WHAT A BLESSED WEEKEND!

What a great way to wake up on Monday!  61 degrees and cool in the valley this AM after a blessed weekend for our church family in Trenton.  On Saturday we had our Philippine Mission Day and after it was over had three new people committed to work with Chris Gerber and me during our April 2012 trip.  We have a retired couple who are experienced mission workers in several countries and a brother who has been travelig and working in India for several years, so we are delighted to have 3 more experienced workers for the Lord's work in the Philippines. 

After the mission day ended we spent some time getting ready for the next day...our Homecoming and 174th Anniversary at the Trenton church of Christ. 

On Sunday morning, Jamie and I were at the building early getting our food unpacked, helping others bring theirs in and making sure everything was rolling along as we greeted the folks arrivng.  We had a good crowd of 57 for our 9:30 AM lesson when brother Marlin Graves gave a great lesson "Any Old Bush Will Do" from Exodus 3.  After Bible class, I noticed the crowd was really coming in steadily and in good numbers.  By the time 10:30 arrived and services began, we had 136 present for worship!  It was the largest crowd for a Sunday service since we got here 8 years ago.  I kept hearing from those returning how great the attitude and atmosphere was at Trenton now.  That was so uplifting and encouraging to me to see the positive progress at this great church! Then at lunch--our ladies had done such a great job of getting the food to the building and serving the delicious meal!  It was our first major event in our remodeled fellowship hall and it went great!  Over 100 people stayed and ate and then stayed around and visited for a long time!  It was wonderful to see people who love each other so much!

As has become our tradition here, there was enough food that we came back together after evening service for the left overs!  We had 60 for evening servce and about 50 stayed and eat!  It is a great blessing to be a part of a great group that loves God and loves each other!

This week, Jamie and I are working on our individula punch lists to get things finished before we head south for the start of the pre-wedding events for Leigh and Nate's wedding on Thursday. I am looking so forward to being with the wedding party this weekend as we get to spend a weekend in Orange Beach.  Jamie and I can really use a little quiet time and to get to spend time together with our family and the two soon to new members is a blessing I am really looking forward to.
When I am up early and praying, I can't help but be thankful for all the blessings God has placed in my life from my parents and sisters and thier families, Jamie and our girls, great son in laws and a perfect granddaughter and a wonderful church to be blessed to work with.  God has really been good to me and I am so blessed!     

WHAT A YEAR!

Today marks the first anniversary of Laurie donating her kidney to Janet.  I was at UAB Wednesday with Charles Hill and we were in the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Unit in Jefferson Towers and I was flooded with memories.  The great memories of the loving kindness of Laurie and how proud we are of her good heart (and kidney, too).  Also I was filled with a great sense of happiness at thinking about how great Janet is doing and how wonderful it has been to grow to have her be a part of our family and to get to be a part of hers too. In less than a year it is so great to see them both with great health and two great Christian ladies who love God and their families.
11 months ago Louise and Dirt brought a great addition to all our lives in precious Ellie.  What a joy it has been to watch her grow and develop. Now in just over a month she'll have her first birthday and they will all come faster for her and her parents, her aunts and her grandparents in the coming year but continue to bring us joy and pride.
Also in less than a year Leigh and Nathan have gotten engaged and in two weeks from right now will be married.  That is a wonderful blessing to our lives as our family expands again with the addition of Nathan.  It has been a great joy to watch them grow as people and as a couple in the last couple of years.  I look forward to seeing them grow in their love for each other and God in coming days. 
A year ago Laurie didn't even know Matt and now in 6 weeks, he too will become part of our family. It was a great source of pride to watch him grow in his interest in Laurie and to watch his increasing interest in studying the Bible culminating with Dirt baptizing him while all the girls were here.  I have never seen Laurie happier and I am so happy that both found the right one in each other.
At church, just about a year ago I was asked to serve on the eldership at Trenton.  I have had a great many things that have been challenges and occasions of joy to me but none have compared to the first year as an elder.  There have been some of the greatest highs and some of the most difficult emotional nights of my life.  It is truly been the greatest honor and the greatest challenge in my life.  It has been a great year at church with some wonderful growth and some great people have become part of our family at Trenton. In over twenty years of preaching it has probably been my most satisfying and peaceful year ever at a congregation.   God has truly blessed us here.
Our work in the Philippines continues to progress as we move into a different area of focus.  Now we are addressing the strengthening of existing congregations in central and eastern Pangasinan.  Our April trip was greatly blessed as we were blessed to be a part of the establishment of a new congregation at Pao and 51 baptisms and some great work with the Binalonan, San Carlos and Urdaneta congregations.  It was a wonderful trip for Chris and I and really continues to show the commitment this congregation has to the work in the Philippines.  Today we met with 21 people and discussed the work and have 3 pretty firm commitments to go with us in April, 2012.  It has truly been a blessed work there.
A year ago, the conventional wisdom in Trenton and Dade County was that tornadoes don't come through here as the mountains keep them out of the valley.  April 27, just 7 days after we had returned from the Philippines, we learned that the conventional wisdom isn't always wise.  4 tornadoes swept over Sand Mountain and devastated areas of our county as the devastation tracked across the South. The work began that night as we cancelled worship services on Wednesday night and then stayed at the building with a number of folks who were seeking shelter in a safe place.  The congregation rallied around and for the next 60 days was immersed in tornado relief.  We did amazing amounts of tree and clean up work, feeding those that were hungry and providing food, cleaning supplies, and clothing to many families in need. We also gave away a lot of gift cards at BI-Lo and provided help in just about anyway that was needed.  I was so proud of the response by the loving Christians at Trenton and the help that came in from churches and brethern around the country.  It was just waht I would have expected out of Christians who have rallied together to help others and glorify God.
Finally how could I reflect on a year without sharing my joy at the progress Jamie has continued to make.  She started about 3 months ago to start to walk every night.  Now she is walking most mornings and evenings and is doing so great.  She has lost about 25 pounds and feels so much better.  She is even running some and continues to feel better and do so much better!  She has been a great joy to me through 32 years and now I am so excited to watch her continue to defy the experts as her recovery from the stroke just continues to amaze me!  She is something special!
Now the next 6 weeks will complete the biggest expansion of our family ever with the addition of Ellie, Nate and Matt.  It also has truly been one of the most blessed years of my life and I look ahead to even greater things to come.  Every day I sure have a lot to give thanks to God for. I also have so many people to thank for all the blessings in my life!  Thanks to you all!  I love you all in a special way!

