Save a soul for Christmas

Greetings brothers & sisters;
You know I've been doing some thinkung. I know that with the economy the way it is it's hard to afford extra for the holidays. I've been thinking and thinkung of what to get Beautiful Becky and our kids with pretty much a budget of $0.00. I know that the old saying is that it's better to give than to receive but I was wondering if there moght not be a way to do both. Let's see here; the first Chtistmas present was Jesus himself. There's the giving part but it looks like we ate the only ones who receive. Then again Chtist does receive us back into his family and joys to see the love he gives to us passed on as others receive it from us. So what can we give that will be received and yet let them give God's love as well? Twice Becky and I have gotten Bibles from Christian bookstores to send overseas. I forget the name of the program, but I know that most Christian based bookstores are participating around the country. The way it works is that for $5.00 you buy a nice camo colored paperback Bible. Now you can if you want keep it for your own. Or you can leave it there and they ship it overseas to members of our troops. Or better yet you can take it with you and write a personal note of love and encouragement in iy. Then ask all of your friends to sign it and even takr it to church and work and anywhere else and get as many as possible to sugn. Ask each of them to pray over it as well. Then take it back and let them ship it to the troops for you. Someone overseas putting their life on the line will then receive a gift filled with both the Word and love of Jesus, but also with all the love you and your friends put in it. And who knows, it may even reach a non believer and save a soul. What a gift where all receive.

Invitation:

To those of you who live here locally (Wichita, Ks) I would like to extend a personal invitation Sunday December 13th at 6:30 pm to see Beautiful Becky speak.Dawson Unite Methoit Chuch is graciously allowing Becky to plan and present the service which will include instruction on how to study the Bible and get the most out of it. Again she will be speaking Sunday December 13th, 6:30 pm at Dawson UMC at Wassel and Pattie. We hope to see all of our friends there to support her.

To ollart2

It's me again Mollie;
Betcha can't guess what I'm doing. Then again, if you're reading this post you probably know that I'm sitting here doing a very bad typimg job. But really I know that we talked about Austin last week but I wamt to make ckear again how much I love all of you. I know thay she gives you fits at times but that's not what she wan;ts either,just remember my friend, that we are all here praying for all three of you and that we are here when you need us

To Mollie:

Mollie, my dear friend;
Thank you for the birthday wishes and the song. I do hope that you realize though that that was not why I posted what I did. I will admit that when I started writing it I was feeling something I didn't like although not knowing what the different emotions feel like I'm not sure what, but what I did was to use it to remind myself how much God gives me and how great that is. I d'te entiopeople lie yobecause as we both know thanks to my phone bill comming due at the end of the month and on the 3rd my phone is ussualy shut off between the 1st and the 3rd so you couldn't have reached me anyhow. ut someday I know that we will all be in Paradise and God will be throwing a party for everyone there and I personally invite all of you to join me when the greatest entertainment of all, the love of the Lamb is overfloing.

HAPPY BORTHDAY TO ME.....

Welcome my dear, dear friends;
I really have no idea what I am going to be talking about tonight. In my mind I had it all planned out that today's post would just be a continuation of yesterdays and it may still turn out that way. After all there are plenty of updates and announcments I need to talk about both on G.L.O.V.E. and in my personal life. Then again I think that may have to wait while I take time to remind myselg just how great my God is. Have you ever had one of those days where you just feel like you;re meant to spend it feeling sorry for yourself? I mean you wake up and realize it's your birthdaywhich means you're even older tgough only one night has gone by? And youuu know that it was never in youur plan to get this old, but you recognize that God never worried abouuut your plans but made his own for you knowing how much better off you are with making the decisions.So you decide just to reax and enjoy the day with you family. Problem #1: your daughter stayed home from school and sleeps he day away without knowing what it is. But look at it this way: she is a 16 almost 17 year old girl who barely speaks to anyonr in the house anyway. This way there was no arguing whith anyone and it will help her tobe more rested for her upcomming finals and I know she loves me so what else matters? #2: My son spends all day playing video games and doesn't even remember I exist. Then again ge zasars that he did tell me happy bityhday this morning but that I must not have heard. This is very very possible and I know that he also loves me. #3: My wife told me happy birthday and themsle[t the day away. Then again she dus stat on her new medicine just last night so we'll wait for her to get used to it amd then we will make up for it. Biggest problem: I spent so much time worrying about these things that I forgot to focuss on all the gifts God gives mr. There are way to ,any to list so lett me close by just saying thank you Abba, thank you Hesusamd thank you Holy Spirit for the gifts you give me today and evety day. amem

