SBC

About forty kids with adult leaders descended on our small congregation yesterday. They call themselves the "World Changers" and are part of a larger group from the southern Baptist Convention. They send teams all over the US each summer helping churches and individuals with building and renovation needs. They will be here all week helping with roofing, painting and some renovation as well. What they accomplished today was really phenomenal - awesomely awesome, Susanna...I think Obama needs to incorporate many SBCers into his government to get things working efficiently. Think it will happen?

Miscellanea

I returned from Susanna's last Wednesday after a lovely week with her and family. I enjoyed, again, just living her life alongside her - walking, enjoying the activity of the ever-busy streets, hanging out at parks while watching the children play, finding wonderful bagels for lunch, visiting very diverse friends with this connoisseur of people, and drinking their delicious "Gorilla" coffee. It was so much fun spending time with a slightly older and much more verbal Micah, and getting to know little toddler-Ellie. High points outside the regular, very pleasant routine, were two visits to Prospect Park - for the New York symphony concert and for a Sunday afternoon picnic- then out day's outing to the Connecticut seaside. We visited cousin Betty's beautiful village of Stonington on Saturday though, unfortunately, she was not home....Maybe next time. I also enjoyed a quick visit with Tom Yagoda - always so faithful to come by, then lunch out with Toni. Grandma has broken her hip badly in a fall, but with typical determination is on the mend. Toni said she expected to go to Chaffey's shortly so guess she would be there now - for a week or so...

I flew into JFK but out from LaGuardia. On the first leg of the journey - from New York to Atlanta- I was in front of a consummate salesmen-type. I could distinguish little of his ongoing chat with his seatmate once we were in the air, but did get some fragments of a business call while still on the tarmac..."Hi, Mel, so how are we doing today?...That's super, just super!...And how are things moving along?...Awesome! Awesomely awesome!..." And, mercifully, I heard no more.

In Atlanta, we passengers had all boarded a small plane to fly to Chattanooga, were belted, had heard the safety presentation then sat...and sat...and sat. The auxiliary power apparatus had failed...Would they be able to fix it? Maybe...And we sat some more...Finally, we were released back to the airport for a two-hour wait while Delta tried to formulate plans...No, plane couldn't be fixed on the spot so another came round. On we got again and it was time for the door to be closed. The ground crew member shouted up, "It doesn't close properly. I'll push and you pull...." And that's how it was...All ready to go when the flight door opened. Oh, no. What now? And a huge tray with fast food is handed up to the stewardess who opens a storage area above the front seats and puts it in...for the crew, whenever they have time to eat it, they are so far behind schedule...Twenty minutes in the air and we are in Chattanooga...The pilot comes out to push open the faulty door and almost tumbles out with the force of the free-fall...Well, I'm home!

Katherine, the minister's wife, asked me to give a brief devotional for Grace's shower so I decided to talk around the proverb, "The wise woman builds her house. with her own hands, the foolish one tears hers down." That proverb has always alarmed me - that I have the power to tear down my house and all that I hold most dear...I began to think through the only alternative to this - to grow in sincere godliness, of course, and tried to apply this - practically - to the mothers of young children always so tired and strapped for time. I calculated that if a young mom spends even fifteen minutes a day six days a week in Bible study and prayer, the another ten to fifteen a day with a devotional time with her husband....Add to this a forty-five minute sermon she really attends to, half an hour of Sunday School, plus half an hour of study mid-week - this is a grand total of almost six hours of devotional time per week. Add to that the bullet prayers Christians pray throughout the day, and it is truly enough for a rich spiritual life, nothing to be ashamed of in that busy season of life...Twice the alloted time for the average university course!

Finally, I am an inveterate t-shirt slogan reader...My favorite from NYC: "A good lawyer knows the law. The best lawyer knows the judge...."

