National Day of Prayer
Today is the National Day of Prayer. A colleague of mine and I lead the prayer service at the Elementary School next door. The four schools in the Jackson Country Central school district all had short prayer services around their flag poles (of course not sponsored by them but by the Kiwanis group and the ministerial). The event took place before school so the students could attend along with the community. The only group of people that COULD NOT attend were the teachers. They are on "contract time" so they could not participate in praying for our nation, community, our leaders and for our schools. I understand this whole separation of church and state thing — I understand but don’t like it — but come on, 10 measly minutes. School is not even in session at 8am. Next year I will talk to the Kiwanis group about starting this event earlier to allow teachers to participate and pray with the community.
Car seat mania
Confused? Check out this out:
This picture represents 67 children who are now riding in safe car seats thanks to my loving and caring wife. She works for community health and one of her passions is car seats. My wife is a state certified car seat technician. Most of these car seats came from two drive through car seat clinics she organized. Last weekend Connie and her crew checked 51 vehicles and only three had car seats that were installed correctly or that were up-to-date. People with defective or expired car seats got a new one for free thanks to a grant she received. Unfortunately the local newspaper was not there covering this event, so this is me, giving Connie some "press". This is also me super excited that these car seats are out of the garage…FINALLY!
A dose of Love
The Gospel text for this Sunday (The 5th Sunday after Easter) is from John 13: 31-35. Here Jesus talks about this "new commandment" to love one another. New commandment? God gives the Israelites a law in the Old Testament to love another, so Jesus is not saying anything new…right? Well, actually He is. Unlikely Conversation: A Lectionary Blog talks about the four Greek words for love. The "Love" Jesus is referring to is a "self sacrificing" type of Love — a kind of love Jesus shows. This is "new" and different. So maybe I need to preach on love and talk about what it means to truly "love one another". I am also thinking that maybe I will refer back to Maundy Thursday where Jesus gives this "new commandment". How are you doing with "loving your neighbor"? On Easter Sunday a number of CEOs (Christmas Easter Only) came to worship — how are you doing in showing THEM love? How can we love people better?
Hmmm…I have some things to think and pray about. I am excited to find out what the Holy Spirit places on my heart today to preach to the people on Sunday. This sermon prep thing is awesome.
Well…it is time to chat with God and see what is up for Sunday. God bless you and have a most wonderful day. Take care. -edh-
The Heart of a Pastor 
I love the section on car seat mania. I am half way through my CPS Technician class. My last two days are next week (Monday and Tuesday). I am already obsessed with car seats. I have made two changes to Meara’s seat already. I am hoping to participate in some clinics this summer with other techinicians and am beginning to become very passionate about this. By the way, I wanted to let Connie know that I was at a few garage sales this weekend and saw a some seats there. I wonder how old they are. Have a great day and enjoy your Friday.
Your sis.
Julie,
I won’t speak for Connie, but I think she would say be careful of buying a car seat at a garage sale. As I am sure you have learned, there is really no way to know for sure if the seat has been in an accident. There is so much people do not know about car seats and we need more people like you and Connie to educate people. Thanks for taking this class.
Your bro.
Eric,
I didn’t mean to say I would buy them. I guess my comment wasn’t clear. I would almost want to buy them a destroy them. We did learn this from my class not to ever buy a used car seat or even take one from a friend/relative. I just wish more people knew this as there are probably many seats out there that are expired. I just witnessed a mother improperly placing her child in a seat yesterday at Cub. I am more aware of this now as I am sure Connie is as well.