July 21 – “Agricultural and electronic progress”

Well, the rains have come.  The last few hours, including much of the night last night, have been intermittently punctuated by thunderstorms and pretty heavy downpours.  I even checked the radar.  Looks like we’re in for a few more hours before they rain themselves out.  Unless, of course, some more form out over the Gulf.  And of course rain could mean anything when it comes to church attendance.  Some folks will come because it's too nasty to go to the beach.  Others will just stay at home because it's too nasty to go anywhere.  And today is the day the students who went to camp get to share their experience.  Oh, well.  At least it makes me glad to be extremely sore today. 

I know, that was a stretch.  But we did mow and work in the yard yesterday, so I am really sore this morning.  Chris told me that eating bananas will help stave off attacks of leg cramps in the middle of the night, so I’m munching on one now.  I figure she has a vested interest in keeping my leg cramps at bay.  She’s the one who gets abruptly awakened when I jump. It’s just good to know we got all the work in before the rain.  Now the grass can soak it up and start all over again.  Ah, the life of an urban grass farmer. 

I finished all the scanning of our photo albums yesterday.  1975 through today.  That’s a really long time.  Thirty-eight years of married life.  And it has sure trumped the almost twenty-two years before that.  I’m not going into what happens when you add those two numbers together, though.  Not until August, at least.  The middle of August.  So we now have untold number of duly digitized jpegs safely stashed away on an external hard drive.  Now we just have to remember to grab it when we have to evacuate for a storm and hope that the technology continues to be available to access it.  I know, I know.  The latest thing is to put it up in the clouds somewhere.  I guess some day we’ll be forced to do that.  We did, after all, have to abandon our floppy discs that were actually floppy back in the day. 

The next electronics project in line is to get back to turning our old VHS tapes into digital creations and storing them on DVDs.  We have a problem there, though.  The VHS player I was using finally conked out.  It would mysteriously turn itself on at random times.  I think it had been commandeered by alien beings and was secretly sucking away at the life force of any human who sat within five feet of it.  I have felt better since I disconnected it.  I hope WalMart still sells those players.  I have a stack of tapes left to go. 

Psalms 102:12 says, “But you, O Lord, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations.”

Father, show your glory at church today.  Help the students communicate the excitement they felt at camp.  Amen.

July 20 – “Ninja porcupine”

Well.  No VBS news.  Didn’t see Kel’s kids.  Cailyn only stopped by for a few minutes so her Daddy could fax something.  No FaceTime calls from Zak and Caleb.  Grandkid withdrawal.  I couldn’t bring myself to do no work even though Friday is supposed to be a day off, but I did force myself to cut back some.  Chris helped with that.  She asked me to help her update her quilting notebook.  That’s where she keeps a photo record of every quilt she has made.  In it she puts samples of the material, pictures of the finished quilt and even a picture of the person she made it for.  Interesting record to have.  Once we got the photos copied that she still needed, we spent some time actually labeling the pictures on the computer for easier access next time.  Great way to spend some time together and get something accomplished at the same time. 

Speaking of accomplished, I finished scanning the last of the pictures in our photo album.  They are all officially digitized now.  My next task is to arrange a few of the years into an easier to find order.  Once that is done we’ll have as chronological a pictorial history of our life together as is humanly possible for this particular human.  I’m hoping to get to that today.  The plan is to get the yard mowed first – if it doesn’t rain.  Sounds really strange to be really expecting it to rain here on the island.  That just doesn’t happen all that often in the summer unless there is a tropical storm system involved.  Not that I’m asking for one by any means.  I have enjoyed the respite we have had for the last few years after Hurricane Ike.  I’d be happy to go for a few years longer. 

