Exhaling the Gospel

Every Sunday we sit in our climate controlled, 

comfortable church buildings and inhale the 

marvelous gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Except this Sunday and one other a year.

We forego our comfort to serve our city.

We gathered on the large parking lot east of

the Metro Center (Central Campus) and

at the South Oaks and Grand Prairie Campuses

of Fielder Church

and packed boxes of food for people who are hungry.

Seven thousand of them!


Now I hate to be wimpy, but it was pretty cold.
How cold was it?
One of our Pastor Jason's daughters told him that
she could no longer feel her legs--
and this was before we had even begun to pack boxes!

Now I wish this were not so, but I had managed to 

come up with an impressive list of excuses why I

should not go this morning. I'm too old, too slow,

too tired, not really needed, etc. etc. etc.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for getting me there.

We all had on these shirts, but they were hidden
by coats this year!

The whole thing was organized to the nth degree!
(Does anyone but me say that any more?)

There were a jillion of us there, divided into 4 groups.
There were box assemblers and passer outers, box
fillers (me), food passer outers, and box closers.
Our boxes were perfectly sized to hold:
2 cans of green beans, 1 can corn, 1 can peaches, 
2 cans ravioli, 2 cans tuna, peanut butter, 
large package spaghetti, 2 large packs pinto beans,
and large corn flake bag.

My friend Debra Permenter's job was to add the
large bag of corn flakes to the top of each box.
Now I would never ever called Debra a flake,
but Jerry Morris did. HaHaHaHa
Oh, sorry, Debra. Didn't mean to laugh.

The finished boxes were perfectly stacked on pallets,
and wrapped.

 then transferred to one of these trailers.

Here are all of our small group members I could
round up at one time:

There were more of us scattered around.


My cute choir friend Christy Prellwitz
 was a box assembler:

And here is my best shot of the whole group.

(hard to capture from ground level.)


This was the scripture of the morning:

"Suppose a brother or sister does not have any clothes
or daily food and one of you tells them,
'Go in peace! Stay warm and eat heartily.'
If you do not provide for their bodily needs, 
what good does it do? In the same way, faith by
itself, if it does not prove itself with actions, is dead.
James 2:15-17


We do not believe we have to earn our salvation with
good works.
We do believe in exhaling the gospel we hold dear and
being the earthly hands and feet of Jesus.
I consider it a privilege to be able to put action
to my faith in Jesus Christ.
"Thank you, Heavenly Father, for allowing me to be
part of this blessed morning."

I'm Relinquishing My Packing Credentials

My packing skills sank to a new low this trip to NY.

To have traveled as much as I (we) have (had) I have

maintained a very good track record so far as not

leaving essentials at home.

Jack always said he furnished the muscle and the money.

I--the planning and packing (for him, too.)

I distinctly remember the necessities which

I have left at home through the years.

The first vital item was one of these:

Now I can just hear some of you snickering or even 
guffawing about this being a necessity, but don't forget:

and one of those combs is essential.

As it turned out a very minor miracle occurred.

We were sailing from a port in Europe, but one of the

hair stylists was onboard for her first cruise.

She hailed from South Africa,

and, guess what? She had brought several of

those combs with her and sold me one!

Disaster averted! The trip was saved!

The next essential I left home without was:

This time we were spending a night in Barcelona

before we cruised, so I knew I could buy some. 

If I could get over to the salesperson what I needed.

No speaka da language. No matter how hard I tried.

We went two places. It took forever, but

I finally stuck my finger in my ear and acted like

I was cleaning it.

Voila! Mission accomplie!

(I guess the Spainards haven't gotten word that one

is not supposed to stick anything smaller than one's

elbow in one's ear.)

That little box is the actual one I bought years ago.

I still carry it every trip.

This is the item I have most often wished I had brought.

A small purse because I don't want to lug my big

travel purse around.

The straw one standing up came from Hawaii.

The striped one I have nearly worn out is from one

of the Caribbean islands.

The black is a $10 sale item from one of the ships.

An item left at home on my last 2 trips:

Can you tell that's an umbrella?

It was bought onboard the Independence of the Seas

on my very last cruise. 

It was pouring, and quite a way back to the ship.

Good job, me, buying it and bringing it!

So I had just bought that umbrella, but did I take it

on our New York trip? No.

Got drenched at the airport in Albany.

But the umbrella is by far not the most important

thing I left home on my recent trip.

My omission was truly earth shaking.

This makeup bag has been around the world with me...

but not to Albany, NY.

No, it was fully packed and left in my bathroom.

Say it isn't so, but it is.

