Hot

It was 91 degrees here at 10:00 this morning. The grave side service went well though the Hospice Chaplin was a few minutes late. I asked the funeral director if he had a tent with a/c but he said it was broke. When I got home my shirt had very few dry threads. I worked on my income tax audit and made some phone calls to get some information. Janie was a big help raising a question about the taxes which I had not thought about. It should make a big difference in what we will most likely end up owing.

Janie and I are on a diet that I like really well. We eat four bites every two hours. We include all the food groups to keep it balanced. I never get hungry. The principle is the same as having your stomach stapled but without the surgery. Just eat less but keep it balanced. I loose weight and feel great with lots of energy. I never have heartburn or indigestion on this diet. If you try it remember to keep it balanced by including fruits, vegetables, bread, meat, and dairy (even ice cream). Four bites every two hours. You can drink all you want of V8 juice, milk, and fruit juices. Drink plenty of water as well. The first time I went on this diet we went out to eat and I ate just four bites and then asked for a to go box. I ate on that one meal the rest of the day. Just kept taking out of it four bites and heated those four bites in the microwave. We do not eat out very often on this diet but if we did one large meal would take all day to eat.

I am really enjoying our Tuesday morning Bible study. We sit at the dinning room table with coffee, Postum for me, and take our time going through the scriptures which relate to future events and the end of this world. Small group discussions are an excellent way to learn and teach the Bible. I was scheduled to attend a surgery in the morning but it has been postponed for two weeks so I will be at the Bible study in the morning.

Clint is doing very well. He is eating food now and making really good progress. His graduating class is going to have a fund raiser at our church parking lot July 18th. They hope to raise some money to help with his medical expenses which are going to be massive. I plan to call the lady in charge of the fund raiser and meet with her some time next week.

Well I had better go clean off the table where I have all my tax stuff spread out after all the ladies will start arriving about 9:30 in the morning. The picture is of me standing by the fence that me and my brother-in-law repaired for Janie's uncle Trenton. God bless you.

Uncle Bill

Bro. Davis brought a good sermon today at our church and we had a good visit afterward. Janie and I took them out to eat. They headed back to Tyler and we went back to the house. Janie took a nap while I reviewed my sermon and report for the evening services.

We received a notice in the mail from the IRS saying that they had accepted my proof of expenses but that I had reported them on the wrong forms. They said nothing about that in their original letter to me. When I called them they simply stated that my expenses seemed excessive and needed to see proof that they were legitimate. They gave a long complicated explanation of the changes they made to my return and said that I owed them money. I disagree with their assessment and with what they have done and plan to call them tomorrow.

I will focus first on the funeral in the morning and give that my undivided attention. I have just finished my part of the Bulletin for next Sunday and will work on the Sermon for next Sunday tomorrow. Tuesday I will go to Waco for a surgery there and will finish up the sermon for Sunday and the lesson for Wednesday night. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I will spend my Thursday off hiking with my brother. I am not worried about the heat because we will have plenty of water to keep us cool. Friday and Saturday our grandchildren will be at our house and we will enjoy their company. Next week we will go back over to Henderson and hopefully install my mother-in-law's kitchen sink. My uncle Bill who lives in Lowell Mass. helped to train me as a plumber. I borrowed the picture above of my uncle and his wife from my sister's facebook page. I really enjoyed working with him. I am hoping to get to see him next year Lord willing. God bless you.

77777

The Odometer of our car reached 77777. That would not be so bad except that it is just a little over 2 years old. Notice also from the picture the temperature. It seems we have a high pressure dome setting right on top of us and there is no rain in the forecast just 100 degree temperatures.

Bro. Harold Davis will be at our church tomorrow to preach in my place. I am really looking forward to his sermon. I plan to take him out to eat afterward and enjoy a good visit. We went to the hospital for a visit with one of our church members and then later took some food over to the lady who's husband died. I will be preaching that funeral Monday morning hopefully before it gets too hot. This second picture is of the Expo center in Springfield where the ABA messenger meeting was held. It was hot there also reaching 98 degrees each day we were there. I took this next picture of Janie at Wal-mart where we went to pick up a few things to help out the family of the man that died. I saw one of the men I use to work with at Lebus while there. He had been back to Lebus last week for a visit and said that they had laid off 70 people. I had wondered if the state of the economy had effected them.

