April 5 – “U Islands”

Today was a really great day at church.  There were at least three new families who seemed to love the worship at Seaside.  One in particular stayed for almost an hour talking to Lanny and me.  They choose to live in a trailer rather than on the land they left behind in South Carolina.  And they are happy.  They home school their nine year old daughter.  She's a real doll.  I'm looking forward to getting to know them.  They even want to go wade fishing with me.  Mom is afraid of sharks, though.   We joined the "Rita crowd" for lunch again.  At least this time they didn't go to a Chinese food place.  I can handle Mexican food much better.  It took us a long time to get there.  The annual triathalon was today, and we got caught up in some of the traffic stops for the bicycle leg.  The good thing was that we were headed east.  Traffic going west looked horrible.  I think it would have been faster to be on a bicycle.   It was nice and warm today.  I've been praying for a week of warm weather before our baptism at the Easter sunrise service next week.  I was looking forward to fishing this afternoon, but by the time we got to the causeway the wind was blowing so hard Chris had a hard time keeping the car under control.  And when it finished its swing, the wind was hard out of the north.  So much for fishing.  And so much for water temperature going up.   One of the things we did at church this morning was learn a scripture verse.  We do it most Sundays.  This one had to do with praise.  Now, my way of memorizing stuff has been a little different ever since college.  I have to draw weird pictures that help me remember a key word or phrase.  Then that picture relates to the next picture and so on and so on.  That's the way we've been doing it at Seaside, too.  I got excited about today's verse the first time I heard it, because it was about Galveston.  It talks about "going down to the sea" and – in our picture – "U Islands (you islands) and all who live in them."  If that doesn't refer to Galveston, I don't know what would.  Let's see how I do.   Isaiah 42:10 – "Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands and all who live in them."   Father, thanks for the great people you sent to Seaside today.  They are fun.  You are awesome.  Amen.