COMMON GROUND COFFEE HOUSE #83

Afternoon all:

Well, I lived through the myelogram/spinal tap. Wasn't as bad as the last one. I won't get results back for a few days. Then I have the other testing NEXT Friday! I thank the Lord and ya'll who prayed for me. I have been in bed off and on with a spinal headache, but, no leak. My back IS bruised and sore from the procedure, however.

Last night we had a "tornado" come through right over our section of houses. It sucked the top of the compost bin off, blew out the cover from under the house and the new neighbors house (we never have found the top off of the compost bin) and gave us some heavy downpours of pea to nickle sized hail! I tried to open the door last night, and it sucked it right out of my hand and slammed it and nearly shattered the center glass that is in it! The power was out ten to twelve times, and because of the three funnels we saw, we closed all the doors leading into the hallway in the center of the house and sat there on the floor covered over with a blanket. Could literally FEEL the pressure and hear the swirling. But, praise the Lord, no touchdown! There were several trees knocked down just a block or so from here, and a barn was knocked down, several power lines, phone lines out, etc. We just had another round of this junk minus the hail about ten minutes ago!

Sue, Viv and I joined freecycle here, though we've not listed or replied to anything yet. We CAN cross join here with other counties. That's good.
It seems to be a really worthy cause, and if I can get my van tires replaced soon, I plan on going by the convenience centers and through the neighborhoods where people are moving out and leaving things, and recycling some things and putting them on freecycle. It might be another ministry for me. Glad you and Diane kept talking about it!

Well, ya'll, have a great evening.

T

 

Sue, we are going to have to replace 55 feet. How many feet is your fence? I don't remember. Is your fence wood? Now I'm worried!

I don't mind waiting for the fence company to put up the fence. I just want them to put it up in two consecutive days, one to set the posts and one to attach the fence. We can handle our temporary fence for a while, but no fence at all would be a real problem.

I saw the most beautiful curio cabinet. I have the perfect spot for it in the living room, but fence will take priority over it.

We are having a tax free weekend and our favorite furniture and jewelry stores were participating and even had most items on sale. It really didn't cost anything to look.

I will probably give the tables away when the fence is built. Even if the weather damages them more, they will have a good frame. The cot is not worth even giving away.

Glad you got through the tornado, Tony.

 

I would like to have the white vinyl fence, but our neighbor does not want it even if we pay for it. He wants the wood fence so we will get estimates on Monday. We are going to replace this portion of the fence and he is going to replace the portion between the houses. We can either put a gate there or a temporary fence until he does that part so it will be no problem how long it takes to complete it.

 

"Good fences makes good neighbors" ~ Robert Frost

We use barbed wire.

 

Broken down fences and blown away compost covers. Makes me glad all we're getting is rain, and LOTS of it. Would be glad to share with the entire State of Illinois, for at least a week. It has rained every day for at least a week.

Tony, hope you recuperate from the test quickly. Ain't it awful that sometimes the cure can be worse than the ailment?

 

Thankful, will your home owners insurance cover the fence? A tree fell on part of our fence and I thought about calling but Jim and Jon were able to repair it for free with just some muscle. Ours is the black vinyl coated chain length fence. It's basically invisible from the street. We only paid about $3,000 for the whole back yard to be fenced in! That was 6 years ago with Atlas Fence Co. tho.

Well we had a busy day! I took Scooter to Twelve Oaks Feed Store for 'The Visiting Vet' who is Dr. Wyatt. Scooter got his puppy shots, dewormed and enough heart worm prevention meds for 2 months. Dr. Wyatt said Scooter will be over 25 pounds by then and will need a higher dosage so he sold me just enough for the next two months. We go back Sept. 10th for his rabies shot for $10.00. VERY nice Doctor and tech. Scooter WAS upset that he didn't get a 'I was a good boy' sticker.