This evening Janie sewed up the hem of one of my suit pants. She just will not let me forget that I am a married man. She takes such good care of me. She suggested I put more pictures of me on this blog and less of her to which I responded "But you are the love of my life not me." Thursday this coming week is my day off and I plan to go hiking with my brother, Steve. It will be hot but we will be dressed for it and will drink a lot of water. Hopefully the trail will be somewhat shady. I will post pictures here of our hike. God bless you.

Home

We are home. It took about 9 hours to get here because we stopped a few times to stretch. I started out driving and got us headed the right direction and then Janie took over. She drove for a little over 100 miles while I slept. I had a headache and at our first stop I took some aspirin and took over the driving.

This morning before we left the hotel I got a phone call from the funeral home telling me that the husband of one of our church members had died and the funeral will be Monday. When we got about half an hour from home I got a call that one of our church members was in the emergency room so when we got into town we went right over to the hospital. They are going to keep her for observation so we will check on her again tomorrow after we check on the lady who lost her husband.

Clint is eating solid food now. Here is the text message I got from his mother today: "Got to eat mashed foods today and drink apple juice put cast on foot to help stand." They have not given a prognosis for his right hand so that is still a concern.

I have tons to do tomorrow so will head for bed here shortly. Be praying for our Son in France as they are having some problems finding and renting a house. He is also pursuing a loan to buy a car for over there.

The first picture is of us sitting at the meeting with our grandchildren. The second is of me at the entrance of the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield. This third one was taken on Thursday at noon. We were one of the last ones to take down our exhibit. It looked kind of sad standing there by itself. God bless you.

Morning Session

The morning session here at the meeting went well. Many of the messengers do not stay for the Thursday meeting. The major business is taken care of on Wednesday. There was a motion yesterday to not raise salaries of the missionaries or the staff of the office of secretary of the ABA. Today someone moved to raise the Secretary's salary but it failed. It was pointed out that this should have been done when everybody was here not when most are gone. We splurged and went out to eat for lunch. Stacie and her family are on their way to Michigan. When we adjourn at 4 we plan to go site seeing and then enjoy a quite supper together. We will head back to Hillsboro in the morning. This picture is of the meeting and you can not tell but from it but Bro. Brooks is standing at the microphone setting the messengers strait as we so often need. God bless you.

Manning the booth

Good morning. I do not usually blog this time of day but as busy as our days have been I have to blog when I can. Services were good last night with an excelent sermon. The grandkids stayed in our hotel room with us last night. We had pizza for supper. We had a lot of "hits", so to speak, at the booth yesterday. A lot of people curious about France missions. We will take the booth down at noon today. Scott is on the phone in the bathroom. I guess we should run him out of there so we can get ready to go. He is talking to his mother who lives in Michigan. He did not want to bother us while on the phone. It is time for everyone to rise and shine anyway. We are going to stay here tonight and get some rest before making the trip back to Hillsboro. We should not have driven 8 hours with only one 10 minute stop coming here. We will make more stops going home. The picture is of me Manning the booth on Wednesday. God bless you.

Never a dull moment

Meeting has not been dull. We are behind schedule. We ate a small quick lunch at the booth and had Jason on skyp helping to tend it. People seemed fascinated by being able to see and talk to Jason live from Paris. Our oldest daughter and her family will soon be here and will most likely eat supper with us. More news and pictures to come. The picture is of our hotel room Wednesday night when our oldest daughter and her family stayed with us. God bless you.

We made it

We made it to Springfield. We have had about four hours of sleep and are about to head for the meeting. Sarah and Justin left early this morning for Branson. We have been unable to get in touch with Stacie and Scott. Hopefully we will see them at the meeting. I have packed our lunch and supper for a long day. We should be back at our room by 11 tonight. I will post some pictures later of the meeting. This picture is of me at the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield. God bless you.

