. It’s been a while.

We have some new technology that will really impact people and their sleep and energy.  Go to http://www.squidoo.com/wishforlove

Please write your heart attack survivor story and share pics at http://www.squidoo.com/ThankGodIhadaheartattack.

Malia and I believe that God kept me around for a reason, and my relationship with Him is so important.  If that is a need or desire of yours as well, we’d love to share more how He has impacted our lives.

Those more interested in Chiropractic and Dr. Malia (not TOO interested guys) can go to  http://honoluluchiropracor.net to find out more

I love you all, my wife Dr.Malia and I are very grateful for our lives… hope you all are as well.

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Alright. The divorce. I will NOT dwell on that. I am a Christian and it totally surprised me that my bride went off the deep end and got involved heavily in drugs. She just checked out. She MAY now be sober. She deserves our prayers and has battled her demons.

Room mates. I will condense this because I feel that I have at least two chapters in a future book on this topic. My one room mate was a cool guy, but one night he ’snapped.’ Now that is not the medical term I am sure. Remember there are no letters behind my name. But it happened. He became scattered, hostile, threatening, really out of control.

The other room mate helped me deal with the first one. But he was a handful himself. He thought he was an reincarnation of Jesus, yes he did. He thought that when he went through an emotional experience in Western Canada once(many seem to think they are saved at that moment) that he, in fact became Jesus.

On top of that he was running for president. Yeah really. The only thing he had going for him in that illusion was that it truly was 2004 and there really was an election going on.

These two guys were rooming with me at the same time. The first one went nuts and I had to get a restraining order on him the night we changed the locks

The other one just up and left after that incident, but while he was there he paid me handsomely for editing his story. Once he talked me into it, I took a real liking to the project.

Bad finances. I spent more that I made. I made some big mistakes. I refinanced after being convinced that my home was worth more than it really was. I was not financially healthy at all.

My first wife and I bought the condo when we were married and the deal was, when she left, she took most of the stuff and I got the condo. Not such a bad deal, but I never took the time or the money to keep up the basic repairs. It was ugly, with one bathroom torn up, and other things needing paint, nails, cleaning or major overhaul. I owed 97K and it was worth 81K.

My job. I was passed by by technology according to my boss. He told me gently, roughly, rudely, and in attempts to shock and embarrass. I listened, it went in one ear and out the other. My production declined, my pay did too, of course. The company changed the deal for us as well. Many of us know that when they change the deal, they give you LESS money, not more. Guess what? Now that I am spending my time on the phone every day, I figured out that my boss was right in his criticism. We keep living, we keep learning hopefully.

I slept too little and it was ruined by worries and caffeine among other fears and situations.

My diet. The biggest and easiest to identify, in retrospect. Everything was wrong. Too much red meat, bratwurst, cheese, eggs, pizza and more. I really overdid it. Also, I drank Pepsi and Mountain Dew like there was no tomorrow. There came a time where that almost happened.

No fruit, and few vegetables also.

Combine that with the no exercise, the stress, some good old-fashioned despair, and now you can see my situation. Also, I could be a victim with the best of them. All in all, I was a train-wreck waiting for a place to happen.

The event itself is another story. Let’s just say that I was in the right place, at the right time, and made the right decisions, even under the effects of the heart attack.

Milwaukee Wisconsin’s finest cardiologist was on duty. Dr. Frank Cummins saved my life with an agressive cardio-catherization, just 64 minutes after the onset of the incident. In heart surgery, agressive is good. In rushhour traffic-agressive is bad. (In case you were wondering.)

Now, what has changed, and why am I grateful?  See Part 3.

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Thank God I had a heart attack

I am a heart attack survivor. There are no letters after my name, but I WAS smart enough to marry a Dr. I want to highlight life changes that came about as a result of my heart attack. I hope to help others by letting them tell their story, which should enrich all of our lives.

We are all survivors of something and it is NOT what happens to us that is important but how we respond, rebound, regroup, revive, flourish and become remarkable, following our heart incident.

Thank God I had a heart attack!  We will release a book of the same name later on this year…..

My life before.

I am truly grateful that I had a heart attack. I did it to myself without a doubt. See How to Have a Heart Attack in 9 Easy Steps   at  http://rickemmerich.com    I did everything wrong, and did it over and over again.

Some of you may relate. We thought we were in good shape. We USED to be in good shape. Back in the day I bounced at the hot night club, did aerobics, free weights, golfed, played other sports and took saunas, even rode 26 miles round-trip on my 12 speed to and from the factory job I had.   And it was 12 hours each shift.

But that was then.  (20 years ago.)  4 years ago, I had BIG issues.
1. A painful, rather sudden divorce, out of left field.
2. 2 Room mates that were crazy-yes really crazy you’ll see.
3. Bad financial dealings: bad decisions, and over-spending my earnings.
4. A condo in a state of disrepair, sliding its worth downward from the level I refied at. (Upside Down)
5. A stressful job that I did not handle well in my stressed lifestyle.
6. Lack of sleep and no quality sleep even when I did rest.
7. Terrible diet, enough said.

OK, stop, breathe, don’t focus on the negative I just threw at you. Unless you see your present life in the descriptions.

This is the first of 3 in THIS series and can also be viewed at http://www.squidoo.com/ThankGodIhadaheartattack  check it out, rate it, share it.  To order the first book in the series, Thank God I….called surprisingly enough,   Thank God I……  go to http://thankgodi.com/?idAff=4    

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