Saturday and Breakfast Out

Bob and I will have breakfast out again this morning. We do that every Saturday morning.  I will pick him up at 6:45. We will probably go to Eggberts. Every once in awhile, I get a cold breakfast. Last week that happened. I hate to pay almost $8.00 for cold eggs.

My older son, Keith, called last evening. We had a nice visit.  He is such a joy.

My daughter texted me last night too. Last fall the Bredesen's and I went to the business meeting of the Cherokee Nation in South Coffeyville and I won the door prize. It was a bag full of goodies. Two of those winnings were letters for an overnight stay and dinner for two at the Hard Rock Casino (I believe that is in Tulsa, Oklahoma) and I knew I would never use them so I gave them to Leslie. She and John, my son-in-law, and their best friends, Cyndi and Jeff, finally used those winnings this Friday night and Saturday. Today is Cyndi's birthday. That is a nice gift and I am glad Leslie was able to share them with Cyndi and Jeff.

I have such great kids. I have been very lucky with them. They are all three good productive caring people.  I was awfully strict with them as children. They have forgiven me a lot.

I had a cup of Chai Latte while waiting for time to go pick up Bob for breakfast. I need something warm in my stomach in the morning. This entire week is supposed to be cold again. I don't know when I will be able to rake and bag leaves again. It is 39 degrees just now. The warmest it is supposed to get this week is 52 degrees. And we are also forecast for some rain. The south, like North Carolina, got some snow last night.

More later....

I had a nice hot breakfast this morning. I had a sausage and cheese omelet with lots of coffee. Instead  of hash browns I had fruit. I'm not much for potatoes for breakfast. They are too heavy.

I may make cookies this afternoon. I ate the last two last evening.

I have had my friend, Gay, on my mind again lately.  She has her hands full with a husband on dialysis and a nearly 100 year old mother to care for. I pray for her a lot.

More later....

I heard from Gay twice today. She has such a trial. 

I did make cookies this afternoon and then lay down with Missy for a rest and short nap.

Then I went over to the Country Time Antique Mall and walked around. Then I went to Trinkets and Trash and looked around there. I didn't buy anything anywhere. Right now, it's just so much junk.

I stopped at the Country Mart and bought a Coffeyville Journal. 

Bob came over about 5:30 and watched the news and read the Journal. He left about 6:30 or 7:00. He stopped on his way out and ate a cookie.

I took my shower and washed my hair and Missy and I watched TV until 8:00. Then I moved the bedroom clock up to 9:00 and we went to bed.

Again... I was very tired. 

Friday and Leaves Again

I just took the Reporter over to Marilyn's and noticed that the wind has changed to the north and there are leaves all over the fourplex center again. I imagine my flowerbeds are full again on the east side of the apartment. Oh my! And it is cold again.  I will work up my courage to go look and take some photos again.  It's a never ending fight against the leaves.

I slept very well again last night. In fact, I didn't get up until 5:30.  I woke up twice during the night but the second time I took a melatonin tablet and got right back to sleep. I have fed Missy and myself and dressed, of course.  The bathmat I washed last night was not completely dry so I put it back in the dryer.

I will go to exercise class this morning. Afterward I don't know what the plan is. It will be too cold to clean up leaves again. It is 38 degrees again. It will get up to only about 50 degrees today.

We will eat our goulash for lunch today. Bob brought some garlic bread to eat with it and we have his salad and my green beans again. I still have the cupcakes I made on Monday. I will take some goulash to Marilyn too.

More later...

It wasn't as bad as I thought at first. If it warms up enough today I will get them cleaned up again this afternoon.

This is by my back door. There are a few leaves there but not so many I can't clean thm up again if the weather warms up this afternoon.

This next to my patio. Someone's trash is there too. There are a few leaves there alright but not enough that I can't  deal with them if it warms up enough.

This is over in the fourplex center and you can see Russell's new SUV parked there. There are a lot more leaves in the center then on the east side of my apartment.

This is over next to Russell's apartment. It could be worse. There are also a lot of leaves on my carport again too. I will need to clean those up or I will have leaves tracked into my apartment.

Oh well! As Scott, my younger son said, it is good exercise. If it warms up enough, I will get them cleaned up again.

More later....

I went to pick up Bob and go to exercise class after I took the sacks I saved to Genesis.  I have the goulash out of the frig now and will warm it up at 11:00. It's only 10:00 now though so I have a while.

So more even later...

