Grief

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Sometimes the news comes quick. Sometimes the news comes slow. No matter how or when it comes, grief travels in the wake of the news. Grief is heavy, weighty, a burden, especially when it involves someone deeply loved. Grief is not meant to be carried alone. It’s too heavy and may last a while—and that’s ok. That’s what family and friends are for, to share the load. Jesus stood outside the tomb of his friend and wept but He did not weep alone. It was a deep, human moment. “ Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted ” (Matt 5:4). If anyone knows how we feel in grief, it’s Him. But His grief did not linger long, as at the mention of his name, Lazarus came forth. We are not meant to dwell in grief, but should leave room enough for it. Let it run its course. Like the song says, “ Every Storm Runs Out Of Rain .” Another song says, “ The storm We will dance as it breaks The storm It will give as it takes And all of our pain is washed away Don't cry or be afraid Some things...

Exciting days

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These days are certainly getting exciting . . .

We just finished "Nick at Night", our VBS program at church. The format was based on John 3, Nicodemus visiting Jesus at night; however, the delivery of the program was patterned after the Nicolodeon game shows. The entire event took place on Wednesday evenings at the downtown public park. We had live music, lots of kids and plenty of games. I don't think many people went home very dry each night because of all the water games played (I made certain I was one of the dry ones).

Last night was so hot that with the heat index, it was about 110 degrees. Though I was sweltering, I kept the water flowing! The station I was in had no shade, so when I moved to get out of the sun at one point, one certain individual thought to be helpful and dumped a bottle of ice water down my back. I just about went into shock, to say the least.

August is just around the corner! I am teaching a Sunday School class more regularly now and some final decisions are being made as to our permanance there. I start teaching "Christian Ethics" on the 16th and "Pilgrim's Progress" on the 21st.

I am getting excited also about getting the Fall garden going. I would like to plant some 16" rows and mixed rows instead of single rows to increase our yield. I am settling into doing a salad garden as opposed to a full vegetable garden--though I would like to plant a fuller garden in the spring. Right now I am wanting to get lettuce, kale, radishes, carrots, cabbage, spinach, snap beans and perhaps some winter squash in the ground. If I get that much in, I will be happy. I think I missed the chili season, but cannot find anything stating it could not be a late summer/fall vegetable. Thinking about pumpkins, too.

Am loosing the battle of the summer squash bugs right now, but tomatoes are coming in nicely!

Poor astronomy this summer--either too cloudy at night, or the bug swarms were too much. Maybe those were clouds of bugs . . .

Oh, and congratulations to STS-114 on their successful launch. Happy flight and safe return ladies and gentlemen!

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