Jury's Out

Jury duty went well today. We had 54 cases which were not as interesting as last month's. We broke for lunch at noon and I went home, ate a quick sandwich, and finished packing the suitcase. I got back to jury duty at 1:00 and we finished at 4:00 p.m. When I got back home we put our things in the car and took off for Springfield, Missouri. I decided to go by way of Oklahoma City due to the traffic we would face in Dallas. It is about 50 miles longer but I thought I would make better time. As of the time I am writing this, we have come 463 miles and are only 75 miles from our hotel.

My youngest daughter, pictured above, has been text messaging us from the meeting. It seems all has gone well with things there so far. We expect to arrive about 12:30 a.m. The meeting gets underway in the morning at 9:15 a.m. so we won't get much sleep tonight. Looking forward to the meeting tomorow even though we won't get back to our hotel room until 11:00 tomorrow night. We tried to call our oldest daughter and her husband who are supposed to be at the meeting as well, but were unable to get in contact with them. We are looking forward to seeing the grandkids. This is a picture of our youngest grandson, Jonathan, trying to stand on his head. God bless you.

Clean up

This picture is my mother-in-law and me washing dishes the old fashion way. She does not have a sink in her kitchen right now due to remodeling. She cooked her first meal with her new stove top and oven. We had steak, potatoes, peas, and biscuits. To clean up I took all the dirty dishes outside and washed them while she dried them. It was fun. As you can see we had a shady spot and it was only 93 degrees. Before we left her house this last time we cleaned up her kitchen and put some plywood pieces on top of the cabinets so she could have somewhat of a temporary kitchen.

I will be blogging from the ABA messenger meeting to keep you posted on how things are going with our trip there. Sarah says the room is nice and they had a good time at the missionary share time. Well I am off to bed, it will be a long day tomorrow. I will be 8 hours at jury duty and then at least 8 hours driving to Missouri. We are considering staying one more night in Missouri. The meeting ends about 4:00 pm on Thursday and I may want to gets some rest and head back Friday morning. Our Wednesday will start at 8:00 and end at 11:00 pm. Thursday will start at 8:00 and end at 4:00pm. We will take the booth down at noon on Thursday. Pray for us that we have a safe trip. God bless you.

ABA Messenger Meeting

My daughter, Sarah, and her husband arrived today at Springfield Mo. and got checked into the Hotel. They found the exhibit hall and have set up Jason's France Mission booth. This picture was taken by Sarah with her cell phone. We will be heading that way ourselves right after I get out of Grand Jury duty tomorrow. It is a big help to have Justin and Sarah take care of getting the booth there and set up. I wonder if they have found the Bass Pro Shop yet. That certainly would be where I would go had I been able to be there on Monday. Originally that was our plan to arrive on Monday but civic duty called so we will be a couple of days late.

Clint came through his surgery okay but his right hand is not in good shape. Here is the text message I got this afternoon from his mother: " Surgery over will wait and see how successful fingers not good." They said he was very talkative yesterday and seemed to be doing well. He has been in the burn ICU for 65 days. Keep him in your prayers.

Well I must go and pack for the trip. I want to have everything ready to go so that when I get out of jury duty we can head out immediately. God bless you.

Father's Day

Today is Father's day. I talked to my three children today and they were all doing well. My brother's and I went to Dad's grave side and left some flowers there (see the picture). Ralph brought a pipe to put in the ground and after taking turns driving this two inch pipe two feet long into the ground we dug the dirt out of it and placed the flowers. I think we are going to make this an annual event.

Clint Rogers is going to have surgery on his right hand tomorrow. Here is the text message I got from his mother "Surgery Monday on hand putting pins in fingers to maybe help straighten"

His brother went to see him today and said he was very talkative. Please keep him in your prayers.

I have a busy day tomorrow and jury duty on Tuesday. Its off to Springfield Mo. Tuesday afternoon and then return to Hillsboro Thursday night. Friday will be a day of rest and then back to work on Saturday. God bless you.

