MONDAY, 9/14/20
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)
First, let me explain the absence of a blog entry for the past three mornings. Something went wrong with the blog site and our website. This happened at some point on Thursday. Soy was traveling. (I could have corrected the problem but Soy likes for this to be his “thing” and I did not want to steal his proverbial thunder) When Soy got back to GRACE Mountain there was no electricity until late Friday. Took him most of the day on Saturday to locate and then correct the problem. I was not going to do an entry on Sunday regardless. So, now you know. Thanks to Soy for getting us up and running again.
Let me share some thoughts regarding Tropical Storm Sally. The church office will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, 9/15, and Wednesday, 9/16. (The ministerial staff will remain in town and will be on call during the entire time of this storm) There will be NO services or activities, morning or evening, on our campus this Wednesday, 9/16. There will be NO soccer practices any day this week due to the excessive amount of rain that is expected. Thursday & Friday should be good weather days but the ground is going to need some time to dry and this also keeps all teams on an even number of practices schedule. (I am making this call so do not get upset with Bro. Abel) Sally is expected to become a hurricane by tomorrow and the path is still not one hundred percent guaranteed i.e. it still could shift more to the East before making landfall.
Miss Kittie Camp was admitted to the hospital on Friday and discharged yesterday. She has some fluid around her lungs. Pray for a complete healing. Miss Kittie is our “church mother” and is a sweetheart!
Larry Whitehurst is at the Mayo Clinic this morning for several appointments. Pray for all to go well and then for Larry & Judy to have safe travels returning home.
Larry Crawley was in our second morning service yesterday. He looks well but definitely needs our continued prayer support.
We had two buses run their routes yesterday morning – hallelujah! Thank you to Dylan Westbrook for coordinating this. Thank you to Cecil Guidry and Carl Ray Moulds for driving the buses. I am told that we had around forty riders which is not bad considering our buses have not been on the road since early March.
The reports coming out of children’s church are very positive! The numbers are up and the excitement has continued. Again, thank you to Dylan & Elizabeth along with the other workers.
Lindsey Vice messaged me last night to say that we had thirty three children present for our AWANA ministry last night – that is awesome. Her words to me were, “we are stoked and ready for next Sunday!” (Dr. Rex, I thought about Mark Mast & Pollo Campero upon hearing the word “stoked!” LOL! Mark, you remember that?)
Bro. Abel’s brother, Miguel Garcia, did a very nice job of leading our musical worship in the morning services yesterday. I am still mad at Bro. Abel’s brother-in-law, Andre, for not letting me know he was going to be in attendance!
The word I kept hearing coming out of our services yesterday was, “there was a sweet spirit present!” I like hearing that!
What can I say about the men who attended last night’s service and then helped with the container unloading? We had a huge number and were finished in like twenty minutes – amazing! The Friendship family is blessed!
I pray that you will have a great Monday with Jesus. Make the proper preparations for the storm.