Keeping Busy

Lots of things to do before heading out west.

Sunday afternoon my notable work was cutting up the trunk of the fallen tree and burning the remaining trash branches. Storm damage cleanup work in lawn is done.
Yesterday my notable items were changing the oil in my truck and delivering a bed that Kelsey gave a lady who is a friend of Kathys. We waited at the top of our driveway for Lydia to get off the bus and then did the bed pickup/delivery before returning home. Kelsey went with us and helped carry the mattress, box springs, etc. into the lady's house.
Todays I changed the fuel filter in my truck, cleaned out the storage compartment under the bed in the travel trailer, completed the hookup of the wiring for the tongue jack, fixed one of the struts for the bed cover on my truck, took off a loose register grill, for the TT furnace, put epoxy in the oversize screw hole and reset the grill after the epoxy cured. Did other odds and ends also. Kathy went up and waited for Lydia to get off the bus at 3:45. Lydia & Hadley, the neighbor girl, same age as Lydia, who lives in one of the houses at the top of our driveway, came down to play. Andy and Nolan came to pickup Lydia a little after 5. They stayed for a short time.
I started the morning with a list of 20 ToDo items that I wanted to complete prior to leaving next Tuesday. The good news is that I completed 8 of them. The bad news is I added 3 new items to the list.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

Nice Weather in Central MO

Wednesday I continued cleaning up the uprooted tree in our yard. Ran 1.5 tanks full of gas through my chain saw and by that time I was out of gas.

Thursday I almost finished the tree clean up but dulled my chain in the afternoon and didn't have enough energy to sharpen it and make the last few cuts on the trunk of the tree.

Before

After

We burned some of the limbs earlier in the week. This is what is left. I still need to cut up the trunk for firewood before setting burning this trash.

This is a trashy tree. I don't think the wood will provide a lot of heat, but it burns. The previous owner planted 7(?) of them around the property. I had previously cut one of the down. The leaves on a "double" version (2 - 12" diameter trunks from the same root system) of one that was close to the one that fell over, appear to be dying. I think it almost blew over. I won't feel bad if it dies and I end up cutting it down.


Friday I spent the day at Larry & Sharon Farley's helping frame his 30x56 building. This is a 56' long, 16' tall wall, with 8' returns at the ends. Not bad for 2 old guys (I'm 70, Larry is 60) & Billy (Larry's son-in-law). Actually there were 4 of use for a couple of hours. Dennis, another old guy who is a friend of Larry's was there for about 2 hours in the morning, but Billy was not able to get there until around 10:30. I started at 8:15 and quit at 5:45, half hour lunch break. Larry was out working when I got there and still out there cleaning up when Billy & I left. We were all dragging by the end of the day. (Notice the NICE Kubota tractor over in the corner. It's mine. It was a big help raising the 16' long sections of 15' tall, 2x6 walls.

Kelsey, Andy & the kids were over for supper last night.

Kathy is up at Centertown Baptist this morning. They are having a "work day" this morning.

When she gets home we are going to Columbia and pick up a new "house battery" for the travel trailer. The existing 6 year old battery seems to have lost most of its capacity to hold a charge overnight, even with only a minimal draw on it.

Good is good, may He bless you and yours.

Phil Daniels

Yesterday was a busy day for us. After a routine appointment with my diabetes Doctor, which went well, Kathy drove us to Decatur, IL, and then back home, a 550 mile  round trip. We arrived back home at 1:15AM.

From 1980-92 we lived in Niantic, IL, a town of around 700 people, and I worked in Decatur. While their we met Phil & Brenda Daniels and became friends with them. On Aug 17th, while having some stints put in, Phil was called home by our Lord. Phil was 65. He and Brenda were married for 44 years. Phil's move to Heaven will leave a void in lives of Brenda, Matthew & Karen (their children) and their grandchildren. The GOOD NEWS is that we know that Phil still lives, he just moved to an incredibly nicer address - HEAVEN!

Imagine what you consider to be the most beautiful place you have ever visited. Multiply that beauty by a trillion and it won't come close to the grandeur of Heaven. Phil is there. One of these days all of his Christian family & friends will make the same journey and we will have all eternity to enjoy in the presence of our Lord, and with one another.

