Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends and enjoyed it as much as I did. Christmas brought all the kids and grandkids to Yankton for our family celebration and we had a terrific time. It is amazing the joy and light that children bring to the holidays. Our three granddaughters just light up the room when they walk in and I love them dearly.

On New Year’s Eve Marty and I went to the Elks Lodge to celebrate with fellow Elks members and friends there. The food and fellowship were awesome and we had a great time.

This issue of Her Voice brings some new writers to our midst that I know you’ll enjoy. Loretta Sorensen brings her vast experience and writing style to the story about Amber Tacke and her family. It is a great story and it certainly makes one want to meet this young lady who touches so many lives.

We also have Rita Brhel bringing us the story about Sheila Lange. Sheila is the new music teacher in Bloomfield and I think Rita has captured Sheila’s passion for music and love of teaching perfectly.

Emily Niebrugge interviewed and wrote the story in this issue about Randy Rasmussen and I know you’ll love her writing style as well as Randy’s story about changing his life through diet, exercise and a commitment to good health.

Last but definitely not least is the story Jilanne Doom wrote about Amy Williams. Amy is USD’s new women’s basketball coach and her journey to Vermillion is very inspiring and Jilanne definitely caught the Coyote fever that Amy had to share.

To start the New Year I want to share a story with you that a friend sent me. It’s about a Bible verse some ladies were studying at Bible study, Malachi 3:3 which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

This verse puzzled some of the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at the next Bible study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The women thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says:

“He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”

He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy – when I see my image in it.”

So if today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

God’s blessings to you and yours in 2013!!