Of Course You Know This One!

Sundays are special days. On the calendar, they start the week. Some of us try to tie off a few ends of last week. Did something get forgotten? Well, yes, we did do three loads of laundry. Hmm.  Worse than that, we had a new bed delivered this afternoon! So, Sundays are not always totally a day of rest!

Of course, we were at church and it was a communion Sunday. After service, we practiced with Jeff a hymn we will sing in two weeks.  If you have a Jeff in your life, you are very blessed! Jeff can play any music - not just church music. He watches to see just how I am singing and plays at the pace I am going! Jeff makes me look pretty good! 

Now, Keith has sung all his life, but I had never sung in a real choir or in front of a congregation till I came to Texas.

The song we sang is one you may know:

I come to the Garden alone, 

While the dew is still on the roses .  

And the voice I hear falling on my ear, 

The Son of God Discloses.

The refrain repeats after each verse:

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own; 

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

Several years ago, Keith & I heard Anne Murray singing this hymn on an album of spiritual music.  That beautiful alto voice of hers made it superb!

It is not in any hymn books we have, but I think we need to acquire a Baptist book because Alan Jackson sang it on his album of hymns, so it must be there!

I think most people would come more often to church if we always sang hymns they know! Last week when sending our Pastor an e-mail on another topic, I just had to tell him that it had been a four star hymn Sunday. What that means for me is that I knew every hymn, although by now, I should know them all!

Perhaps you know this hymn because it is the punch line of a joke, 

"Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me . . . "

Yeah, yeah, I knew you knew that hymn! Have a blessed week!            

Be Prepared!

Well, the town is busy, some gas pumps are empty, and we’re a bit edgy. Even though people have been evacuated to our area, we ourselves must be prepared as Hurricane Gustav moves toward Texas. As noted yesterday, a big problem here is power outage, causing us to be pretty hot. Police had to be called to Wal-Mart in one town yesterday because chaos broke out at the bottled water display. Could that be why our supermarket has the water outside the front of the store? There must be some humor to this whole event!

One couple has gone up to Dallas to visit their son but I think they will likely be back by Monday. Another, whose home is in a mobile home park are on their way north to their daughter’s. So, they will be missing from church in the morning. Perhaps some out-of-towners will stop in to pray for themselves, their friends and what they left behind.

People from the Texas Gulf Coast are now headed here and the hotels and tourist homes are solidly booked. Some people will be here from Louisiana. So, it’s busy and a little rude out there.

We just came in from dinner at Catfish King and it seemed very loud there. On the loop, people were sort of rude and rushing. So, a good place to be is home.

We have everything we need and we will pray that as the branches fall during the high winds, that nothing falls on our house.

When people told me about gas stations running out of gas last night, I thought of Hubby and me on 9-11. Back then, I was not yet an American citizen and we were headed to Terre Haute, Indiana for Hubby’s college reunion. Hubby is that Engineer that my Daddy always said you needed for just about everything. (Daddy was right about that!)

As we were preparing to leave, we saw on TV what most people saw happening in New York City that day.

There was one specific thought that came to my mind and any of you from Toronto can relate to that thought.

When I was young, Dad always said if there was any threat, we would just get in the car and drive north.

Well, Daddy’s been gone 46 years and if we drive north from Texas, we’re still a long way from Canada’s northland.

So, what I went back for was my passport, because once you are in Indiana, well you could be headed north . . .

As we drove up the interstates, every time we would stop for gas, we would see signs that there was none or long lines of cars.

Long story short, we made it to Terre Haute and the reunion went on as usual.

When we arrived in Terre Haute (“High Land”), we went to the church Hubby attended when he was there and we prayed. And we read Psalm 91.

Although 9-11 is never forgotten, we made it through as did many others.

We will make it though this storm too – with good planning, a little luck and lots of praying.

Let's Start at the Beginning!

In my beginning, there was Yonge Street. Yonge Street starts at the north shore of Lake Ontario and goes pretty straight north through "Toronto the Good". Keep driving and Yonge Street becomes Hwy. 11. Keep going and you will be in cottage country. Ontario folks tend to live near or on the water, so many had a house in town and a cottage up at Lake Simcoe or Lake Muskoka.

When I was young, I lived one block west of Avenue Road and two blocks north of Eglinton Avenue. Right on the corner. That's in North Toronto. Lower school was Havergal and High School was St.Clement's! TTC or bicycle was my transportation.

The last house I had in Toronto was actually in Thornhill, by the pond, on old Hwy. 7 West that takes you out to Woodbridge.

After I was widowed and met a Texan online at widownet.org, I married and moved to East Texas. That was almost 12 years ago! We are about 100 miles north of Houston and about another hundred to Louisianna.

Only one lake in Texas - Lake Caddo (near Marshall) - is a natural lake. All others are man-made.

I had to learn to pronounce Zee for Zed (the letter "Z"); say "Kakkis" not "Karkees" for beige trousers and Hubby used to accompany me to the supermarket to help me understand that all they were asking at the check-out was "Paper or Plastic?"

Was it a culture shock? You betcha! A dozen years later, I am one of them, but they never let me forget my roots, eh?

The biggest change in my life was church! Every Sunday! Lots of activities, some responsibilities, and bible study. I cherish my friends from church. We have an amazing Pastor and we are growing our numbers.

Oh, I went to church in Ontario, but not with the timetable I do now! And there was an amazing Minister there also! Could it be I wasn't really paying attention, or could it be that now I really do live in the "Bible Belt"?

If I leave you with one thought from this first entry, it would be that when you need a kind word, a smile, someone who's genuinely interested in how you are doing, my church is where you go! I wish for all people - all Christians - a close-knit church like ours!

There's a good start for my blog.