Saturday, January 16, 2010

Saturday Funeral

Today we will drive to Sperry, Oklahoma, to attend another funeral of the mother of one of our congregation. Our daughter is going with us. It's about an hour and a half drive. The funeral is at 1:30 so we will leave here about 11:30.

We will probably eat out tonight since we will be gone awhile for this funeral.

I have cleaned the top of my stove this morning and done some cleaning in the kitchen.

Slinky has been real good this morning about not coming to the doorway and dripping his saliva all over my laminated floor. I put him out yesterday after warning him several times and also putting up the barricade.

Bob just came in with some groceries and refilling his thyroid pills. He forgot to get my calcium and instead got vitamin C. He also forgot his razor blades. So he's making another trip back to the Wal Mart store.

Ho Hum...

We just got back from the funeral. It's 4:15. It went well and we saw many people we knew there.

It was held at the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That's one of the many churches that broke off from ours when we began ordaining women in 1987.

I find those services to be interesting because it's just like stepping back in the 50's. Men there are in dark suits with white shirts and ties. Even the organist was a man. But the funeral was good...for a funeral.

Friday, January 15, 2010

More News from the Church

Contact Made with Church Leaders in Haiti
15 January 2010

Apostle Bunda Chibwe and Executive Assistant Steve Graffeo were able to speak with Michel Rosier, Haiti Mission Centre Financial Officer this morning on the phone. "Michel reported to us that his home is destroyed and he and his family are living in the street. Renand Hilaire, our Mission Center President and 3 of his children sustained injuries when their home was destroyed and they too are living in the street," said Graffeo.

We have been able to determine that most of the damage and destruction has occurred within the Department of the West. Community of Christ has more than 10,000 members in this area along with 40 churches and 20 schools.

"At this time we know that the school in Petionville is completely destroyed and the church standing near the school has sustained major damage," said Graffeo. "We have confirmed the deaths of 7 church members." He continued, "On a more hopeful note, we learned that the school had just released all the children for the day minutes before the earthquake hit, hopefully enabling the children to be out of the building before it collapsed."

Apostle Chibwe was also able to speak with Faustin Charlestin, a world church minister in Haiti, on the phone last night. Faustin’s home has been completely leveled and he and his family are living in the only church still standing in Croix de Bouquet. He was deeply moved to hear from Apostle Chibwe and to know members around the world are praying for him and his people.

"When I asked Faustin how the people were doing, he said the church is packed with people who have no where else to go. Then he shouted, ‘Praise be to God’ and then I heard a chorus of voices in the background shout back to him, ‘Praise to the Lord, Praise to the Lord,’" said Chibwe. "And then I heard singing. In my African heritage, when a man cries it is seen as a sign of weakness but when I heard that singing tears started dropping from my eyes. I wondered how these people who have lost so much could still praise the Lord at a time like this. Their faith has touched me deeply."

Chibwe continued, "When I asked Faustin how we could help he replied immediately, ‘Everything is destroyed, there are dead bodies everywhere. Continue to pray for us. We need prayer.’"

Chibwe and Graffeo will continue to make contact with church leaders over the coming days. As soon as an evaluation team is able to get into the country, specific needs will be assessed. Your continued prayers and donations to the Oblation Fund are critically important.

Quiet Friday to Reflect on the Earthquake

Hopefully this will be a quiet Friday. Now I have time to share our church's concerns about the Haitian earthquake.

As of 11 a.m. (Central Time) on Thursday we have only been able to make very limited contact with our church leaders or members in Haiti. “We are using every means possible—phone, cell phone, email, HAM radio, person to person, etc— to make contact with our people, but so far these efforts have resulted in little success.” said President David Schaal.

The response of the church around the world has been amazing and immediate. We have been thanked for our donations to the Oblation Fund and for the prayers we have so fervently lifted up on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Haiti. We are trusting that many more people will yet respond, given the immensity of the need. We have nearly 25,000 members and 300 congregations in Haiti. Our best estimates are that 15 congregations and 7,500 people may be directly impacted by this disaster.

The church also recognizes there are numerous people who want to volunteer and help in a physical way. In the immediate future that kind of assistance is not practical due to lack of infrastructure and support for volunteers. At this time, teams of trained search and rescue professionals and trained relief workers are what is needed most.

As soon as possible the church will be sending a team of people that will assess the needs of our church members and friends. After the assessment is reviewed we will let the church know what specific skills and volunteers are needed, as well as how to volunteer.

It's a major catastrophe!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Busy, Busy Thursday

Today Bob had another doctor's appointment. She thought the arm and hand looked a little better so she wants to see him again in two weeks. We went to the funeral of a friend this afternoon and when we got home it was swollen larger than ever. Maybe it was too much activity. He went on to his PINCH meeting tonight though so he doesn't let it stop him.