Old Dog

This picture was taken by my youngest, Sarah, it is a chicken snake that was at the bottom of the wheelchair ramp at my in-law's house. He got away by crawling under the ramp. He has not been seen since.

They say you can not teach an old dog new tricks. My wife's uncle taught me how to repair a barbwire fence today. We went around his various pastures and checked on his cows. He also wanted to see some of the fields to see if they were ready to cut for hay. He studied the grass closely and came to the conclusion that he need more rain so would wait on bailing hay. One field he had not been in for a while because the gate was to difficult to open was very disappointing to him it was so full of weeds. It was fun and very educational to ride around with a man who has been raising cows for over 70 years. I believe he will be 92 his next birthday.

Janie has gone to Tyler with her mother and they are doing some shopping. I went up town after a short nap at noon to mail two boxes off to Jason and Angie in France. It cost $117 to send them and the lady at the post office said she would love to take them over there for me. Seems she has always wanted to see Paris. I have some more electrical work to do here at the Taylor's house and will do so after I finish studying my Sunday School Lesson and Sunday night sermon. I will be preaching from Revelation 13 this Sunday even though it is Father's day. God bless you.

Computers and Cabinets

Well I worked on computers and cabinets today. I went over to Bro. Davis' and helped him with a computer problem. He said it was too hot to work outdoors so I was content to spend the afternoon with him in front of his computer. I taught him how to check, compose, and send email. I think he's got it down now. I recovered a lost document for him and he was glad of that. We had a real good visit. Back at the Taylor's I helped Justin load up the old dishwasher and the old stove. He put the finishing coats on the cabinets and the house smells very strong of varnish and sealer. We installed the stove top and the oven. Janie even got in on the work. I could not get the connection made in the junction box so she gave it a try while I took a break. She gave up and then I tried again and got it done. One of the pictures I have posted here is of Janie putting the cover back on the junction box down under the cabinet. She fit in that tight spot a lot better than I did. The oven works just fine and so does the stove top. Justin will have to remove the stove top to finish the counter top but that is about two weeks away or so and until then my mother-in-law can be using it. The second picture is of my mother-in-law next to her new stove top and oven.

I plan to help my wife's uncle Trenton tomorrow with a few things. In exchange for my help he will teach me much about ranching and cows. I am looking forward to it. My two brothers and I will be going with mother over to dad's grave Saturday morning to put out some flowers for Father's Day. God bless you.

Clint

Clint had surgery today and it went real well. I was told by a mutual friend that Clint's mother was working with him doing some therapy and he did not want to move his arm. She reportedly told him he did not have to move it that his mommy could feed him for the rest of his life. He started moving the arm just needed some motivation. Now if that's not a true rendition of the story its still cute. Here is the text message I got from Cindy after Clint's surgery today "Surgery was good did left leg open spots and cauterized some other areas to help close them still have a long way to go." Please pause even now and utter a pray for him.

I had a good day today. The nursing home service went well and after we left there we went to visit one of the shut-ins of our Church family. I went for a one hour walk while Janie went to Curves. I have read 19 chapters in the Bible trying to get caught up for I am way behind on my reading. I went to the office to do some work and had a good visit with one of our newest church members. Janie is gone to the Ladies auxiliary meeting and should be back shortly. I am going to call Bro. Davis and see if I can visit with him this week. We need to go to Henderson to take Janie's dad for his cancer treatment and need to do some more electrical work at their house. The picture is of Lilia and Caleb, two or our grandchildren, playing one of their favorite games which I use to play with my children. The game is called "Cheese." They sit on your feet and put their hands on top of their heads and repeat words after you and if they repeat the word "Cheese" you snatch your foot out from under them and they fall down and have a big laugh. Between that and "riding across the prairie" we have had hours of fun. God bless you.