Grown Men Cry

Hi, Darlene. I'm here to collect the rent...How are you all? I notice Dave and Carol aren't home. Is everything all right there?.....Well, things aren't going well. The law have been at their place a few times and last night I heard, "Sheriff's department. Freeze! And they took Dave away. Then yesterday three trucks came and took all of Carol's things out of the trailer. She has moved out....Crumbs! Dave phoned a couple of days ago and told me he had the rent. Now they are gone! Phooey!!!!....John and I go down to their trailer and look around. Noone there, for sure. We go inside to see what is what. Most of the stuff is gone, all that belonged to Carol. There is still a grandfather clock in the corner, bunkbeds for the boys in the second bedroom, lots of clothes in the master bedroom and in the living room on the sofa are....three study Bibles and a John MacArthur book....They must be Dave's. Carol took all that belonged to her. I can see that....Nothing wrong with Dave's brain - a smart guy, former marine turned tatoo artist!...We go outside and over to the trailer we want to paint....Then, a little later, up drives Carol with her two boys....Hi, there, Carol. What's up? How are you? ...Awful. I just want to crawl somewhere and hide...Things are bad, huh? What in the world happened with Dave?...Remember that time he got so angry? Dfax were called and they have become involved with our family. They have demanded the boys and I go for counselling. I don't know whether I have done something wrong, or whether the police came for Dave because I won't lay charges against him and Dfax is concerned...I don't know what has happened. I don't know why Dave is in jail...And they won't give me a lawyer because I haven't committed crime...I have just been talking with Dave's brother and he said Dave is howling in jail, all the other inmates are making fun of him because he won't stop...So what are you thinking, Carol? Do you want to keep the trailer another month, or are you going to go your separate ways?...And she pays the rent. She is committed to another month of trying to keep their marriage together...

And today She tells me Dave's mother, a policewoman, has paid Dave's bail and got him into a treatment program for depression...He should be out in a few days...Father, may we, and especially John, have opportunity to share the words of life with him. May he hear and understand. May he be given new life....

And yesterday I heard the sobs of another man on the other end of the socio-economic spectrum...

Calvert

He comes over frequently and is truly a ray of sunshine in our lives - Calvert, from the Virgin Islands, and here to fundraise so he can return and teach in a local theological college as soon as possible...Strong premillenial convictions, voracious reader, lover of debate, worldview and Reformed theology....Knowledgeable as to the Illuminat and Catholicism...He keeps us on our toes...An interesting conduit into the black church community - encouraging us as he cites their increasing commitment to sound biblical theology and their level of preaching...How he copes with the loss of his bright, island home I don't know but he never complains, totally upbeat...A jewel and a privilege to get to know...

Thanksgiving

I am not a big worrier about my grandchildren, at least, not any more than most women, but the last few days I have been worried and I'm not sure why. I have not wanted to pick up the phone when one of my kids has called, worried that there could be bad news. Well, today Maryanne called and I had that same feeling. She said "hello" and I immediately asked whether everything was all right...And it was. But it almost wasn't....She had been at the beach with the three children when a sudden storm had blown up. She had quickly gathered the children and was ready to cross the highway to go back to the beach house. All of a sudden Anna, in panic from the thunder and lightening, dashed into the highway to cross over - right in the path of two trucks, one coming from either direction. When the dust cleared, she was on the other side of the highway, but Maryanne thought she had just seen her daughter being killed....We are indeed immortal til our work for Christ is done, and I thank God for caring so well for our precious Anna. Who could replace her? May His angels continue to guard each one of these little ones we would all so readily lay down our lives for....Thank-you, Father!

On a lighter note, Dad and I drove our new car to Alabama today - first to Huntsville, then back to Chattanooga via the Cumberland Plateau. We found an exquisite little college town on acreage owned by the Anglican church. They own each building on these hundreds of acres, just leasing some for set periods...Others they reserve for themselves - an Anglican world, really. But such aesthetics! For better and for worse, liberals "do" aesthetics better than conservatives, don't they?

We are looking forward to the July 4th celebration in Chattanooga tomorrow. They symphony plays on the riverbank, then there are fireworks over the water. We sat happily for hours last year taking it all in...Apparently, some municipalities have been forced to cancel their celebrations as a cost-cutting measure but, happily, that is not the case here....Sunday, we will have a young couple from the church over for lunch -will be fun to get to know them better....

Fianlly, I am reading a book Andrew gave me about the Civil War called, "War Crimes Against Southern Civilians". Southerners, of course, feel the war was as much about states rights as slavery, and feel they were most unjustly trodden underfoot. They were also subjected to systematic brutalization from the north. The author quotes a prominent southern abolitionist in his forward:
The principle, on which the war was waged by the north, was simply this: That men may rightfully be compelled to submit to, and support, a government that they do not want; and that resistance, on their part, makes them traitors and criminals.
No principle, that is possible to be named, can be more self-evidently fatal to all political freedom. Yet it triumphed in the field, and is now assumed to be established. If it really be established, the number of slaves, in stead of having been diminished by the war, has been greatly increased; for a man, thus subjected to a government he does not want, is a slave.

A little addendum to this topic: We were listening to NPR on the way home and they had audio of the 75th anniversary reunion of some surviving soldiers from the Battle of Gettysburg - in 1938...One of the Confederates gave the Rebel cry - the only recording anywhere of that. You can find it on video on Youtube....