A future filled with hope,
is a future worth knowing
for out of it are rivers
of living water flowing.

It’s a future of rest,
joy and elation
found in the well of
eternal salvation.

A future filled with hope,
is a future God planed
for it has been formed
by His very own hand.

It’s a future of peace,
of what is to come
when Jesus returns
to set up His kingdom.

A future filled with hope,
is worth our pursuing
for it’s a future with God
that is all consuming!

~~~~~

Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the thoughts
that I think toward you,
saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace, and not of evil,
to give you an expected end.”

King James Version
Public Domain

Copyright 2018
Deborah Ann Belka

This is not meant for you
although you were there
from a distance.
I am what I have always been,
my throat sticky with
an elixir of words.
I stand before the ocean,
an exotic bird, wings open
wide to a summer storm.
Unlike the shore I will not erode
like patience if it ever was.
Washed up on a restless shore
when I knocked you opened the door.
Now, like the pearly sand below my feet
I carry no burden save love.

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Kiangan Valley

XIV Corps plans for operations against the remainder of the Shobu Group differed only in detail from those I Corps had previously employed.³⁷ Reduced to their simplest terms, both sets of plans called for the exertion of unremitting pressure against the Shobu Group wherever Shobu Group troops were to be found.

East of the Cagayan River the 37th Division, and for a time a regiment of the 6th Division, hampered by supply problems and torrential rains, patrolled vigorously, forcing Japanese troops ever farther into the Sierra Madre. From 1 July through 15 August the 37th Division and attached units killed about 1,000 Japanese east of the Cagayan, itself losing approximately 50 men killed and 125 wounded.

On the northwest and west, opposition was stronger and better organized. Here the 15th Infantry, USAFIP(NL), finally secured the Sabangan junction of Routes 4 and 11 on 9 July, and on…

When you seek to please,
God in all you do
nothing people say
will phase or daze you.

You will walk upright,
in a worthy manner
you will become known
as that faithful runner.

You won’t pay attention,
to what people may think
to their cruel ridicule
you won’t even blink.

You will stand up tall,
to evil you’ll not cower
for you know you’re filled
with God’s almighty power

When you seek to please,
God first in your life . . .
what others say or do
won’t cause you any strife!

~~~~~~

Galatians 1:10

” For do I now persuade men, or God?
or do I seek to please men?
for if I yet pleased men,
I should not be the servant of Christ.”

King James Version
Public Domain

Copyright 2018
Deborah Ann Belka

Sometimes sorrow turns into
irreversible regret.
We choose to live an icebox
existence.
Wallowing in misfortune’s
frosty glass.
Consorting with memories
Squabbling with dreams.

The poet too has felt life
interrupted, days that vanish
upon awakening.
I’ve known suffering and
the pull of solitary confinement.

Now looking back from a happier
vista. I’m hear to tell you,
the pitch of pain may never
be unheard, but it does gets softer,
fading into a bittersweet refrain.
The past becomes part of
your case history, to be read
by nostalgia’s light on rain
soaked nights.

In time the visible world brightens
Let it entice you with the woo of
the today and what will be.
Take refuge in the heat of
places uncharted, linger in
the sweet realism of the hour.

Walk toward the future
with unshackled feet.
The misbegotten shadows
behind you now.
Let the smudge of the sun,
and the…