That's the word from my arms, my feet, and my back. Sissies. They used to hold up to about anything, but these days they seem to be turning into a bunch of big whiners. Wish I could figure out how to get them to straighten up and just do their job without all the fuss! My arms are sunburned, my ankles and feet are swollen (they look like my Mom's pudgy feet... just a lot longer! Ha!), I have a blister on my toe, and my back is pulling that silly trick where it makes me walk like Quasimodo for the first 10 or 12 steps when I get up from a chair. The bunch of bozos.
But complain as they may, they were unable to deter me from the task at hand and I was able to complete the painting in the backyard today! YEAH!!!! Thank you, thank you--you may all be seated now. Oh, thank you. Yes, yes, thank you. ~sigh~ It feels sooooooooo good. Actually, I guess it doesn't exactly feel good (as was discussed in paragraph #1), but it sure looks good! And don't go nutty on me, Kasey--I'll have some pictures up here soon enough. ;-) Anyway, I spent all day doing the trim work on the shed, James' office, and touch up on other miscellanious locations round about the house.
The kids spent a lot of time in the pool again today, especially Katie. She and I both got a little too much sun on our arms. But due to that Cherokee blood we inherited (thanks, Dad!), we didn't burn badly and it will just settle into a brown in the next day or two. It's so nice not to have to worry about burning and peeling! Joe is our little albino boy; the one who will have the most woes with the sun. He got a little burnt today, too, but it must not be bothering him because he hasn't mentioned it. Anyway, I started painting just after 9:00 this morning and I think I finished up at about 4:30. I never even stopped for lunch (I did grab a pickle on my way back from the bathroom once...weird) because I just wanted to get it done! Trim work always takes so much time. For me, anyway. But in the end it's worth it all and I love our "new" backyard! When James and I got everything cleaned up I climbed into the pool to cool off for a few minutes. It's amazing how good that feels!!!
When I got out, we decided it was time to pull the plug on the infamous amoeba pool. We emptied it out all over the yard (hope the pecan tree likes chlorine!) and will set it up in a new, more level location tomorrow. Don't worry--I have pictures of the bulging mass from a few days ago. I'll post them together with whatever else happens to be on my camera. Maybe tomorrow. Only time will tell. I know better than to make any promises.
We had Ladies' Bible Study tonight and another brand new visitor joined us! This is sooooooooo exciting!!! In the past month or so, we've had 10 brand new visitors!!! WOW!!! It is just sooooooooo exciting!!! And two of them have barely missed a service since they're first service with us several weeks ago. God is doing something so special here in Andrews and I just can't wait to see what's next! Speaking of which...
I mentioned this briefly in my last post, but pleeeeeeeeeeease pray for us to find God's will concerning a location for our services!!! We've been renting the First Christian church for the past year or so. It has worked pretty well for us and we're thankful to have had it, but it is a huge building (it kind of swallows up our group right now!) and it only has a swamp cooler. In Texas, that's a bad, bad thing! It is almost unbearably hot in the summertime and the cooler is so loud that it's extremely difficult to hear what's being said in service. Those are two very bad things. So...
This past Saturday, James and I noticed a store front building that was available for rent. It's really rather small (we could fit, but wouldn't have any extra room at all) and the rent is a little higher than what we're paying right now. It would be wonderful to have our very own place so we could start having regular service times (right now we meet from 12:00-2:00 on Sundays and at 7:00 on Thursdays) and be able to have our own sign and flags and song books out all the time and ready to go. But the guy wasn't willing to budge on the price and was wanting quite a bit up front--he really didn't act like he wanted us there anyway. And then if we did get it, we'd have to find some way to furnish it with chairs and a pulpit and all that stuff! Besides that, he wants a 1 year lease. We're hoping that we keep growing and won't even be able to fit in that little building a year from now! So that one isn't looking real promising.
But... at the Sno-Cone sale on Sunday afternoon the pastor of a little Methodist church came by and started talking to Sam & Tammy. He said that his congregation might be willing to rent their building to us--he'll be talking to them tomorow night to find out. We all went over and looked at it tonight. The building itself is perfect. The sanctuary is much smaller than where we are now and would fit us better, but still give plenty of room to grow. There is a beautiful kitchen and nice fellowship area and three very nice Sunday School rooms. We could probably even move our service time up an hour on Sundays, which would help. It has refrigerated air, so that eliminates the heat and noise problem that we have in our current location. In fact, the only really bad thing about it is the sanctuary itself. I mean, it's really nice, but... it's just sooooooooooo not Church of God!!! It's got two pulpits, one on the left and one on the right. (This building we're in right now is the same way--weird!) and it's got lots of big, shiny banners hanging here and there, some funky stained glass windows, a big Christian flag in the front along with lots of ornate stuff--a big shiny gold cross and suchlike sitting on a table up on the platform. And it has alters up front, but they're not the kind that anybody would really pray at. They have a pad of some kind down low, then a slat of wood that is up high. Makes me think formal and Catholic or something. It just doesn't look like the kind of altar that you could picture somebody crumpled on the floor in front of, tears streaming down their face, pouring their heart out to God! The whole thing just feels so stuffy and not us. ~sigh~ The pastor is extremely nice and everything about the building itself is perfect. But... It's so hard to know what to do. I know that you can worship anywhere, but we would so love to be able to have our own place and be able to make it look and feel like The Church of God in there, top to bottom! God knows our heart and He knows our need. He also has the answers. Ah yes, that reminds me!
The Church here owns a little lot on the north end of town and we've had it up for sale off and on for a couple of years. We've never had any interest in it. Until today. We received two different offers on it today!!! Is that just too weird, or what?! The land isn't worth very much money, but it's not usable for us and it's not doing us any good just sitting there, so any money at all is better than nothing. And it just seems so strange for this to be happening right now--while these different building opportunities are presenting themselves and while we're having all of these visitors coming. What is it that God is trying to do??? We want to know so bad it's killing us! There is a little Church of Christ building that is soooooooooooo Church of God looking (we've been inside of it) and it's been sitting vacant since before we moved here four years ago. The owner wants a ridiculously large amount of money for it (twice it's value, probably) and it's way out of our range. (Even at it's true value! Ha!) But we've always just kind of felt like it should be ours, you know?! Is that bad??? ~sigh~ Anyway, we are in desperate need of God's will here right now and I know that He's working something out for our good. We just want to be careful not to jump at one thing when He may have something else planned! So please help us pray.
Ooooh. I did it again. I clogged up my own blog with "serious" talk instead of goofiness. Sorry! But I couldn't help it this time--we would soooooooo appreciate any extra prayers we can get on this matter!
I'll spare you any more. Let me just say again... my backyard looks terrific!!! That means, of course, that my house is trashed. ~sigh~ Why can't it all be nice at the same time?! As of tomorrow, I'm hoping it will be. Wish me luck! Later, ya'll!!!
~Becki~
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