Work Week

My work week starts on Sunday. I get up early and review my sermon and the Sunday school lesson. I go to church at 9:00 and stay until about 12:45. After lunch I review the sermon for Sunday night and review my schedule for the week. If I am preaching on Monday I review the sermon I will preach at the nursing home. Some Sundays we have services at the nursing home at 2:30. Its back to the church at 5:00 for junior choir practice and church services. We get home about 7:30 and eat Supper after which I work on the bulletin for next Sunday. I blog and then head for bed. Monday morning we go to visit at the nursing home and help in the services there then its over to the post office to check the mail and then to the house for lunch. I go to the office in the afternoon and study for next Sunday's sermon. Its home for Supper about 5:00 and watch the news while I eat. I try to take an hour walk each day. I do some Internet work on baptistville.org and Sullivansupply.com as needed. I blog then head for bed. Tuesday is Ladies Bible study in the morning and then I take a walk, eat lunch and then spend the afternoon studying. This Tuesday night we will go down to Waco for services there and will get back a home about 9:00. Wednesday I spend getting ready for the mid-week services and finish studying the Sunday School lesson and Sermon for Sunday. We head for church about 6:30 and get home about 8:00. Thursday is my day off and usually is spent over in Henderson or in Tyler with Janie's parents or Bro. Davis. Friday I work on my doctoral thesis then its back to Hillsboro. Saturday I study and catch up on my reading. Well that is my work week but my schedule is rarely uninterrupted. Surgeries, funerals, and hospital calls keep my schedule in flux. The one thing that I need to do more of is visitation. I am working on a plan to do more visitation this summer and fall. The picture is of a glass of water that a young lady who works at the nursing home gave me because I was having a little trouble with my voice. Small acts of kindness never go unnoticed by the Lord nor should they be by us. God bless you.

Computers

Long, long before computers were invented Janie's Uncle Trenton and his wife and son lived in the house pictured here. He told me that it was here that they got their first refrigerator. It was not an electric one. Those were much simpler times. The well was on the right side of the house and there was no indoor plumbing.

We left the Taylor's this morning and headed back to Hillsboro. We stopped by Bro. Davis' and in less than five minutes I had his computer problem solved. We had a short visit with them and enjoyed every minute. Bro. Davis had a sermon he was working on and he shared it with me and it was really good. He was very passionate about it and said he was going to have to preach it somewhere. I asked him if he had any preaching appointments and he did not so I asked him to come to Hillsboro on Sunday morning the 28th of June and preach it to our church. It will help me for that is the Sunday after our trip to Springfield, Mo. for the ABA messenger meeting. I would have been hard pressed to have my sermon ready for that Sunday. I am anxious to hear him preach. I went over to the office to do some studying this afternoon and I noticed that the outside temperature was 101 degrees. My office A/C has gone out and it was kind of warm to do my studies there so I got my books and went back to the house. Janie had gone with me to use the church's typewriter to fill out some insurance forms for her mother but it did not work. Typewriters have become antiques with the advent of computers. I will be preaching from Revelation chapter 13 in the morning a message entitled "Two Beasts." God bless you.

Tires

We had 4 new tires put on our car today and my in-law's have a new bed headed their way. Not bad for a day's work. That may not sound like much but you would have had to be there. I went over to visit with Janie's uncle this evening while she and her mother were working on some insurance paperwork. We got into his truck and went looking for his cows. The picture is one I took while we were parked on top of a hill overlooking a beautiful meadow. He knows a lot about cows. Spending time with him is enjoyable. Bro. Davis called with a computer problem and we plan to go by there in the morning on our way home. Clint stood for 20 minutes yesterday. They will do some more skin grafts on him Monday. God bless you.

Electricity

We left Hillsboro about 11 this morning and for most of the way there was a thunder storm to our left. We got to Tyler about 2:00 this afternoon and helped my mother-in-law pick out a new oven and range top. My son-in-law needed me to move a breaker box in the kitchen so he could build the cabinets on that part of the wall. We got to my mother-in-law's around 6:00 pm and I got started on moving the breaker box. Step one was to removed the paneling from the wall to expose the inside of the wall. Step two I disconnected all the wires and removed them from the box. I drilled 4 holes through the wall to the outside, one at each corner of the outside of the box then removed the box from the wall. The next step was to mark the wall outside under the carport. I placed the box on the wall between the holes and marked a line around it. Sawing the hole was easy until my battery went dead. I had a back up and it went dead before I could finish up. The charger works real fast so in no time we were back in business. With hole cut out I mounted the box in place and then fed the wires back into the box. While Janie held the flashlight I hooked the wires back up and turn the electricity back on. Everything worked so I put the cover back on and caulked around the box. The picture above is dark because it was about 11:00 before we finished. Janie and I moved a phone jack which was also in the way of the cabinets. I have to ruff in the wiring for the new range and oven and then I will be out of my son-in-law's way.

