Mud, Gravel and Prayer

Here it is Saturday afternoon, and the time without Virginia has actually gone faster than I thought it would, but I am definitely ready for her to be home. She's enjoyed being down south helping Amber care for Jeremy post-surgery, and today she has driven down to the SD area for Mel's dad's memorial service. She'll drive back to J&A's this evening, go to church with them tomorrow and fly back to Oakland tomorrow afternoon.

It was somewhat muddy out on the trails this morning when Randy and I ran. Much of the dirt in some sections is clay, so when it gets wet it really clings to your shoes. Several times I had to knock mud bricks off my shoes. We didn't run as far as usual today because I wanted to get up to the church and help with spreading the finishing gravel in what will be the new picnic area by the fellowship hall. Some of the guys built concrete retaining walls a couple of weeks back, and earlier this week they used Charlie's tractor with a frontend loader to move and level dirt to create 4 terraced areas. They added a layer of large rock and then a layer of gravel like you might see on a gravel road, following up with water and rolling to pack it down. Today we covered the whole area with a real fine grey granite gravel, wetting it down and using a machine to pack it down. Don plans to build forms and make 3 or 4 concrete picnic tables using some sort of special concrete. Butch has some rock coming to build a retaining wall along the curved sidewalk under where the power tower sits. After that, a little low maintenance ground cover in the dirt area should finish the project. My back's tired after shoveling gravel and pushing a wheelbarrow.

Tomorrow our worship assembly will be a time of prayer and praise. I believe times like this can really help shape who we are in Christ if we truly give ourselves over to allowing the Spirit to work in our hearts as we worship. I know that can be said of every opportunity for corporate worship, but I think it's especially true of those times when we are really focusing on prayer... prayer as an avenue to grow closer to God. I pray that our Family will come prepared to truly enter in to the experience of worship.

Some of you know Kent (my brother), Susan (VJ's sister) and their kids. Their youngest, Ryan, is still in high school and runs cross country for Lipscomb High School in Nashville. Today was the State Cross Country meet and Lipscomb won the A-AA division. Ryan was the first Lipscomb finisher in 9th place. Here are some pics for those who like that sort of thing. Enjoy! And God bless!