We had our Heaven Holds the Ones I Love Memorial. Some beautiful music was playing as pictures scrolled of loved ones who've passed on. Each picture included a caption that explained who the person was, and told who in the church that person was related to and how. It was very emotional, and very well done. My thanks to the team that put it together.
My mom sent me these pictures of my dad through my nephew Bryan. The first is in the early 1960s in front of First Church of God in Erie, Pennsylvania. I barely remember this view of him. I was probably six or seven years old when this picture was taken, which would have made him around 43... five years younger than I am now.
The following picture is in the early 1940s, long before I was ever born. My dad spent most of his service time in the hospital. He was hit by shrapnel in manuevers, and developed a severe infection. He was allergic to sulfa drugs, so finally the doctors had him sign the paperwork to try a brand new experimental drug... penicillen.
This is a picture of Janelle's dad Paul A. Freeland when he was at Anderson College preparing for the ministry. We really wanted pictures of how we remembered our dads, but the pictures we were sent were of how our moms remembered their husbands. In a sense, we were not only honoring our dads through including their pictures, but honoring our moms, too, by using the pictures that spoke to their hearts.
Following that was a short skit by two of our seniors, Don and Effie Clark. They were an old married couple (type casting?) doing some gardening. Don was not into it, and Effie explained that taking care of a garden reminded her of the way God takes care of his children by keeping the bugs away (temptations), weeding us (from the busy-ness of life), and fertilizing us (with the Word of God). They did a great job, but brought some friends... ants... big black ones... thousands of them... well, maybe three or four.
As I was preaching about the Holy Spirit (this was not only Memorial Day Weekend, but Pentecost Sunday as well) I was suddenly aware of something crawling... ON MY FACE!!! In a very manly way I screamed like a little girl... and gently removed it. Five minutes later it was back! Most of the time I can ignore little distractions, but by the second ant I was having trouble keeping my thoughts in line... I don't know, something about coming this close to being eaten alive on stage?
My family and I are going on vacation, but not until Tuesday, so I don't know if there will be any posts tomorrow or not. Just in case, have a great Memorial Day.
And by the way, we're doing some camping on Presque Isle in Erie. We're also going to fish and do some sight-seeing. I usually drive the boys past where I grew up, that kind of thing. Last year we were kept awake by racoons and skunks foraging in our campsite after we were in bed. The first night we were there something was growling just outside the tent ever so close to my head. I think it may have been an ant.
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