Tomorrow we get new tires for our car and while that is being done I will try to finish typing up my sermon for Sunday. Bro. Davis called me today and said he read my prospectus and found only one mistake. I was shocked that he found only one. He was a professor at the seminary for many many years and for him to find only one mistake is astounding to me. Well I had better head for bed. I will visit with Janie's uncle in the morning when I carry off the trash. I will work in a walk and then do some more electrical work. By the end of the day the sermon for Sunday should be ready to go along with the Sunday School lesson. God bless you.

Love Songs

I have been doing a lot of thinking about love lately. It is my doctoral subject that helps to keep it on my mind. I went on line and downloaded some old love songs and plan to put them in a folder with the rest of the things I collect on the song of songs. I plan to search for love poems that have a unique way of expressing love. These too I will add to my Song of Songs folder. The Lord gave us the capacity to love and it is a wonderful gift indeed. The human race truly would not be able to survive with out love.

Yesterday was a very productive day. Pictured above is my laptop setting on top of the copy machine at the church. Beside it is the stack of bulletins all folded and ready to go. I have chosen to preach from the book of Revelation this Sunday and I worked on that sermon today. I have a lot more to do before it is finished but should have it completed by tomorrow. We plan to leave for Henderson in the morning around 10:00. Janie will take her mother shopping for a new range and oven and I will take our car down and get some new tires put on it. I was informed that a breaker box needed to be moved in my mother-in-law's kitchen so I will tackle that project Thursday night. We are about to head to church for our midweek services. I will be preaching from the book of Genesis tonight. Clint is still doing well. Please keep him in your prayers. This lower picture is of a couple of the ladies at our Bible study on Tuesday practicing a song to sing as a special in our Sunday morning services. It sure sounded good. God bless you.

They Stood Him Up Today!

Clint stood up today. With the help of three nurses and his mother Clint stood on his feet for several minutes. He was exhausted by the time they got him back to bed. He looked around the room and they asked him to look out the window and he did. They asked him to look out the door and he did. The doctor says he is doing really well. This is an exciting day for Clint. Keep praying for him. He has used about 20 units of blood or so thus far and has had over 200 units donated in his name. There is going to be a fund raiser for him on July 18th and that will be much needed for his medical expenses above what his insurance will cover are going to be considerable.

We had the ladies Bible study this morning (pictured) and it was an hour and a half of great fun. We had one more present than usual and we hope she will be able to join us again. Coffee and refreshments that were served were great and the discussion and conversation was very interesting. I plan to go to the office this afternoon and get some work done there. I just wanted to blog to let you know about Clint. God bless you.

Plates

When I was a child I was encouraged to clean my plate. The thought of wasting food was repugnant to my mother (pictured here with my oldest daughter's children Joshua, Ruth, Hannah, Jonathan).

Having a lot on ones plate is an idiom for having more work to do than you can get done. Janie and I frequently have a lot on our plates. I chose to help Janie with her plate today. I scanned a document and printed it out for her, took care of the church bulletin, and delivered the France mission offerings to the missions treasurer. She is working on the church directory right now trying to get that mailed off. She works filling Internet orders for Sullivansupply.com and that keeps her busy as well though with the current recession business has been a little slow. I went to the bank this morning and then over to the middle school. They gave me a tour of the building and it is very nice. I went there to help with counseling any children that might come by the school for that purpose due to the murder of one of their classmates. No kids showed up so I went back home to pick up Janie for the nursing home service. We had real good services there and a big crowd of 48. Afterward we returned home and I mowed the yard. It was 93 degrees here today and though I was using a push mower, the kind without a motor, I did not get overly heated. My neighbors must think that I really care for the environment when they see me use a lawn mower that burns no fuel. I do care for the environment and it is cheaper to mow without burning gas so it is a win win as far as I am concerned. Besides it is good exercise and I need that. We did not make it up to Dallas to check on Clint so maybe we will make it tomorrow. Just had too much on our plates. God bless you.