The goulash was fine..in fact better then usual. We had the garlic toast  and green beans along with Bob's salad and for dessert we had two of the cupcakes.

I rested in the afternoon and didn't go anywhere or really do anything. I sure didn't rake leaves. It was too cold out. 

Later in the afternoon around 5:30, Bob came over and we watched the news and Brooks and Gershen on PBS.

He left at 7:00 and I took my bath and lay with Missy on the sofa until 8:00 when we both we both went to bed.  I was very tired.

Why Do Good People Suffer?

In a nutshell, the prophetic view is that the reason the people of God suffer (military defeat; political, economic, social nightmares; natural disasters) is because they have sinned against God and are continuing to avoid following his law and his ways, and so God is punishing them for it as a way of getting them to wake up, take notice, and return to his ways.. As an example I have read selections from Amos chs. 1-5.

The apocalyptic view, in my opinion, was a later reaction to this prophetic view. In the apocalyptic way of understanding things, it is not God who is causing his people to suffer, but forces aligned against God and his people, evil cosmic powers that have this world in their grip and that are making the lives of the righteous miserable as a result. But according to this view, God is soon to intervene in history to over throw the forces of evil and set up his good kingdom. So people need to hold on to their faith and remain true to God, so that they will be rewarded when history comes to a crashing halt in the very near future. I think this was the view of Jesus and Paul and others among the early Christians.

I personally find the first, prophetic, view to be rather unhelpful. (The reason you are suffering is because God is punishing you for your sin.) The second was one I eventually came to think of it as too thoroughly rooted in an eschatological hope that I thought, at the end of the day, was simply unrealistic and untrue. I’m afraid I no longer think that God is going to make right all that is wrong.

The view of Ecclesiastes is more in tune with how I look at the world today. HEVEL is a Greek term that refers to something that is transient and fleeting; it is the mist that appears above the ground early in the morning that then is burned off. It’s here for a little bit, and then is gone. Life, for Ecclesiastes, is like that. Everything is fleeting and impermanent. It comes, it goes, it disappears; then it comes again, and goes, and disappears.

And that includes us. We are here for a little while and then we are gone. So what’s the point? You may make a lot of money and then you die, and, well, what good does your money do you? You become well known and influential, you have a fantastic career, you are admired by all – and then you die. Your children will remember you. But your grandchildren, not so much. And your great-grandchildren, forget about it. In 100 years, probably no one will even think of you any more than you think of your ancestors who died 100 years ago. And that’s only 100 years. What about 200 years? Or 1000 years? Or 10,000 years? Or … pick your number of years. And so what’s the point?

For Ecclesiastes, the point is that you should enjoy life as much as you can as long as you can, since you won’t be here long. I resonate with that. And I do not find it at all depressing. On the contrary, I find it completely liberating. We should live for now. This is not a dry run for something else or a dress rehearsal for the real thing to come. This is IT. And we should enjoy it fully.

I want to say that in my opinion it is not possible to enjoy life fully if we are not ourselves helping others who are in need so that they *too* can enjoy life fully. A number of people find that hard to believe; these people appeared to think that if life is short and then it’s over with, that should necessarily lead to a kind of rank hedonism. I don’t think so. I *absolutely* don’t think so. I think a life helping others is part of what it means to life live to its fullest.

Thursday and Meatloaf Day

I slept fairly well last night even though I woke up shortly after midnight. (Missy and I went to bed shortly after 8:00). I took my med and went back to bed and lay there for an hour...wide awake. Finally, I got back up and took a Melatonin tablet.  The body makes Melatonin naturally but the blue light from the TV, smart phone, and computers turn off the body's ability to produce it. That one reason why people are having a hard time sleeping anymore. Taking a supplement sometimes helps. It certainly did last night. I slept until almost 6:00...unusual for me.

I have fed both Missy and myself and have watched the weather and checked the computer for news. I like getting my national news from the computer where there are not a half dozen interrupting commercials every five to ten minutes. The terrible commercials are one of my pet peeves.

In a little while I will mix up my meatloaf. I made my goulash yesterday and we will have it on Friday.  I will fix baked potatoes in the microwave for today and a veggie and Bob will bring a salad. I have cupcakes for dessert from the cake I made on Monday.

I don't have an agenda today after lunch. The apartment is clean and I will have to check the flowerbeds to see if they need additional work. I took some photos yesterday afternoon but never got them downloaded on the computer. They are still on the camera.

I will get them downloaded soon.

Here is one photo of the Lenten Luncheon crowd. You can see there appears to be over 125 people there.