Phil managed the local school bus garage for 28 years. He had an auto body repair side business. His main business was doing his best to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.

The "visitation" service started at 4PM. We got in line at 4:30PM and at 6PM, the scheduled time for the start of a service celebrating Phil's life was to start, we had not made it to the head of the line. There were MANY people still behind us in line. Hundreds of people attended the 6 PM Celebration Service (500?).

Phil will be missed by many but there is joy knowing that he is in a far better place, and knowing that some day we will join him in that wonderful place.

God is great, may He bless you and yours.

Eclipse Over - Still Here

We survived the eclipse. Kathy had purchased some "eclipse glasses" and we watched it, on and off. I thought it might get darker. We both were surprised at how quickly it got light again.

Yesterday I hooked the truck to the travel trailer and had it ready to go to the tire shop this AM. The up/down switch for the tongue's power jack was "frozen" and I broke it. After a lot of fussing with the jack we were hooked up and ready for this mornings trip.

The trailer tires didn't look bad but they were 6-7 years old. They had done a lot of just sitting on the ground. Nathan's Tire Shop in California, where I've had all our tire work done while in MO, had quoted me $270 for 4 new tires, installed. One tire problem during our upcoming trip could easily be more costly than that. Years ago Doug & Kathy blew a tire on our Jayco trailer, on the way to TN. When the tread came off it knocked the bottom of out the bathroom vanity and broke the fiberglass skirting over the tires. It was a pain to fix.

It is 8 miles to Nathans. After the tires were on I drove the "long way" back home, about 25 miles, to make sure everything was OK. All seems well.

I was back home by 10 AM. I pulled the trailer out back, to get it into position to put it back on the pad where I park it. I found out 2 things. The "posi" rear end on my truck works, both tires spin. I also found out that I can't back up a slight hill, pushing a 7,000# trailer, in wet grass.

We let things set until after the eclipse. Even after the grass dried some Kathy was still spinning the tires trying to back it up (she is the driver, I'm the director). I finally just hooked the tractor to the bumper on the trailer and pulled it up the slight hill. We had similar problems with the motorhome. I never pulled it with the tractor but I sure move a lot of wheelbarrow loads of rock to the motorhome and shoveled it along the path of the drive wheels.

Rain drains down the hill in this area. It isn't actually muddy that often but the soil does stay damp. I could probably solve the traction problem if I had 2-3 tandem axle loads of rock brought in and spread in the areas where I move the trailer. If I did this heavy rains would wash a path through the area. Rock is so close to the surface that it would be nearly impossible to install a catch basin and culvert. Guess I will stick with occasionally using the tractor as the solution.

Once we got the trailer back on the pad I tried "jumping" the electrical leads to the trailer tongue jack motor, bypassing the switch. I couldn't get it to work. Part of the problem seemed to be a corroded inline fuse holder. After pulling it apart and twisting it back together numerous times, trying to scrape away some of the corrosion I broke the glass fuse. I have lots of the newer spade type fuses, but no glass ones. I took the motor off the tongue jack and, using a ratchet & socket, manually cranked the jack to get the trailer loose from the ball. It took me awhile (it was HOT here again this PM). Then I played with the motor for awhile to make sure I was comfortable that it was OK. This afternoon I found the switch on Amazon and ordered one, and a new inline, spade type, fuse holder.

Lydia came after school. She arrives around 3:50PM. Andy & Nolan came around 5:15 and all 3 are still here.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

HOT Here

Saturday morning I unloaded the small amount of wood we had cut up Friday. Then I unhooked the trailer so that I could pull the partially submerged limb out of the pond. After that we started cleaning up the uprooted tree. We didn't get far before we said, "Enough of that!". It was just to hot to be running a chain saw and dragging limbs around. I didn't do much else the rest of the day.
Saturday evening Kathy went over to Kelsey & Andy's and sat with the kids so that K&A could have a night out.

I woke up a little after 5 AM this morning, Sunday. I had the thought running through my head, "I'm not living a victorious Christian life. Our study/memory verse at last Wed's Men's Fellowship was Romans 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God all good things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." When that verse is coupled with I Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape." & Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."; it is some powerful stuff.

