Eternal Ink Contest Winners, 2007

Results of the Eternal Ink Prose/Poetry Contest, 2007

Prose Contest Winners and Honorable Mentions

1. The Environmental Psalm by Richard S. Barnett
2. Everything Beautiful by Melva Cooper
3. When the Mighty Fall by Joyce E. Gearhart

Honorable Merit
Listen to the Stillness by Helen Dowd
Earth Smells and Star Clusters by Patricia Anne Elford

Honorable Mention
The Joy of Nature by Hope Gizzard

Finalist Poetry Contest Winners and Honorable Merits

Two-way tie for First Place:
The Heights of Glory by Betty Jo Mings
A Lesson from Nature by Helen Dowd

Two-way tie for Second Place:
The Miracle of New Birth by Betty Jo Mings
Standing Tall by Laurie Glass

Two-way tie for Third Place:
God's Creative Genius by Elizabeth Pearson
If It Were In My Power by Sue Thacker

Honorable Merit:
In Nature by Maureen E. Kowal
The Doorkeeper's Song by Richard S. Barnett
Prayer Flowers by Ruth Cox
The Sky His Canvas by Pat Earl
The Harvest by Kathryn Hupp

Honorable Mentions:
God's Stillness by Helen Dowd
Twilight by Kathryn Hupp
Imagine by Cheryl D. Robins
Nature's Music by Carol Dee Meeks
The Storm by Sheryl Splane
God's Gift of Grace by Carl Phillips
The Source by Conrad S. Cardinal

Many thanks to all who entered the contest this year! There were many wonderful entries and deciding the results posted above was a difficult task for the five judges.

Holiday Submissions

We are now receiving submissions for Thanksgiving,
Christmas, and the New Year. Seasonal devotions
and meditations are fine and much needed, but
we are also looking for "seasonal shorts."
Christian humor, anecdotes, memories, or
profiles with a seasonal slant would be greatly
appreciated.

Perhaps one of the holiday seasons has
brought great inspiration, insight,
excellence in relationships, new friends,
or astonishing blessings. Sharing your
Christian experiences in a short essay
(400-600 words) would be a joy for
our readers.

One of the best witnesses for Jesus
is sharing our personal treasures,
those daily riches that come to us
in our Christian walk. Faith-bearing
personal experience is a blessing for
our readers and will brighten the
holiday seasons for us all.

Eternal Ink Poetry-Prose Contests, 2007

That exciting time of year when we announce our
Eternal Ink Contests is here again! This year we
will return to the double contest plan, requesting
entries in both poetry and prose.

This year's theme for both kinds of entries will be
a focus on God's creation: Christian Joy in Nature--
God's Beautiful World! These tributes to nature may
include praise, enjoyment, thanksgiving for God's
creative power. His role as creator is one of the
primary proofs of His existence for unbelievers,
and his beautiful creation brings peace and comfort
to believers.

Those who write poetry should submit no more
than three poems, 40 lines or less, in any poetic
form, on the Christian nature topic. The author
should include a title, an author byline, the poem,
and an email and home address. Submissions
should be submitted in the body of an email,
no attachments please, and sent to Mary-Ellen
Grisham's email address: meginrose@charter.net

The prose submissions should be meditations,
devotions, Christian living essays, or reminiscences
on the Christian nature topic. The prose should
be no longer than 550-600 words, or less, and
should also be submitted to Mary-Ellen in the
body of an email with a title, byline, email and
home address. No attachments please.

The deadline for entries is November 15, 2007,
and the results of the contest will appear in an
Eternal Ink edition in late November or early
December, depending on the time taken for
deliberation by the judges. There will be first,
second, third prize winners and honorable
mentions in both poetry and prose categories.
First prize winners will receive book awards.
All winners will be published in an edition of
Eternal Ink, and their work will appear on the
Eternal Ink website:http://www.eternal-ink.org/

Please share this contest news with your
Christian friends who write, and if possible,
announce the contest with your writing
groups or at Christian websites.

Selections and Suggestions

To editors, writers, friends of Eternal Ink,
Christian ezine

During the next several months, the Editor of
Eternal Ink will be organizing selections into a
book of the best of Eternal Ink writings. It will
be entitled Eternally Yours, with the dedication
Eternally Yours, Dear Lord, along with various
other editor and friend dedications.

If you have any selections or preferences for
what should be included, please let Mary-Ellen
know very soon. (meginrose@charter.net)

Thanks and God bless, meg

I have had the following note from
Jennifer:

We are leaving in the morning for Atlanta - I'll be at
the InternationalChristian Retailers Show (the old CBA).

After her mission trip, she and her husband were
gone on vacation, returning briefly;
and now they will be gone for a week.

Just to let you know what our staff are doing!
meg

Ivie's Trip

Mary Ellen,
I will be out of touch for the next three weeks.
I am leaving in the morning (June 21) for a 3
week tour to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and
Labrador. Hopefully, I have enough material
to keep Eternal Ink supplied until I return.
May God continue to bless Eternal Ink and
may the next issues continue to improve.
I will contact you when I return.