 And here were the flowerbeds and east yard yesterday afternoon.

Pretty clear then. I will have to check them today.

Notice the miniature rosebush all greened up already and just south of it, are a clump of bulbs...ready to bulb and bloom.

Even the area around the air conditioning unit was pretty clear. Of course this was yesterday, It's too cold to check again just yet. It's supposed to get up to 50 degrees later today.

I'd better get that meatloaf mixed up. More later....

There were some leaves again around the east side...but not too many. I decided to clean them up and then do the west side. It is almost 11:00 now and I need to get my meatloaf in the microwave soon so this will be short.

This is primarily the west side..or the middle of the fourplex. I don't know how long it will last but it looks a lot cleaner now.

 Here's another view...

It will be interesting to see how long it lasts this time. Notice that leaving those leaves on all winter has killed a lot of the grass. You can see it worse in front of Russell's apartment in the first photo here. That's Russell's new Ford in the lower photo. .

More later...time to start that meatloaf baking!...

Well lunch turned out fine!  After Bob left, I went to the pharmacy to pick up my blood pressure med. I rested awhile after that and then stopped at Sonic and had a small mini Sonic blast with Reese's pieces. I know I shouldn't but I just can't help it about once a week. It's only a mini!

More later....It's a little after 3:00 PM now. Right after 4:00 I get the Reporter.

The Reporter came early and I got it read and the crossword puzzle done as well. Bob came about 5:15 after I took some meatloaf to my neighbor, Marilyn. We watched the news and at 6:30, he left. Missy and I stayed up until 8:30 and watched TV and then we went on to bed. I was very tired after all that raking and bagging of leaves. 

The Teachings of Jesus and God’s Kingdom

I try to adhere to the ethical teachings of Jesus as I see them.  He summarized the entire Torah of Moses by stating two principle commandments.  The first was Deuteronomy 6:4-6, that you should love God with all your heart, soul, and being.  But it’s not a directly ethical statement in any event (except to the extent that one loves God, in large part, by how one lives one’s life).  The second was Leviticus 19:18, that you should love your neighbor as yourself.  That’s getting to the core of ethics.

For Jesus, love was to be the major guiding factor of one’s life.  Originally the commandment in Leviticus referred to how Israelites should live together in their Israelite community.  The “neighbor” was your fellow Israelite.  You were to love – that is, treat – your Israelite neighbor as yourself.   That didn’t mean you were supposed to love/treat anyone else that way.  On the contrary, you were supposed to *kill* the Canaanites, Moabites, and Midianites.  But your fellow Israelite you were to love as yourself.

Jesus had a broader vision, as I understand him.  Your neighbor included even your worst enemies.  You were to love them as you love yourself.  And what exactly does that mean?

It’s debated of course (what isn’t?).  But I think Jesus had a very simple understanding of it.  You feed yourself, so you should feed anyone else who is hungry; you clothe yourself, so you should clothe anyone who is lacking; you provide shelter for yourself, so you should help those who are homeless.   You should be as concerned for the welfare of others as you are concerned for your own welfare.

The other way Jesus expressed the same (or roughly the same) idea was in the Golden Rule, an ethical principle endorsed by numerous other ethical teachers both before and after Jesus.  Normally the Golden Rule was expressed negatively:  “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.”  Jesus, though, expressed it positively, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

The positive way of expressing the saying is much more difficult than the negative, since it requires action: doing things that are helpful rather than simply not doing things that are harmful.

I deeply admire both these summaries of Jesus’ ethical teachings (“Love your neighbor” and “Do unto others”).  But I also have two problems with them.  The first is practical and the other is theoretical.  They both strike me as rather severe.

The practical one is that I really don’t practice either principle.  I don’t really love my neighbor as myself.  But do I really do everything I can?  Not even close.  I live in a nice apartment ; I drive a very nice car yet old car; I buy as many nice clothes as I can afford: I absolutely am not one who has given up everything for the kingdom.  Not even close.  If there is a future judgment scene with the separation of the sheep and the goats, I can pretty well imagine the cosmic judge saying, “What the h** were you thinking???”

The theoretical problem is one I’ve thought about a lot over the years, but is the thing that really hit me yesterday.   Jesus’ ethics were completely grounded in a view of the world that I simply don’t have.  Jesus believed the history of this world was very soon to come to a crashing halt, that God was soon to intervene to overthrow the forces of evil and bring in a good kingdom here on earth, a utopian existence in which there would be no more pain, misery, or suffering.