If I am any example I suspect that few Christians live up to anywhere near their full potential. The "victorious" part for me was that I to often let things get me in a negative frame of mind. Ideally a Christian should ever be in a negative frame of mind. God loves us. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world (and that means each of us), that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." God is attentive to every detail in our lives, even to the point of keeping track of the number of hairs on our head (Luke 12:7)

If I could keep forefront in my mind the above Scriptures, why would I ever be negative. (I've read the Book. We win in the end! It's already a done deal.) God promises that no matter how bad something might seem on the surface He has a plan for it to produce good. In addition, He promises to never burden me with anything I can't handle with His help.

I found the following Decision Magazine article written by Billy Graham in April 2007.

A former president once said that America must have a spiritual revival. In our Crusades we see touches of genuine revival when thousands turn their lives to full-time Christian service and thousands of others make decisions for Christ. We praise God for His wonderful works.
However, I am becoming more and more convinced that we are never going to see revival across America until Christians meet certain scriptural conditions for revival. The great crowds that gather, the wonderful cooperation of churches, the unprecedented open doors for ministry–all are evidences that God is moving. But the sweeping revival that many Christians have prayed and longed for has not yet come, though there are evidences that it may be on the way.
As God looks down from heaven and sees present-day Christianity in America, He must be grieved. Thousands of Christians have left their first love; others are neither hot nor cold. As God said to the church at Laodicea, He would say to the church of America today, “You say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
The church in America is well organized. There seems to be no limit to funds. Church buildings are going up on every hand. We seem to have need of nothing, and yet I hear those same words burning and piercing our souls, “You … do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” The time has come to call for repentance among Christians.
The Scripture teaches that there are three kinds of people. First, there is the natural man or woman. The Bible says, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). The Bible teaches us that every person born into the world is born in sin and is by nature a child of wrath. We are all separated from God and in ourselves are utterly helpless, even though this natural person often puts up a religious front and endeavors by his or her own effort to please God. Natural men or women may pray and go to church. They may be religious, but often their religion is a religion of works–of living a “good life,” of doing their best.
The Bible distinctly teaches that none of us can improve our fallen nature. We cannot, by ourselves and in ourselves and of ourselves, please God. No amount of prayer, no amount of good acts, can cause us to be acceptable in the sight of God. The natural person may be learned, able, cultured, refined and–so far as natural gifts are developed–a magnificent specimen of humanity. But the natural person, according to the Word of God, is utterly incapable of either knowing or understanding the things of God. There is only one thing natural men and women can do: repent of their sins and turn by faith to Jesus Christ.
Second, there is a group called carnal Christians. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:1, “I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.” Carnal Christians are people who continually grieve the Holy Spirit by their temper, touchiness, irritability, prayerlessness or love of self. These are signs of carnality, of spiritual babyhood. These people are living a worldly life. (I think far to many of we Christians today fall into this category, at least some of the time. We may attend services on Sunday mornings but the thing we love the most is whatever leads to our personal gratification. Highlighting and note by Bert.)
Third, there are spiritual Christians. The person who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Scripture indicates, understands spiritual truth. Spiritual men or women may not have a college education, yet they may know more about God than an unregenerate professor or an unsanctified, unconsecrated theological leader. To the spiritual Christian, a whole realm of spiritual knowledge is opened up, of which the world knows nothing and the worldly Christian can only faintly imagine.
The question before us is this: How can the carnal Christian become a spiritual Christian?
There was a time, perhaps, when you were a spiritual Christian. You still had your first love; a fire burned in your heart for God. But something has happened along the way, something has disturbed your relationship with God, and you no longer know the joy, the peace and the thrill that you once knew. You do not take time to read your Bible. Your prayer times are few. Your interest in spiritual things has waned, and yet there is a great hungering after God, an aching in your soul for the joy and victory that you have seen in the lives of others. You want that joy in your soul, that thrill in your heart. You want to know the power of prayer again.
The Bible teaches that you can have glorious, daily victory. Scripture says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). Paul wrote in Romans 7:24-25, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And then he answered his own question, “I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25).
In Romans 8:2 we read, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” And in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
From the divine viewpoint, defeated Christians are abnormal. They are paralyzed members of the Body of Christ. Backsliding and carnality are not only inexcusable, they are incompatible with the normal Christian experience. They produce a regime of contradiction. Since the living Christ dwells within every one of us who has accepted Him as Savior, there is never any reason for defeat. No enemy is too powerful for Christ! Every temptation may be resisted!
If you as a Christian are overcome by the enemy, the simple explanation is that Christ has been denied His rightful position of supremacy in your heart. The dethronement of Christ will always lead to failure in spiritual warfare. It is Christ, and Christ alone, who can give you a constant, daily, victorious life.
However, the Bible teaches that every Christian has three enemies. The first enemy that we have to contend with is the world. Now “the world” means this present evil world, the great system of evil round about us. It is everything around us that has a tendency to lead us into sin. It may mean the evil people of the world, or it may mean the things of the world.
Certain elements of daily life are not sinful in themselves, but they can lead to sin if they are abused. Abuse literally means “extreme use,” and in many instances, overuse of lawful things becomes sin. Thinking about the necessities of life and taking care of one’s family is essential. But this can degenerate into anxiety, and then, as Christ reminded us, the cares of this life choke the spiritual seed in the heart (Mark 4:19). Making money is necessary for daily living. But money-making is apt to degenerate into money-loving, and then the deceitfulness of riches enters and spoils our spiritual life. The Bible admonishes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world” (1 John 2:15).
The second enemy of the Christian is the flesh. Paul said, “I know that in me [that is, in my flesh] nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (Romans 7:18). The Bible teaches that the flesh is fallen human nature. It is the corrupt principle of sin, the carnal nature that natural men and women have inherited from their fallen parents. It is the birthplace of all those ugly sins that so easily mar the Christian’s joy and hinder his or her testimony. The sins of temper, irritability, moodiness, jealousy, pride, selfishness, an unforgiving spirit, anxiety and fretfulness, harshness, complaining, criticism, lust–all of these things characterize the flesh.
The third enemy of the Christian is the devil, referred to by Paul as “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). The Bible teaches that the devil is a real person. His objective is to defeat the will of God in the world, the church and the Christian. He is the unceasing enemy of the soul. He must be met and overcome. Thank God, through the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross, this mighty enemy has been fully and finally vanquished. One day the whole world will see the full consummation of Christ’s triumph. Meanwhile, Satan is busy in the world, sometimes appearing as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and other times as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).
These, then, are our three foes: the world, the flesh and the devil. The attitude of the Christian to all three of them is summed up in one word: renounce. There must be no bargaining, no compromise, no hesitation. Absolute renunciation is the only possible way for the Christian to have victory in life. If you are a Christian, there is no excuse for not having daily victory in your life by renouncing sin and, by faith, letting the Spirit of God have control of your life.
And if you are still a “natural” man or woman–if you have never known the joy and peace that Jesus gives–you can be forgiven if you will turn from your sin and by faith accept Christ as Lord and Savior. You can know the peace with God that only Christ can bring. Why not turn to Him right now?

