Church, Saturday, animals

We went to church here in Bowie last night. It was a different but enjoyable service. It opened in a hymn and prayer then whom ever wanted got up to sing a song. There were several solos and several mixed groups. The men sang a hymn together and a family sang a song that I had never heard about looking for a salvation that is not a do, do, do but rather a done, done, done.


The sermon was terrific and the spirit of the church was worshipful. I have to admit that the though of going to church with Grandma is not thrilling to me. It is hard enough for Mama to concentrate on the sermon under normal circumstances, but when Grandma is giving a running commentary, she is double distracted. But overall it was good to be in church.

Grandpa did not go. He is bothered by what we have heard about the pastor. It is our understanding that he is divorced and thereby should not be in the pastoral position, but the church seems to be doing the right things and the services and sermons are on track with the Word of God. The people are soul winners and seem to have a maturity we did not see in Bible Baptist Church, so I will reserve judgment. Grandma invited the pastor and is wife over tonight so we could get to know them better. She promised to keep quiet so the men could talk. We will see.

I do not know what she wants me to ask of how, or if any answers given will settle Grandpa’s mind, but I will be praying about the issue through the day. When God is obviously blessing the work a man is doing, it is foolish to tell him he is not qualified to do it. I am not sure we can sit under his ministry long term, but I will let God direct our decision in that. Our only other options are in Decatur and Wichita Falls – each about forty five minutes to an hour away. We will do whatever we need to do to be in a church that is doing what God expects from His Church, but I have to admit it would be helpful to be close to the church where we are serving.

One of the men from the church will be coming to the farm to help us with the horses Saturday afternoon. He has almost a dozen horses of his own scattered around Bowie but he is going to take the time to answer a few questions for us and get us started with Toi. None of us have saddled or bridled a horse for many years and some refresher training would be invaluable. Mama is desperate to have things ready before she returns with Jake. We will meet at the graduation of the Language Institute and go to the farm after the luncheon following the graduation. We may be riding her regularly after this weekend.

By Saturday we will be picking green beans and peas. We are going to have to begin to can the produce from the garden. We have so much planted that it would be impossible to consume it as it ripens, but that was the idea all along. With Grandma and Grandpa living on the farm it makes the process much more doable than when they were living at a different location. Even still, it will be a lot of work. But what a great reward for our efforts.

When Mama and I got here Tuesday night we heard the hogs thumping around in heir building and wondered what could be going on. Mama wanted to go over to see but it had rained all day and there was no non-muddy way to get to them, so I was not interested. The next morning Grandpa, who feeds the hogs early every morning, discovered that they had torn their trough loose and had somehow managed to toss it over the fence that encloses their pen. I would have loved to have a video of that.

He nailed it back in place, but now that they have discovered a play toy, it may be hard to keep it in service.