Ah, mowing the yard.  Brings back such odd memories.  The last time I mowed it was hot.  Really hot.  There was a time or two that I considered stopping, but that would have made the yard look really silly.  So I kept going, the voice of my junior high school football coach ringing in my ears, “Suck it up.  Don’t stop now.  Don’t be a baby.”  Sigh.  They don’t make ‘em like they used to, do they?  I kept going until I started getting heartburn and began belching.  I know.  That sounds really strange.  The rest of the day I had heartburn and belching issues.  It was miserable.  I sure didn’t know heat could do all that. 

And the time before that, I ended up with some unexplained scratches on the back of my leg.  No idea where they came from.  In fact I never even noticed them.  Cailyn was the one who expressed concern.  I told her I had no idea what happened, and she immediately said, “I know what happened, DadDad.”  Well, this had to be good.  Never one to muzzle creativity, I encouraged her a bit.  Well, more than a bit.  So she continued, “They were made by a porcupine.  See, he was hiding in the high grass over in 40 Steps and he jumped out at you backwards while you were mowing and scratched you.  Then he hid in the grass again really fastly.”  A ninja porcupine.  I will be sure to watch out for him today.

Psalms 102:1-2 says, “Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry for help come to you.  Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress.  Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.”

Father, thank you for those rare days when there is nothing absolutely pressing that we have to get done.  We could sure use a few more of them.  Amen.

July 19 – “Intelly-yent”

Well, VBS has come and gone.  I let the folks from Mineral Wells know we really appreciated their hard work, and they let me know they learned more than they ever bargained for from being here.  They sent special kudos to our guys who led on Wednesday night.  Nice job to all concerned.

I know Cailyn enjoyed herself.  She couldn’t wait to get back there every night.  Now that might have been so she could see that “very cute blonde boy.”  I found out his name, by the way.  And I almost couldn’t believe it.  Ready for this?  His name is Calin.  Seriously.  It’s pronounced “Callen,” like the guy on NCIS Los Angeles.  But he gets called Cailyn all the time at school.  I, don’t know, Daddy.  This one may be in the cards.  You better stay away from Mineral Wells.

Cailyn was feeling particularly positive around the house yesterday.  At random times she told us each that we were the “very best DadDad I ever had,” and “the best Nani I ever knew.”  And she didn’t even want anything in particular.  That’ll warm a grandparent’s heart.  My favorite for the day, though, was this comment, made while she watched me working at my computer:

“You’re a smart and very intelly-yent boy and so am I except I am a girl.”
That about says it.

On the way home from VBS she was apparently getting a little bored. 

Cailyn: “Tell me a story out of your mouth.” (I assumed that meant as opposed to reading one out of a book).
Me: “About what?”
Cailyn: “About Jesus.”  (Whew.  At least it was a subject I was familiar with).
Me: “How about one about Paul?”  (He was the topic of the Bible stories at VBS)
Cailyn: “Yeah, Paul-Saul.”
I was worried that she might be getting sleepy, so I did my best to dramatize the story of Paul and his friend singing in prison and God sending an earthquake and all the prisoners sticking around.  I got to the point where Paul told the jailor, “If you believe in Jesus you will be saved like me.”  Except right after the “If you believe in Jesus” part I was interrupted from the back seat by an excited cry of “I believe in Jesus!”  Guess she was listening after all.

Psalms 101:1 says, “I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will sing praise.”

Father, thank you for the spark of your love instilled in little hearts.  Help it grow.  Amen.

July 18 – “Evidence”

I had my picture taken yesterday.  I know.  Sounds strange, right?  The newspaper is doing an article on fire department chaplains, so they wanted some fodder to support the story.  I met the chief at Station 5 and the guys on duty had to pose with me and pretend like we were having a conversation.  Have you ever tried to do that and look natural?  We had to do it in drama back in high school, but back then everybody was into pretending.  And the whole point was to be just a bit over the top so the audience could see your reactions.  Not so here.  I tried to think of things to talk about.  I tried, “So what really bad has happened so far today?”  Just so happened they had only had one call that shift and it was a minor traffic accident.  I did get a rise when I mentioned the union, but all the “exciting” stuff there is pretty much over.  Even their recent contract is already approved.  The good thing was, the photographer was able to get what she needed in just about a minute and a half.  The guys were released, with a noticeable sigh of relief, I might add, and I had to move to a different part of the truck and have a few more portraits done.  The whole thing lasted maybe five minutes, and it was for a positive story on the department, so the general feeling was a good one.  Now I have to wait for the reporter to email me and the chief his list of questions.  Story comes out on August 3^rd. 

