I remember a country/western song years ago called, “Stuck in Lodi Again”. Well, I feel a lot like the message of that song except it’s not “again”, it’s “still”! (g) We’ve been promised a final report on our “sick house” by next Monday. No, thank you, I don’t want to buy a bridge in Brooklyn! (g)

As of this writing (9/7), I’m STILL with our daughter, Kathleen, and her husband, William, in northern Georgia. Don’t get me wrong. They’ve been the most hospitable people one could ask for. We’ve certainly enjoyed each other’s company whole bunches.

Part of the frustration of being away from home is that part of our ministry in Sarasota involves counseling with individuals, pastors, and Christian workers. I am able to stay in touch by phone, but it’s not the same. I’ve been able to keep up with counseling and answer questions for folks while I’ve been gone thanks to internet access.

I was talking about some of this frustration with William a couple of nights ago. He pointed out that perhaps the most important part of my ministry is that of sharing Jesus with folks in casual, God appointed encounters. I hadn’t stopped to think about it, but he was right.

I met a young couple at a nearby state park. I was the only one down by the lake when this SUV pulled up. The young lady said, “I hope we don’t disturb your solitude.” I told her that they certainly weren’t disturbing me and invited to them to share my one and only table. As we began talking, I felt the Lord wanted me to share a CD of “Grandma’s Songs” with them. They not only seemed thrilled to get a free CD, but wanted to know the story behind it. Well, this gave me an excellent opportunity to share my Grandma Hopkins’ story, but my own as well. They didn’t come to know Jesus, but promised to get in touch with me.

Another day, at this same park, I noticed an older couple cleaning the huge garbage containers. They were so precise. Using every imaginable tool, including scrub brushes and a high pressure cleaning solution, they literally made the container shine. One could literally have eaten off the surface (although I didn’t offer to do that). I complimented them on the superb job they were doing. They told me that they were retired military and took their work seriously. The gentleman told me that they did everything they did “wholeheartedly as unto the Lord”. We had some neat fellowship, sharing our love for the Lord!

Yesterday, I was at Carters Lake Dam, just a couple of miles from the “Mansion on the Hilltop”. A young motorcycle rider came in and rode under the picnic table canopy where I sat on Sparky. He told me about himself and I shared about the accident that took me off my bike and eventually put me in a wheelchair. God opened the door and allowed me to share a lot about Him. This young man listened very closely to what I had to say. What a blessing. He left with a copy of “Grandma’s Songs”, too.

There have been several other encounters with people who need Jesus. So far, there have been no commitments to Him. However, as William so aptly put it, “lots of seeds have been planted”.

Remember what we call “The Great Commission”? Many emphasize the word “go” as in “go into all the world and be my witnesses”. In original language, the passage should read, “as you go, be my witnesses”. Big difference, isn’t there! “Go” implies that we have a certain class of Christians whom we designate as “missionaries” and they are our official “goers”. Au contraire! Every one of us “goes”. Therefore, every one of us is assigned the important business of sharing our faith with whomever the Lord brings across our path.

I’d like to hear anything you have to say.  Use the “Leave a Reply” box below and I’ll get back to you.

– It’s funny how things lose their usefulness and somehow fade into the background of our ever busy lives as we rush by and around them without giving them the attention they once had. So it was with my Mother’s lamp with the roses and wagon wheels on it. That lamp stood guard over our home for as long as I can remember, sitting always in the living room window as a beacon to guide the family back home. It wasn’t until I had grown and married that I found out that Mom had put an ad in the paper to sell the old lamp because she had run out of room for it. I was mortified! Needless to say, that precious old lamp now sits in MY living room window and I hope our children and grandchildren will look on it in the years to come and be reminded, as I was, of the love and oneness of family and that, no matter what, the beacon in the window will always be there to guide them home.

– Neato Story…isn’t it something the memories we can place with “things”…that’s why I have sooooooooooooooooo MUCH “clutter” around this house and in the garage…I just can’t seem to “let go” of anything because of the memories attached to it!.

– Praise God for rusted memories–memorials to His grace and power!!!

– I like your new, smaller picture at the top of your site…Our trampoline still gets a good amount of use from the neighborhood kids and home schoolers, but it still makes me nervous about kids getting hurt. This was a story I hadn’t heard in its entirety – good memories we will live forever even if the physical reminders of them have to be dismantled and thrown away :o)

– Neat story. We can relate to it somewhat. Some of the youth/friends wanted something from our house to remind them of all the good times here. Neat, huh?? One wanted our old doorknob. Funny, but true. I have been blessed! God Bless you and your ministry . Neat new picture, too.

– My name is Ann. I read your trampoline story and I am glad you had such a good experience with the trampoline. I had a bad experience with my brother’s trampoline and think they are very dangerous to use for children or anyone who jumps on them and until speaking to the orthopedic surgeon, I never realized how many adults as well as children were injured and crippled as a result of trampolines even just harmlessly jumping as I was. I, myself would like to see them banned.

     I will start off by telling you my story. My brother and his ex-wife are going through a nasty divorce and this incident happened before they separated as they no longer live in the same house. My brother and the kids came home from shopping and the family computer was taken, his ex-wife had taken the computer. His little girl (then four, now five) was real upset and was in the toy room sitting in the dark. I went in to talk to her and she said “Aunt Ann, how am I going to play my games, the computer is gone?” I said, “Honey, we will get you a bigger and better computer, I promise you this, but right now, we have to live for today. Okay, so lets go out and jump on the trampoline (big mistake).”

      I jumped with her for not even five minutes and then my nephew came and got on. Next, I heard a pop, pop, pop, pop – four times, it was the muscle tearing away from my ACL tendon. It was the beginning of a grueling surgery and many months (five) of therapy and am still going for therapy. The orthopedic surgeon had to take a graft out of my patella (knee) and put it in my ACL muscle, so I had two surgeries in one

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     The Moral of this story is: Trampolines are dangerous for everyone. Don’t buy them for your kids. My nephew fell off theirs not long after my surgery. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt, but could have been.

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