Work Works

Work is good and today was a good day. I walked to the church this morning and that was good. I worked at my study and that was good. Then we helped some one move and that was good. I got to visit with dear friends and that was good. I watched people working hard at the church fixing air conditioning, setting up a class room, fixing the bulletin, restocking the visitor's cards in the pews, and practicing the music for Sunday services. It has truly been a blessed day. This Sunday is going to be amazing! I believe the Lord is going to bless us more than ever before.

I gave my grandchildren some trail mix that I had made and they just love it. I told my oldest grandson to have his mother google turkey creek hiking trail. It is near to where he will be living. I will try to go down sometime and hike it with him. The picture is of Joshua enjoying a hot dog at the end of our days hike. I look forward to hiking with Caleb, Micah, Andrew, and Jonathan some day. God bless you.

Guard Duty

The picture if of my father-in-law when he was in the Marines during World War II. Often he would have to be on guard duty. It would be his job to protect a location and keep unauthorized people out. I have enjoyed the many war stories he has told over the years. He has seen more of the world than I will ever see and has experinced things I will never experince. His generation is truly amazing. I honor him and my own father, pictured below in his navy uniform, as Father's day approaches. These men were raised during hard times and then volunteered to join the military and go to war. They were and are truly patriots.

I am now on guard duty. I watch over these two men and guard them and their welfare as they guarded mine even before I was born. The Bible teaches us that we should respect our elders. I was at the dentist's office this morning and my dentist is about 80 years old. He came out to the waiting room to bid me fairwell and I stood when he entered the room. There was a 24 year old man in the room who kept his seat and did not acknowledge him in any way. When did we stop teaching young people to rise at the hoary head?

I will be back in Hillsboro late this evening and while I am here with my father-in-law watching over him, I will be putting the finishing touches on Sunday's sermon taken from Romans chapter 3. I will also start Sunday night's sermon and will finish it Saturday morning. My wife plans to run the bulletin Saturday and so we will be at the church quite a while on Saturday. God bless you.

Gas prices

I believe that we should fight back against oil prices. My Jetta is averaging 46 mpg and has saved me a ton of money. I have taken to walking to work a couple of days a week. I told one of my neighbors as I walked past his house that I was protesting the oil companies. I will be driving to Spokane Washington a distance of 1900 miles one way. I dread the trip but it is very necessary that I go for there will be some very important business taken care of there and our missionary work may be questioned. Being virtually all highway miles I should average about 53 mpg on this trip. I had to fix a flat tonight. There was a nail in the right rear tire.

My grandson and I enjoyed the hike and the paddle boat. We rented a boat and due to a strong head wind we had a hard time getting back to the dock. The camera ran out of battery power and I did not have a replacement. I would have loved to get a picture of us on the lake. This picture is of us taking a much needed break. We had consumed a gallon and a half of water by this point. We had only covered about 2 1/4 miles when we took this break.

We plan to go to Canton on my day off and then go over to Henderson for our dentist appointment and checkup on our parents. We will be back in Hillsboro Friday evening. God bless you.

I see a rod of an almond tree

Jeremiah was shown an object by the Lord and the Lord asked him what did he see to which he responded "I see a rod of an almond tree." You have purhaps heard the phrase "it loses something in translation"; Well that is certainly the case here. There is a play on words from the Hebrew language found here. The route word for almond means to hasten. Jeremiah was smart to pick up on this and the Lord commended him for it in Jeremiah 1:12. I have seen a rod of an almond tree. Every time I look at my children I see it. Every time I look at my grandchildren, I see it. Time is hastening by so fast. In four years all my children will be in there thirties. My oldest grandson will be getting ready to drive a car in just five years. When I drive up to the church building here at Walnut Street I see a rod of an almond tree. I have been here almost six years and time has gone by so fast. When I look at the news on TV and see all that is going on in this world I see a rod of an almond tree. The Lord's coming is at hand even at the door. Dear reader, I hope and pray that you are ready for the coming of the Lord.

This picture is "a rod of an almond tree" to me. It is of Janie and her sisters with their mother and uncle. It was taken earlier this year. I met Janie on July 11, 1973 and will never forget that day almost 35 years ago. God bless you.