VBS went especially well last night, but I am a little prejudiced with this one.  A group of Seaside college and high school students came in and helped lead.  Very impressive, if I do say so myself.  There was a bit of lag time at the beginning while everyone was getting on the same page, so I plugged in my phone and played the children’s music album I have on there.  All-time favorites like Father Abraham and I’m in the Lord’s Army.  And of course that meant I had to show them all the motions.  It turned into a rousing round of movement and laughter and fun.  Felt like I was a warm-up group for the main event.  And the main event was pretty well done.  Kelly, Lora, Sydney, Melissa, Travis, and Jimmy started with a name game that I wondered might be too much for the little ones to understand.  They didn’t really get it, but they sure had fun anyway.  Cailyn wants to play it again tonight.  The idea was to quickly call out someone else’s name with a person headed for you to tag you.  Lots of pressure, but made for some comical moments.  Like every time someone approached Macy she revealed another of her imaginary friends.  First time she called out “Bob.”  No Bob there.  Next time she tried “Jamie.”  Close to “James,” I guess, but she clearly meant Jamie.  And no Jamie there.  Her last imaginary friend was my personal favorite of the night.  As the tagger approached closer and closer she got more and more flustered.  Finally she cried out, “Chicken.”  Now that was revealing.  Her imaginary friend is named Jamie Bob Chicken.  Have to remember that one and ask about it tonight. 

As things got serious, the Seasiders acted out the story of Saul on the road to Damascus.  Lora in particular deserved an Oscar for her performance in the lead role (Yep.  She was Saul).  Kelly followed up with the plan of salvation and then asked if any of the kids knew how to become a Christian.  One of the Mineral Wells kids did a pretty fair job working through the ABC’s - Admit you’re a sinner, Believe Jesus died for your sins, Confess your faith in him.  That’s when our very own youngster, Will raised his hand.  He had a few things to add that would have made any theologian proud, not to mention one particular Mommy who needs to hear about this.  Will said, “If we’re bad a lot of times, God still loves us.  No matter what we say or what we do, God still loves us.”  Now he continued on and on, but the cool thing is, everything he said was theologically right on target.  Nice job, Will. 

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Father, sounds like Will is getting the message.  Sounds like those Seaside students got the message.  Thanks for that.  I sure needed the encouragement that comes from seeing the evidence - the results - of Seaside’s ministry.  Amen.

July 17 – “A masterful negotiation”

Vacation Bible School, day two resulted in a three-fold increase in kids’ attendance.  Of course that means we had two more kids there to join Cailyn.  Uh-oh.  No longer the absolute center of attention.  She was fine with it, though. Especially since the other two were rambunctious boys.  Why, they even chose to stay outside and play crazy games instead doing the responsible, reasonable thing of going inside and putting together the huge floor puzzle of a price and his princess on horses.  What could be better than that?  I heard Cailyn and one of the workers’ little girls discussing who would be what character once they got the puzzle together.  They struggled a bit at first, since of course both wanted to be the princess.  And neither of them could be the prince.  I was a bit worried whether that could break out into a knock-down, drag-out fist fight.  But I forgot these were girls.  Guys would have had the fist fight, nobody would have won, the puzzle would be forever forgotten, and they would be best buddies forever.  I don’t have enough experience with girls to know what would happen, though.  As it turned out, Cailyn did get to be the princess.  No surprise there.  But the other little girl came up with the solution of the year as far as I’m concerned.  She decided she would be … the horse.  Of course.  Why didn’t I think of that?  In either case, adults could learn an awful lot from the masterful negotiation skills of children when left to their own devices.

