Attendance Up

My mother-in-law and the grandkids at the nursing home.

We had a good crowd at church today. The services were good and a couple for whom I have been praying were able to be back in services again and that brought great joy to me.  Janie cooked us some chicken fried steak for lunch and it was very good.  I am on a no salt diet and loving it.  You don't need salt to enjoy the taste of food.
I had told my oldest daughter that I would put one of my sermons on the internet so she could listen to it sometime.  I was able to get that done this evening.  Janie and I sang the special before the sermon and I left that on the audio file as well.  You can check it out by clicking here. I worked all afternoon on the lesson for Sunday night.  It was a lesson about abortion.  The attendance tonight was not as good as it has been but is still up from what we used to run.  Tomorrow I preach at the nursing home and then I will be doing some visitation.  The afternoon and evening will find me finishing up the bulletin for next Sunday and then doing a little work for Sullivan Supply. Their new website is up and running thanks mostly to Janie.  She has worked long and hard on that project.
Janie's dad is doing well, all things considered.  I am not sure how much longer he will be in the nursing home but at the most I would guess two weeks.  It's off to bed now. God bless you.

Twins and Twine

The twins

Janie and I went down to Gatesville, Texas today for the District Ladies Auxiliary meeting.  The Ladies of the host church put on an excellent skit with a sewing theme.  Janie and I got to hold a set of twin girls who are seven months old.  They were sweet little babies.  They belong to a very special and extraordinary family whom we have always admired.  We came home by way of the scenic route and it was a beautiful drive.  We made a visit to the hospital to see one of our church members.  We got home and made some phone calls then Janie took a short nap.

Me and Leah

I watched a DVD this evening of a debate about the existence of God and it was a good debate though both sides, in my estimation, were flawed in their arguments.  It is difficult to watch it with an open mind but I did the best I could.  I really believe both of the combatants in the debate broke the natural laws of logic thus no sound case was made on either side.  The apologist won in my estimation for he put forth the better case.  I plan to share portions of this debate to my congregation one Sunday night. 
I am preaching from the 99th Psalm tomorrow morning.  I need to review that and the Sunday School lesson but thought I would blog a bit first.  I talked with Jason today and he is doing well and got a good report from the doctor and the test.  Angie is still coughing a lot and we are praying for her.  My father-in-law seems to be on a hunger strike again now that he is back in the nursing home.  He wants to go home and I can certainly understand that.  God bless you.

The way it is suppose to be

Our grandson, Jonathan, at the nursing home.

Every year for the past eight I have created a folder with the year as its title.  These folders reside inside a folder called "Funerals."  Funerals are inevitable and unavoidable.  I stood at the head of the coffin looking over the crowd of about sixty people waiting for others to arrive and the time to start.  It was 40 degrees and sunny.  Janie looks really cold in her pretty but not practical coat.  She is standing next to a couple who have been married as long as I am old.  They have become our very dear friends.  After the service was over I stood next to him in sunshine when his wife emerged from the tent having greeted the family.  She stood with her back to us scanning the crowd and I could hear her say "Where is he?"  She was looking for her husband and he did not speak but just watched her.  He reminds me of me for he dearly loves his wife and he enjoyed just watching her.  I know that feeling oh so well.  Finally, like a search light making a sweeping motion her eyes fell upon us standing together.  She knew he knew that she was looking for him and wondered why he did not speak up.  I know why and he knows why. His eyes were drinking in and savoring the moment.  The man whose wife had died had been married to her for 69 years.  World, that is the way marriage is suppose to be. 

My in-laws and a hamburger

Janie's dad is back at the nursing home.  He is doing better. Her mother is staying with him as long as she can to keep him company.  I got a little tickled with her at the hospital.  She asked the nurse if she would put his hamburger together for him.  She knew they were bringing him a hamburger for supper and she thought she needed to stay long enough to put the lid on his hamburger for him.  I asked him if he could handle that job and he said he could.  When the hamburger came she stood up out of her chair to put the lid on it.  That is when she asked the nurse for help.  I think the nurse thought it a strange request.  I stepped up and reached out and assembled the burger for him for her.  They have been married 64 years. World, that is the way marriage is suppose to be.

That's Janie, if I sat this way I would  break my leg.

I have not gotten much sleep lately and I had a headache today.  I went to bed at 8:00 and am now up at midnight blogging.  Janie woke me up coming to bed.  I was a bit hungry so have eaten a small bowl of cereal while blogging.  We have to rise at 7:00 to get ready for the district ladies auxiliary this morning so I had better get back in that bed and get some sleep.  I hear Janie stirring and she is now seated next to me eating a bowl of cereal.  I love her so! World, that is the way marriage is suppose to be.   God bless you.

