Saturday, October 16, 2010

Albemarle Fall

I am visiting Amy and TJ in Albemarle and it is such a beautiful morning. The fall air is crisp, the sun is shining brightly and there is the unmistakable smell of farm in the air. If you've never lived on a farm or in the country, you don't know what I am talking about. It can't be described....it's just there.

I grew up on a farm and I have to admit that I wasn't too crazy about it. It was hard work; I mean really hard work. And it was all the time except for December, January and February. As Janet and I were driving to Albemarle yesterday, we talked about a lot of things. But I especially enjoyed talking about my time on the farm as a child. Janet had never experienced any of those things. TJ has told me several times I need to put all those memories on pen and paper and today, with the ease of posting things on a computer, I have decided I am going to do just that. It will be a slow process, mostly because I have a lot to tell. I had a great childhood, raised in a home with not a lot of material things, but a lot of love.

I'm not going to start the process today. I am on a little mini-vacation and really need to give it more thought. TJ and Amy had to go to the clinic to check on a horse that Amy had to operate on yesterday and get him ready to go home with his "parents". After that we are going to the storage shed and unload the trailer and Jeep and then do a little sightseeing and maybe a little shopping. Oh, we are also going to visit the alpaca and llama farm. I've already seen them, but Janet hasn't and she's excited. She also wants to find some old cookbooks and I'm sure TJ or Amy can find her a source. We had a great trip getting here yesterday, only getting worried a few times and are looking forward to a great day. Tonight we are going to visit the Maze of Terror. I'm not real sure how I feel about that. I don't do well with scary things; but we'll see. I'll post more about that later.


Thursday, October 7, 2010

Wednesday night prayer service

Last night I attended the usual Wednesday night service at my Church. I have to admit I almost decided to not go. I am fighting a sinus infection and upper respiratory infection that is borderline pneumonia. But, one of the ladies I pick up in Wanchese called to be sure I was coming and I told her yes. And, I am so very glad I did.

Our service was anything but the usual Wednesday night service. We always take time for prayer requests, praise reports and anything else that needs to be mentioned. Sometimes each member will take a portion of our prayer list included in our Sunday bulletin and specifically pray for those items in addition to anything else mentioned. Sometimes we each have things that we have not mentioned, even as an unspoken request. Last night was something rare and special. There were several requests and praises; Pastor mentioned some of the items in the bulletin and especially our country, the military and our missionaries we have scattered all over the world. Some of these missionaries are in dangerous areas of the world; we have several in Mexico and in the Middle East. These missionaries lay their lives on the line every day in the process of doing the Lord's work. We always have time of quiet prayer and then Pastor Tyler will close the prayer time, praying aloud.

When Pastor Tyler returned to the podium and prayed, he thanked God for the reverence in the service and I can't remember his exact words, but used the words "time to be holy" in his prayer. The phrase stuck in my mind and I knew there is a hymn titled "Take Time to be Holy" so I decided to play that for the offering. After the prayer, Pastor Tyler asked if anyone had a song they would like us to sing and I called out "number 329". The words to the song are beautiful and just went with our prayer time like peanut butter and jelly. After we took the offering and I was returning to my seat, Pastor commented that "he was in a fix". I had looked at the clock as I was sitting down and it was a few minutes after 8:00 and we are usually out of church by 8:15. Pastor Tyler said his time was already up and he wasn't going to preach and hold us any longer. Anyone that knows a preacher knows that it is a rare thing for a preacher to not preach, irregardless of how long we might need to stay. But, his reasoning was valid and I'm sure God understood.

He asked if anyone had a testimony to share and several of us spoke. I commented on how there have been several times I have felt the presence of God in our services and that tonight was definitely one of those. It was so tangible I could almost touch it. And.....to use one of my absolute favorite words when it comes to describing the Lord...it was awesome.

When I left church last night, in all honesty, I wasn't feeling any better physically. But, spiritually, I was healed. I had been in one of the greatest prayer services, in my humble opinion, we have ever had in my Church and I was blessed to have been a part of it.