March 22 – “Hoping”

This morning I worked for several hours on the Palm Sunday events coming up.  None of the cool outside stuff I could have done, like cutting palm branches and making palm crosses.  I'll get to that later in the week.  Especially that palm tree in the back yard.  I can't tell if the whole thing is dead or if there are just numerous branches that need cutting.  Some of them are draped over the cable wires in the back of the house, though.  At least I think they are for cable.  I think the power lines are much higher up.  Hope so.  Guess I'll find out later this week.    When I finally heard from the secretary of the Galveston Baptist Association, I loaded up in the truck and headed to LaMarque.  WooHoo.  I knew that office was only open four days a week, but I can't ever remember if it is Monday or Friday they take off.  I needed a signature from someone in authority at that office to prove that Seaside is really a member of the association.  It was one of the requirements for a grant we are applying for.  The executive director was there, so they ushered me back to his office.  I have met him several times before, but this was my first time to sit down and chat.  An hour and a half later I emerged with the signature.  He was a fun guy to get to know, but we spent a lot of time talking about Galveston's demon of hopelessness.  He's getting together some teams to be trained in prayer walking so they can all converge on Galveston at once and inundate the city with prayer one Saturday morning.  Sounds like some spiritual warfare is about to hit the fan on the island.  I sure hope everybody gets prayed up.   I got a text from Chris around noon.  She was with her Mom in Houston.  They did a chemo treatment, but the doc was not happy that the cat scan she ordered had not been done.  She set it up for this afternoon.  She also ordered a hospital bed to be set up at her Mom's house for whenever she might need it in the days or weeks to come.  Good luck getting her Mom to make that phone call.  She is still fiercely independent, and to have a hospital bed in her house seems to make her feel like she's giving up hope.   1 Peter 1:21 says, "Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God."   Father, help Chris' Mom remember where to put her faith and hope.  Amen.