August Reflections

This month has been somewhat unusual. At the beginning of the month, our son had a week’s leave off work, He did a  staycation, intending to do some camping in the area where he lives. Hubby and I went down to see him midweek. We saw friends, eating dinner with a couple of them. One of those friends, Betty, underwent colon cancer surgery about the middle of the month. She seems to be doing well.

Betty's son and the catfish he caught.

I attended two funerals and went to another friend’s time of calling. One of those who departed this world was a friend from high school, Gaile. I had just seen her at our high school class reunion in the middle of July.  The second was a friend I met at a church in 1985, Jerri Lynn. I went to the hospital and sat with Jerri's family for a while. She passed into heaven about two hours after I had to leave. The time of calling was for a lady from our church who suffered a stroke 21 years ago. All these visits seemed to work on my friend Martha and me.

I had sent Gaile a card. Two weeks after she passed, I received the card back-return to sender, undeliverable. This sent my heart into a tailspin.

I was able to get some help with my bookmark project from a friend, Patsy. She forwarded the file to the print shop where she used to work. I picked them up the middle of the month. I turned them in to my friend Martha. She loved the finished pieces. On September 20^th those bookmarks will be received by 50 Christian women.

Due to a misunderstanding, Martha asked me to give devotions at that September 20^th meeting. I spent one Saturday afternoon choosing a topic and researching scriptures for verses. I posted that devotion to a forum for critique in order to seek guidance in order to polish it. I received favorable comments.

We had beautiful weather most of the month. We had a few times where the predicted storms never came through.

Several nights, I spent praying for people who had very special, very serious needs. It got to the place that one night, I had a mental list of several of these people.

One evening this month, I went to see a friend, Kelly, sing gospel songs to the residents of a retirement community in our town. I saw grace extended by Kelly and by the facility’s activity director. It was refreshing to see a person being included who was a last-minute ‘surprise’ to the evening.  God blessed the entire event. When it was over, everyone who attended seemed to say, “We needed this.” Across the bottom of our church’s worship folder appears the following statement: “This service is committed to the leading of the Holy Spirit.” I thought of the Holy Spirit’s presence while we were singing along. Kelly grew up across the street from us. She is also my hairstylist. She also trims Hubby's beard and cuts his hair.

Kelly and her husband singing the last song of the program, a prayer song.

Starting in mid- September, I will be taking a Bible Study to the residents of this special retirement community.

I have one more picture to show you. This is our son, Roger. He was home for his high school class reunion the end of July. Usually, he is in a sport shirt and jeans.