I like the way this group is letting even the very young kids be involved in leading.  Several have lead in prayer and one kid even told the story of Paul and Silas singing in jail.  Cailyn’s friend Macy even raced into the rain to chase down a lady and with two children and invite them to come.  Doing it this way, with a very small group of children, reminds me of one of the ways Seaside has really contributed over the years.  Young kids and even inexperienced adults get to learn how to be effective ministers in a safe place. 

Cailyn came home with me after VBS since Mommy and Daddy both are at work today.  The other day she told Chris that she wants her folks to buy the lot next door so she can “come right in through your front door any time I want to.”  Chris wanted that, too.  Can’t say that Nathan and April would be that thrilled at the prospect, though.

Psalms 100:4-5 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Father, help Seaside maintain a spirit of acceptance and appreciation for the groups that come stay with us.  Amen.

 

July 16 – “Resort VBS”

Vacation Bible School is in town in a big way.  Of course that could be taken several ways.  One way would be to point to the fact that the biggest church in Galveston is having VBS this week.  And that would be true.  Moody Methodist is in full swing.  The other way to look at it is that so is Seaside VBS.  And that always means … well, at Seaside it you can never saw “always” about anything.  Too much flux.  Too many variables.  You never know what will happen there.

And the first day proved accurate.  A group from Mineral Wells is actually leading our VBS this year.  They are primarily junior high students with two ladies who seem really good at what they do.  They are taking more of a backyard Bible Club approach rather than a full blown Bible school.  Probably a good choice, because it allows for a lot of flexibility.  They set up Monday morning to do a block party to introduce the action.  Didn’t have many takers, but I think it was good experience for their kids.  One small group was entertaining Nathan, Cailyn and me by trying to make some balloon animals.  Stellera (named after her two grandmothers Stella and Sarah) was pretty good at it.  Haley, on the other hand, exploded five or six before she gave up.  Josh just wanted someone to make him a sword.  He was kind of bummed because he forgot his fishing pole.  Andrew the Banana Man wore his banana suit and waved at cars.  Gavin and Colton showed off their super absorbent necklaces from camp.  They all had a great time in the bounce house before several groups went out into the neighborhood trying to find kids to invite.  One grandma did drive up with her grandson just as we were putting things away for lunch.  She said a very nice young gentleman had invited them, and she was wondering when things were going to be happening.  They didn’t stay, but assured us they would be back.  Finally, Macy went out of her way to spend time playing with Cailyn and made a friend for life. 

Cailyn was the only kid that came the first night.  Not that unusual an experience for resort area ministries, by the way.  By that time I had determined that the leaders really weren’t sure what to do beyond the actual VBS time.  So I sent some more teams out with flyers I had made that afternoon to look for more kids, and I encouraged them all to hang in there.  Cailyn did get there, and they went through their whole VBS experience just for her.  Think she minded being the center of attention?  That would be a no.  She loved it, and pretty much had her new friend Macy all to herself.  The verse for the week is 2 Timothy 1:7, all about fear.  I ended up running the sound and computer for them to show their videos and sing songs.  Even had to “encourage” one of their guys who felt that he was too cool to do the motions or sing.  I got a little crazy with dancing around.  Then I assured him a bit, “If this 150 year old guy can do this, so can you.”  And then I “helped” him stand up and get moving.  Don’t think he’ll forget the crazy man pastor from Galveston any time soon.  I may have to provide the same assistance for a few of their adults tonight. 

I did get to spend some time talking with one of the adult counselors.  Cecil wanted me to show him the places with easiest access so he could take his son fishing and not get pummeled by waves.  It was difficult, but I forced myself to talk about fishing just a bit.

