God works in wonderful ways

Last August 4th, our Youth program Leader Larry Macon, at Gibson Wells United Methodist Church had asked me to conduct an outside music worship service on our church deck. Our new Pastor Paul Lore and his wife Dorothy, shared the evening with us as well.  It was a Fantastic evening.  There was a refreshing, cool breeze as the sun got low in the western sky (it does that pretty regular, you know).  The neighbors goats were talking with an occasional bleating, which just added to the atmosphere of worship.

It was a meditative worship service for each youth and adult that participated while the songs selected brought them spiritual food for thought, of their individual journey they were on.  In between songs, the spirit provided me with a short introduction of what the next song was about, and further contemplation was begun.  After about ten songs or so, I brought them to a conclusion with the song "I have decided to follow Jesus".  When we finished, prayers were said and we were blessed with a youth who HAD decided to follow Jesus!  PRAISE THE LORD!

Isn't it wonderful to see youth continuing to choose a life with Jesus, when so many other "less than desirable" options are out there for them to choose?  The following are some pictures of that evening, that the loving Mother of the new Christian follower gave me this morning after church.  Thank you so much Kim Morgan...it was a Fantastic evening for all of us especially for Kelly!

God has guided Pat and I to this wonderful, loving church to help in developing spiritual growth through music perhaps.  We followed this up with a weekend of church family experiencing Lakeshore United Methodist Assembly on the Tennessee River and that Sunday, three other youth along with Kelly were Baptized by our Pastor Paul Lore, IN THE RIVER at the conclusion of our outdoor Worship!  What a GRAND event that was!  We are so excited to see God's hand working within this congregation.  You can look at some pictures of that weekend on my FaceBook page. 

Point of this story is:  God has NO boundaries on what, how, where or who He works with to make disciples for Jesus Christ!  All we have to do it follow the Spirit and Great Things will happen.

Keep singing, Keep Laughing, Keep smiling

Blessings,
Gary

Saturday FUNNIES!

Mamma Likes YOU Best

HAPPY SATURDAY!

Saturday FUNNIES!

HAPPY SATURDAY!

SATURDAY FUNNIES  another day LATE   getting to be a regular thing...sorry

Happy Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday, you get the idea.

Music, music, music

Hi y'all!  Music is a very important part in civilization.  Look in the history books.  Even when marching into battle, there were drummers, beating out the tempo and conversely, lifting the spirits of the soldiers as they "marched to war".  And where there are soldiers, it seems music is close by. During  wartime downtime, there are relaxing areas that have music playing all the time for the warriors to recover, revitalize and just plain relax.  Music can sooth, music and incite, music can excite, make you laugh, or make you cry. Some kinds of music refer to common things, like Mom, pick up trucks, prison, and trains.  There are love songs, meditative songs, humorous songs, sad songs, happy songs, and then there are screaming songs-that don't make any sense, but some like them, so there they are. But they all have one thing in common.  Notes on staffs and a rhythm.  So you see, music can be, and is, to quite a lot of people, a very important part of living.  It is usually subliminal in our lives as it is so common.  In fact, there are quite a few TV commercials that have music in the background playing and we don't even hear it or pay any attention to it, but its there.  One in particular which I laugh at ALL the time is the GICO commercial with the camel.  In the end it has the two guys (one with a mandolin, and the other a guitar) giving the punch line.  What a funny commercial.  Music is a connector of thoughts.  Songs are a connector of emotions, and words.  Put the right THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS, and WORDS together and add music to them and you will have a powerful song.

I love making music.  The words usually slip by me, which is why I need to have them in front of me.  It is a reassurance thing for me.  A crutch, so to speak.  I play and sing a wide variety of songs.  Before I do, I have to hear it first. IF it grabs my attention, I will spend some time learning it, notating it with the guitar chords and practice it.  Trying to commit it to memory, sometimes being a "mission impossible", but I try all together.  That is why I admire REAL musicians and singers so much....they have a knack for remembering the words and the tunes!  Seems the older I get, the less I can remember.  My theory is my brain is so full of stuff that I have remembered, it is now overflowing into the rest of my body for storage and that is why I have gained all this weight from the 135 lbs that I was when I got married 46 years ago.  So that's the problem.  There is very little recall from what I used to know, from where it was stored at.  Must be a physical thing.  The memory passageways got disconnected by "heaviness".