After thinking about his some, and realizing that I need to work to keep it forefront in my mind (and heart), I went back to sleep and slept soundly for another couple of hours.

God is good, may He bless you and yours. 

Started Storm Cleanup

I planned on starting cleaning up the storm damage yesterday (Thursday). Before getting to the cleanup I spent over an hour clearing off a little, and I do mean a little, bench space in the shed so that I had a place to set my chainsaw and sharpen the chain. After I got the chain sharpened I moved the tractor out back, took the rear blade off and hooked up the trailer. Back in the shed I filled the saw up with gas & bar oil and was ready to go. My saw wouldn't start, no matter how many times I pulled the starting cord. I took the plug out, it was dry (no sign of engine being flooded) put it back in & yanked the cord some more. Still nothing. Left the choke full on & yanked the cord more. Took the plug out and it was still dry. I took it over to the Stihl dealer in California and left it.

Yesterday evening I with with Kathy to a Bible study group she has been attending (I know all of the people in the group). The discussion and some videos were all related to some people who are predicting a major biblical Christian event on September 23, 2017. Some say that is the day the rapture will occur. I think the people who say they have figured this out are mistaken. As Christians we are called to always be ready for Christ's return. We are also told that no one knows the day/time that it will happen. I knew virtually nothing about the Jewish calendar, and how drastically it differs from the calendar we use. That part was interesting.

