It's cloudy today
Very little sunshine today.
I have not mentioned that we both had a little high blood pressure scare while we were at Cheri & Tom's last week. Cheri took both our blood pressures and the instrument registered high for both of us. Of course, Don took it all in stride, but I have never had high blood pressure in my life and I was a little alarmed, even though I had no symptoms of someone with high blood pressure. Cheri said her pb monitor might not be right. I am now eating organic rolled oats for breakfast every morning. Yesterday, we had our blood pressure checked again we were both in our normal range. Praise the Lord.
Don made the rounds this morning, visiting and getting a little exercise. God always places someone in his path to encourage or just fellowship with.
Before Don & I had finished our devotional time, CRM director Dennis Maloney called with very sad news. A wonderful friend in Branson, Don Rhoads, had collapsed last night and is now on life support, waiting for his children to arrive. Don and Barbara were so excited about getting to go to Bucharest, Romania on a 6 months mission trip. They were scheduled to leave in just a few days. Don went home to be with his Lord & Savior about 9:00 pm cst. Thank you for prayers for the Rhoads family during this time. We will miss him and are so thankful for the honor of knowing Don and Barbara.
In a few minutes we got a phone call that Richard Franklin from here in the park, is in the hospital with a broken leg from a 4-wheeling accident. He was care-flighted to Phoenix yesterday. The report is that he messed up his leg pretty bad. We are praying for a quick recovery for him.
At 10:00, I walked over to Linda & Ray Poyer's for a haircut, but it was just too cold to sit outside with a wet head so we rescheduled for 4:00 this afternoon. Linda and Ray are from Boston, by way of Nashville for about 18 years, but they have never lost their Boston accent. Can you imagine being in Tennessee for 18 years and not pick up that accent?
After lunch, a game of Farkle (I won!) and doing the laundry, I went back to Linda's for a haircut... much needed. Linda did a great job. Thanks, Linda!And thanks to Cheri Hulgan for the gift of the George Foreman rotisserie! For dinner, Don marinaded two chicken breast in Queen Creek Blood Orange EVOO and herbs & spices and then cooked it in the rotisserie for about 50 minutes. Oh my... they - were - per-fec-tion.
After dinner, JoAnne Miller, Audra Robb, Rick & Wendy Fury, Harold & Susan and myself met to practice music for Sunday morning. We had a glorious time and could have sang for hours more, but called it quits after about 1 1/2 hours. We pray that all will be blessed by the music and that God will be glorified.
Found this picture of daughter #1 and wonderful hubby while checking her Pook & Diesel plog site tonight. Khalil (pronounced Kay-lee) also works for Baylor University as the head trainer for the men's basketball team. If you watch Baylor on TV and one of their players gets hurt on the court, you will see Khalil getting a little air time. He also teaches a class at Baylor and a class at Hill County Community college in Hillsboro, Texas. Leslie is such a good e-scrapbooker. We are so proud of them both.
Earlier this morning, I was reflecting on the sub-title of this blog: "leaving no one, following Christ" and so many thoughts ran through my mind. Remembering all the scriptures that speak of following Jesus, I also remembered making the decision to surrender to what I knew was God's calling on my life to marry Don Baker, a very committed-to-the-ministry pastor and be all the support and help to him that God would help me be. I knew that could mean anything, even moving away from family. I now understand a little better, I believe, what Jesus meant when he said in Luke 9:23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" and in Mark 1:20 "Without delay He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him." There are so many books written and sermons and rich teaching in these verses, one being that Jesus did not tell his followers to forget those they left, but to follow Him as a child follows his daddy, trusting completely. When Don and I "followed" the call to this ministry we did not leave our family and friends emotionally. We think of them, miss them, pray for them, love them, long to see them and hear their voices daily, and with joy look forward to visits with them. So, in short, "leaving no one, following Christ" just means that the desire of our hearts is to follow where He wants us to go and serve Him. He never said that obedience would not come without sacrifice.
Father, thank You for holding Barbara in your arms tonight.
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