February 8 – “Waldo from Waco”

We had some yard people come over yesterday.  Kel’s team of kiddos arrived in the afternoon with the express intent of doing whatever yardwork we needed done.  I know.  For those of you up north that sounds odd, I guess.  Yardwork in February.  It’s the middle of winter.  Well, when you live in a tropical island paradise …

Micah jumped right in and started mowing the grass.  Jachin took the clippers and topped off a vine that grows over the top of the fence from the neighbor’s yard.  He also did some sweeping.  Josiah handled the leaf blower.  Well, so did Ezra, which was a pretty funny sight to behold.  That thing controlled him more than the other way around.  He did bring all his toy yard tools with him, though.  Noa used one of them to top off the grass to make it “easier” for Micah to mow.  Brennan even came across the street and joined in the fun.  He was in charge of recreational down time activity (Read here: backyard dodge ball).  And the hit of the day was the grass bower that was actually a bubble blowing machine.  I stepped on the front porch at one point and was met by a Lawrence Welk-ian array of bubbles.  They were everywhere.  It was epic.  Nice job all the way around, team.

I attended the Gideon Appreciation Banquet for Pastors last night.  It was their statewide convention, so the event was held at Moody Gardens.  And the place was absolutely packed.  I was paired up with the Gideon who has been assigned to speak for a few minutes at Seaside tomorrow morning.  Nice guy.  He found us a spot at a table after a few mis-tries.  Lots of seats were reserved for pastors only, so he couldn’t sit in them.  They reserved all the seats that were facing the screens just for pastors so we wouldn’t have to turn our chairs around to see the screens.  It was all about the little things.  One of the Gideons at our table was “Waldo from Waco, now Wally from San Antonio.”  Come to find out he was a member of the church Josh worked at in San Antonio.  He remembered Josh for a common bond they have.  Apparently both of them gave up their commercial drivers’ licenses when they found out if you get a ticket with a commercial license, no deferred adjudication is available.  It goes on your record immediately.  Ain’t it great when you find something in common?  My favorite part of the evening was listening to the guest speaker.  Not so much the content.  That was pretty much what I expected.  It was his accent.  He was from Switzerland, so I was fascinated by the way he talked.  I think he was from German stock, but I’m really not sure.  He was fun to listen to, though.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Father, thank you for work of the Gideons.  Bless their efforts.  Amen.