It was an Episcopal funeral and I was struck by how much like a Catholic service it was. We all took communion from a common cup so I hope no one was ill.

I finally got my minutes finished from the Montgomery County Community Clinic Board meeting Tuesday. The financial officer e-mailed me his notes and that was a tremendous help.

Tomorrow, thank goodness, we have nothing planned. That will be a good restful period. This has been such a busy week. And the weather is supposed to be in the 50's. I can hardly wait!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Busy Wednesday

This morning I moved my hair appointment to 10:00. Afterward, I will go to the banks and try to find out what their CD rates are. The church has some money they need to get invested with interest. I hope to take care of that this morning.

Then Bob and I have Ministerial Association at Mercy Hospital. We will attend that and then come home. Slinky will be cold unless the weather warms up considerably. Right now he is lying next to my chair as I write this.

More later:

We put Slinky out about 9:30 and took off for Independence. The secretary didn't show so I took the minutes and after the meeting I went around town and checked CD rates so we could save some money for our congregation and receive some interest on it. The best we could do was 2.05%. What a tragedy! Bank executives can get multi-million dollar bonuses but they only pay savers 2.05% interest. There something wrong with that picture.

We got home about 2:00 and I worked on those minutes and got them out in e-mail.

We had a nice lunch so we just had a sandwich for supper. Slinky finally settled down to bed about 5:30. I will be so glad when the weather gets warmer and this poor dog can get back to his "normal" life. It can't be too exciting to live in my kitchen.

The doctor called this morning to say her child was sick and throwing up so she wouldn't be in. I told her Bob's appointment is in the morning. His skin looks a little better but there's not a lot of difference in his hand and arm.

Maybe we will know more tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Board Meeting Tuesday

I have my Montgomery County Medical Clinic board meeting this morning at 11:00 today and it will be my first as secretary of the board. The minutes are quite involved and I have not yet received the agenda. I hope Suzy sends it to me this morning before I leave. We will leave around 10:30.

We hope to take our daughter to lunch today is she is free. Sometimes, her husband meets her for lunch since this is one of his days off.

Other then that, I will do some more cleaning. I am already doing a couple of loads of laundry this morning. It is supposed to warm up to the 40's today and I know Slinky will want to be outside. That will simplify our lives some. I hope the snow melts this week. It should get into the 50's by the end of the week.

More later: Right now I will fix Bob's breakfast. He just got up

I almost forgot to go to my sister's today. My brother-in-law wanted to go have breakfast with his friends.

It finally warmed up some and we went to Independence for my meeting. Bob had the oil changed in the car while I was doing my meeting. We put Slinky outside. It was a little cool for him out there but he was better off outside then stuck in that kitchen. After lunch with our daughter, we went to Wal Mart where I bought an ink cartridge for my printer.

Then I came home and tried to do my minutes. I did fairly well until I got to the financial report and then I couldn't make head nor tails of my notes. I'm going to have to get hold of the treasurer and ask him to clarify my notes.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Monday's Doctor's Appointment

Bob had his doctor's appointment this morning and the swelling was much worse. It was also badly inflamed. She prescribed a stronger antibiotic. She said after the infection was gone, he had to have a biopsy to see what was causing it. He is dead set against a biopsy. She said the first thing was to get the infection under control.

Then there is a chance he could have a needle biopsy instead of a surgery type biopsy. He is still dead set against it but first things first.

She thinks it is cancer. She also said if it were, he might could be treated by radiation instead of surgery...or chemo.

But she won't know anything for sure until she gets the infection under control.

On top of that, he has dermatitis. She gave me a note for some salve to treat that and she wants to see him again Thursday. She is concerned about the dermatitis because of his diabetes.

More News: All three of our children have contacted him today and told him they wanted him to have the biopsy so he would know what he was dealing with. After he knew that, he could then decide the next move.

I believe he will eventually do that but before he can do anything, the infection needs to be cleared up.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Church Today

Even though it's 7 degrees below zero, we will have church today. It's our congregational budget business meeting before the worship service. It's supposed to warm up quite a bit before noon. We will have to leave Slinky in the kitchen, which is scary. If he has to go pee or anything more serious, he will be trapped in the kitchen for three hours. I hate winter.

Maybe we can drop by home before we go to lunch and let him out briefly. It depends on where we eat lunch. I'd just as soon eat here at home but Bob will probably want to eat out with Leslie.

We ate out last night at Sirloin Stockade and it usually is pretty good. Last night though, it was bad. It will be awhile before we go back there.

When we get home I will do my weekly newsletters and then we will stay home tonight. Thank goodness they moved Living the Questions to next Sunday evening. I do not like to get out in the snow at night.

I am hoping it will warm up enough for the snow to melt this week. It has been on the ground for two weeks and I am sick of it.

Update: That's what we did. It was almost 30 degrees after church so we let Slinky out before we went to dinner with the group.