Gay Marriage Support Grows

Gay means happy and I'm all for happy.  It would be better if people used toe correct term  which is Homosexual.  It seems that whatever people want to push they will achieve as long as they can convince others that the old way isn't fair and you can think of no good reason why things shouldn't be different. 
   People are born that way is the claim of homosexual rights advocates.  That may be true.  People are born liars, thieves, and with all sorts of abhorrent behaviors.  I have never heard of a parent who had to teach their children to tell a lie.  When the time is right, the kid will lie to avoid trouble.  One doesn't have to teach a kid to steal.  That comes natural.  We do have to teach our children manners, to tell the truth and to share. 
   It seems that not all lies are bad and it seems to be okay to steal if we believe enough other people are cheating too.  To be honest though, most of us would prefer not to be lied to or stolen from or beat up or killed.  We would rather be able to trust people, especially those we accept as our friends.  So, as parents, we continue to try to teach our children proper behavior and good relationships and hope they grow up to be good honest citizens who can function well in this world without being hurt too deeply or often nor taken advantaged of.  We realize that just because our child is born with the ability to lie, to cheat, to steal, and to use violence to get what they want, that behavior is not a good thing. 
   In other words, being born that way isn't a good excuse for bad behavior. 
  
  

weather was hard, illness even harder

I enjoyed the snow but I hate not being able to get out.  Now that I'm retired I don't have the excuse of 'I have a job I have to get too".  Being older I also have to be more cautious about what I do. 

Back in 1985 I missed a day of work because I felt like crap.  That wasn't the only day I have been sick in my adult life.  Good fortune or not, it seems all my illnesses came when I was on vacation or over an extended period of off time, like a three day weekend.  I never missed a day of work, save that one, due to sickness. 

  Colds, flu, and feeling bad are foreign to me so this sinus thing I've had for about a week is baffling me.  winter has always been hard on my sinuses but a spray bottle of saline solution usually does the trick.  But for the past week, my sinuses have drained so  much that at times I thought I would drown.  Even when my nasal passages would open up, there was a constant drainage down my throat and I would cough so much it hurt.  The drainage and the coughing has left my throat so strained that I had to forgo teaching my Sunday School class today. 

  I purchased some regular nasal spray but the directions say no to use more than three days and not to use if you have high blood pressure or are a diabetic without consulting a doctor.  I do have an appointment:  next month.

   The time this stuff is the worst is   when I crawl into bed.  I either can't breath, can't stop coughing, or can't shut the mucus faucet off. 

   I don't have a fever, don't know what his crude is and have no idea come long it will last or how to treat it.  I do know I'm ready to be done with it. 

We;re growing

Sometime this week I am heading to Kinston to view some NC Educational Modular Building.  sometimes things just don't work out as hoped.  A few months back, it the summer time, we had a lead on a 28 x  50 ft building  but by using the time we needed to get the money together the building was no longer available.  It wasn't a big disappointment that we didn't get it.  We had just started to grow.

Three years back we had two families to leave the church, one to go into the mission field and one to take a position with a church in Thomasville.  Their departure left us with the Pastor and his wife, my wife and me, a 92 year old woman and an 82 year old man.  We were kind of like the crew and passengers of the USS Minnow: just riding a sinking ship.  We started praying but it seemed every time we added one another would leave.  Two and a half years into our 9 pm prayer service we seemed to be stuck at 13.  unfortunately, it was a revolving thirteen. 

Then, six months ago we started to grow.  We added two families, then another, then another, and now we have two more families that are seriously considering joining us.  We are averaging around 29.  In the last five weeks, we had 45, 29, 29, 40, and today about 35 (unofficial count).  Not many, you say? 

Well our building is over two hundred years old.  The building was occupied from 1960 until 1990, then it sat empty until 2006.  That church folding in 2009.  The building only holds 40;  the preacher and 39 congregants. 

   We now have a youth group started and we need room for them plus we need room for them to have a Sunday School class. 
  