Followers of Jesus were supposed to implement the ideals of that kingdom in the here and now.

In the kingdom there would be no war, so Jesus’ followers were to be peacemakers now; in the kingdom there would be no hatred, so Jesus’ followers were to live lives of pure love now; in the kingdom there would be no hunger, so Jesus’ followers were to work to alleviate hunger now; in the kingdom there would be no illness, so Jesus’ followers were to heal the sick now; and so on.

These ethical principles were predicated on the apocalyptic idea that God was ultimately sovereign over this world, and he was very soon to reassert his sovereignty by destroying all the powers of evil opposed to him and establishing an eternal kingdom here and now.  The meaning of life in the mundane present was determined by the transcendent reality that was to become manifest in the near future.

I don’t believe any of that.  I don’t think there is a divine realm above our realm.  I don’t think that there will be a supernatural intervention in the course of human affairs in which all that is evil will be destroyed and all suffering and misery will be removed from the human realm.
 
I do believe in God although certainly not like other Christians believe. I do not believe Jesus was God in any sense. I believe he was a remarkable human with the cultural view of the world very much like others of his culture. But he had compassion for the unfortunate poor and sick.

I do believe we are living in God’s kingdom..just a very flawed kingdom since humans are in charge of it and some of them inevitably screw up anything they involved in. But there are millions of humans that do their very best to follow Jesus’s teachings. They do feed the hungry, heal the sick, help the homeless find shelter…they try to live good productive lives.

But Jesus’ entire ethics were completely predicated on the coming kingdom of God.   And so even though I do try (in a small way) to follow the ethical principles of Jesus, it is for *entirely* different reasons.

If I happen to follow and admire some of the principles of Buddhism (for example, I meditate) that doesn’t make me a Buddhist; and if I happen to follow and admire some of the principles of Jesus, that doesn’t necessarily make me a traditional type Christian.  Our culture has dozens of ways of expressing being "Christian".  Some I definitely couldn't embrace

That, at least, is how I’m thinking about it at the moment.

Wednesday and Back to Exercises and Lenten Luncheons

Google is very slow loading my blog. Every morning I have to wait a minute or two for my blog to load. I have no idea what the problem is.

I slept well until 3:30 this morning and then I awoke wide awake and could not get back to sleep. So..I just got up.

I checked my bank site and found that my social security had come in. That was a welcome discovery.  I will need to go to the ATM this morning and get some money for the week. Then I will go to exercise class this morning. I missed Monday so I could rake leaves and vacuum the apartment. I will go to Lenten Luncheon today at the Nazarene Church. I also want to go play Bingo at the senior center this afternoon. After that, I need to go to Walmart and get a few groceries. It will be a busy day. Undoubtedly, I will be very tired this evening.

When it gets light outside I want to check the status of my flowerbeds and the yard. It may be full of leaves again but I won't have time to rake today. I may take some more photos if they are still clean.

More later...

I checked the flowerbeds and they are not too bad....at least they weren't this morning. I did get a photo of them again but have not downloaded it on any of my computers yet.   I went to exercise class and we celebrated the March birthdays with cake and an ice cream bar.

Later Bob, my brother-in-law, and I went to the Lenten Luncheon at the Nazarene Church.  The food was good and the fellowship was too but the theology was all salvation theology...a theology I do not buy into. That is a later theology and such words were put into Jesus' mouth by much later writers.   I do believe Jesus accepted the theology of the culture of his time in history. But I believe his teachings were primarily about bettering this life...not the afterlife.

When I got home, I made the goulash for Friday. In the morning I will make my meatloaf for tomorrow. We will have baked (in the microwave) potatoes with that and a veggie. Bob will bring a salad and Texas toast.

Now, it's time for the PBS show, "Nature", and that is Missy's favorite show so I will need to finish this at a later time. I will probably go to bed at 8:00 or so. I was up at 3:30 this morning.

Tuesday and Hair Day and Cakes

I have fed Missy, my cat, and myself and I am dressed and ready for the day.  I even have the cakes loaded into my trunk.

I will have to stop at the church to pick up Phyllis' cake and I want to pick up a piece of that tile in the foyer so I can go to Derailed Commodity and see how close I can come to matching it or getting a contrasting tile. Sue thinks she can get her son, who is a contractor, to put it in. Where the two slabs of cement come together, the cement has developed a crack and the tile breaks all along that break. There are 7 broken tiles. The kitchen has done the same thing. I think Randy Winebrenner, the man that laid it 19 years ago, should have put down an underlayment and did not.  He said you only use an underlayment where you have wood floors and since we have a concrete slab it wasn't necessary. Well, he was wrong. It has been replaced at least three times and it continues to break.  This may be a futile exercise.

