Miscellaneous musings

I officiated another funeral this past Saturday morning for another church member. This has happened far too frequently of late in our membership. This man's case was particularly hard in that he had been in the hospital the previous week with heart problems; they did a heart catheterization and placed a stent to help with the blockage in one of his arteries. All was progressing well and he had been given his official discharge papers from the hospital. He had called his son to come and take him home and was dressed and waiting in a chair when he slumped over. The doctors could not resuscitate him. They said that a clot had formed and lodged in the stent.

On a brighter note, this past Sunday our church hosted Pastor Euticauls from Nairobi, Kenya. He is a local pastor there and the head of the Kids' Heart Africa project that our church is financially sponsoring to assist children in one of the poorest slum areas of the city to obtain an education, receive at least one good meal per day, and to hear about the love of Christ. He preached a great message, emphasizing the change that takes place when we meet Jesus. He took his text from Luke 24 and the Lord's encounter with the 2 unnamed disciples enroute to Emmaus.

I watched my youngest son perform in his high school musical production of "Little Shop of Horrors" on Friday and again yesterday afternoon. I skipped the Saturday evening performance in order to babysit my two grandchildren while my oldest son and his wife went to see the performance. Grandkids are one of God's greatest inventions.

Plans are progressing for two more trips to Guatemala early next year. I'll be heading back in January for another round of pastoral leadership training classes and a meeting of the Guatemalan Baptist Convention leaders hosted by WorldconneX. Then it's back down there the following month to work with three churches in the town of Cantel, doing a VBS, and providing leadership training for their children's workers. Our minister of children is helping to organize the workshops while I'll be helping with logistics, translation, etc.