    We now have the money to get a building.  Of course we'll need a little more to fix it up right and to finish the parking lot but we are close.  Once we get the new building we'll have room for twice the people.  We don't have chairs for them yet but that will come. 

   If you want to be a part of our growth you can do one or more of the following:
     1.  Come visit us and give due consideration to joining us.
     2.  Make a cash contribution to help us obtain and furnish our facilities.
     3.  Pray for us

I'm excited about what's going on in that little church but not because of the number of people being added or about getting new facilities but because of the lives being touched there.  We had three teenagers come to accept Christ this month

Friendly barb isn't friendly to me

My son likes to take pictures at the DJ events he organizes and tonight my wife asked why he never posted pictures of his self.  Some one posted back saying "Who would want a picture of an Asian bro."
  I didn't think it was funny and I told the man so. 
   He responded by saying that he was a good friend and the person who kept my sons car in good repair. 
   I informed the fellow that any putdown no matter how well intended is hurtful.  Secondly my son was an American, not an Asian.  Thirdly, I told him that I raised my son to be a good and kind man and I was proud of him.  Then I told the guy that fixing his car made him a mechanic.  I am his father. 
    I am not his natural father but that doesn't make me less of a dad.  He is the person I choose to carry my last name.  I didn't have to settle for pot luck like most fathers do.  I got to know him before I decided to make him my son.  As far as I am concerned he is my flesh and blood.

You say he's your friend.  Then treat him with respect. 

Wealthy Want Own Town

Wealthy people in Baton Rouge want to incorporate the area thy live in into a different township so they can funnel their money into schools for their kids and not have to fund the schools in poorer neighborhoods.  That is all very well and good for the wealthy folks but that means that kids from the poorer neighborhoods will have to struggle even harder due to a lack of resources.

I suppose what the wealthy want to do makes sense for themselves and it certainly isn't illegal;  it has been done in other areas.  The Poor neighborhoods can always protest and gripe and complain and all the protests, griping, and complaining may fall on deft ears.  But there is hope for them.  The rich are voting with their pocketbook and that vote is powerful.  well, the poor have pocketbooks too and while they don't hold as much money there are usually more poor than rich. 

If the people in the snubbed poorer neighborhoods vow not to work  in the rich people areas, then the rich would cease to be rich.  There would be restaurants but no busboys, cooks, or waitresses.  There would be grocery stores but no one to stock the shelves, unload the trucks, bake the bread, or man the cash registers.  There would be banks but no tellers, movie theaters but no ticket takers or projector operators. 

I think the rich would regret their decision.

Good Morning

It's Wednesday.  Today I'm going to walk a little, having my morning prayer on the square, affix a door stop to the sanctuary door,  take the recyclables to the recycle bin, fill out a tax form, and then relax before attending church this evening.   I'm looking forward to visitation tomorrow night and to Sunday singing with Mountain Joy. 

   Hopefully soon we will have a much larger building which will, I promise, have enough room for you. 

A growing concern

Allissa came to rededicate her life on Sunday, Zack accepted Christ on Monday and today, Timothy did too.  Wow.  Three teenagers in one week wanting to serve the Lord.  Our little church is growing either by older people liking us and deciding to join or younger people deciding  to serve Christ.  The young are bring their friends.  Three months ago we had no one you would consider young, but now we have nine.  and today we had a family visit Sunday morning and they returned Sunday night.  They have a teenager named Ryan so if they decide to join that would make ten. 

 It's not the numbers that I'm excited about but the people that are being reached and whose lives are being changed that I care about.  Soon we are going to need a larger building. 

Next Sunday morning we will have our Sunday singing with Mountain Joy.  We will have Sunday School at 10.  If you want to come you are welcome.  Read James chapter two and you will fit right in.  If you have not heard Mountain Joy you have been missing a blessing.  They are not only talented musicians and singers but they live what they sing about.  That is why I like they so much. 

Come join us. 