I once tried to read "Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan. It was written in the late 17th century. It is a "dream sequence" about a man named Christian who is on a journey from his home town, named "the City of Destruction" (this world), to the "Celestial City" (Heaven). I didn't get very far because the 17th century words/phrases were just to foreign for me. Recently I read "Eternity" by Randy Alcorn. It seems to me that it is a modern version of "Pilgrim's Progress". I found it thought provoking and well worth the read.

This morning I picked up my saw . The mechanic had the day off so I don't know exactly what was wrong with it. All I know is that he made a note that the problem was in the fuel system. $25 labor, no charge for any parts. It runs now.

My helpers and I were unloading smaller limbs, cut from the limbs that had fallen in our front yard. Kathy did double duty as a babysitter and limb loader. I just cut the small stuff loose from the larger limbs. Nolan picked up a couple of leaves and loaded them but his main goal was to be ready to ride the tractor any time it was moving.

Then it was back to load the wood from the larger limbs. Doesn't look like much but I burned almost 2 tanks of gas through the saw cutting it up.

I finished loading the larger stuff while Kathy & Nolan went up to the top of the driveway to wait for Lydia. The bus drops her off around 3:45PM. Andy came over and picked up both kids around 5:30PM. Kathy & I were/are both pooped.

Tomorrow we will see if we have enough energy to start on the tree that was uprooted in the side yard. As a minimum I need to go to the other side of our small pond and, with the tractor, pull a partially submerged limb out of the pond.

We got some bad/good news today. Brenda Daniels called Kathy from Niantic, IL, where we lived for 12 years. Phil & Brenda Daniels were friends from church. Phil ran the school bus garage and Kathy worked for him, driving bus, for several years. Not sure of their ages, maybe late 50's. Phil went in to have a stint put in to improve blood flow to his heart. Clots formed during the surgery and he died during the operation. The bad/good news is that while Brenda & their 2 adult children will miss Phil terribly, we all know that Phil is in Heaven, a far superior place. We also know that all his Christian family & friends will be joining him one of these days.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

Some Weather Excitement

Yesterday was an interesting day. It started off with our Men's Fellowship meeting in the AM. We have such a good group of guys, typically 6-8 of us make it on any given Wed AM. We spend the first 45-60 minutes eating breakfast and catching up with news. The next 45-60 minutes is spent learning how to become better Christian men. We are currently using "The Joshua Code, 52 Scripture Verses Every Believer Should Know", by O. S. Hawkins. It is the 3rd one of his books that we have used as the basis for our discussions. All of them were good, this one may be the best yet.

Then it was off to Jefferson City get some fish food, pickup a couple of treated 2x4's at Menards for a home project (putting up some lattice panels at one end of the front porch), and buying a set of ramps to use when changing the oil in my truck. My old ramps didn't survive the post-retirement downsizing and moving around. I'm tired of stacking up boards to drive up on.

In the afternoon we had some exciting weather. The first storm went through around 2 PM. We got a little hail and a bunch of much needed rain, 2.75" between 2PM & 11PM yesterday. 2" of it came in about 30 minutes. It came to fast to really soak in, but any moisture is good moisture this summer. Kathy & I stood in the LR looking out at the trees bending and we agreed that the winds were the highest we have experienced while living here. After the rain has stopped we went out for a walkabout and found evidence that, indeed the winds had been quite strong.

The top of one of the trees in our front yard had broken off. I probably need to get some tree people out here to clean up damage to the tree. Hopefully the damage won't kill it.

The top of the tree is now in the front yard.

A tree in the side yard was uprooted. The soil around the root of a tree about 10' away from this one was disturbed. I think it almost went over. The section of chain link in the photo was left leaning against this tree and another when we moved here. We don't have any fence. I think this may have been a 10' gate section that the pack rats we bought the house from had picked up somewhere.

We have quite a few limbs down elsewhere on the property. Part of a decent size limb is partially in the pond.

The good news is that we have plenty of trees trees that could have fallen on our house or vehicles, but none did, thank you Lord. We also walked up the drive and checked out the homes of our 2 neighbors at the top of our driveway. Both of them had some limbs down but none had fallen on their homes or vehicles. The last I heard Kelsey, Andy & kids also had no significant storm damage.