OUR GOD IS AN AWSOME GOD!!!!!

Welcome my brothers and sisters in the glorious love of Jesus Christ;

Yes, I know that it has once again been way too long since my last post. You know, I truly do mean to post every day, but to be honest I grt so busy with every thing ekse that time just sort of slips way and befue I know it it's bedtime. And since I only average 1 to 2 hours of sleep a night I really can't afford to cut it back any. But, I really don't feel right just posting my weekly sermon on the website either. (You are reading bthe weekly messages aren't you?) owever, I can't let other things such as updating the site to our new design and looking for new content go because I am the only webmaster, so either I do it or no one does. Then there is about 5 yesrs work just to add tge content I have to go up in all of the different catagories and trying to convince our bloggers how important it is ti be posting. I have just gotten another wonderful brother to agree to join us so you will soon see his blog up. I promise if yu dn't check it out you will regrett it. Al is from Puerto Rica and gre up in tthe north tast US. He is a retited Minister with a wonderfull amount of knowledge and education and is one of the miraculous peopole God brought into my life that led directly to my own acceptance of Christ as my Lord and Master. Of course there is always more need for new contributors. If you have somerging you have writter that you want to contribute, or maybe a weekly, monthly, or even yearly column on the site,maybey you want your own blog, or maybey some combination just ler me know at rev_tom_glove@yahoo.com and we'll get it going. I promise that you get full credit posted for vall your work plus you keep the copyrights. Just please remenber that this is an all Christian site. If you have been following the wekly mssages you know that we are in the middle of a series on Ephesians. We started out the firsr 5 weeks working on the doctrinak aspescts of it and last week started looking at the nuts and bolts of how how it effects us both now and in eyerity, Now in the past i have gottten ehauis from some of you not only questionnning both Christianity as vwell as whether Christian ministers veven believe what we say ourselves or if this is just a way to make an eay buck. As for the reality of Christianity I used to be right where you are asking the same questions. What changed me? Love, but I have to admit that it was not the all consuming love that God offeres. And over the years I collecte those little bits of love unyik the day that I was dsperate enough that I took them out and looked at them. I saw how they fit togetyer and I had to admit that there had to ba a loy more, but just as you can look at a partial puzzle and you believe that the whole pictere is there I looked at my pieces of love and just had faith that God's whole faith is waiting for us. How can you do this personally? I wish wiyh all my heart I could tell you, but the truth is that all I can do is to try and guide you and pray that you will find your own faith in Christ before it's too late. A for my own faith I admit that there are times that test it, but let me quickly relate two recent tests. I was told last year that I have 2 different eye conditions that wikk cause me to go blind they just have no idea when. So all tear I have faithfully used my eye drops and done what I was told to even though I knew that my vision had gotten worse I prayed all the way to my yearly exam that God would let it stikk be good enough that I could keep driving. Well she checked and told me that the drops were no lomger working. Then she told me that my right eye was now bad enough to be cpnsidered legallt blind. Then she told me rgat the only thing that will slow things now is laser sugury. I have to be honest I'm not thinking of throwing a party here. Then she calmly hands me my prescription for new gkasses and the filled out papers for the DMV that say that due to my left eye I can keep drivrng for another year. God is sooooo good. The other test was a test of my own faith that also tested the truth if what I teach. As mant of you know Beautiful Brcky has been going through a baaaad depression. I finally got her to agee to get treated for it but couldn't get an appointmen anytime soon. After talking to everyone possile the best I could do was to get her moved to Dec. 8. This was last Friday so it was stil a bit away. Thyen one of the doctors called me back abd said tha she had a patient this Monday at 1 with a med check at 2:30 but that she was known for not showing up. She said that she had to give the lady until 1:15 but then she would call and Becky could have the 2:30 appt. for meds. So testerday at about 1:10 I started praying and ask God to let Becky have the appt. and then went ahead and thanked him knowing he would answer ,y prayer. As I finished my prayer my phone rang and Becky is on her way to recovery with her meds. So do I believe the things I write here? Lets try an experiment. Lets all keep studying and putting it to use. If I'm wromg about God all we lose is sine time amd we still become better puopke. But when I'm proven right we win our eter4nity in Paeadise. I have more to tell you but I need to head out to a church councik neeting. I promise to get back as soon as I can.

