It seems like yesterday our youngest was born and now she's just over five months! When I brought her home, I was so concerned about her because she was so thin and frail. Now she's growing like a weed with chubby cheeks and all. She's starting to roll over and we'll begin giving her solid food soon. Baby #3 is just starting to sleep in her big girl bed so we can move her younger sister in the crib. We were most fortunate to come across a young woman in the next town who was getting married and wanted to give away her bedroom furniture (twin bed, 3 and 5 drawer dressers, and a desk) for free. The Lord's timing is amazing.
The older two have finished school and are doing remarkable well. Next fall they will be entering first and fourth grades. It doesn't seem possible that time is moving this fast, but the Lord has blessed me with some amazing children. I just went upstairs to tuck these two into bed. One was sitting on the bed reading a book and listening to the local Christian radio station, the other was lying in bed listening to the Jesus Storybook Bible on CD. What's a father to do with such rebellious children?!?!? :) (I know. Many of you are thinking, "Just wait.")
I've completed another semester at school, which means just another a year and I'll be done. My bride and I have begun having conversations about where we'd like to go after this, but we realize that much will likely change in the next 6-12 months. So we will wait and see; pursue every angle and opportunity and watch the Lord work as He has so very many times in the past. Have I mentioned lately, that I'm married to an AMAZING woman? To embrace this Venture as she has with all the uncertainty and knowing the extreme lack of earthly rewards to come is just one indication of the great faith she has in our God. I'm glad we're in this together.
I've been looking to do some clean-up of the church grounds here where we live. Especially the playground that is in desperate need of attention. During one of the severe storms that came through here a few months ago, a tree to fell on part of the fence of the playground. There are also several dead trees around the playground that need to come down. So, earlier this week I went out and bought a chainsaw. I know this will cause concern for some, but please know that I spent many, MANY hours of my youth cutting, splitting and stacking wood. So far I've taken down two of the smaller dead trees and I've cleared back to the tree that fell on the fence and cut enough to get it off the fence. There's still a lot of clean-up left to do in and around the playground, but I'm happy to report progress is being made. With all the wood that I'm cutting up, I'm planning on getting some large stones and building a fire pit so we can have church picnics with campfires for making s'mores and such. I think it's going to look pretty nice once we have everything done!
The weather this spring so far has been crazy to say the least. I knew back at the beginning of April when the local weatherman said to expect the weather to be "schizophrenic" that we'd be in for some weird stuff. So far we've been safe through it all. We had the power go out here for about 26 hours last week, but that was the worst that we've experienced in all of this. On Good Friday, I decided to go into work early based on the weather forecast. This proved to be a great decision because I was able to get my truck and get to the main hospital before a tornado touched down along the route I had just traveled. Recently a tornado dropped on Joplin, MO and completely devastated the town as well as one of our hospitals there. This is unfortunately not an isolated incident as several areas have seen heavy weather related damage. While there is no silver lining to these storms, I am encouraged to see the generosity of people who will step up to help people they've never met. One local radio talk show host wanted to have a donation drive for the people of Joplin. So they contacted a local grocery store and made arrangements to do a remote broadcast from their parking lot and asked people to bring donations of water, diapers, etc. They thought that they might fill a small moving van. Instead they filled 3 semi trailers. They had to ask people on their radio show to stop bringing donations because they had to get the trucks on the road. One might think with the bad economy, high unemployment and high gas prices that people would scale back their giving, but it turns out that generosity has increased!
Today is Memorial Day. I want to give a sincere "Thank You" to all of our service personnel. You're sacrifice is amazing and selfless. I pray God's blessing and safety for all of you. For those who are remembering fallen loved ones, I pray for God's peace and comfort to surround you. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13)
No comments:
Post a Comment