Family Gathering

We had a large gathering of the Taylor family today to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday (pictured here with 6 of his 10 great grand children). I got up extra early that morning and drove over to Elkhart to help my daughter with her taxes. We got that worked out and I took the cake with me back to the birthday party. The cake was lemon flavored and was really good. My daughter's mother-in-law made the cake. My grandson wanted to take a walk this afternoon and so with the four grand kids and my son-in-law, Scott, in tow we took about a one mile walk. It was fun and I got to hear my son-in-law's interesting stories about his job as a substitute Teacher. Such stories would cause me to home school my kids if I had school age children. Janie and her sisters pooled there money and got their father one of those digital picture frames. I spent much of the afternoon loading it full of pictures. He seemed to really enjoy it.

I will spend my Saturday getting ready for Sunday. There are some phone calls I must make so will go to the office in the morning. Janie wants to buy me a shirt for Easter so will probably do some shopping tomorrow afternoon. God bless you.

Private Birthday Party

We had a quite, private birthday party for my father-in-law this evening. Tomorrow will be the real celebration with about 20 people present. He was craving a German chocolate cake so Janie got him one and put a candle in the middle which he extinguished without any problem. We let him open a couple of presents after we cut and served the cake.

Earlier this afternoon we took Janie's uncle Trenton to a meeting of the members of the rural electric coop (pictured). It is a big deal with a big turnout of people. They have free BBQ and a chili cook off. Lots of entertainment and door prizes. It is an annual event and since he is on the board of directors he wanted to be there. We had a good time. I got a phone call while there from one of my church members that the mother of the child we had some problems with Wednesday night wanted to talk to me. I pray that I will be able to help her. God bless you.

Taxing

Things did not go just real smoothly tonight at church. I was called out of my adult class to see about a problem with one of the kids we picked up with the Bus. Then about half way through the class Janie was called out of the adult class to help with a problem with the same kid. I did not get an accurate count of how many kids we picked up but I would guess about 35.
Janie is driving right now and we are almost to her parents house. I let her drive the second half or our three hour trip so I could get some work done. It is about 12:30 a.m. right now and I will be taking my father-in-law to the doctor at 9:00 this morning. Afterward I will probably try to get some more work done. It does not look like I will be taking a day off this week, just too much work to be done. The picture is of the bridge we crossed over at Kimball Bend where the Hiking trail was. God bless you.

Friends

Friends are good things. This picture is of our newest friend. Janie and I met her at the nursing home that we visit every Monday morning where she works in the cafeteria. I was having trouble with my voice and she brought me a glass of water. We were at Wal-Mart in the check out line when our new friend came up and greeted us. She seemed so glad to see us some where besides where she works. She takes a break from her work to sit in on the services each Monday morning. She is a very caring and sweet person we count it a blessing to have her as a friend.

We had a good Bible study this morning and I had a good visit at "The Legends" this afternoon. I have the sermon for Sunday typed up and lack just a few finishing touches and it will be ready to go. Tomorrow will find me driving the bus and teaching the adult class from the book of Philemon. After taking the kids home on the bus Janie and I will head for Henderson where I will take her dad to the doctor's office and she will take her mother over to Tyler. We will celebrate my father-in-law's birthday on Friday and then return to Hillsboro. God bless you.

Hike

Janie and I took a short hike today. We went over to Kimball Bend which is an old ghost town that has been made into a state park. There is a 12 1/2 mile hiking trail that starts there and we hiked for just a little ways down the trail. These pictures were taken on our outing. I plan to take a day sometime soon and hike this trail.

It was a good visit at the nursing home today. The service went very well. I got some work done on the sermon for Sunday. I read the text in Greek and checked the definition and translation of the words. I am putting together an explanation of the word Holy as used in Revelation chapter 4. With a firm grip on the meaning of this adjective one would have to agree with these angelic creatures God is Holy, Holy, Holy.

Tomorrow we have the Ladies Bible study here at the house and then after lunch we will be visiting a lady who has just moved here and is living in an assisted living facility. She called the church and asked to speak to with the pastor. I called her back and arranged to meet with her. Her mother and father use to be members of our church years and years ago. God bless you.

A Prisoner of Hope

I am a prisoner of hope. Hope has captured me. Our nation faces serious problems. Things are changing quickly and many around me are apprehensive even worried. I know the future of planet earth and there is coming a time of peace that the world has never known. My personal future is bright and I long to see it unfold. You see I know the King of Kings and nothing that men do will stop Him from coming again. My friend you can be a prisoner of hope too. Real hope is found in Jesus Christ the Lord. This Sunday the Christians of this world will celebrate the great hope that is found in a Savior who is very much alive today and will always be.