One less to carry on

My mother in law passed away last Friday morning.  She was a meticulous in her habits and how much her oldest daughter and her were alike is scary.  I've always said that to know my wife is to know her.  The middle child, a boy, is a pretty close clone of her habits and values too. 
  She was a very good person and I will miss her greatly. 

rebuilding Noahs ARK

Noah's Ark could have been round, according to building instructions on a recently discovered, 4,000-year-old cuneiform clay tablet at the British Museum.

LONDON — It was a vast boat that saved two of each animal and a handful of humans from a catastrophic flood.
But forget all those images of a long vessel with a pointy bow — the original Noah's Ark, new research suggests, was round.
A recently deciphered 4,000-year-old tablet from ancient Mesopotamia — modern-day Iraq — reveals striking new details about the roots of the Old Testament tale of Noah. It tells a similar story, complete with detailed instructions for building a giant round vessel known as a coracle — as well as the key instruction that animals should enter "two by two."
The tablet went on display at the British Museum on Friday, and soon engineers will follow the ancient instructions to see whether the vessel could actually have sailed.



I wonder  who is going to shut the door on this one.  It reminds me of the story of the scientist who claim they could make a human life just like God did.  The scientist scooped up some dirt to add to their mold.  God said  "Wait sirs.  make your own dirt!'   

Dreamland

In Candy Crush Saga while waiting to advance to the next level I decided to play Candy Crush Saga Dreamland.  There is a little bird, ODUS, that sits on a perch and the perch has two candy eggs, one on each end.  What colors they are change with each break so one has to pay attention.  If one of the
candy eggs is blue and one connects three blue eggs together then the perch tilts.  If the player connects on blue candy eggs, or jelly beans, whatever they are, too many times in a row Odus falls off his perch.
   I've played games where I only needed one more move to win and Odus fell off its perch.  One level a score of 60,000 was needed to advance and I had 972,000 points and one move left and Odus fell off.  I believe it was level 53 that I didn't think I would ever complete but I finally did and advanced not only to the next level but today I completed all the levels. 
    Dreamland is neither easier or harder than regular Candy Crush Saga.  It's just different but it doesn't have nearly as many levels.  It just gets harder quicker than regular Crush.

Sunday Surprise

     As regular readers of this blog have determined, I attend One Way Baptist Church in Randleman, NC.  The church is on Sunset and is easily mistaken for a museum as it looks to be too old and too small to be taken seriously as a modern day house of worship.  It is small and will only seat 39 people plus the pastor.  The church started as Highland Baptist church in the 1980's and had three or four different pastors but it just didn't grow and eventually the building was left vacant for many years.  Seven or eight years ago another man restarted the church under the name One Way Baptist but after a few years his ministry failed due in part to poor health. 
    Four years ago, Charles Garrett of Thomasville and son of the founder of Wayside Baptist Church in Thomasville, took over leadership of the church.  It began anew with some of his friends who came just to support him and a few family members who never intended to stay.  The only person to remain at the church from previous ministries was Dora Tickle.  My wife and I were perhaps one of the first to join the church in earnest, i.e., with the intention of making One Way Baptist my permanent church home. 
    During the following three and a half years I have seen a lot of things change at the church.  Family members and friends of the pastor quickly dropped away.  In fact, most were already gone by the time I started attending.  The only ones left was the man who served as associate pastor.  The only local family to join the church was still there making the membership count 14.  We had some regular visitors.  At the end of the second year the first family to join was gone and the associate pastor and his family left soon after, and the church was down to the pastor and his wife, my wife and I, Mrs. Tickle, and one other man, an older gentleman who lived alone. 
    Rather than follow suit with all the previous pastors there, we began out nine o'clock prayer.  Every evening, no matter where we were or what we were doing, we stopped and prayed.  over the course of the next two years people came and people went and a few stayed.  Over the course of the last four years, over twenty people have made confessions of faith in Jesus Christ.  We now have around twenty people in any given service.  We even have toddlers and teenagers.  It is a remarkable group of people, an assortment of misfits if you will.  Except for me, all the men are disabled.  Even though I'm retired almost all of the physical work around the church is done by me. 
    Thanks okay because I love my church.   I was surprised when a couple showed up Sunday  
morning.  This couple are faithful members of another church in another town and come to visit us once or twice a year on Wednesday nights if their church isn't having service.  Not only did they come but they brought their children and grandchildren with them as well.  For the first time since the fellowship meeting our little church was full.  We had 37 people in attendance. 
   In a couple of weeks, on February 9, 2014 Mountain Joy will be singing at the church from 10:45 until 12.  This is the only group that has ever performed during the morning worship hour and we allow it because their testimony is so strong.  They are talented singers as well but what draws our church to them is  that they actually live the type of life they sing about.  They aren't in this for the money or to showcase their talent. 
   All of us at One Way would be honored if  you came that Sunday morning.  Even though we are small we will find you a seat.  In fact most of us would gladly give up our own seats for your sake.  We do have a few that are very old and some that are crippled but that is to be expected. 
   One Way Baptist is a church of dedicated believers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We don't have any weird or strange beliefs or practices.  We have a good Sunday School teacher who isn't boring.  Even though our pastor can be long winded sometimes he speaks clear and plain and delivers good messages.  But you won't hear him preach on the ninth.  Well, maybe not.  Come and see. 

