Conference Reports

My daughter and I gave our conference reports today at church. It went well. No one had a problem with any of the legislation at all. The Words of Council passed without a hitch and those who were opposed were civil and respectful of others. No wonder I am so impressed with our people.

There were several impressive stories. The speaker of the opening day was the executive director of the National Council of Churches, Rev.Dr. Michael Kinnamon. He told of growing up just west of Lamoni, Iowa where our university is located. He then moved near our church headquarters at Independence, Missouri. Later his father was transferred to Salt Lake City. He said "I know who you are and I also know who you aren't". He is very much in favor of our membership in the National Council of Churches. Time will tell if that works out.

To illustrate the different cultures represented in our church, one man told of his struggle. He is from Africa. His brother died from Aids. His culture expected him to take his brother's wife and have children for his brother with her. He already had a wife and did not want to do that so he argued with the village elders. She died soon afterward of Aids. That relieved him of that conflict.

In some places in Africa and also Haiti, if you even discuss homosexuality, you can be burned to death or stoned to death. So that is a taboo subject.

In India, where the church is also located, women are also treated terribly. They have no rights at all. They have no say in the family. If they earn money, they have nothing to say about the way it is spent. They must surrender it to their husbands. They are required to cover themselves from head to foot and if anything bad like rape happens to them, it is considered their fault. They are ostracized from their family and must resort to begging or prostitution to survive.

So there are very different cultures throughout the church. Some of these issues will have to be handled on a local basis and not by the International Church. Therefore, we will begin, within two years, to hold regional conferences to address such issues.

I'm Back!

Leslie and I came home from Conference Thursday evening. Most of the legislation was over. We legislated to accept baptisms from other Christian churches...a new step for us.

We also passes legislation to allow a process to begin to accept gay and lesbian members to be ordained, if called, and married, where legal.

I had a really great time. The folks we stayed with are wonderful folks. The conference was very civil even though there was some dissension with the legislation that was passed.

We decided to come home a day early because Leslie had flowers to plant that came the day before we left and I was uneasy with leaving Bob for so long.

We went to the doctor yesterday to have his blood test. His thyroid medicine had expired. While there, he made the decision to have the needle biopsy. He has been visiting a nurse practitioner with training in massage for lympedemia. It has not helped. As long as they do not know what they are dealing with, they cannot come up with a treatment. We have an appointment in Bartlesville for another ultrasound and needle biopsy on the 28th. If it is lymphoma, which she suspects it is, they will start radiation treatments.

His arm continues to swell and be very sore.

This is the Day!

I leave today for Independence. Bob and I will go up to Independence, Kansas, where our daughter will load my bag into her car and then we will all have lunch together before she and I leave. It will take us over three hours to drive to Independence, Missouri, for the Symposium. The first session is this evening at 7:00. It will go on all day tomorrow. Then the International Conference begins on Saturday evening. We have a practice serving communion to 6,000 people Saturday afternoon from 1:00 until 3:30 and a dinner our the web board folks at 4:30. The communion will actually be served on Sunday morning. Saturday night is the official opening session of the Conference.

I have yet to do a small load of laundry and finish my packing of my makeup bag. I will do that after I get my makeup on this morning.

It got cold again last night so I brought my new hanging baskets into the garage and also brought Slinky into the kitchen. He woke me at 10:30 and again at 1:30 to go out to pee. Missy woke me at 4:00 to go out so I didn't get a lot of good sleep last night. I will be so happy when it gets warm enough for Slinky to sleep out all spring.

Bob has been charged with watering the house plants...both of them, watering the hanging baskets, and feeding and watering both Slinky and Missy. He has never taken that responsibility so I hope he watches his "to do" list on the frig.

We went to the market yesterday and bought him a weeks worth of food. He also has some cash to eat out some if he wishes to do so. He has an appointment this afternoon at 2:30 for his first treatment for his lymphedema.

Down to the Line

Tomorrow we go to Independence where we will meet our daughter and transfer my luggage to her car. Leslie and I will be gone for nine days. First we are going to the Restoration Studies Symposium for two days and then to the International Conference of our church.

Today, I will get my hair done in Independence and then pick up Juanita to take her to breakfast. Some woman backed into Juanita's car last week so she is without transportation.

When I get home, Bob and I will shop for his groceries for him to eat while I am gone.

Then I will clean the bathrooms, something I didn't get done this week, and do all my laundry. Then I will pack. I have made a list of everything I will need. I am taking my laptop computer but may not be able to find a hot spot to log onto it. And I may not find the time either. Conference is very, very busy. There really is no free time except at lunch and dinner time. It will be a very, very busy week.

This will probably be my last Conference since Bob's health is failing. I have not missed one since 1971. We used to have Conference every two years but since we have become an International church, we have changed that to every three years. It is very expensive to bring folks over as delegates from overseas for the Conference. Any more, since 9/11 there are many who cannot get through customs to even come.

I had a strange experience yesterday. I added a couple of blogs to my list and later went back to find almost all the blogs on my list had disappeared. It took me awhile to find the ones I have re-added.

Another Windy Tuesday

It's windy today and I hate to get out in the wind. I did go looking for the nurse practitioner who does lymph gland manipulation and finally after searching for half an hour, I found her. She is going to treat Bob's lymphedema starting next Thursday afternoon at 2:30. She is going back to school though in May and will be unavailable until January. But she will treat him twice a week until then anyhow. Maybe she can do some good. At least he will feel that he is doing something about it.

Now I will fix myself some lunch. I have only had a couple of cups of coffee and a piece of my coffeecake all day.

More later:

Another Furnace Problem

Well, I called the furnace man back this morning. Saturday I turned on the furnace to take the chill off the air and it came on just fine. After awhile the blower went off but the furnace continued to run. About fifteen minutes later I realized it was still running. I went in and turned the thermostat down and it went off. Then I turned it back up and the furnace flame came on but the blower would not. And the furnace would not go off until I turned it back again.

This morning he came right out. He checked everything out and hit a reset switch that automatically turned the furnace on. Evidently when the heat stayed on so long it caused the furnace to shut the fan down. After a long while it finally came on. After another long time the blower came on. So he checked the thermostat and it needed regulating. It was the original (1994) so he changed it out ($100 for the thermostat alone). He said if it had been the heat exchanger, we would have to get a new furnace.

Then he checked our air conditioner out and added freon. There was a leaky valve and he replaced that too. He said the furnace was built in 1994 and the air conditioner was original to the house (1971). He said the life of a furnace was twenty years and that was about the same for an air conditioning unit. I asked what we were looking at for replacement if it should come to that and he said between $5,000 and $6,000 for both.

It never rains but it pours. I hope they can just last as long as we do. If worse comes to worse, we will borrow the money and pay it back in payments.

Easter Morning

It's Easter morning. Happy Easter to each of you!

Yesterday we worked around the house. It was a lovely day and Bob sharpened the blade on the mower. Of course I got in on helping him put it back on. With his bad left arm, it's difficult for him to do anything that requires both hands. After that, I mowed and he trimmed. He didn't do a lot of trimming because that also requires both hands on the trimmer. He came in and took a shower and napped all afternoon.

Then I spent the afternoon with my dandelion digger digging dandelions from the yard. I washed up and we went to Sirloin Stockade for dinner.

The furnace is still running after the blower went off. I know it's only supposed to run a short while after the fan goes off but something is amiss. We haven't had it running since we had the new wiring board installed week before last. I imagine we're going to have to have the furnace man out again now before I leave this week since Bob is unable to hear the furnace running.

Always something.