My antique pump/ water fountain was giving us trouble because the red clay runs so terribly when it storms and I'd end up with a pump full of yuk. Jim moved it today and it's now in a new container and above ground, plus where I can see it and hear it from the kitchen. VERY nicely done!

Jim also made a run to the dump with a broken trike and the old racks from my dishwasher.

A lady who had asked on www.freecycle.org (one of the Carroll County mods) came by to pick up a big bunch of things I had that she needed for the children in her trailer park.

Well tomorrow's Sunday School lesson is 'God took care of Noah' and I've found a number of GREAT Noah pages and my extended session ladies have a Noah's Ark movie for the children. Since school has started, I expect a big turn-out!

Night all! Hope that pain is bearable tonight Tony!

Diane

 

JB called from his soccer trip. They went on a sight seeing trip today. He mentioned, Big Ben, London Bridge and some estate. They'll sleep in tomorrow and start the camp Monday. Another team was on the plane to England with them. A girl's team from Minnesota. The boys were happy.

 

Happy Lord's Day to all! Hope all those who are able are in church today and praying Tony's pain is much less this morning.

We have some yard work plans for this afternoon, if the rain holds off. It's tough when Jim works 6 days most weeks and pretty late at night to get anything heavy done.

Well off to church so have a blessed day.

Diane

 

Good evening all, Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but things have been rather hectic around here. My Wife & I just found out that we'll be raising 3 of our 4 Grandchildren, in a 14'x70' mobile home.Son & DIL are divorced and DIL lost her mobile home(can't figure out the concept of paying rent EACH month). Son is just remarried and doesn't have the room to raise the kids. Guess that's where Nana & Papa come in.Two boys(12 & 5) and 1 girl (6). Papa suffers from severe depression and Nana has deteriorating discs in her back. I know that God will provide, He must feel that we are the best alternative. Well, as my late Father would have said "you want some cheese with that whine?" Just want everybody to know that you are all better medicine & therapy for me then any I get from "Professionals". When I read your posts I realize that there ARE happy people out there. Thanks for getting me thru many bad days. Rob

 

Well hey Rob! Hubby and I adopted our newborn grandson and Nick will be 11 in Dec. What joy he's brought to our lives! I also do child care for a family from our church and a youth minister and his RN wife who left our church to take the position elsewhere. I home school them ALL. That means 3 days a week I have a 1 year old, 4 year old and 7 year old plus Nick and 4 days a week I have a 3 year old who arrives between 5:30 and 5:45. You do what you've gotta do!

I'm 55 in December and consider myself to be a very content person. Hubby is 58 in a couple of weeks and has many, many, many, many serious health problems and yet works 70 hours most weeks. He does what he needs to do.

Happiness is a choice, Rob. Jesus GAVE us great peace. HIS peace, not peace as the world gives. I'm going to pray for you and this new endeavor.

Wow.... is it really time for AWANA to begin again? Wednesday night starts something new for me. I'm Co-Commander of Sparks. I'm very comfortable with Sparks since I began there 6 years ago and only the last 2 years was the Cubbie Director.

I had 12 in my 4 year old Sunday School class today. That was quite a surprise to me since I have 27 on role!! A couple of counties don't begin school until Monday so it might be many were away.

Tomorrow night is G.R.O.W. It's a team concept for ministry and visitation. I have class from 6:30 til around 9:00 and then another class on Aug. 29th. I had a choice of which team I'd like to be on but decided to leave myself open to be assigned to whichever team needed me. Everyone will want to be with a number of the leaders and I'm friends with all of them. Doing it this way, each team will only go on visitation once a month which is easier for me with my daycare kids.

Well those shirts are NOT going to iron themselves! I don't have Ty until Tuesday so I can sleep in some tomorrow. He's still in Ala. with his grandmother. The other 3 will be here at 10:00 and starting Aug. 22nd, Mondays will include Home School Band at our church.

Diane

 

Morning all:

Last night was a hum-dinger at church. You'd have thought it was July 4th with all the fireworks, and I don't mean LITERAL fireworks. Our church split last night and the pastor resigned. Many people resigned over some things that had been going on for only five or six weeks.