I slept very well last night and got up at my regular time at 5:00.

First, when I get to  Independence, I will take Bob over to visit with his sister, Betty. Then I will get my hair done. After I pick him up, we will go to Derailed Commodity to look for that tile.

When I get home, I'll see what kind of mess the storm made of my yard and flowerbeds. I won't work on it again since my hair will be freshly done. I will just have to live with it for several days.

When it gets light I will take my camera and go survey the damage to the yard and take some more photos.

So...more later....

Sure enough..leaves in my flowerbed again. Sigh...

 I guess it could be worse. But I spent three hours raking and bagging the leaves yesterday. It's just an unending job. It was good exercise though. I have to look at it that way..

Even the south end of that flowerbed is full again.

More leaves near the raised flowerbed John made for me when I moved here.

I guess I will wait a few days to try to clean them out again. I am getting my hair done today and besides they are wet from last night's rain.

More later....

The wind was down this afternoon so I did rake and bag more leaves. I got one big bag from the east side. I will have to do the west side another day.

When I finished raking and picking up sticks from the storm, I went over to Wayne's and visited with him. Wayne is 96 and is very lonely.

Bob came while I was gone and started his laundry and checked his bank account.  After I got home, he came back.

After he left, I laid down with Missy for awhile and watched TV and also took a short nap.

Bob came back after 5:00 to watch the news here. When he left at 6:30, I took my bath and put my PJs on and watched TV until 8:00. I could not keep my eyes open any longer and Missy and I went on to bed.   I

Monday and No Exercises

I slept well last night. I woke up a couple of times but got back to sleep finally. I seldom sleep through the night without waking some at least once.

I don't think I will go to exercise class today. I never had the time (or the inclination) to vacuum last week.  I want to get the apartment cleaned. I did do the bare floors but never vacuumed the carpets. I kept thinking I would get it done but kept putting it off.

The winds are strong again today. I can't keep my hair looking like anything with all this wind.

Tomorrow I will get it cut and done while I am in Independence. I need to bake my cake today for the First Christian Church there. I will take them up in the morning, get my hair done and then go out to Derailed Commodity to look for tile for the foyer at church. One area, where the two slabs come together in the foyer, has separated and several of the tiles are broken.  They have been replaced at least twice but keep breaking. Sue thinks she may be able to get her son, Randy, to replace them if I can find something suitable that would blend.  I won't be able to get a match because those tiles were laid in 1999. After all that, Bob and I will eat lunch at Big Cheese.

We are having cornbread and beans today. I soaked the beans overnight and they are in the slow cooker now. By noon they should be done and I will bake the cornbread.  Tomorrow, as I said, we will eat at Big Cheese and Wednesday we will go to Lenten luncheon at the Nazarene church then Thursday we will have meatloaf and baked potatoes with a veggie and a salad that Bob will bring. Maybe when I bake my cake today I can make some cupcakes for us.

Friday we will have the beans and cornbread again.

I finally remembered to give Leslie the DVD of her dad's 2001 interview at the Red Cross after he returned from New York following the disaster there with the twin towers. I also gave her Scott's donation to her Relay for Life in his memory. 

More later....

I went out and bagged leaves for an hour...not that it will do much good. No one else does that. But at least for this morning my flowerbeds look better. I'd better take a photo of them because by afternoon they may be right back in the same shape they were this morning.There is a strong wind.

Here are the areas I got cleaned out this morning:

Here's another view:

And another...

And one more...

They look good now but we are to get even more wind this afternoon...up to 40 mile an hour winds. It will be interesting to see what these areas will look like then.

More later...I want to vacuum and then go rake the middle.... the part just west of my carport. Otherwise, those leaves will be sure to be on my carport again.

I got the vacuuming finished and then raked the leaves on the west side of my apartment. I don't know how long it will last but there are four bags of leaves that will not blow around again. We are  supposed to have a 40 mile per hour wind this afternoon.

Here are some photos of the west side.  This is directly west of Jeanie's and my carport.

This is in front of Jeanie's apartment. No leaves now. ...for now.

This is the Russell's front door area.  Nice and clean for now.  You can see where those leaves laying there for several months have killed the grass. I hope it comes back.