In all His love
Pastor Tom

I'm back

Greetungs my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Yes it is true that I am finally back once again I apologize for not writing for so long. I admit that I let the world and my depression keep me from keping my pomise to God and working as hard as I could to bring his glorious word to you. I will not say that my life has become perfect because it has not. I will not say that I have become perfect because I never will be until I join Jesus in Paradise and our Father remakes me once more into his image. Still, I have faith that by following the path given to us by Jesus the Christ as he lived and died for our salvation and by my belief in Him that I will someday be in Paradise because my Lord promises that to us. That is one reason why I have started witing a series of talks on evanglism in my weekly messages. You can read the first one today on the websie intitled Fishers of Men. I do not know for sure yet how long this series will go, but you all know my passion for evangelism so it will probably last at least one to two months as I have a lot of new information to share as well as reexplaining what I have said before on the subject. So only much prayer and the Lord's guidance will decide where it will go and when yet I can not say too many times that if we want to be adopted into God's family and be like Lord Jesus then the best way is to follow his example. This means not only talking to everyone we can about God but showing his love in our own lives which includes as much prayer as possible. Remember that you do not have to be on your knees to pray. Try talking with the Lord out loud or to yourself all throughout your day and you will find that you feel his presence much more often and deeply. You may have also noticed some other changes on the website. After much prayer we are adding a lot of new and different content as well as changing the entire look. I know that this is not the first time we have changed our look but it is much simpler as we feel more proffessional. Beautiful Becky and I attended Wheatland Mission on Saterday evening and as well as getting built up spiritually we were lucky enough to get to meet the author of the book The Good and Beautiful God which is the first in a set of three that he is writing. The entire congration wll be sudying it together as part ot f our services for a few monts as we want to go as indepth as possible. If you are interested in attending on Saterdays contact me at rev_tom_glove@yahoo.com Well it is now after two oclock in the morning and we have morning sevices at Brookside Vida En Cristo Jesus so I had better try to get some sleep as soon as I use my computer program to add all of this in Espanol for my Spanish speaking friends. To any of you who speak Spanish please forgive any mistakes made by my program. Until I can learn to speak it myself it is the best I can do but I am trying. May God's love keep and protect you.

Pastor Tom



Greetungs mis hermanos y hermanas en Cristo.

