Meetings, Chase, church, plans

Yesterday was a blur – of sorts. I left the farm and drove to Borger where I spent the rest of the day in meetings. I excused myself from dinner with the group that evening so I could go to church. I have to pick up on the meetings this morning in a few minutes. This meeting is scheduled for the entire day. It is the conclusion of the assessment we did at the beginning of July and it continues to tie up about thirty people. Hopefully the outcome will yield the benefits that are expected.


I got to spend a few minutes with Chase last night before he had to go pick up Makaila for church, but he seems to be doing very well. He was most encouraged that his snake is shedding – a sure sign of growth – and that the snake is eating live mice. That kind of feeding is so much more fun to watch than seeing it eat a thawed, very dead mouse.

He is prepping us for missing both thanksgiving and Christmas with us as he tries to arrange his work schedule for maximum earnings through Black Friday and the Christmas season. Mama will be disappointed, but I expected as much. Money is more important at this point than family. Besides, if he and Makaila stay together he will have family to spend the holidays with. I am certain they will not mind.

Mama and Grandma went to church in Decatur last night. Victoria did not get off in time to make the trip. I guess things at Wal-mart got too busy to let her go at the appointed time and Grandma and Mama could not wait, but Mama said the service was great. The pastor’s son preached and they really seemed to enjoy it.

I enjoyed the service at Central Baptist also. It was encouraging to see the Faith Promise commitment made for the coming year - $166,500. Attendance last night was way down and I couldn’t help but wonder at the magnitude of the commitment, but the church has met its commitment year after year and God is still the greatest enabler known to mankind. We will be a part of the Faith Promise at our new church in Decatur this year. I will have to ask what their commitment is for the year.

I had to leave before the service was over because they were serving communion and Central Baptist is closed communion. Since I am no longer a member I would have been asked to leave so I left at the altar call. I have no problem with the practice of closed communion, but I still do not see it in the scriptures the way Pastor Chadwick does; even though he says it is very plain to see. With our church in Decatur I will not have to answer that question since it is not their practice.

Tonight and tomorrow I will pack up some things at the Amarillo house for transport to the farm. I am trying to be careful to bring only what we either can readily use or what we have room to store because there really is no good place to put extra things.

We are making progress on the shop and apartment but it is much slower than I had anticipated because the amount of travel required of me this month. The plumbing is set to go in this Saturday and I am hoping to get the concrete down next Saturday. I am not sure how much Grandpa will do without me, so the real construction will not begin until October.

Mama and I will be in Amarillo together the last week of September to oversee the packing and shipping of the items we still have in the Jennie Ave house. I am planning on those items being stored until after Thanksgiving – at which time I hope to have the apartment ready.

Even that seems very ambitious at this point.