Got-r-dun

The picture is of me and my grandson at the entrance to the park were we began our hike. He left his hat at the ranger station and was worried about it but we recovered it the next day and all was well. It was cloudy and rained on us briefly when we were not far down the trail. I gave him the hat that I am wearing in this picture. It has LED lights on the bill and I suspect that by now the batteries are dead. I told him the history of Davy Crockett and he seemed impressed.
Another Lord's day is finished and all went well. Our music/youth minster is gone and will be missed. I put a list in the bulletin of jobs that will need to be done now that he is gone and already two persons have stepped up and volunteered for two of them. I pray that others will do the same and we will not miss a beat. I have a busy week planned as usual. I will be at the nursing home visiting and helping in the worship services there. I plan to visit a couple of our shut-ins to check on them tomorrow. I will be preaching to the church in Waco Tuesday night. I have not seen them in over a month and am anxious to visit with them again. I will get my hair cut Tuesday Lord willing. Wednesday I will preach a sermon from the book of Ezra and will get that sermon ready Monday night. I need to mow the yard on Monday and start cleaning out the garage. Thursday night we plan to drive over to Henderson for our dentist appointment Friday morning. While there we will check on our parents and help them with a few things and then head back to Hillsboro. Tonight I will work on "From the Pastor" for the bulletin and will try to settle on a text for the sermon Sunday morning. I will tell more of the hike in posts to come. God bless you.

Back from the Hike

I am back now from my hiking trip with my grandson. The video I have here is of the most precious moment on this whole outing. It had turned dark and we had bedded down for the night. Joshua was too excited to sleep and it did not matter to me if slept or not. I was tired and was working on going to sleep letting him do whatever he wanted. He asked me if he could borrow my Bible. I handed it to him and he began to read aloud. I listened to him helping him with an occasional word. I sat up and got the camera and took this video without his knowledge. I wanted to remember this moment and share it with others. He kept miss pronouncing a word and I did not want a miriad of questions so I did not correct him. If you pronounce the "w" of this word which is silent it sounds like "war". It was after this reading that he discovered one of many seed ticks on his body. The first one was bad but when he discovered a few more he began to panic. I calmned him down and helped him remove and kill the ticks. Afterward he fell asleep very quickly and I did not hear anymore from him until I opened my eyes in the morning to see him staring me in the face. He was ready to start another day. God bless you.

A good morning

I walked to the church this morning leaving the house at 7 and got to the church at 7:20. It gave me a little exercise and some prayer time as well. Janie picked me up at lunch and after lunch I worked a little bit in the yard. I need to run back over to the office for a little while to finish up a few things before tonight. I plan to get my back pack ready this afternoon to go for the hike on Thursday. Not a lot to take for what will amount to about a 20 to 26 mile hike. It is going to be enjoyable and I will make a movie of the adventure when I get back. I noticed that my youtube video has had 34 viewings. If you go to youtube search for "paul and steve hiking on the pct" and our video should be the first on the list. I am making a video about the tent I made and I stuck the youtube video on the end of it. I may post it on youtube as well. I most likely will post my hike with my grandson on youtube when it is complete. I have been playing phone tag with my sister Peggy. I hope to catch up with her eventually. Peggy if you see this please keep trying.

I will not blog Thursday but will Friday night Lord willing. The picture is of my wife at the John Wayne airport two years ago when I went out to hike the PCT with my brother. God bless you.

Made it home

We made it home and all went well at the pre-association meeting. I plan to walk to the church in the morning early and spend the day studying. I have chosen my text for Sunday and will get that sermon finished in the morning first thing and then I will work on the Wednesday night sermon for both my classes. If I have time left I will work on the Sunday School lesson. The hike is Thursday and Saturday is mow the yard day. I sent word to my grandson that we will not need our sleeping bags. The over night temperature is going to be 73 after a high of 91. I will bring a small light blanket if he should need it. He got bit by a lizzard today and his mother had to stomp on it to get it to let go of his thumb. He loves to catch things and take a closer look at them. I do not plan to let him out of my sight when we hike. I would not want a snaping turtle to take off one of his fingers. The picture is one my grandson took with a really cheep digital camera. The swing is one I made modeled after one that my grandparents in New England had when I was a kid. God bless you.

Update from Texarkana

We made it safely to Texarkana and the meetings today went well. There were some fireworks but none of the arguments were overly heated. There are about 100 in attendance and 25 of those are on the standing missionary committee. The meeting is suppose to be over by noon tomorrow but they are so far behind I expect it will not end until about 4:oo pm or so. Our missionary to France will not be voted on until noon tomorrow and I do not expect any questions. The hotel is nice though the first room they gave us was not acceptable and they had to give us another one. I expect to hear the same things I heard today at the national meeting in Spokane on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday. At least I will know what to expect.

My grandson and his dad went for a 10 mile hike and they said it went well. It was very hot but they made it. I expect that he will have no trouble keeping up with his 54 year old granddad. God bless you.