Every once in a while though, an OLD memory surfaces.  Like the pathway was cleared out for a moment, and it suddenly broke through!  One of those occasions was when my home office changed rooms, I came across some pictures that I haven't seen in 12 years.  There were several photo of our church (Henderson United Methodist Church) celebrating NEVADA DAY 2001 in our parking lot.  We had a terrific time with yard sale stuff, VFW hot dogs, hamburgers, fries and fun, dunk tank and entertainment.  There were various acts, etc. during the day.  That's where the following pictures come into play.  The lady is Carol Hagen, she was a prayer and singing partner with the Celebration Music Team (we've talked about this before) at Sunday Morning Worship, and a good friend along with her husband (a non-singer, but great friend, non-the-less).  Can't remember the song(s) we were singing, but looks like we were having a good time.

Standing room only?  NOT, but the fun had begun anyway.
Hey, it was hot out there sitting in the sun!

Singing the day way!

Sound equipment thanks to the RANDY ANDERSON BAND.  Great folks. 

Then during a break, I was able to capture Herman along with a grandson on the church patio.
Good friends, they are.

Aren't they a great looking family?

Music does bring back memories.  It also makes memories.  Music draws friendship closer, even when one is not a singer or plays an instrument, the music that is in the background of life is playing an important role in who we are and what we do.  Kind of scary when I think of some of today's music, but I remember my grandparents speaking of "our" music in the 60's...so nothing much has changed in that regard has it?

the Point of the Story:  Take music into your heart. It is another doorway to knowing God's love for you.  There are hundreds of thousands of songs inspired by God's love and affection for YOU, His child.  Listen to the melody.  Take in the words.  Let is absorb into your being.  You will be rewarded when you feel God within, coming from the music.  I know, it sounds weird, but it is what it is.  Sit back, take in a song or two, close your eyes, listen to the words, listen to the sounds....

Keep singing, keep laughing, keep smiling,

Blessings,
Gary

Looking Back

Hi y'all!  Looking back is most times enjoyable.  WHY?  Because you get to remember the good stuff.  Some of the good stuff was photographed, making it easier to think back with a smile on your face.  Recently moving my home office across the hall brought out some long ago photos of a couple of those good times.

On my 40th Birthday (which was 26 years ago), lovely wife Pat booked us on a Dinner Train.  The trip was from Minnetonka out several miles, at about 5MPH, and back.  During that time we had a fantastic time because it was, for all we were concerned, just the two of us.  Oh, there were many people on that train, but can't remember a one of them, or their faces.  I do remember the excitement of approaching the train as it sat waiting for it's guests to arrive.  It was a mild November Minnesota winter day.  There was a dusting of snow during the day which covered the ugliness in the landscape, that comes with wet snow, and dirt mixed together.  The train had an engine at each end (no turn arounds available, I guess) with a coach-vista dome car named BIG BEN behind the locomotive, and three other lounge and dining cars we had the Dakota Rail Dinner Train.  As the sun set and the full moon came out, it made the trip a definite time to remember.  Glad we took pictures...didn't know how much that would help in later years to remember!  We had long wild rice cream soup which was the best start of a meal I have EVER had.  The rest was something chicken as both of us recall. There was a nice desert, all served by attendants dressed in starch white servers uniforms.  After we retired to the lounge car we relaxed and talked, and watched the trees, and fields glistening in the moonlight.  Running at such a slow speed gave us a gentle rocking feel, and a slow clickity clack in the back of our minds.  Nothing rushing the whole evening, and after dinner treats were served with whatever we wished to drink.  The train had stopped right after we finished eating and started it's slow travel back to the pick up spot.  It was well operated and well timed.  What a story book train trip in a land of just the two of us.  Magical night, that we both remember fondly.

There were a few bumps in our lives together that I think most folks encounter, but it is reassuring to understand and appreciate whoever you had/have picked for a spouse to travel through this journey called LIFE.  This was, indeed, a highlight. It was November of 1986.  Sadly, some aren't as fortunate as I have been in their choices.  At this end of the journey, I can say, Thank you to my wife Pat, for putting up with me, the many times I deployed overseas, worked various shifts, and at times double shifts, extended shifts, several jobs, and hanging in there to enjoy the rewards of sticking with me!  That is what married folks do, I think.  Hope your life can be as blessed in everything you do, or have done. It's fun (most times) looking back on your journey.

At times like this when reflecting on my life, I heard somewhere, something that went like this:  When my life is over, I want to come sliding into home, scuffed up, dusty and laughing, and saying to GOD, "Thanks for the GREAT LIFE you have given me, that was FUN!"