Sí, es cierto que estoy finalmente de vuelta una vez más pido disculpas por no escribir durante tanto tiempo. Admito que dejar que el mundo y mi depresión me impide Keping mi pomise a Dios y trabajando tan duro como podía traer a su gloriosa palabra a usted. No voy a decir que mi vida se ha convertido en perfecto porque no es así. No voy a decir que me he convertido en perfecto porque nunca seré hasta que me unirse a Jesús en el Paraíso y nuestro Padre remakes mí una vez más en su imagen. Sin embargo, tengo fe de que, siguiendo el camino que nos ha dado Jesús el Cristo como él vivió y murió por nuestra salvación y por mi fe en él que será un día en el paraíso, porque mi Señor promete que a nosotros. Esa es una razón por la que han comenzado Witing una serie de conversaciones sobre evanglism en mis mensajes semanales. Usted puede leer la primera de ellas hoy en la websie intitled pescadores de hombres. No sé a ciencia cierta cuánto tiempo aún esta serie se van, pero todos ustedes conocen mi pasión por el evangelismo por lo que probablemente durará al menos uno o dos meses, como tengo un montón de nueva información para compartir, así como reexplAsí que sólo con mucha oración y la guía del Señor decidirá dónde irá y cuando todavía no puedo decir muchas veces que si queremos que se adoptará en la familia de Dios y ser como el Señor Jesús, entonces la mejor manera es seguir su ejemploaining lo que he dicho antes sobre el tema. Esto significa no sólo hablar con todos los que podamos acerca de Dios, sino que muestran su amor en nuestras vidas, lo cual incluye la oración de lo posible. Recuerde que usted no tiene que estar de rodillas para rezar. Trate de hablar con el Señor en voz alta o para sí mismo durante todo el día y encontrará que usted se siente su presencia con mucha más frecuencia y profundidad. Es posible que también han notado algunos cambios en la web. Después de mucha oración estamos agregando un montón de contenidos nuevos y diferentes, así como cambiar el aspecto entero. Sé que esta no es la primera vez que hemos cambiado nuestra mirada, pero es mucho más sencillo que nos sentimos más Profesional. Beautiful Becky y yo asistimos a Wheatland Misión de la noche del sábado y así como conseguir edifica espiritualmente hemos tenido la suerte de llegar a conocer al autor del libro El Dios bueno y bello que es el primero de una serie de tres que está escribiendo. El WLL congration todo ser sudying juntos como parte f OT nuestros servicios por un Monts pocos ya que queremos ir tan en profundidad como sea posible. Si usted está interesado en asistir los sábados en contacto conmigo en rev_tom_glove@yahoo.com Bueno, es ahora, después de dos en punto de la mañana y hemos Sevices mañana en Brookside Vida En Cristo Jesús, así que mejor que tratar de dormir un poco tan pronto como puedo utilizar mi programa de ordenador para añadir todo esto en Español para mis amigos de habla española . Para cualquiera de ustedes que hablan español por favor, perdona los errores cometidos por mi programa. Hasta que pueda aprender a hablar por mí mismo es lo mejor que puedo hacer, pero estoy tratando. Que el amor de Dios, mantener y proteger.

Pastor Tom

Hello again my friends;

The last time I talked I was telling you about some of the new changes here at G. L. O. V.. E. Since then, we have finished up our Thursday night community parties for my local church (Brookside -- Vida En Cristo Jesus United Methodist Church) and I can honestly say that in my own opinion it was a great success. We did have a few glitches such as a couple of nights getting double booked for entertainment while one night had nothing booked and our final evening was supposed to be a Christian puppet show, however the puppeteer unfortunately had to have emergency dental surgery that day and was unable to perform. Although to her credit she did come and try.

I do want to thank each and every one who volunteered their time and talents to come out and entertain and a community which they are not even a part of. Being a small church we have basically no budget and so could not pay to have them yet not one of them failed to agree immediately to come and do God's work. There were the man from the fire department who came twice on their own time in order to close down the kids, although I do believe that there were as many adults running through the water as children. We have the praise band from El Masia who works with St. Paul's United Methodist Church and were giving enough to come and play for us not once but twice. We had our own friend Matt Grey who came out and played not only some of the more popular and well known Christian songs in both English and Spanish but we were also lucky enough to have him play some of his own original music which he has written for his own Christian ministry which you can find at WWW.2 mites.com. We had our friends from Bethany United Methodist Church who came and spent an evening helping everyone with Christian crafts as well as teaching dance moves to some of the more popular Christian songs to the children there. And we had the wonderful Davidic dancers from the Remnant of Israel A Messianic Jewish Temple.