Every item I use to look like this when I get up every

morning (?) was in that bag. At home.

So what did I do?

The other half of the Traveling Grannies rescued me.

My almost sister Shirley generously loaned me

everything I needed.

She even fixed my wilted hair for me so I could

maintain my image!

So you'd better quit sending me all those cards and

letters asking for packing advice.

(Not really--I haven't received a one.)

But if I start handing any out, kindly remind me 

of my track record.

Actually, a serious question arises here.

Shouldn't I be getting better at this, not worse?

****

Post dedicated to:

 Shirley Anne Logan Metzger Branham

My Heroine

Travel--Oft Times A Beating but Worth It!

Travel is not always, maybe not even usually, glamorous.

Sometimes (this time) it is kind of a beating.

But...always worth it!

My older grandgirl, Madeline, is performing in 

Million Dollar Quartet

at the Cohoes Music Hall near Albany, New York.

Shirley (other grandmother) and I, aka

the traveling grannies, were determined to see her!

We were blessed to have younger grandgirl, Susannah,

available to go with us (shepherd us!)

For some reason of which we're now not quite sure,

we made reservations to take off at 5:15 A.M.

Oh well, we thought, at least we should get through

security fast at that unearthly hour of the morning.

So WRONG.

The line was ridiculous. 

When the TSA Pre Check line finally opened I very

guiltily left Shirley and Susannah and jumped 

over in it. It's a good thing I did.

My new titanium knee has not set off the metal

detector the last two times I've flown.

But it did this time.  I had to have the most extensive

and lengthy of pat downs ever.

Then our departure gate was 10 gates away.

By the time I got to there they were loading group 8!

Again guiltily, I got onboard.

A flight attendant assured me the plane would not

leave early without two checked in passengers, 

but I was not sure it would not leave on time

   if they hadn't made it.

They were the last two on the plane, but...

they made it!

Okay, don't breathe too easy yet.

There were no nonstops to Albany, so we were

making a connection in Charlotte, N. C.

So help me I checked the connection time and thought

it reasonable. Besides, how big could the Charlotte

airport be? Too big for a 51 minute connection!

I think we were last on the plane again, 

huffin' and puffin' all the way!

When we arrived in Albany it was pouring rain, and

none of us had an umbrella.

 The hotel had graciously agreed to send a shuttle for us,

 in spite of the fact that I missed their 24 hour in advance deadline. The driver missed us on his first pass as

we stood out in the rain waving.

But he came back and got soaked loading our bags!

Things really looked up when we got here:

The Century House Hotel

This is one of my favorite places to stay ever!

There was a wonderful chef prepared breakfast,

to which they welcomed Madeline and Susannah

who were not even staying there.

There was the best soup every afternoon.

They brought us warm cookies late one night.

And here I was sitting by the fireplace in the lobby.

We got there early enough (we should have!) to see

the show an extra time.

Here's a little view of the theatre, one of the oldest

in the country.

It is beautiful. 

The show was inspired by an actual event in which

Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and

Carl Perkins got together to make music--a

Million Dollar Quartet!

Madeline was Elvis's girlfriend, Dyanne, the

only female in a cast of really great guys.

Their comaraderie and cohesion was very obvious.

We overheard several great comments about the cast.

I was not expecting this to be one of my favorite shows

ever, but it absolutely was.

It was about 2 hours of non stop fun.

And not just because of our girl, who was marvelous!  

We loved all 4 of the guys, too.

Here are some shots from the show:

And Elvis and Dyanne:

The traveling grannies and their girls:

How bout these sisters:

"In conclusion" let me tell you about our trip

to the airport.

We were leaving "late" this trip, but late 

happened to be 7:08 A.M.

Hotel shuttle hours don't start til 9:00, and getting an

Uber at 5:00 A.M. is not likely. So...

Sweet Madeline insisted she would take us!

She has her car there, a cute Mini Cooper which

 seats 4 but does not quite have room for 3 suitcases.

So Susannah and Shirley sat in the back seat with

Sus holding Shirley's bag on her lap!

We were a sight, but the girls wouldn't let me take a pic!

Just one concluding piece of info for you.

Did you know you can no longer park in the passenger

pick up zones at the airport and wait for your person?

Well, you can't.

Active loading and unloading only!

Even if your person or persons' bags take forever

to come off the carousel.

Aunt Linda just about got thrown in the pokey trying to

pick up this motley crew!

And Susannah was trying to get home in time to

teach 5 classes in Grapevine.

Yes, travel is sometimes a beating.

But, boy was it worth it!