We had a great day at church yesterday. It's summer in Galveston, so our influx of visitors has begun in earnest. It's always exciting to see the building nearly full. It was also one of those days when my plans for a teaching ran headlong into God's plans. Guess who won? The lesson turned into a time of directed prayer. We followed the acronym ACTS, for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. I read a psalm that fit each category, and then we spent some time praying. I even read the general confession prayer from the episcopal prayer book I keep on my desk. The visual verse was 2 Chronicles 7:14, the one where God promises to respond if his people pray. Then when we started to sing in the response to the Word section, the songs the guys had picked out and worked on fit perfectly with the prayer theme. Way to go, God. It was a different experience for a lot of folks. We also had a meeting of those interested in mentoring youth who are going to camp in two weeks. One of our college students who is now in college, Kelly, led the meeting and the prayer time afterwards. She did a great job. Wish we could hire her as a summer intern.
Later in the afternoon Chris and I tackled the yardwork for the week. Kind of surprised me that she joined me. She doesn't usually do anything she considers work on a Sunday. I didn't consider it work, myself. Just a chance to get all sweaty and accomplish something that is obvious to see by just looking at it. That's one of the frustrating things about being in the ministry. You can't always see the results of the work you put in from week to week, teaching to teaching. The yard does look nice now. I even spent some extra time trying to knock down some of the growth in between the fences. The people in the house behind us built a wooden fence after Hurricane Ike so they wouldn't have to look at the yard next door to us (that house still hasn't been cleared out after the hurricane, by the way). The problem was, they built it with about a six or eight inch gap between the wood fence and our chain link fence. Just enough space to grow a bundle of weeds, and just wide enough that I can't reach it by sticking my fingers through the openings. So I used our old weedeater. The guard has long since fallen off, so it fit nicely into the space. I had to stand on a stool to avoid getting stabbed by the barbs on top of the fence, and I had to constantly pull out more string, but it did the job. Except for where Chris has been nurturing a wisteria vine (I think that's what she calls it). It has covered a big area of the fence, so I couldn't get to that part. Back to sitting in the dirt and reaching through with my fingers. It's not quite as bad as it was. And Chris said she was satisfied with it. That's what counts. Mama's happy, right?
Psalms 1:6 says, "For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."
Father, thank you for drawing all those people to worship even when they are on vacation. Give them a fun week. Amen.
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