It's been a BIG summer and lots more to come in the next 60 days!

About the middle of June things started to slow down and return to a more 'normal' pattern as we wound down the Tornado relief and cut the hours we were open back to just two days a week by July 1 and by August 1 are just handling needs as requested by appointments. 
Since then of course, Leigh and Nathan's wedding date has moved closer and closer while Laurie said 'yes' to Matt on July 4 and they set a date for September 24..so we'll have 2 weddings in 4 weeks! But then it'll be really quiet cause that is the end of our gals finding guys!:)
We had a wonderful time in late June at the Palmer Reunion in NC and certainly enjoyed the break mentally and temperture wise.  Jamie and Laurie and Louise joined Leigh in a number of wedding showers during the months of June and July at places from Trenton to Adairsville to Cartersville to Trion, GA ro Montgomery!  I think Jamie really enjoyed it and Leigh was really blessed with a lot of nice gifts.  The nicest thing about all the events for me was it gave me a lot of time to get the be with Ellie in Montgomery:)
It has been a wonderful summer for us at church with Sunday morning crowds close to 90 several times and just wonderful love between the church family.  Several new families have joined us this summer and things are really positive in attitude.That sure makes for a wonderful summer for preachers or elders:)
At the end of July, 29 of the members including me as the 'old man' went to the Hiawassee River to camp and go rafting.  It was the third year in a row we have gone and it was the best time ever.  It was a great time of visiting with members and great growth on closeness between our church family.
Then today after a week of temperatures over 100 it rained last night and was cooler (mid 80's) today so that was nice!  I went out beside the  house and found three 'volunteer' watermelons that were as big as the ones at Bi-Lo and didn't cost me $6.99! They were in the pile of where we throw our food scraps for the animals and birds and I noticed a month or so ago that there were some vines but never saw the watermelons until today....and now at better than 2 feet long, they are about ready to pick!  Plan to send one to Montgomery this weekend with Jamie for the girls and the guys!
Life is clipping along and it won;t be long until we load up to head to Montgomery again to be there to help Leigh and Nate get ready for the wedding and share in their joy! 
Life has been good again this summer...Sure am blessed. Hope your life is too!

