HappyChristian

In our area, people just leave churches of all stripes. lol. Cuz the mountains and the trees are enough "church" for them.  (a wee bit of sarcasm there, but based in complete truth). I've not heard of any celebrating going on when folks leave.

We do different gifts. Sometimes they get elaborate. 😄 For mothers, we've done pansies in pretty pots with a small chocolate, potted succulents, jar candles with a goodie, a good book & bookmark - things like that. Fathers have gotten things like a small tool set or cookies. Their favorite year was the year someone baked a pie for every dad in the church, and they got to pick their favorite flavor to take home. 😄  

I have mixed feelings about celebrating mother's day/father's day too overtly.  Singles are obviously left out (not that I mind... there are usually leftovers if I really want something - ha!), but I wonder how those feel who are silent parents (lost a child to miscarriage that people might not know about), or struggling with infertility. 

This year, we thought it'd be fun to interview our kids. So, I'm gonna be the one asking them questions on camera. We're gonna then play the video during the service when we're giving honor to the moms and dads. Should be pretty funny!

A church I went to in New York would take the Sunday School hour to let loved ones come up and relate what made their parent/spouse special to them. I always enjoyed that. I can never say enough good things about my wife; and to have a captive audience... 😁 It was nice to hear others extol the virtues of their loved ones as well. Sometimes your eyes get opened to unseen aspects of a person's character and what they are, or have been, going through; and the strength and compassion they truly possess.
At my church here this past year they did Moms and muffins, and Dads and doughnuts. The lobby was filled with a wide assortment of each on the relevant day for all to share and fellowship around. (you know...Baptists and food).

She didn't come to church today, but we're not done yet. 😁

Ok, thanks! It would be handy to have when needed, for sure!
I used to work for an evangelist who liked to use a cattle trough to baptize. It was convenient when we were at churches that didn't have a baptistry, but it was also not easy to store. lol

They're a wonderful alternative to a full baptistry. Being that the church is being held in a home it's impossible to have a full baptistry. But, these portable ones are excellent! 

We're also limited in room so we keep it in a closet and set it up when needed. It's modular.

That is so awesome, praise the Lord
Have you looked at getting your own baptistry? We bought one from https://www.portablebaptistry.com a few years back and it works great for us.

One of our members has been talking with an old friend of his for a while. She's been reading the Bible and asking him questions. Today he asked my hubs to meet them for lunch and talk with her to answer other questions. Lunch took about an hour and a half, but the upshot is that she got saved!  We are working on scheduling a baptism (have to borrow another church's baptistry), so it would be wonderful if she were ready to be baptized. Please pray that she will begin coming to church and will be open to discipleship. 

One of our members has been talking with an old friend of his for a while. She's been reading the Bible and asking him questions. Today he asked my hubs to meet them for lunch and talk with her to answer other questions. Lunch took about an hour and a half, but the upshot is that she got saved!  We are working on scheduling a baptism (have to borrow another church's baptistry), so it would be wonderful if she were ready to be baptized. Please pray that she will begin coming to church and will be open to discipleship. 

One of our members has been talking with an old friend of his for a while. She's been reading the Bible and asking him questions. Today he asked my hubs to meet them for lunch and talk with her to answer other questions. Lunch took about an hour and a half, but the upshot is that she got saved!  We are working on scheduling a baptism (have to borrow another church's baptistry), so it would be wonderful if she were ready to be baptized. Please pray that she will begin coming to church and will be open to discipleship. 

That is sooooooooo awesome, LuAnne!  That brings joyful tears!  Indeed, I will pray that she will go to church and be open to discipleship!  (By the way, your little guy is such a precious looking little man!)

One of our members has been talking with an old friend of his for a while. She's been reading the Bible and asking him questions. Today he asked my hubs to meet them for lunch and talk with her to answer other questions. Lunch took about an hour and a half, but the upshot is that she got saved!  We are working on scheduling a baptism (have to borrow another church's baptistry), so it would be wonderful if she were ready to be baptized. Please pray that she will begin coming to church and will be open to discipleship. 

Oh, my! Catnip tea can help bruises heal up. Hope you all heal quickly. Falling is never fun for the, erm, mature folk. And, yes, Tony, we experience the "when it rains it" FLOODS. Quite often. 

I took a dive the other night taking mail up to my neighbors apartment. The post office keeps putting her mail and other peoples too in my box. I fell hard in the dark bruising and cutting up my shins pretty badly. My shins look like Bro Tony's eyes.