Of course, there were the stores and and individuals who donated food and drank as well as Joe, who was there every week to do the cooking. I can't even begin to list all the wonderful people who came early and stayed late in order to set up and clean up afterwards, the people who worked for weeks planning everything, handing out flyers, printing all the flyers, knocking on people's doors to invite them, running registration, putting the food together, leading the prayers and devotions and many other things which I'm sure I've forgotten. But the outcome is this a neighborhood is definitely aware of us, we serve more hot dogs than I think I've ever seen in my life including totally running out on one night and we've had three new families visit the church to which seemed to be staying!

To my own benefit this last Tuesday evening I started a new Bible study in an assisted living home and so each Tuesday evening I will get to spend another hour studying the Bible with my new friends.

I thought I would go over a few things I picked up from the Christian news this last week. I don't know if I should put my own opinion on them or just let you make up your own mind so I'll probably be doing little of both.

Before I start though, here's something we all need to think about, "Jesus answered, the work of God is this: to believe in the one he had sent."(John 6:29)

This first news story I have to admit is one of the reasons that I am so strong on evangelism. Please don't get me wrong, I do believe that everyone should be taught about Jesus Christ and what he does for us. But I also consider myself to be fairly tolerant of people who rationally decide that it's not what they're interested in. That doesn't mean I'll stop trying, but it doesn't mean I don't decide they're a bad person. However, this story which ran in the daily news net on the 17th really does scare me because it comes to close to so many Biblical predictions. news:www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=107234

Ok, now those who know me know that one of my biggest vices is polotics. But being a minister I always try to keep my views to myself publicly. But sometimes you just have to speak up when you see something that just tears at your gut and this is one of those things. I hope no one out there takes any of my examples the wrong way and labels me a biggot. I love all of you and wish you nothing but the best but these are just things to illistrate how bad things can go.As most of you know our country began based on two giant oposites. On one hand we claimed to base it on God and his will along with religious freedom.I app;aud these ideas and try to live them eberyday although I do admit to the belief that Chrisyianity is thr only true religion of God. The other principle was commerce. Unfortunataly the biggest commerce was slavery which I abhor. And to make it worse I know for a fact that mt ancestors owned slaves. I know this because one if them was my great great grandmother. Luckily the Civil War ended slavery and gave all of the ex slaves the right to.....well to do exactly what they were told because they were given freedom but not rights. In the proccess of gaining rights though some things good and bad happened. You see since they really had no culture here other than slavery they turned back to their African roots. Now I have no really problem with that except for a couple of things. My first problem is with the idea that I as the decendant of a slaveowner even though I've never even entertained the idea of being one should have to make reperations to the decendants of slaves who were not personally affected because it was their ancestors who were so horribly wronged. The second leads into my main topic here. You see I listed 2 principles at the begining. But we are being drawn away from one by the other. I know that many of you prefer to be called African American, possibly becayse thanks to slavery you don't really have roots before that to identify with but how many of you have ever been to Africa either? And yet in school we have African American history month. Here we also have Hispanic American history month. Before you get the wrong idea, no I'm not asking for a European Amarican month. Nor so I have a problem with teaching about all off the great men and women from these cultures. But I also belive that the regular history books should be rewritten to include them as the AMERICANS they were. By deviding history or adding anything in front of American we just keep saying your'e different. I don't care what languafe your grandparents spoke if you as a U.S. citizen you are an american. But we concentrate on these things and it helps to distract us from the fact that we are meant to be one nation undsr God. Everyone concentrates on these things and so they don't notice how many of our schools are putting in footbaths and providing special areas for non Christian children to go and pray during the day. And how many years has it been since it was Legal for Christians to pray en masse in school? And now that they have you distracted on August 26th 2009 U.S. Education Seceratary Arne Duncan all but came our and said, on the 46th anniversary of his greatest speach no less that soon we will no longer be teaching the views and speaches of Dr. Martin Luther King becaus of his religious referals in them.