These are the last photos for now....I'd better go mix up the cornbread. Lunch is in an hour. I also need to check the beans.

Lunch was good. I took Marilyn R. some beans and cornbread  and she gave us some cake.
The wind has come up now and many leaves are still blowing around. Bob has gone to have his car worked on. Greg is putting a new sensor in one of his tires. Bob bought two new tires and will probably have his car aligned too. One of his front tires had worn a lot more then the other three.

I am waiting for the mailman now. I am still waiting for my Cox bill. I believe that is the only one I lack for the middle of the month. I will still have my Prudential and the Blue Cross Blue Shield on the 28th. The mailman probably will not be here until around 2:30 or so.

So more later... 

Well, I didn't get that bill and everything else wasspam.

I went back out in the afternoon and cleaned up the yard all over again. Not that it will do any good. We are forecast for 40 mile an hour winds this afternoon.

In fact, this evening we were under tornado warnings. All we got were that terrible  wind and rain and some pea sized hail.  The hail didn't last long and at 10:00 Missy and I went to bed.

Sunday and Church and Just Us Again

I had a terrible night's sleep! I had bought Marilyn's clock radio and set it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to take it off "alarm" and at midnight the thing went off and woke me up. I almost never got back to sleep. For one thing, I had slept so hard and on only one side and my back was killing me!  I finally got up and took an Aleve and an allergy pill too.  My sinus' were draining and I couldn't sleep.  Finally, quite late, I got back to sleep. It's been nice having such springlike weather but my allergies have been awful!  The wind has been fierce and that makes it even worse.

Missy is patiently waiting for her breakfast so I will get back to this later...

I have fed Missy and myself and read the newspaper and done the crossword puzzle.  Now I will go out and sweep the leaves off the carport.  There's always a mess there by my door.  I know the trees are nice to have but the mess they make drive both Marilyn and me nuts trying to keep the carport cleaned off.

I was reading the back of this week's bulletin and there was some very encouraging information on it.

For example...The member nations of the United Nations made 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 1990. The Millennium Development Goals focused on poverty and hunger and achieved the following:

The target of reducing poverty rates by half was met five years ahead of the 2015 deadline.
More than a billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990.

In 1990, nearly half the population in the developing regions lived on less than $1.25 a day. This rate dropped by 14 percent by 2015.

The newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals have a primary focus on poverty and hunger:

Goal 1 - eradicate poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.

Goal 2 - end hunger and ensure access by all people (in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants)  to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

Much is yet to be accomplished to eradicate extreme poverty and it's fruit, hunger. More than  800 million still live in extreme poverty. More than 90 million children are estimated to be undernourished.  Our continuing support of the Abolish Poverty, End Suffering Mission Initiative  enables our church to be engaged in this sacred task. 

Examples of ministries supported by our church's World Hunger funds.:

Goat farming and grain banks in India.

Land security and food production programs in Zambia, Malawi, Philippines, Honduras, Nepal, Guatemala, India, and El Salvador.

Health and nutrition education for families in Guatemala

Drilling water holes in Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Zambia. Liberia.

School lunch programs in Haiti and India

Grain mills in Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia

Even as we ponder the global implications, we are also challenged to think of those who suffer poverty and hunger in our own communities....often through no fault of their own.

Think globally - act locally.

I am pleased that our small church participates with others to do what we can to alleviate poverty and hunger.  That is the sort of work Jesus taught.  We contribute funds to both the Genesis program in Coffeyville and the Community Access Program in Independence. We also help support a homeless shelter in Independence.  We also keep a food basket full in our foyer at church. On a good day, there are only about 20 of us in our congregation so we do everything we possible can to help. We buy school supplies and backpacks for those who live in poverty, we always contribute at least 50 filled shoe boxes for the shoe box ministry for third world countries and provide Christmas gifts for the children and dinner for a family every Christmas time. We are always open for another project to help those in need. We are not all about our own personal salvation.....more about salvation for this life for those truly in need.

More later...

Church was fine and dinner afterward at "Just Us" just as good as ever.

I got the newsletters finished after I got home...swept off the carport for the nth time and lay down with Missy and took a nap.

Bob came over at 5:00 or so and stayed to watch 60 Minutes after the NBC news.  CBS had a basketball game going until 6:00.

After Bob left, I took my bath and lay with Missy on the sofa and watched Dateline until 8:00...when we both went to bed. After such a bad night's sleep last night. I went right to sleep..