At 2:08PM our power went out, not a surprise with the high winds we were experiencing. About 400 homes in our area were without power. Initially the power company said the power would be back on by 4:30PM, which seemed a really optimistic estimate.

About 4 PM the revised the time for completion of repairs to 8:30PM. I started to get a little concerned about losing the contents of our 2 refrigerators and our freezer. I knew they would be OK until 8:30, & probably OK even overnight if we limited the amount of times we opened the doors, but I wondered about the accuracy of the 8:30 repair completion time.

We have a 3,000 watt, propane fired, generator that I bought to use with the travel trailer. It was the largest one that I could lift into the back of my truck, and it is all we need for travel trailer. I dug it out from under a bench in the shed, hooked up a propane tank and fired it up. 8-10 pulls on the rope and it fired up and ran fine. It isn't large enough to run our well pump but it is large enough to run at least one, maybe even two of our three refrigerator/freezers. I did an inventory and determined that, if necessary, a trip to the hardware in the morning to buy a couple of inexpensive fittings, would be all I needed to "backfeed" power to the house from the shed. I figured that if I shut off the main breaker in the electrical panel in the house there should be no danger of power feeding back into the utility company power lines. Then we could have shut off all breakers and turned on 1 at a time to rotate feeding power to the refrigerators and freezer.

At that point I plugged cord from the travel trailer into the generator and fired up the AC in the trailer. There was still around 30 gallons of water in the fresh water tank on the trailer (left over from when I sanitized/flushed the water system in the spring). I also turned on the gas fired hot water heater. I figured if the power wasn't back on by 8:30 we could take showers in the trailer and spend a comfortable night sleeping in it.

The storm had dropped the temperatures considerably and the temperatures inside the house were comfortable. About 7:30 I went out to the trailer, took a shower and then went back into the house. About 8:00 I went to bed, Kathy stayed up. I had a little trouble getting to sleep without my CPAP, but not bad. I had checked the power companies web site when I went to bed and they were estimating that power would be restored at 10:30.

Around 9PM I was awakened by another storm that came through. I will have to wait for it to get light outside to see if we sustained any damage from it. I went back to sleep almost immediately. About 10:00 I was awakened again when the bedside lamp came on. I put on my CPAP mask, shut the light off and was back asleep in short order. At 3AM I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up, transferred photos from my phone to my laptop and am writing this post. Its now 5AM and I will probably go back and sleep for another hour or so. Need to get rested for cleaning up all the limbs 😊.

The big news is that Lydia starts kindergarten today (Thursday). Andy will drop her off at school in the mornings, otherwise she would have to get up earlier for a lengthy bus ride. She will get off the bus at the top of our driveway and spend a few hours with Grammy & Papa.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

Great Sunday "Church Day"

I drove back to Missouri Saturday, Aug 5th.

Several months ago I began the process of finding another church to attend. There are some good Christian folks at Centertown Baptist, where we have attended since moving here in 2012, but I felt that I needed to make a change. I explored possibilities by attending Sunday morning services at 5 different churches in the area. I enjoyed the services at the 2 Cowboy Churches I attended but they are really geared around horse people. The folks at one of the other churches I attended were very friendly but they were a little to Pentecostal for me. Based on the message I heard at another of the churches it seemed to me to be a "health & wealth" church (God will make you wealthy & healthy), which I don't think is scriptural.

FreshwaterJC was the 5th church I tried. It was recommended to me by the Pastor of Centertown Baptist. I think it is the one I have been looking for. I have been attended services there since May 28th, with the exception of the Sunday's on our Alaska trip or when I have been in Tennessee. The church was started 5 years ago and meets in part of a converted warehouse. Current attendance is probably around 250 people at 2 Sunday morning services, not enough seating area for everyone to attend the same service.

The church has an annual "Labor for Your Neighbor" project. Rather than meet for the regulare Sunday morning church service the Sunday is spent proving a service for the community. This year was the 4th year for the project. This years "Neighbor" was the Koinonia House in Jefferson City. It will be a home for Christian men recently released from prison. A place where they can live in a somewhat structured environment until they are ready to fully integrate in to society. The church provided $10,000 for material, in addition to some material donated by a local business.

