Mowing

Mowing in February!

I had to mow our yard here in Hillsboro on Monday.  I can not remember ever mowing a yard in February before.  I waited hoping that there would come a killer frost but with all the rain and moderate temperatures the weeds and grass in the yard were lush and thick.  As you can see from the picture the yard is greener now than it was this past summer when the heat and drought had turned everything brown.  I mowed very little this past summer due to the drought.  However mowing is better, in my humble opinion, than shoveling snow.

Visiting mother Saturday, she made the wall hangings.

The Song of Songs sermons are going very well.  I rushed the sermon on Sunday a bit and left out some of the details about the text which will be in the book.  The sermon this coming Sunday will be more difficult than them all up to this point.  It is not a matter of understanding what it means but rather how to deliver the message in such a way as to be discreet and "G" rated; All this and still give the people as full an understanding as possible.

Arianna in France, no mowing there in Feb.

I will be putting some statistics in our church bulletin this coming Sunday which I find to be most interesting and informative.  In the nine years I have been at Walnut Street Missionary Baptist Church we have lost 31 members due to death.  45% of our current active membership joined our church in the past 9 years.  That means that 55% of our congregation were here before I became pastor.  The average term for a pastor has been 4.7 years.  The longest term was 18 years, Pastor Paul Owens from 1974-1992.  Next to him was Pastor Luther Crawford who stayed 10 years from 1964 to 1974.  If I make it to December I will surpass him when I start my 11th year here.  Time has past very quickly. 
My mother continues to do well.  My mother-in-law does also.  We are planning to visit with our Lorena friends Thursday morning and head over to Henderson from there.  My son-in-law, Justin, has painted a small bench for my mother-in-law and we will go by their house on Thursday to pick it up for her.  Of course that means we will see Naomi.  God bless you.