trapperhoney

welcome!

wow, that's a lot of travelling! hubby grew up near Wilkes-Barre, PA.

yep, I was born here and have lived most of my life here. I live in my maternal grandparents' house. sorry to have missed you, hubby even had yesterday off! very proud of that!

oh wow, wish I'd known!

growing up my church practiced closed communion, so I obviously thought that was the correct way to observe it. I didn't realize there was a controversy about communion until I went to college. The church I started going to observed open communion. I admit the first time I was faced with this I slipped out during the prayer and sat downstairs (I rode the church van) because i was very uncomfortable with the concept having been raised very differently. Eventually I realized that the controversy usually revolves around HOW it is observed. Frequently churches practicing closed communion have i

Georges Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Charleston, WV. Pastor James Hill.

Brother, I understand your concerns. Several years ago my husband and I were led to a little church who had an interim pastor. We immediately took a liking to this man. He was an excellent Bible teacher. We knew that God wanted us to be there. We were there for about a year and a half and the interim pastor left the church. They assembled a pulpit committee and began looking for a pastor. They were desperate so took the first thing that came along. This man was reformed in theology. Hubby was on the pulpit committee and he tried to warn the people, but it was more important that they h

I agree. As I read I felt this was a personal letter, not one addressed to a church. You bring out very good points!

I don't know how it is in other areas, but churches around here seem to become desperate when looking for a pastor and often end up settling on the first man who will come to them whether he is the right man or not. I saw a church so desperate that when a man applied he refused to give a statement of faith but they interviewed and hired him anyway. He then proceeded to put his father on the deacon board and change all the bylaws so that he is now "supreme ruler." There should be no reason for a church to become desperate when they are without a pastor. The men should be trained in the lea

I have never heard of them so wondered if they were a good guitar or an off-brand.

so sorry to hear that, Rosie!

just an update, they finally got those new strings put on the guitar and now both hubby and son are in love with it and fighting over who will play it, LOL. also, was wondering if anyone knows anything about this guitar manufacturer, I'm considering this classical guitar for my son.... http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005M365ZO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_87&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

sounds fun! now hubby wants me to look for abandoned places in WV we can go check out

thank you all for your prayers. the emotional strain doesn't come from the uncertainty of what might happen, but that someone who was a "friend" and claimed to be a "Christian brother" could be so ugly and hateful. fortunately hubby and I had a quiet evening last night and we found youtube videos of people exploring old abandoned structures. hubby, as a carpenter, loves old buildings, especially those with woodwork. of course I wanted to smack some of the people because they know nothing about buildings or the eras some of those houses were from. one guy toured a Victorian house and he wa

Dear Brothers and Sisters, my heart has not been so heavy since we had to walk away from my home church. I won't go into all the nasty details, but a little background is that we got our son started in karate a little over four years ago to help him break out of his shell. We didn't know anything about karate, differences in style, etc., a place that was reasonably priced opened up near us. Well, in six months it closed, our son was enjoying it so we started going to the main dojo almost 30 miles away. We went there faithfully. I would say that in the three and a half years we only misse