Drill, Drill

My in-laws napping together yesterday

Wednesday I spent the day with my mother and Father-in-law at the hospital.  We stayed there from noon until 6:00.  It seems he has a contagious disease called C. Dif. He is in a good humor but his mind is still confused.  Tuesday night he had gotten out of the hospital bed on his own trying to sit in a chair.  He tore the I.V. out of his arm and that place on his arm looks real bad.  He had a good day Wednesday and as far as I have heard today went well for him. They moved him to a private room because he is contagious.  He ate well yesterday.  He does not like chicken salad sandwiches but he ate one.  He did not ask nor was he told what it was.  I salted it real good for him and he ate the whole thing. They expect that he will get out of the hospital tomorrow or the next day.  He seems to love being in the hospital.  He does not have to get out of bed at all.  When he goes back to the nursing home they will get him up at 7:30 and make him sit in a chair for hours.  He does not like that at all.  

Janie and her mother checking out at Wal-mart last night

Janie and I went to the dentist office today.  We were there from 9:00 to noon. At one point the dentist was telling me a story and it made me laugh which was a hard thing to do with a mouth full of cotton and dental instruments. Janie had two small fillings and they did not have to deaden her mouth.  For her sake I am glad that the experience was not that bad.
Janie only got 2 hours sleep last night so she is taking a nap right now.  She stayed up working on the new website for Sullivan Supply which went live this morning.  There are some bugs as we expected and they are being dealt with one by one. I am about to head up to the hospital to pick up my mother-in-law.  She wanted to stay there as long as she could.  Connie, Janie's sister, has something going tonight and could not stay as long as her mother needed her to.  After we get back I will work on the van and try to repair the back door and then we will head for Hillsboro.  It is suppose to be 24 degrees tonight in Hillsboro.  It is in the 30's here in Henderson right now.

Me in the dentist chair waiting my turn.

We talked to Jason this afternoon and his doctor's appointment went well.  He is going to have a test done to determine what the problem may be so keep him in your prayers.  Angie is coughing really badly.  Well its off to Tyler.  God bless you.

Networking

My in-laws last night at the hospital in Tyler

We have journeyed to Henderson to help with Janie's dad and mother.  He is in the hospital in Tyler still and may return to the nursing home in a few days.  Janie said he was really confused today and she has been with him for the past seven hours. 
I went to Palestine to see our daughter and her husband and to help them with a networking problem.  They are setting up a daycare center in their church and he is doing a lot of carpentry work and Sarah is going to take care of the books and the computer part of the daycare.  She was having problems networking their two computers and so I went to help get that going.  A bad CAT5 cable was the main problem.  We got the network up and going and both computers on the internet. 

Janie and her boss at Sullivan Supply South

I left them and returned to Henderson and have been working on the sermon for Sunday.  It is an exciting text and I can't wait to expound its contents to the congregation. 
Janie and I will stay in Henderson through Friday.  I have gotten someone to take my class Wednesday night and we will return to Hillsboro on Friday.  We have a dentist appointment Thursday morning.  Well Janie and her mother are here so I must go and see how their day went.  God bless you.

Worship, Worship, Worship

Janie practicing with the Jr. choir this afternoon

Janie displays these in the guest bathroom every year and I like them.

Today was about worship.  It started before 6:00 with a phone call from the nursing home saying that they were taking Janie's dad to the emergency room.  This drove us to prayer which is an act of worship.  We had outstanding services this morning well attended and several visitors.  I taught the Sunday School lesson to a smaller than normal group.  The rain kept some from coming to church.  We had a guest speaker who preached about the prodigal son during the worship service.  This afternoon we went to a nursing home for services and when we arrived there was no one in the chapel area.  Janie began to play the piano and before you know it we had a congregation of nine.  They really sang out with a lot of joy and that fired me up for the preaching time.  I preached them a Gospel message and then visited with them a bit before heading over to the church house.  I got things set up for the evening services and then we went home and talked with Jason over in France.  They are doing well.  We are all the more anxious to see them.  We had to say good bye to them to head back to church.  The evening services were also well attended and the business meeting after the worship service went smoothly.  Janie and watched a video of our grandkids while we ate supper.  All in all it has been a really good day.  God bless you.

Bro. Paul's Phone here...

Carlos Hunt, the man who photographed our wedding 37 years ago.

I am Bro. Paul's cell phone.  He takes me everywhere he goes.  He often takes me out of the pocket where I ride around all day and shows me things that are happening in his life.  He asks me to take and keep snapshots of these moments and I do so without complaint.  Though I have been made by man and know not my maker, I have seen Bro. Paul's maker working in his life and can only conclude that He is gracious, merciful, and patient.

My brother-in-law Steve and his 90 year old mother.