Day one went pretty well, even with just one child.  Cailyn did give new meaning to a game of duck, duck, goose, though.  She tapped Macy on the head and took off running across the field.  The rest of the group was stunned for a second or two, then began cheering her on.  The game was just not the same after that.  The younger boys took their cue from Cailyn, and when they were selected, chased each other upstairs and around the building and back.  Ah, the energy.  Cailyn did ask me on the way to her house if there would be more children there tomorrow.  I told her, “I sure hope so, but I do know Macy will be there.”  And she smiled. 

2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

Father, draw some more kids out to VBS tonight so these guys from Mineral Wells don’t get too disappointed.  And give old Cecil and his son a good day of fishing.  Amen.

July 15 – “Wonder eyes”

We had a great time this weekend catching up with some old friends from our Arlington days.  They were in town to get on one the big boats.  Yep, they were heading on a cruise to the Bahamas.  Not that we did anything special.  All we did was sit around and talk.  But sometimes those are the best times.  Mike is a really quiet kind of guy, and his wife Pat is … well … not.  Between the two of them, they are so much fun to be around.  Pat always has something to say on just about any subject.  And Mike’s occasional interjections into her commentaries are most often hilarious.  We had a chance to see their two kids grow through a big portion of their early years, so it was especially fun to hear about their exploits as adults and how they are dealing with kids of their own.  Always a fun topic for grandparent-types.  Can’t beat the whole “You’re getting what you deserve for the myriad things you did while you were growing up that caused us such great torment and worry” gloat.  Hey … we earned it.

I decided to get in a little fishing Sunday afternoon.  The water had been perfect for it on my way to church that morning, but it was already beginning to church up by the time I could get out there.  It was cloudy and actually kind of cool, so that part was pleasant.  It got choppy quickly, though, so it became one of those “get beat up” kind of days.  I didn’t get live bait.  Decided to use up some of the dead shrimp we have in the freezer.  I was hoping for some whiting or maybe an errant red fish.  I did get a few whiting and even three black drum (same family as red fish, but these were pretty small).  It was a banner day for catfish, though.  Hardhead catfish.  Nasty bottom-dwellers.  They are good for two things.  If they’re big enough, they can make for some fun reeling them in.  Otherwise they have to die and have their skin picked clean by crabs and then sit in the sun for days and days so the bones get bleached out.  Then they have some value.  See, their bones form the perfect shape of a crucifix – Jesus on the cross.  And when you shake the dried out bones, you can hear the rattle of the dice used by the soldiers as they cast lots for Jesus’ clothing.    All in all it makes for a great object lesson.  Out of the evil, bottom-dwelling, bait stealing scavenger comes the ultimate symbol of victory.  Nice. 

I guess I’m more than a little bitter today.  One of them got me.  You always have to be careful of their three fins.  Sharp as tacks and when you get pierced, they sting and swell up and hurt for hours.  This time it was one of the biggest ones I hooked.  He was clinging to the hook for all he was worth.  Anything to make it difficult.  About the time I thought I had him lined up for another go at it, a wave hit me and he started his alligator-esque spinning.  One of his side fins found its way into my wrist.  Way into my wrist.  Enough that I had to grab him and pull him out.  Not the kind of surgery I particularly enjoy performing.  The throbbing started almost immediately, so I decided right then it was time to go home.  I almost turned loose the fish I had caught, but it was too much trouble.  As it turned out, I was glad I kept them.  Not because they will make some good fillets, but there was a little boy, about three years old, on the shore.  He was less that happy that his time at the beach was drawing to a close.  So in a valiant effort at distraction, his Mom asked if he could see the fishies.  Well, of course.  Nothing quite like watching the eyes of a three year old light up.  Can’t say I’ve reached the point where the eyes are all that I remember from the experience – my wrist is still a bit swollen.  But I’ll get there.  One day soon this will be a real Romans 8:28 experience.  At least for the little boy.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Father, thank you for the wonder-eyes of little boys seeing real live fishies.  Give me wonder-eyes at the things you are doing all around me  Amen.