21 tips for being a better man

"Lest you think you're about to be nagged, these tips all come from a drinking, swearing, bacon-loving guy. See how to step up your game without too much pain."

 I really don't need, or want, advice from a drinking, swearing guy.  I take my guidance from Jesus. 

Candy Crush Saga

The game by King made famous on Facebook is addictive and one could easily spend a small fortune on it trying to win.  Personally I refused to spend a dime.  I have made it through level 125 on regular Candy Crush and through 48 on Dreamland.  If you haven't played Dreamland give it a try.  It is different and starts off really easy but quickly becomes harder.  There is a bird that sits in a nest and it hold two eggs, each a different color.  When a person connects three eggs in a row (or more) of one of the two colors the basket tips towards that color.  If a player connects eggs of a certain color too many times in a row the bird falls out of the nest and the game is over. 
   A prearranged times the bird will fly out of the nest and the board goes crazy or a few seconds then the bird flies back into the nest and the nest eggs change colors.  The higher the round the farther the nest tips with each connection and the less often the bird flies out on its own to set the board free-wheeling.  Round 47 was extremely hard for me but I made 48 the first try. 
    In regular Candy Crush I found level 123 to be almost impossible but 124 and 125 were a breeze. 
If you haven't played Candy Crush Saga in awhile there is a new feature.  I don't know if it starts at  level one or at a higher lever but once a day a player can spin the wheel and get a free booster.  On a really hard level one could spin the wheel several days in a row without using the booster to enhance their chances of winning.  Some boosters one can use whenever you want so one can play and still save the booster for another day but other boosters, like the chocolate sprinkle ball have to be used the very game in which you claim your prize. 
  The game is a challenge and it does give me something to do when I need a break from studying and I'm stuck inside because of the nasty weather.  To tell the truth I would have quit long ago if my step son had not made it to level 441.  I have no aspirations to beat that level.  In fact I'm satisfied with 125 on regular candy crush.  I would like to get to 50 before I quit on Dreamland. 

Watch out for scam artists in Randleman

Saturday, January 11, 2014 was a rough day with sustained high winds of 60 miles per hour and heavy rains.   My home suffered some rood damage with loose and missing shingles.  Today we called a roof repair person and as they were fixing to leave to go get a trap to cover the roof with a man in an old corolla drove by.  He caught my attention because he was staring at my house.  Most people just driving through the neighborhood at looking at the house across the street that is for sale. 
    A few minutes after the roofing company left the guy pulls into our driveway and starts asking my wife for information.  She was on the phone at the time talking with our insurance company and came inside to get some information for them.  After she hung up I asked her about the man outside and she said he was from "Roof Pro".  I told her to go out and ask the man to leave.  If he didn't leave immediately, then I would deal with him.  When she went out I put on my shoes and jacket and retrieved my cell phone (to use to call 9-1-1 with if he didn't want to go).  When my wife told him that we didn't want to do business with him he left quickly.
   I know he had on a name tag that said "Roof Pro" but it didn't have his name.  He was driving an old Toyota Corolla and he was wearing flip flops.  The clip board with the estimate pad did help his image somewhat but seriously now, would you really do business with a door to door roof repairman?  Which reputable companies solicit business that way? 
  The only people I would ever do business with selling their wares or services door to door would be  girl scouts selling their cookies or teen age boys wanting to cut grass. and I don't think teen age boys do that any more. 
   Be careful who you talk with and give information too, especially if you are older folk like me. 

