A pleasant end to another day

Went to church. Will have to think a while before I write on it. I removed Ron and Paula’s pictures at Fran’s request because it might put their lives in danger. The Muslims have already tried to kill Ron according to Fran but failed when Ron jumped out of the outhouse he was in. But they did kill the Bedouin whom Ron was buying camels from. I know Ran had bought camels for the underground Christian church in Egypt or at least in that part of the world before. Kind of the Arab version of a church bus. Serious folks. This is real stuff. People are dying because of being Christian in a Muslim world. It’s the wild west in an evil way in the Mid East. You don’t like someone you just go out and kill them and their family. There’s not much that resembles the law out there.

I have my doubts about God and the church of today but there is no denying the seriousness of things in the Mid East. Here people are willing to both kill and die for what they believe. I tell you what, lets make this real. Think of your next door neighbor. Imagine he converted to a religious belief but the guy down the road didn’t like that so he comes up and knocks on your neighbors door. When it is answered the guy jumps in and cuts his throat right there. With that done he walks home. That’s it. There is no police, there is no penalty, in fact the guy is heralded as a hero for doing such a thing. Now… What Do You Believe??? In this part of the world that is a serious question that has life or death consequences. It’s not some idle “What church do you want to go to today?” thing. Go ahead and sit back in your pampered spoiled little world and don’t worry about a thing cause you don’t know how good you got it.

OK the tirades done and I’ve had time to process things. I have been asked to be nice about certain things and will respect the wishes of my old friend. The trip to New Life Assembly was interesting. It helped unlock some of the memories that have been inaccessible due to my traumatic brain injury. Fran ran through the history of the church, which I played a part in. Fran and Marsha I think may be the only original members still attending. I might be wrong but I often get facts mixed up. Those who know me understand that is part of the disability.

As Fran talked he had a hard time holding in his emotions. After twenty three years of up and down struggle the church was finally recognized or chartered or something (Forgive me guys, that’s the brain thing again) by the home denomination. That’s a long time to fight for survival. I suppose that for Fran it was like tending a sick child for twenty three years and have it finally wake up and be well enough to talk.

The people there are all nice. There was a potluck or whatever it’s called after the service. Cherie and I didn’t want to eat a whole lot so we just picked a little of this and a little of that. The main dining area had filled up so we went to a table by the kitchen that was in a different area. That was good because I don’t do well in crowds, especially when they are unfamiliar to me. Fran and Marsha joined us and it was a good time with lots of laughter. I am always uncomfortable in social situations but did well here. The only time it could have gotten bad was when the subject of evolution versus creationism came up. I managed to keep my mouth shut, which was good as my opinion sharply differs from theirs.

I know I promised to be nice and I don’t think this violates that promise. The church is mostly old people and their service is geared to them. The problem with New Life is there is no new life coming in. I talked to Fran about that in the parking lot as we were saying goodbye. I said it reminded me of what my good friend, Bernie, had told me. Bernie is a commander of a VFW post. When he got out of Vietnam he tried to join a post and they ridiculed him saying “Vietnam? That wasn’t a real war”. This was common throughout the organization which was primarily WW II vets. They shunned Vietnam vets for years until they all started dying off. Then dues dropped so low bills weren’t getting paid so they finally had to open up to Vets of other wars. I told Fran that every time a missionary goes out he must learn the language of the people he is going to. That holds true here. You have to learn the language of the kids (By kids I mean anyone under the age of 27 or so) Otherwise they won’t be comfortable and won’t come. Without new life the church will simply die, slowly shriveling up.

After church we came home and I had to rest as I must do often. After that we rushed to the park so we could get our walk in before dark. I took tons of pictures as you can see.



The highlight of the evening was watching the deer work their way across the pasture. We always hope to see them and had presumed we had missed out so were heading to the gate.
Then I saw them. We held still and watched as they got closer and closer. I counted ten of them. They knew we were there and would sometimes watch intently and then go back to feeding. We could slowly move to a point we knew they would cross at and got to within twenty feet of them.


I snapped as many pictures as I could but many of them didn’t come out because the sun was rapidly going down and my digital camera had limited low light ability.

I went blogging and found some of the sites that are like a breath of fresh air for me. Those are the ones dedicated to children put out by the proud parents. Here is New Life. Here is the future. Then I checked on some of the regular blogs I follow including John Scalzi’s “whatever”. (One of these days I will learn how to do that link thing)


Now it’s time to call it a night and the back pain is getting pretty bad. I need to find a way of working on this computer that isn’t so painful. You guys do good now. See ya tomorrow on this blog.