Friday afternoon, the 11th, I met Brooks Crawford, a Freshwater member, and helped install some sheathing to enclose an area under an exterior stairway. Some Freshwater volunteers had already poured a 20x20 concrete pad for a recreational area before Friday.

Yesterday was the big day. Daycare was provided at "the warehouse" (the church). The "official" start time was 9:30. I arrived a little before 8:30 and there were probably a dozen people already busy. I took photos of some of the activity.

Some of the landscaping activity. The concrete pad I mentioned earlier is in the background. Folks were stripping the forms from the pad, regrading the area around the pad and planting grass seed. The sod had been stripped from the area in this photo and weed mat and rock was being added to provide more parking. I didn't get any photos of all the tree trimming that occurred.

This is the area under the stairway where I helped install sheathing Friday. Yesterday is was sided with vinyl siding. It will make a nice waterproof storage area.

 I never was inside where activities included painting, installing new flooring, and I don't know what else. I have no idea what these "boxes" are for but they were painted while out on the lawn and all of them went inside. The young man in the photo is Travis. Travis & I worked together.

 We tore out all the screening material under the porch, cleaned up debris from under the porch and installed new material. The hose was for insulation that was blown into the attic.

 Part of our finished work under the porch. Old rotted landscaping timbers were removed by one of the landscaping crews, weed mats were put down and new timbers were installed.

Just before we stopped for lunch we had a treat. A young man who accepted Jesus during a July youth trip had decided that he wanted to be baptized, so we got to enjoy a baptism on the street in front of the Koinonia House.

 His Dad is on the right. Freshwater's Pastor is in the center and the Youth Pastor is on the left.

 The work crew assembling for lunch.

When I left around 3 PM there were still maybe a dozen folks working to finish the landscaping.

It was a great day!

God is good, may He bless you and yours. 

PS. Below is an article that was published last year in the Jefferson City News Tribune:

Next summer, the Jefferson City community will witness the opening of the Koinonia House, a Christ-centered nonprofit that assists men who have been incarcerated in assimilating back into the community.
Heather Gieck, executive director of the Healing House and New Beginnings, has worked since 2015 to improve quality of life for women in Jefferson City who have been incarcerated. As a result of her advocacy and the help of local organizations, she soon will have a residential program to do the same for men.
"We have some men coming back into our community who desire to live a changed life but don't know how to grasp it," Gieck said.
She described the facility as a life-changing ministry that will provide affordable housing, leadership, support and structure. In turn, Gieck's program will help men avoid the initial housing, employment and transportation barriers that come with being released from jail.
Similar to the success of the Healing House, Gieck looks forward to helping improve quality of life for the men in the program.
The men will be expected to work during the day and attend classes in the evening to learn about steps to recovery, tapping into spirituality and honing pertinent life skills.
"We want men who have a desire to transform their lives," Gieck said.
Prior to the grand opening, Gieck hopes to raise $10,000 toward construction and operational expenses. Churches with the Christian Ministerial Fellowship have been big supporters of the mission behind the Koinonia House.
The Koinonia House was set to receive a donation-based benefit fund at the Community Thanksgiving Service on Saturday, Pastor Gaines Jackson, a member of the Christian Ministerial Fellowship, told the News Tribune.
"There have been conversations about a men's recovery program since 2004," Jackson said. "We are very excited to see this new initiative finally come to pass."
"This program will help the men to not only make a change in their heart, but help them make lifelong changes that will benefit their children and the community," Gieck said.

Doors & Windows Trimmed

Today Marvin & I finished trimming the doors and windows in the finished half of the cabin, another milestone.

We used primed board so it still needs to be finish painted, work for a future trip.

Tried my hand making sausage gravy one morning. It turned out fine. I cheated and used canned biscuits.

Marvin came back from lunch yesterday carrying a sack with "leftovers". Diane sent down some potatoes, beans and corn she had cut off the cob, all from their garden, and fresh made corn bread. It made for a delicious supper.

Still working on getting an estimate from drywall guy, for taping the new drywall. I'd like to get that set up before I leave. I won't leave for Missouri tomorrow but may head back on Thursday.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.