The pastor, assistant and one lady in the church were trying to push through a change to the by-laws of the church allowing for people of most denominations to be admitted by statement of faith, baptized baptist or not. Our church constitution and bylaws weren't followed, members weren't notified, just the ones who were for the change, and it was a mess. Vivian and I were blindsided with this yesterday, and we were quite upset with not only the pastor, but the deacons as well.

Yesterday morning it was announced that one of the deacons (the former head deacon at one time) who also held the present treasurers position of the church resigned by letter. He was quite ill for the past five or six weeks and now I know why. This has made him physically sick, and nearly gave him enough stress to have a heart attack. He was out of town yesterday and will be for a few more days because his aunt in Alabama had a major heart attack and they don't expect her to live. He gave the head deacon a letter to give to the pastor to read following the service to the congregation. It gave his resignation, asked for his membership in the church to be terminated, etc. I was physically ill after this. So was Vivian. These people are our dear friends. They don't make such decisions lightly. They've been at this church for over 30 years.

Last night, the pastor dragged the meeting out for over an hour with unnecessary discussion and a "feigned" prayer meeting. He preached AT the congregation yesterday instead of TO them, and it was in conjunction with his agenda to have the constitution/bylaws of the church changed. He stated in the deacons meeting that the deacons were promoting a "Satanic doctrine" by holding fast to Baptist doctrine and polity.

Anyhow, we went to lunch with the head deacon to catch up on all that was going on...not to gossip, but to get both sides. We'd heard the pastors side in the sermon and by his actions. After an hour or so of discussion, Viv and I decided after praying about it, that we needed to vote against the change as it was proposed. If they would give more time to study the issue, properly write it into the constitution/by-laws, maybe. But, the pastor wouldn't allow it. We voted against it. I hate voting against my pastor and the assistant. The assistants wife said we were putting denominationalism above Christian ethics/love. She resigned all her positions, relinquished her membership and then left the service after a big feigned show of emotion and pleading. She said she didn't hold to "Baptist doctrine", but to Christian ethics/love/doctrine. It sort of blurs denominational lines, and it hurt many of the people.

The no's won with 18 votes. The yes' had 10 votes. The deacons immediately called for the pastors resignation, and he offered two weeks notice, which I don't think he'll fulfil. The pastors wife got up and accused the head deacon of promising the assistant the position of pastor if he voted "NO" on the subject. This was disproven, and Viv and I lost confidence in both sides because of the handling of the situation. WE both resigned our positions, though they weren't accepted by the deacon board, and neither were our requests for our membership to be relinquished. They said not until we've had time to "cool down" and study the subject out. For the next few weeks, we will be attending, but will not be active to see how things go.

Please, people, pray for this church. They've been such a lighthouse in this community, and to let this issue split the church has been hurtful to friends of many years, and to new Christians, too. Some will not be back.

Anyhow, this all made it hard to sleep. I'm removing the pastor from the website of the church, as well as the assistant, and then either relinquishing all rights to the site and turning over billing to the church, or will be deleting the site all together. I need prayers for wisdom. I'm not angry, just disappointed.

Sorry to dump on everyone. Just new we could get prayer here for healing in the church/community. I hate the devil and his divisive nature.

I will be praying for all today as I pop in and out. Forgive me if I seem a bit cranky. Still trying to adjust to new meds, pain levels, etc. But, should be back to my "old self" (you poor people) soon.

Have a great day!

T

 

T--check your pm

 

Will be praying for Dale.

Sue, Vivian and I have been through 28 (was 27 until last night) church splits. As stated there was little or NO discussion here. I'm mentally worn down and need some rest.

It's supposed to be in the 90's here today. It's supposed to storm, also. Yippee!

I still love the people at Midland, and those who are leaving. I won't end friendships over this. I just hope there is some recovery/healing soon.

T