I had planned to write more tonight bit I think thar rhis would be a good place to shut up, ask you to read Dr. king's words, and stand up together and hold hands as we as AMERICANS pray to keep GOD in AMERICA.

Good morning; or at least they would probably tell me that it was morning if anyone were up. But, at 130 in the morning there aren't too many of us with our eyes open.

It seems that once again I have managed to get way behind on everything I gave doing. Sometimes lately I feel like a quadriplegic juggler.

So I guess we should start within the news (gossip?) About all of our members here on staff here at G. L. O. V. E.

Well, we have Infuriating Emmy to start out with. Emmy is a junior in high school this year. She has really been looking forward to being an upperclassman. What she did not look for was all of the homework of an upperclassman taking mostly honors classes. Needless to say after her first full week she has spent most of her weekend crashed trying to catch up on her sleep.

Then we have Jolly Joe Cool. There's not a whole lot to say about Joe this time. He has been gone a good part of the time staying with a friend. When he is home she is still the king of the videogames but other than that I'm not sure what's going on in his life.

Beautiful Becky has started a new class at her college. This one is on the Kings and Prophets. I don't believe it's anything she can't handle but there does seem to be a lot of work involved in this one. I know that one of the authors she will be reading is one she has had before and really does not care for but I have faith in her and the Lord and so I know that she will do great. She's also been very busy with our Thursday night parties at our local church which I will talk about soon in this blog. Also, while working on her degree in Christian ministry she needs to do another practicum. I know that she has chosen to do this one on prayer. Not just time spent in prayer, but also the different types of prayer. I know for one thing she plans about three different prayer walks followed by services held strictly to lift up the prayers of the neighborhood that she gets while on her walks. I think she plans to include prayer circles as well but I'm not sure. I do know that she seems to have it all figured out except for implementing it. Of course, she is now an official member of the youth leadership team. And she is now working on putting together our evangelism team.

Magnificent Mollie; unfortunately I don't see as much of Mollie as I used to. Her grandson Jesse has been staying with her on vacation lately and so she has wanted naturally as spent as much time with him as possible. On top of that he arrived during the week that her church was doing their vacation Bible school. I'll let you know more about what's going on with her and hopefully get her back to working on her own blog as soon as I can.

We do have four new members or in a way five who will be doing blogs here. None of them are fully set up yet but I thought that I would go a head and tell you a little about them.

First, we have pastor Maranda, he is a minister with the United Methodists church and has been leading the services for our Spanish speaking part of our congregation. Now that we have gone bilingual and only have one service I'm not sure exactly what his plans are but I know that he will be with us for a while yet. He has asked for a blog for himself mainly for our new church website but we will get the pleasure of having it here as well.

Pastor Smart; Pastor "C."as she likes to be called is the other United Methodist minister from our church. You may or may not be seeing a lot from her on her blog as she hasn't yet decided if she likes the new ways of doing things. But, I have a feeling that it probably won't take her too long to warm up to them. She has already asked about the possibility of conducting an online Bible study. I will say that there's not too much that can stand in the way of her and her flock. This is a lady who was assigned to a church in one of the poorest parts of town and rather than complain that she only had a congregation of less than 10 people she decided to move into the area to get to know the people around her and has built up the congregation to a point where even though we are a small congregation our numbers are respected.

Osmar; Osmar is difficult for me to describe. Partially because his native language is Spanish but I think mostly because he does not believe that he can speak English even though he and I have had several conversations and I definitely do not speak Spanish all though I wish I did. But after those conversations and after hearing him do a devotion as well as preaching twice I can guarantee you that this man truly has a heart for Jesus Christ. Beautiful Becky describes him as a big huggy bear. I'm not sure that I'd go that far but I do know that when you speak with him both his eyes and his smile light up with the love of God. In the conversations that we have had never once no matter what the topic was has he failed to mention God in it.

