We help sponsor a group called HOPE OF THE NATIONS, and today we got a card from them with a picture of some boys in Africa. Now in case you didn't know, most people who live in Africa are black. However, these precious children are as pale as ghosts. Their hair is white, and they look like they are blind. There are eight children in the picture, and the oldest looks to be not more than 10 years old. The others are younger. They live and probably work in the dumps there.

Once when we were in Mexico, we worked close to a dump. Many of the children we saw at our site also worked there, looking for stuff that they could sell so they could eat.

Almost every day I ask myself the question, "Why do I ever whine...about anything?"

This is Gaelic for CHANGE IS REFRESHING. I wish I could hear it spoken in Gaelic. I'll bet it's beautiful!

I am reading a book where one of the characters lost her title and her home and all her possessions because her husband and sons fought on the wrong side against "Bonnie Prince Charles." The story takes place in the 1700's. 

Often we think of change being anything but refreshing.

I like it just fine where I am, thank you! Never mind that I seem to be stuck in a rut, and wonder why life seems to be passing me by!

In the last 59 years, we have moved over 20 times. Did I always think "Wow!  This is SO refreshing!" No, I did not. Many times I chafed at having to pack up and move once again. Looking back on all those moves, though, I can now say, YES! They were refreshing! I would not change one thing about any of them...even the ones that seemed not so refreshing at the time.

Change is not only refreshing, it is enlightening. It is exciting. It has potential to bring something to your life that you have never experienced before. And...always, always, always...you have a story! 

When I look back at all the places we have lived, I have a story. Just ask me!  Name any house or any town where we have lived and I can tell you a story.  

I would probably have stories if we had stayed in the first town where we preached over 59 years ago, but would they be refreshing stories? Enlightening stories? Exciting stories? Maybe.

I will never know, of course, but I tend to think they just might be a tad boring.

So, give me change. Give me "Is Ùrachadh atharrachadh."

In preparation for Easter today, we watched GODSPELL last night (again)! It is one of our favorite musicals. I never tire of watching it and as always, get something new each time.

The scene where the disciples go to the garden with Jesus to pray hit me hard. I kept thinking about it all through the rest of the movie, and all through the night and into the morning.

In Matthew 26:40 He says, "Couldn't you stay awake and watch with Me even one hour?" He then tells them to "stay alert and pray." The Message Bible says, "Can't you stick it out with me a single hour?"

Those words kept resonating in my mind over and over. I have heard them all my life, but I finally "heard" them last night. I don't think I will ever be the same again!

I wonder how many times I have not "stayed awake." How many lessons have I missed because I was asleep? How many opportunities have I not taken because I was asleep? How many people have I passed by and not seen because I was asleep? How many people have I not had in my home to talk about the Lord because I was asleep? 

Lord forgive. Help me to stay awake for Your sake and the Kingdom's.

​You don't have to be asleep to be asleep.

When John boy was little he LOVED magic. He wanted so badly to be a great magician. We bought him a few little magic tricks and my Daddy, hearing about this great love, made him a magic wand.

He was about 5 years old when Daddy presented him with his MAGIC WAND! He was so excited! He immediately started walking around the house touching everything in sight. After about 15 minutes of waving his magic wand, he turned to me, and with the saddest expression on his face said, "Mommie! It doesn't work!"

All these years later, I still remember that sad little expression on his face, and how my heart almost broke. I still tear up thinking about it.

Since that day he has accumulated all sorts of magic tricks, and to anyone reading this who was there, he presented some of them at church camp one summer as the Great Campino (also at a retreat as the Great Retreato).

There was a course taught at the University of Tennessee in magic, and when he was a teenager, we went to the professor's house and bought all the textbooks he had written along with the 8-volume Tarbell Course in Magic. 

John boy still has all the tricks, all the books, and of course the magic wand my Daddy made him.

And...he still believes in magic!

We were talking this morning about preachers we love to hear preach. One of the ones mentioned was Jim Pierson. He was Tommy's speech teacher at Johnson Bible College (Johnson University now) and I think I can safely say that he had one of the biggest influences on Tommy's preaching out of all the years he went to college.

One thing we felt like Jim kept in his preaching was the art of story. Our Lord was a storyteller! He made His point with story. Jim was educated. He had his undergraduate degree, plus a graduate degree, and an honorary doctorate from Milligan College. However, he never lost that simple, amazing wonderful art of storytelling!  

Tommy admired that, and has always tried to incorporate that in his preaching.  Education is wonderful, but sometimes education gets in the way of real life, down-to-earth communication. 

We listen to a lot of podcasts on the road of famous speakers and preachers. Sometimes they are Jim Pierson-worthy. Sometimes when the podcast is over, I say, "What in the world was he talking about?"  I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, so please, come down off your intellectual pedestal and talk where simple-minded little ol' me lives!  

Jim is with the Lord now, but his influence lives on. He was so down-to-earth that he allowed Tommy to do his final exam speech as a vampire. That may be one for the books at Johnson Bible College.

Jim's daughter, Erika is my niece. She married my nephew, Michael.

We love and miss you, Jim.