Tennyson

I quoted Tennyson today. "I hold it true, whate'er befall; I feel it when I sorrow most; Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." I preached at the nursing home this afternoon and a lady in the front row knew this poem and gave the author's full name. I wondered if she might have been a school teacher.

This week will be another busy one. There was a horrendous murder in our county on Friday night of a 12 year old girl. Her 13 year old sister was also attacked but survived. I am going to go over to the middle school to see if they need my help counseling these girl's schoolmates. It was a real shock. I will preach at the nursing home in the morning and plan to go see Clint tomorrow afternoon. Tuesday morning is Bible study and Tuesday afternoon I will be at my church office. Wednesday is study day and depending on what progress my son-in-law makes this week on cabinets we may make a trip to Henderson to hook up the kitchen sink.

They reported that Clint is doing well and is still heavily drugged. I have not heard whether or not he will have more surgery this week but expect that he probably will. There a some who are planning a fund raiser for him at our church and as soon as I know the details I will post them here.

The picture above is of Janie (center) and her sisters back in 1961. This picture is of Janie at the age of 19 the day after our first date. She served at a friend's wedding the Sunday after we had gone out on our first date July 21, 1973. God bless you.

Janie Girl

It is good to be back home. We spent three days in Henderson. I worked Thursday with the remodeling of my in-law's kitchen and Friday I spent with Bro. Davis. Saturday we did some odd jobs around the Taylor house and visited with my father-in-law. A lady came by who had been raised as a child in the house that is behind the Taylor's house. She was gathering history and pictures of the community and so we poured through some old pictures to give her some copies. It was interesting to here the history of the Chapman community. While going through the pictures I found some of Janie when she was a little girl. I have posted two of my favorites here. The first is of Janie's dad with the three girls, Janie is in the center, Connie on the left and Patricia on the right. The second is of Janie about the age of 5. We also found a picture of Janie's grandfather which was taken in France during World War I. I will have to get a copy of it and post it on this blog.

Tomorrow is Sunday and it will be a busy day. We have a church member in the hospital here in Hillsboro and will visit her tomorrow between services. I will be preaching at the nursing home on Monday. Clint is doing well by last report and I plan to go to Parkland Hospital on Monday. I will try to post an update on him then. God bless you.

I am writing this quick note with my cell phone. We are about to leave Henderson. Janie is trying to help her mother with some odds and ends. I could leave without her for we are taking our truck back to Hillsboro but I would like for her to follow me so I can keep an eye on her. I will blog when we get home and post some pictures then. We got a lot done on this trip. I had a real good visit at bro. Davis house. I got him hooked up with high speed internet. He loves it. God bless you.

cabinets

We worked at my in-laws today. The upper cabinets are framed and hung in place. This first picture is of my brother-in-law and me holding up the corner cabinet while Justin screwed it to the wall. Below are the some more pictures of what Justin got done today. Tomorrow Justin will frame in the lower cabinets. What amazes me is that Justin has the plans all in his head. He has no blue prints. I am not that way at all. I have to have it down on paper or I can't build a thing. My part was to put in five electrical outlets and I got those done today. There will be a canister light over the sink and when Justin gets the wood work done over the sink I will install that light. When the sink is installed I will hook up the water and the drain line to it. My part, at least to me, is the easy part.

My prospectus has been approved and accepted. I have been assigned a faculty advisor and so I will pay my fees and get started this August. I am pretty sure that the book I write on the Song of Solomon will not be on the New York Times best seller list but I expect that it may be popular among my fellow clergy who, like me, have more questions than answers about this greatest of songs.