Yours in Christian love, Ivie

Just wanted you to know how blessed Ivie
is with this wonderful trip and also wanted
to let you know where she is for now.
Blessings, meg

Study and equipping, a plan of salvation

One of the plans of salvation I first studied upon
starting to attend my present church was the
following:

STEPS OF CONVERSION –
A PLAN OF SALVATION FROM THE BOOK OF ACTS

Hear the Word – Acts 2:37, Acts 3:6, Acts 8:35, Acts 9:4,
Acts 10:33, Acts l6:14, Corinthians 18:8

Believe – in God and Jesus, and in the Word – Acts 3:12,
Acts 3:13, Acts 8:37, Acts 10:43, Acts 16:15, Acts 16:34,
Corinthians 18:8

Repent – Sorry for sins and make a change in behavior –
Acts 2:38, Acts 11:18

4. Confess – Be willing to state your faith, to confess aloud
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Acts 8:37, Matthew 16:16

5. Baptism – Acts 2: 38, Acts 3:12, Acts 3:13, Acts 8:38, Acts 9:18,
Acts 10:47-48, Acts 16:15, Acts 16:33, Corinthians 18:8

6. Continue faithfully in the Christian way of life with prayer,
Bible-reading, a personal relationship with God/Jesus through
the Holy Spirit, spreading the Word, continuing education in
the faith, meeting together with other Christians (helping and
uplifting them), living at peace with all people as with brothers,
and practicing love to all.

(the New Testament books of Romans and I Corinthians are
especially helpful for a new believer, and Ephesians and
James are very good reference reading too.)

From Mary-Ellen Grisham, Editor of EI

Jennifer's Guatemala Trip - Pray for them!

A rough schedule (to help with prayer focus) is as follows:May 25 - travel to Guatemala City May 26 - travel in countryMay 27 - each of us will be teaching sessions, and David will be preaching that night May 28 - we will be teaching more sessions, and doing prayer walking and evangelism May 29 - we will travel to the mountains for evanglism in a remote area May 30 - teaching morning sessions, hosting a woman's event in the afternoon, and attending service at night - Meghan will be singing May 31 - travel in country June 1 - travel to USA
We pray that the Lord would provide continuous opportunity for us to share our testimony, the gospel, and our hearts for their people.

We pray that the Lord would use the pastor and his family in mighty ways to transform not only that congregation, but that region with the love of Jesus Christ. We pray that the Lord would watch over them and bless them.We pray that the Lord would go before us, shine brightly through us, and be our protection behind us as we travel. We pray that the Lord would be glorified in each action, interaction, word and deed.Please keep our health in prayer

Remember the advantage

Remember the Archives of the
Eternal Ink website carry copies
of previous issues of Eternal Ink.

There are a number of advantages
to having these stored copies:

Those who like to read Eternal Ink
will always be able to search for
a favorite copy even after an
email has been deleted.

Those who subscribe to few
publications by email can always
read each issue by visiting the
Archives.

Possible collections of EI writings
or sharing with other venues would
be facilitated by having these
stored copies.

AND THANKS TO THOSE OF YOU
WHO HAVE SENT EMAIL ADDRESSES
TO SUBSCRIBE TO ETERNAL INK!

Blessings, Mary-Ellen "meg"

Needin' a little help

If you are an editor or writer or longtime reader of
Eternal Ink, I am sincerely hoping that you will
take a few minutes this week to email or phone
one person (from church, from family, from
longtime friends?) about Eternal Ink. There
is no substitute for a first hand invitiation.

Remind them that the issue comes out
only twice a month and is not an email
clogger.

Remind them that there are good
materials that can be used for their own
prayer and devotion time.

Remind them that there are all sorts
of materials that could be used in
women's groups, preaching, personal
ministries, home visitations, and
enjoyment.

We are losing subscribers again due
to the stiff email guard-dogging of
aol and charter. The only real
assurance that our ezine will
reach a subscriber is if they
put the sending person in
their email address list:

meginrose@gmail.com

They can subscribe from their own
computers:

eternal_ink-subscribe@associate.com

or they can go to the site to read
the issues in Archives each time
after the issue comes out--about
every two weeks:

http://www.eternal-ink.org

Blessings and prayers for our
subscribers list to increase,

Mary-Ellen "meg"

Upcoming issues of Eternal Ink

To Editors and Writers

During April, we are focusing on themes of new life
and rebirth in keeping with Easter and Spring.
Repentance, changed living, and saving insights are
part of this emphasis

During the month of May, we will be shifting our
focus to family life, tributes to mothers and fathers,
educating children in Christian living, and related
topics pertaining to home and family living.

We are especially interested in free lance contributions
that reveal Christian living. These include profiles,
character sketches, or tributes to lives well lived.
Personal experience with those who have lived
exemplary Christian lives makes good feature
writing for Eternal Ink. We hope some of you
will contribute such articles.

Easter Edition out early for convenience

At Christmas and Easter, the editions of Eternal Ink go out early.
I am hoping that the mid-week appearance of the edition gives
readers time to read that issue before the holiday activities start.
We always hope that our articles will help prepare our readers
for a joyous religious holiday experience--we even hope that
some of the material will inspire prayer and meditation.

Blessings for a joyous Easter season, Mary-Ellen "meg"

Greetings from the Editor

I would just like to welcome all posters to the blog
and to give thanks to David Davis and Jennifer
Devlin for creating the opportunity for this type
of sharing.

Of course, I would also suggest subscribing
to Eternal Ink with a blank email from your
computer to the following address:

eternal_ink-subscribe@associate.com

Thanks so much for visiting this site and posting
to our blog.

Blessings, meg
Mary-Ellen Grisham
Editor-in-Chief

test of the guest writer list

Jen is working out the bugs, and finding out how to invite guest writers to add their two cents to the blog. If you are interested in being a contributor to the blog, and are on EI staff, please contact Jennifer. Thanks.

Welcome!

This is our first run at a blog.

We are dedicated to bearing witness of the Lord and His Word - and would love for you to sign up for our webzine!

Visit our new website at www.eternal-ink.org for more information, or email us at info@eternal-ink.org today!

May the Lord bless you!