A TRIP TO JOPLIN

Thursday, May 26, 2011
On this morning, Chris Gerber, Dakota Holder and I headed out to Joplin, MO to provide and give forward some of the help that we had received here in Dade County.  We loaded the truck with bottled water and a cooler of drinks and snacks and headed out at noon. 
We headed west and Chris drove the whole way and we arrrived at the Mt. Hope Church of Christ in Webb City, MO (just out side Joplin) and got in to the fellowship hall and joined a group of about 20 men who were sleeping on air mattresses and sleeping bags and went to sleep about 11:30 PM CDT. 
Friday, May 27, 2011
Got up at about 6:00 AM and got to have coffee and visit with some of the other folks that had come to help.  The atmosphere is something reminesent of being at a Christian summer camp.  At about 7:30 breakfast, cooked by the ladies there, began to be served and after a short devotional period, we left with a group and we headed to Steve and Mary Ann's home, one of the Mt. Hope elders, that was destroyed in the tornado 5 days earlier.
As we rode in, we skirted the perimeter of the damaged area and it really didn't appear any worse than the areas in Trenton or on Sand Mountain that were slammed by the storm.  We worked all morning at the Sloan's house and across the street removing trees from a man's house.  About noon, the Mt.Hope ladies had brought sandwiches and drinks and we took a break for lunch.  There were LOTS of trees on the lot Dakota and I were cutting on, while Chris spent the morning helping them load a dumpster with the trash that a week ago had been their home and possessions.
We went back and started clearing more trees and continuing the cleanup, when just before 1:30 PM, we got word that a Severe Thunderstorm Warning had been issued for Joplin.  It did not take much to get the group from there or us, to close down and head for a safe location at the church building.  While we were at the building we were asked to ahve a special prayer for one of the members there whose father in Texas had jsut had a major heart attack and was in surgery.  It is great to be part of God's Family.
We spent about two hours listening to it rain at the fellowship hall and then at about 3 PM headed back to the Sloans' to continue there.  When we arrived we got out and slogged through the back yard but it was so muddy and soft we couldn't get the tractor in or really even walk much with out sinking in the mud so we had to head some where else.
We went to the house of a man who was not a Christian, but Richard was really a good guy.  His house had been devasted by the storm and now he needed some help in cleaning out the shell of his home that reamins.  When we got there, soon there were about 35 of us who had come to Joplin to work wearing the bright green Joplin Church of Christ Mission shirts and we went to work.  It was really sad in so many ways to come across the things that had been his family's life of memories and now they were just a soggy muck that had to be loaded in to wheelbarrows and taken to the road to be hauled off. Richard worked for a constuction company and they had brought a Bobcat over to help with the clean up and Dakota was happy to operate that for them!  He is pretty amazing on about any machine!
In about 3 hours we had pretty well cleaned everything out of what remained of his house and a great deal of what was in in his yard.  As we began to load up to leave just before the curfew took effect, we met together with him for prayer and after he had shook and hugged everyone there, we had a prayer and he sobboed through it.  He could not say enough times how much he appreciated it and what it meant to him for people he didn't even know to come and help like that.  I think a real opportunity is there to influence him to follow Jesus.  And that's what it's all about.
We returned to the Mt. Hope fellwoship hall and the ladies had prepared a wonderful supper of bar-b-que and the fixins and we enjoyed it and got to visit and clean up.  The church building had hot water but no showers. So I was getting instructions from some of the folks on the best way to clean up without a shoower including being told you could take wet wipes and put them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and get a warm clean up!  Then I found out they had portable solar showers outside (like for camping).  Well, now things began to make sense!  Hot water from the kitchen and portable showers meant I was going to be clean tonight!  And I did!  It is was a little like showering in a phone booth, size wise, and you had to change clothes inside the booth, but it felt pretty good to have warm water washing the mud and sawdust off!
We jsut visited until about 10:30 PM and then the group from Ralla, MO led the devothional and it was a quick trip to dream land for me!  I'm still not completely used to running a chain saw for 4-5 hours a day!
SATURDAY, May 28, 2011
Woke up about 5:30 and got the coffee with the early crew and got to visit and really enjoyed that. There was a large group from Ralla and they were a lot of fun and great people.  After a breakfast of pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs, we had a devotional where Greg Spann, the preacher at Mt Hope spoke.  His wife had been trapped in the Wal-Mart and first he was told she was not among the surviviors.  He went home and told his kids then they returned to the store ruins to search for her.  This time a store manager told him he remembered someone matching her descripion and she was injured with what appeared to be a broken back and headed to a nearby hospital.  On his way out in the car, his kids saw her and jumped out of the still rolling car to find her safe and with just minor scratches.  Not many dry eyes left in the room as he told that!
We then helped move some supplies and Dakota sharpened some chainsaws. We decided that it was too wet to get the equiptment running and they had a large contingent to do the clean up work, so at about 10:30 AM we decided to head home a couple of hours early.
It was a wonderful experience to be able to help and realize how that even in the damamge we suffered here, God in His divine providence still blessed us!