Tomorrow will find me working with Brother Davis. He has a project already lined out for us to tackle. They have been having problems with water coming in the back door when it rains so they put some sand bags out to stop this from happening. He thinks he has the problem fixed now and so the sand bags have to go. So their back porch should look a lot better by the end of the day. During our manual labor we will talk Bible stuff. I want to get his take on my sermon for Sunday. I believe we are nearing the end and that we should be getting ready for it. A part of getting ready is to be informed about what the Bible says about the end of days.

I best head for bed now. I want to get over to Bro. Davis' fairly early so we can work while it is cool. Enjoy the pictures that follow of my in-law's cabinet project.

Waco Times Two

We went to Waco twice today. The surgery this morning went very well and the evening services also went well. I took two naps this afternoon which sounds strange but both were short. I had three sermons from which to choose for the services tonight and made that choice right before the service. I did share with them first my thoughts on the text I am planing to preach Sunday morning. They did not toss me out of the room so maybe preaching this text won't cause as big a stir as I might have thought.

Sarah and Justin worked on my in-law's kitchen again today. It sounds like they made good progress. I am anxious to see what they have done and as soon as they get the pictures to me I will post them here. I will be extremely busy tomorrow. I will go to town on church business and then to the office for some work there. We plan to head to Henderson tomorrow night and if I can work it out I will "pour water on the hands" of Bro. Davis Thursday or Friday. Father's day is approaching and my eldest brother had suggested that we get together and go to Dad's grave and put some flowers there. It is an excellent idea and we will do that Saturday morning the 20th of June. Its hard to believe that it has been almost a year since his death. Mother has said she misses him and it has been my experience that the first year is the toughest.

Clint came through his surgery very well so thank you for your prayers for him. His family needs your prayers as well for it is not easy to see a loved one suffering. Tomorrow Janie will train our new Church bulletin editor. It is such a blessing to have volunteers. I will be teaching from the book of Jude tomorrow night. The list of campers who have signed up for summer church camp is growing and it looks like we will have a pretty good group. Camp is fun and I recommend it to everyone. For adults it is a chance to get away from the world and have good Christian fun. Even if you don't have kids in your church you ought to consider going to camp. For $75.oo you get 4 unforgettable days of what Christians call fun. The picture is of my wife playing the piano at church. This picture will be in our new church directory. God bless you.

Deviled Eggs

I made deviled eggs for supper tonight to go with our veggies. I used some squash relish that one of our friends had given us instead of the usual pickle relish and it gave them a real good flavor. The service at the nursing home went well. I preached on the text "Where is the Lord God of Elijah." I read 15 chapters in the Bible today but I am still way behind where I need to be to make it through three times this year. There was a great feeling of relief that came over me after I turned in the prospectus but oddly I am getting anxious to start work on my book on the Song of Songs. It will be a long journey and it will begin with translation. I have the first chapter translated and have started on the second chapter. It will take a while to get this done because I am not good at Hebrew translation. The next step will be to address the history of the book and how and why it was canonized. I will post pictures of my work on this blog so stay tuned.

Clint is going to have surgery tomorrow to skin graft various small areas that need attention. He is doing well and so far has had more good days than bad. Janie and I will be attending a surgery in Waco tomorrow morning and will not have our usual Ladies Bible study.

I am thinking about preaching from Matthew chapter 25 this Sunday. It is a controversial text and that would tend to make me shy away from it at least on the radio. It speaks of the second major order of business of which the Lord will take care after His return to the earth. I feel strongly that we are close to the end of the human run governments of this world and this text needs to be explained and taught. Since many Christians in our county get their formal Bible instruction on Sunday mornings and no other time I am forced to include as part of this instruction controversial texts in the morning services whereas I would normally prefer to teach such texts off air.

The pictures that I have chosen for this blog entry give us a before picture of my mother-in-law's kitchen cabinets. Sarah and Justin worked over there today and will do so again tomorrow. They removed one of the two pantries to give more room in the bathroom that is adjacent to the kitchen. This will allow Janie's mother to get into this bathroom with her motorized chair where she could not before. Sarah is going to take pictures of the progress of this remodeling job and as soon as she gets them to me I will post them here as well. God bless you.