Rosalia, or more correctly, Rosalia and Ms. Julia; I first met Rosalia when she and some other members from El Messias church volunteered to play at one of our Thursday night communoty parties. Now don't get me wrong, Rosalia has a beautiful voice and it shows that she is playing for the Lord, but that is not what drew mw to her. You see Osmar had agreed to to the devotion that evening and I don;t know how it was agreed upon but since his native tongue is Spanish Rosalia translated what he said into English. Let me assure you that there was a true passion for Jesus from both of them that you will not find on any television show or even in most large churches. When these two finished a simple devotion it was all I could do to say thank you to them they had effected me that much. The following Sunday Beautiful Becky and I attended servicees with the Spanish speaking friends from our congregation and Osmar happened to be preaching. To our great surprise Rosalia was filling in with the praise band that night and she remembered us. Knowing that we do not speak Spanish she again volunteered to translate the Message that Osmar delivered and this time I was litterally brought to tears as I answred the alter call. Ms. Julia her Mother was also there and I do remember her praying over me as I kneeled before Christ;s alter begging him to change me into what he wants me to be. Later I did ask both Osmar and Rosalia if they would be willing to write blogs. Both did agree though Rosalia pretty much let me know that hers would be a joint effort between her and Ms. Julia. Now knowing that Ms. julia has done evangelism in several countries as well as around the U.S. and that Rosalia is following in her footsteps how could I ever refuse an offer like that. Those of you who lmow me know that evengelism for Jesus Christ is my mission in life. I dream of leading just one person to salvation, but even more I havee nightmares about the one person that did not try with who misss out on eternity with paradise. I pray that God will allow me to learn from all of these wonderful people.

I do have quite a bit more that I want to say to you, but since this has already taken almost a full day I think I,ll stop here for now and start a new post after my Bible Study tomorrow evening.

Until them I pray that each of you live in the love and salvation offered only by our Lord Jesus the Christ.

Blessings from Rev. Dr. Tom your servant in Christ.

Welcome to all of my dear brothers and sisters in Christ!

I do hope that you have all had fantastic week. My week for the most part could only be described as blessed. Thank you Lord Jesus!

I am still fighting my depression but thanks be to God it's staying at a level that I may have to force myself, but I'm still able to get around and do what I need to.I won't lie and say that I never have suicidal thoughts anymore, but I am able to overcome them. I will tell you that if you have depression problems that no matter how dark it seems if you have a talk with God and ask the Father for help and then lay it at His feet and leave it things will really brighten up.

I got the results from my physical although I could have done without them. It seems that I now have COPD. Guys, I know you've all heard this but take it from someone who has smoked for 38 years, if you don't smoke don't start. If you do then find a way to quit before it catches up to you like it has me. Anyway it seems that the COPD combined with my sleep disorders stops my body from building up the oxygen it needs during the day which is what causes me to just fall asleep without warning because I run out of oxygen to work with. So, now I get to go see a nurologist on top of all my other problems and probably go on oxygen.

Wenesday I went to the Bible study at my new church for the first time. I was kind of disapointed when I found out tha the only people who showed up besides me were my son whom I brought and the Pastor. This quickly changed though as I studied the book of john with them and we were able to go pretty in depth. I do hope to see more people comming and plan to try and get an evening study going as well for those who can't make it during the day, but I have asked Beautiful Becky to try and get her hours at work so that I can keep going I enjoyed it so much.

Where is the stimulus going? Where are the job creations? People and families are hurting and I'm uncertain that they will be recovering anytime soon. I half expected to see a bunch of new road construction projects going with this stimulus dough, but have not seen any increase. I have seen increases in job losses and it is published that the largest gap between men and women who are unemployed just occured with the rate hitting men by 2.5 points more women. I guess I wonder how this can be? I think I found an answer...in the stimulus package.
According to the GAO, the allocation of stimulus money now and for the forseeable future is largely being spent in fileds with higher rates of women employed, namely medical and education. Of the 28.8 billion spent so far this year, 74% is in Health (mostly Medicaid), 22% in Education and Training and a mere 4% in all "Other".