I preach at the nursing home in the morning and then will go to the bank and the post office. Then Monday afternoon will find me working on the sermons for next week. I will get some computer programing done, hopefully, tomorrow night. There have been some computer related projects that I have been putting off for quite some time and so before I forget how to program I will get to coding. We will be in Henderson on Thursday and Friday this week. Janie's parents have doctor appointments on Thursday and though his birthday is Thursday we will not celebrate my father-in-law's birthday until noon on Friday at what is sounding like a fairly large gathering of family. He will be 85 years old. I don't think I mentioned it but Janie did find her an Easter dress and a pant suit (pictured above is Janie modeling her pant suit for her mother). The other picture is of Janie showing her father the clothes that her mother bought on their Friday shopping spree. God bless you.

Canton

We slept late this morning, a thing not often done. We went by and visited with my mother for a little bit and then headed to Canton, Texas. The picture above is one I took while we were visiting mother. I gave her a lesson on how to use her new satellite dish and I hope she want have any problems. I gave her a final exam after the lesson and she nearly passed it.

Janie wanted to get a Marine Corp flag for her father's birthday and there is a place that sells them at the trades day. There were many many people at the Canton First Monday Trades day and the traffic was really bad. We both enjoy the trades day at Canton. There is a lot to see and there is a place that sells home made ice cream which is my favorite stop. We usually have a cup of ice cream right before heading back to the car. The picture below is one I took today of Janie at one of her favorite booths.

Tomorrow is the Lord's day and we will spend it worshiping Him. The sermon will be from the book of John and will be the last one in that series. I have preached 116 sermons from the book of John. I have not finished the sermon for Easter Sunday as yet but have a good start on it. It will not be primarily about the resurrecting of Jesus, though that subject will come up. I have entitled it, at least for now, "Holy Holy Holy."

Well its off to bed now. I will be up at 6:00 am talking to my Lord. God bless you.

Chores

The day has gone well. I started my day with Bible reading and then took out the trash for my mother-in-law. Janie took off with her mother to Tyler and they plan to do some shopping while there. I have spoken to Janie a couple of times and they are having fun. I had my mother-in-law afraid that I would "get" her if she did not make sure that Janie bought herself an Easter dress. Janie handed her the phone after giving me instructions to tell her I was not serious. Janie wears a size 6 in a dress and she is tall and not petite. It is hard to find stores with that size of dress and in a style that she likes. I hope she finds one.

I went to the bank for my mother-in-law and then went by to see my mother. The shingles are looking better and she was taking a nap when I arrived. She feels fine and we had a good hour visit. The picture above is one I took of her as I was leaving her house today. I think I may have mentioned in an earlier blog that she carpeted and painted both her front and back porch and they look really nice. I stopped by to visit for a few minutes with my brother, Steve. He and Ralph are going hiking tomorrow. Steve was sitting on the porch looking at a map of the PCT. We looked at the sections he and I have hiked together which amounts to 78 trail miles. I enjoyed hiking with him and hope I well be able to do it again soon.

After having lunch with my father-in-law I finished typing the sermon for Sunday and then worked on the sermon for Sunday night. With that finished it was break time so I had a nice 1 hour walk. This picture is of a pond that is about 1/2 a mile from my in-laws. It was a beautiful day for a walk. Well blogging is not what I am suppose to be working on right now so I better get back to the prospectus. God bless you.

Cell

I spent today with my mother. She had me to go and get her a new TV. She had said she wanted a 19 inch TV and so that is what I got her. After setting it up she thought it was too small so I boxed it back up and exchanged it for a 26 inch. She liked that one much better. I also called and signed her up for satellite TV. They will come out Saturday and hook that up then she will be able to have hundreds of channels where she only has 3 now.

Janie spent the day with her dad in Tyler. It was a long day for them with little to nothing to eat until they got home. I worry about Janie spending a long day without eating. She said she did get some peanut butter crackers out of a vending machine at the hospital and that kept her from starving.

We have a family plan with our cell phones. On our plan I have a phone, Janie has a phone, both my daughters have phones and one of my son-in-laws has a phone. It is hard to keep track of them all. The benefit for me is that at least one of these five phones at any given time is eligible for an up grade. I usually steal the up grade for myself and that way I get a more up to date phone and pass mine on to someone else. I up grade my phone today with one that has a better camera (3 mp) and a large touch screen. I like it and it does take good pictures. It only took a few minutes to get the blue tooth connection to working with my laptop. The picture above is the first one I took with the new phone while we were at the phone store. This second picture is of Janie's uncle and her mother visiting out in the driveway. He had been taken to the doctor by Jaine's sister and had stopped by for a quick visit.

Tomorrow I will spend the day working on my doctoral prospectus. It is getting really close to being finished and then after proof reading and corrections it will be ready to turn in. It is back to Hillsboro on Saturday via a stop in Canton to pick up a present for my father-in-law's birthday. I am trying to talk my brother, Steve, into starting a blog and I hope he will. If he does I will put a link on my blog so you can check it out. God bless you.