Bigfoot hunter claims to have killed beast

Personally I feel that if a creature called bigfoot really existed and someone killed it, then the killer should be charged with either murder or illegal hunting.  As far as I know there is not a bigfoot season nor should there be.  If bigfoot is the "missing link" then it is part human and therefor murder.
 
   I don't believe any such creature exists and if it does it is so rare it should be placed on the endangered species list and illegal to kill. 

"Merry Christmas" was texted

It was Christmas day 2013 at 3:57 pm when Alex Hooper thought it a good idea to text "Merry Christmas"  or maybe it wasn't thinking.  He was driving through Wadesboro, NC when he typed the words into his phone.  I don't know if he ever got to hit "send" or not but he did drift across the divider line on the road and hit another car head-on.  The collision seriously injured the two occupants of the other car, himself and his wife, Kelsey. 
   There was one other occupant of the Hooper vehicle.  Alex and Kelsey had a daughter, just thirteen months old.  She didn't survive. 
  Alex was charged yesterday with texting while driving and failure to maintain his lane. 
  I didn't know Alex or Kelsey but I did know Kelsey's mother:  she was my niece.  Kelsey's grandfather  is my older brother. 

   I passed people on the highway and glanced over and it looked as if the car had no driver.  As it turns out, it really doesn't because while the driver is typing his text no one is really in control of the car.  So many times I wanted to admonish the driver for his inattention but one can't.  Even if I were able it would only made the driver angry.  Tragedy, after all, only happens to the other person. 
                            

Comedian 'not sorry' for Pearl Harbor joke on NBC's New Year's Eve

I read the joke.  I thought it witty and saw no offence in it.  I doubt any of the people who were offended were involved in Pearl Harbor.  I am a war vet with two tours of duty in a war zone to my credit and I am also old.  It wasn't a joke about war or the people who fought in that war.  To tell the truth, if I had thought of it I would have said it myself.   

Mountain Joy

The gospel group Mountain Joy will be at One Way Baptist in Randleman of Feb. 9, 2014 at 10:45 am until 12:00.  They sing about what they believe and they live what they sing about.  One of the best groups one will ever hear.  You are invited. 

worst gift ever

What is the worst gift you have ever given or received?  As for myself, that is an easy one.  My first wife was Oriental and we had only been married a short time when I received transfer papers that sent me to an aircraft carrier serving in Vietnam.  Being young and stupid, plus being stuck aboard an aircraft carrier with a very limited selection of stuff for females, I purchased a ladies electric razor for her as a gift.  I forgot, oriental women don't grow hair.  (In my defense, my next gifts to her were a bottle of perfume, retail price $480.00 an ounce and a cashmere sweater and she liked neither.)

    The worst gift I ever received was an object about 2" in diameter and about 4" high.  The object has a wooden base with a glass dome.  It was purchased at Belks for $3.25 after having been marked down 3 times from its original price of $12.50.  I know this because the price stickers were left on the thing.  I believe the gift was meant as an insult.  If so, it succeeded.  

Deadly Burgers

71 of 100

Meranda Watlington

Meranda Watlington: 22, Charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.

Was it the quarter pounder or the Big Mac?

Read more: http://www.wxii12.com/news/local-news/north-carolina/images-who-got-arrested/-/10622650/11800396/-/hrcnx6z/-/index.html#ixzz2p4NO32GE