Take today for example.  I saw him fall on the parking lot flat on his back when his feet, on the wet pavement, went out from under him.  I was in his shirt pocket so I was glad he did not fall forward.  He rose unscathed and unhurt. I got to see him driving extra carefully in the rain as he took his mother-in-law and Janie to a 90th birthday party.  He had me to snapshot that event several times.  He had me to take a picture of a man who was taking pictures at this event.  This man was the man who photographed his and Janie's wedding 37 years ago.  The lady who had turned 90 is a very good poet and belongs to a poetry society.  As Bro. Paul came in from the rain he was met at the door by this lady and two men who were members of the poetry society.  They, seeing him come in wet with rain, stated the obvious "It must still be raining."  Bro.Paul responded to them by saying "This kind of weather calls for a duck poem don't you think?"  He quoted them Ogden Nash's poem "The Duck" which goes like this:

Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.

My in-law's at the nursing home waiting for his supper.

The poetry people were very impressed.  They said he should write that poem down.  To which Bro. Paul admitted that it was a poem he had learned in High School.  
After the party Bro. Paul took his mother-in-law to the nursing home so they could visit with his father-in-law.  He took me out of his pocket again and had me to snapshot that moment as well.  It seems his father-in-law does not want to eat and does not want to get out of bed.  They made him do both though he only ate three or four bites of food.  He wants to go home really badly.  He just does not have the strength to do so and should he go home in his current condition he would lay in bed all the time and grow weaker.  Bro Paul is deeply concerned for him and prays for him a lot. 

Janie and her mother at the birthday party, her sister is to the right.

I delivered Bro. Paul a message at 4:00 this morning from his son in France.  The message said the box had arrived.  This was a box of Christmas presents and it was very late getting there.  He turned around and used me to talk to his son and I detected a sense of joy and gladness in his voice as he talked with his son.  He loves his son and is proud of him.  I road on the dash of the car all the way back to Hillsboro except when he took me into a Mexican food place where he and Janie ate some supper.  According to my built in GPS we were in Jacksonville, Texas.  He returned me to my perch on the dash and we made it home just fine.  I was glad he drove 55 most of the way due the rain.  I felt a lot safer.  I have noticed that Bro. Paul takes an awful lot of pictures of Janie.  He keeps 24 pictures of her synced on me and frequently views them, mostly when he is away from her for any length of time. He loves her a lot.  
Bro. Paul usually leaves me home on Sunday's but I think he plans to take some pictures at church tomorrow so I bet I will get to hear some joyful worship of Bro. Paul's maker.  I am looking forward to that.  I am going to close this blog with the same prayer for you that Bro. Paul uses.  God bless you.  

3 Homes

Four of Jim Taylor's great-grandchildren visiting him in the nursing home

We visited in two homes today.  The first was a nursing home the second was a funeral home.  Neither place is associated with joy though they can be.  My father-in-law wants to go home and they are working on that.  Stacie, Scott and the kids came to see my mother and the Taylors.  Sarah and Justin came over also and visited at the nursing home and came out to the house to see my mother-in-law.  We are going to go back to the funeral home in the morning for a funeral service.  After the funeral we will go to a 90th birthday party and then head back to our home in Hillsboro.  We are going to be having a visiting preacher in our services Sunday Morning.  I will teach the Sunday School lesson and Sunday afternoon I will be preaching at the nursing home.  Monday morning will find us at the nursing home again for our regular visit.  Well its off to bed.  God bless you.

A Little Sleep, A Little Slumber...

Janie taking a nap in the car

Janie did not get much sleep last night.  She came to bed about 3:00 and then got up at 4:00 to get ready to go with me to Arlington.  The surgery there went well and we made it back home.  We packed our bags and headed for Henderson.  Janie slept for about an hour in the car and then woke up to get back to work on her job.  We went strait to the nursing home and arrived to the news that they needed to take Janie's dad to the emergency room to see the doctor. 

My in-laws back at the nursing home.

I carried my brother-in-law back home and then went to the emergency room to relieve Janie so she could get to the house and get some rest.  I took my mother-in-law out to eat and then returned to the Hospital.  I went into the ER area and talked with my father-in-law and then returned to the waiting area to sit with my mother-in-law.  While we waited their pastor arrived and we visited for a while.  I thought that I had better check on things so I went back to the ER area to find out that a half hour earlier they had sent my father-in-law back to the nursing home and had not told us.  We went back to the nursing home and he was doing okay.  I had to stop by the auto parts place and get some parts for my in-law's van.  They did not have what I needed in stock so they ordered it and next week I will fix the back door of their van so it won't hit people in the head anymore. 
Maybe tonight we will get a little more sleep.  God bless you.