Time to update your resume with "Professional Stunt Performer"! 🤕🤣

This past Sunday morning, taking the garbage out to the refuse bin way down our driveway, I somehow ended up face down in the gravel. My wife saw what happened and came out to help me get up from my spill. After getting back to the house we began to assess the injuries that I had sustained. I was bleeding from both knees, and the lower half of each leg was beginning to bruise. I knew I had a concussion by the extreme headache and blood coming from my sinuses. I had a small gash on my forehead, and my nose was bleeding on the outside left. It was also clear that my right thumb was broken. My whole forehead was beginning to turn black and blue, and both eyes as well. There was sort of a thread of humor in all of this in the fact that Vivian has fallen Saturday night while bringing one of our fur babies back in from going out. We were both laughing and pretty much said at the same time that I was just trying to compete with her for the most injuries in a fall! LOL
All kidding aside, though, we'd both appreciate your prayers. We don't know what God is trying to teach us through all of these events, but, we do know there's a purpose. 
Has anyone else experienced so many things like this at one time? Again I was joking around about changing the "J" middle initial in my name from Joseph to Job! 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤪

It's nationwide. I am still suffering with a lingering bronchitis that I have had since first getting sick in mid-November. Another cold in mid-December, followed by another in early January and here I am, still coughing up a lung. My wife does Pre-K4 at our churches school and she can't keep a full class. Serious stuff for the little crumb-crunchers too. Covid, Strep, Pneumonia. They're getting it all. It just keeps recycling. Every time my wife or I go to the store for cold meds there is always someone else there grumbling that they or a loved on just can't break it.
The school just had the week off, due to a lingering 6" of snow and some icing, so hopefully the isolation will have helped to put an end to the infections. 
On the lighter side, being from Buffalo, NY I still get a kick out of how paralyzed they get here with a little snow. We went to Walmart the day after the "storm" hit and it was empty. I'm glad it was open at all. It was the most enjoyable Walmart experience I ever had. The roads were nearly deserted, and they were really pretty clear of ice. 
 

Yeah, I had the flu followed by pneumonia for almost the whole month of November. The flu was actually worse sending me to the emergency room. Now I have either a bad sinus infection or bronchitis. Fortunately, I had an extra Z-pack lying around so I have been able to keep in in check since it's like pulling teeth to get into the doctor's.
I hope you feel better soon.

So once again, sickness has made its way through our church. Son and hubs are pretty much over it, I am still really struggling, one of the men has pneumonia, other members have other issues - all respiratory. Second month in a row. I have a respiratory thing going on, as well as having recovered from a third onslaught of another infection (third in 4 months). I've missed church all of last week. The way I'm feeling right now I'll be missing Sunday as well.
Please pray for me and for our church. This cold snap along with the sickness has really been not good.
Thanks.

So once again, sickness has made its way through our church. Son and hubs are pretty much over it, I am still really struggling, one of the men has pneumonia, other members have other issues - all respiratory. Second month in a row. I have a respiratory thing going on, as well as having recovered from a third onslaught of another infection (third in 4 months). I've missed church all of last week. The way I'm feeling right now I'll be missing Sunday as well.
Please pray for me and for our church. This cold snap along with the sickness has really been not good.
Thanks.

This has been a week full of care for our family. It seems that sickness has been such a hard hitter . It's at this time where I know that the power of prayer is most important in the Christian Life. So I am laying these requests out for prayer knowing that people here will pray. 
The first prayer request is for my wife Vivian. Last week she had an appointment with my cardiologist to get clearance for surgery on her knee. They ran an EKG on her and found that she may have several blockages in her heart. They cleared her for surgery if she wanted to have the surgery on her knee first, but put the proposal before her to have an echocardiogram and a stress test before she has such a surgery. They suggested that she take that route only if she felt she could handle the pain in her knee until the results from those tests were back. She and I talked with the doctor and came to the conclusion that she needs to have the tests first to see if she needs surgery for anything pertaining to her heart. The echo and the stress test will be on February 9th. We would appreciate your prayers in this. 
The second prayer request is for my younger brother Mike down in Riverview Florida. He called me early this afternoon and told me he had gotten the results of his biopsies back and he has cancer. This has been an exceptionally area of concern especially since we lost our father and my younger sister to cancer. He is going for a second opinion to verify the diagnosis. At this point they are recommending an 8-week to 12 week course of radiation and possible surgery. Please keep my little brother in prayer.
The third request is for myself. I have an appointment with the cardiologist on February 12th. I have been feeling very lethargic and ill lately. I thought it was from my menieres disease, but this is definitely different. My doctor suggests that I have preliminary tests for cancer. I sincerely doubt that is what it is, but he's pretty insistent. 
Thank you in advance
BT
 
 

There were giants in the earth even after the flood. They were human. Goliath and his brothers were giants - but they were certainly human. Today we also have dwarves and pigmies - still humans.
Angels don’t procreate, as Joe has basically stated (they don’t reproduce after their kind):
Mark 12:25
For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
Actually, the Bible indicates they take on a human appearance - not that they are mistaken for humans. Having an appearance does not make something exactly the same as that thing - ie. taking on a human appearance doesn’t make them mortal, able to procreate, able to get saved - and many other things humans do.

Now I feel geriatric! At 62 even Tony won’t accept me. ?