Keep singing, Keep laughing, Keep smiling

Blessings,

Gary 

New projects...old memories generated

It's been a while since I last had a visit with you.  Life seems to get in the way of getting things done that eventually get shuffled off to the side and before you know it, they are forgotten.  That's what I am finding out from this last event that I had inadvertently got started.

When we moved to Tennessee, we wanted to downsize.  We lived in a very nice community; four bedroom house, garage, desert landscape (equals: no lawn mowing).  Downsizing was what we needed. You know. . . Pat's Dad had gone home to God, all the kids were out on their own, retired and fancy free,  and we felt God's calling to Tennessee.  So off we went and came to Rutherford, TN.  I am so glad we did, as God DID open up a whole bunch of things for us to do.  We can cover those things in later postings. Now I wish to explain how things go, sometimes.   We bought this nice, run of the mill, rambler style home.  Three bedroom, two bath home, carport nice size lot with a fenced in back yard, and in a very nice neighborhood.   The first three years somehow consisted of construction projects.  Water drainage system put in to get the water away from the house, new front porch, replace the fence out back, 12x28' storage shed, new lawn, and then a new master suite where the carport was, and later a new garage and utility room beyond that!  Of course a new concrete driveway and an extended patio and cover out back finished up our projects.  So now as we have exceeded the largeness of any house we have ever owned, we are done building.

So here is what has happened since we last had a visit.  My off-the-cuff idea (without thinking much about it, before speaking it into existence) to make the "grand shuffle".  You see, when we moved here, Pat staked out the front corner bedroom as her office.  I had corner of the living room for my computer things.  The second bedroom was a guest room and then we had the Master bedroom w/bath to round out our rooms.  Since we have a migrating cousin and husband passing through in the spring and late fall, and others have found their way to visit,  and now our oldest son and wife and daughter are coming to live in the area in a couple weeks, I mentioned: "Let's make my office the guest room, it has the attached bath.  That will give our guests a little more privacy".  So then it started.  Pat's office will take over the old guest room, I will move across the hall to her OLD office and the guest room will be moved into the OLD Master bedroom/my OLD office.  So today, we have the guest room almost finished.  Just a few wall shelving things to put up and put some family memories on, to make it complete.  The bed is in, the bathroom spotless, thanks to daughter Amy (lives down the road in Kenton, 10 min. away) and ready for our Goddaughter to visit.  Pat got a new desk out of the deal and her office is looking pretty spiffy.  Mine still needs a few weeks of figuring out not only where to put all the stuff, but just WHERE did it all come from?  In the process of putting things together, I had gotten my desk moved over and the computer stuff on it, and was plugging it all in when I rose from a squatting position on the floor, giving no mind to the lurking shelving bracket that I had installed just above where I was plugging into.  When a drop of blood dropped onto my glasses, I knew it couldn't have been a good sign.  So, I showed Pat what her nit-wit husband did and she went into the "protection mode" that she is so good at.  A few minutes later, daughter Amy was whisking us to Dyersburg TN ER, where they put in 5 stitches to my right eye brow, and sent us home.  I do NOT recommend anyone to get themselves into the predicament to need stitches, especially in the head.  It HURTS.  The numbing part is what hurts, the stitching doesn't hurt a bit.  Now I have to get my regular Doctor to take them out this week.  I had hoped for dissolving type stitchery, but NOOOOOO.  Another of life's experiences.

This is enough for now.  Because of the "Grand shuffle",  I have found more photographic resources, that have gendered some more memories to share, I will be doing so in the coming posts.

I wish everyone a happy week, and may it be as exciting but pain free as we have been having here, getting ready for family to share our time with.  God has been working hard with us on this project, but Satan has been doing everything he can to slow in down with discouragement and doubt.  Won't ever happen here, because we know what's happening.  In church this morning, I became so disoriented, I couldn't remember one of my most favorite hymns to lead as the closing hymn.  To top it off, I hadn't noticed that my left forearm had started to bleed and soaked through my shirt sleeve.  Quite scary, but we knew who was causing it and why!  Our church is having a great God experience and Satan doesn't like it one bit.  We all know that God wins....Satan just doesn't seem to catch on yet.  So we continue to do what God wants, and move forward.  What an awesome God we serve.

Keep singing, keep praying, keep smiling,

Blessings,
Gary

Saturday FUNNIES a day late!

Happy WEEK!