It really baffles me how spending in "Health" saves jobs? It would seem that health is a need, not a reason for stimulus and job creation. I do not question that there may be more of a need for health spending with job losses mounting, however, three-quarters of the amount in 2009 (and much much more in the future years)? This smells more like an increase in existing programs than stimulus and recovery.

Education of the unemployed for better career oppurtunities is a valid expenditure, however it appears that most of these funds are directed at sustaining local school district budgets and not training for the unemployed.

So that leave the 6 percent for those areas that typically get people working again, transportation and infrastructure. These jobs allow workers to providefor their families and local spending that keeps other people employed in retail positions, restuarants, gas stations, which in turns employs people in industries (that usually provide benefits to their workers) that supply these business.

So I am mystified how this helps stimulate the economy and provide oppurtunity for people to find employment. It seems to me we should be following the Heifer International model for stimulus instead of the one currently in place. I don't count giving everyone a mercury vapor spewing "spaghetti light bulb" in the same category as a cow. (I'm can't wait to hear the explanation for when the mercury counts begin pouring out of our landfills from those things).
But I guess there is an aluminum lining in this cloud...in 2012 the "Other" catagories grow to exceed the percentages of "Health and Education", but at extremely reduced funding levels. Funny how that happens to coincide with another presidential election cycle...

Thursday morning I was taking Beautiful Becky to work when I received a call from one of our local nursing homes. It seems that they had a place open in their preaching rotation from my old pastor moving from the area. So after talking with her I will now be preaching there about 4 times a year.

Thursday afternoon I went with Marvelous Mollie to a hearing about her benifits for Austin. I don't think I helped much but I will keep praying as this family needs our prayers for help. For details why see Mollie's blog here on G.L.O.V.E..

Thursday evening we had our 2nd of 8 community parties at my church. I believe that it was great success. We had some fantastic praise singers from another local church El Masias. (sp?) Also we had outdoor games that I brought which I had bought for my youth groups. The food was great as always and we had a devotion presented in Spanish by Ozmar one of our members and English by Rosalia one of the praise singers that was simply mind blowing. I'm telling you these two truly know the love of God and they enjoy sharing it. Everything went smoothly thank you Jesus. Next week we will be having a presentation from the children in the V.B.S. of a sister church.

Have yo9u ever wondered if your tithes truly make a difference? Here's a story gom the member of a church in our district telling just how much every dollar reeally does count.

The Difference a Dollar Makes

by Mark Conard

Three months ago, the financial condition of our congregation was bleak. There were those using the language of "impending doom." I attempted to use the language of "impending dawn" and to find encouragement in the words, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief"(Mark 9:24).

We had a "negative cash flow" at the end of March of $6,722.91, which is a polite way of saying that we were nearly $7,000 below zero! Our pledged contributions had been paid at 81.0 percent. Even more ominously, we were actually $17,711 short of where we needed to be even to meet this year's budget. This was based on the three year Congregational Giving Profile that we had downloaded from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership.

We had essentially used up the budget reserve that had been generated by excellent receipts in December 2006 and January 2007. A few checks had been returned for insufficient funds. Things were not what we hoped, desired, or wanted.

Our Finance Committee shared our financial situation with the congregation. They invited the congregation to join them in renewed Prayers--for the life and work of the church, including its leaders, staff, and people; Presence--in worship, Sunday School, and in other ways on a routine and regular basis; Gifts--financially in support of the church budget, Service--to others in the congregation and community through sharing time and talent; and Witness--to faith in God by making sure to be current toward meeting "estimates of giving" and by making additional contributions in support of the church.

The Staff Parish Relations Committee began to look at personnel options, none of which were appealing. The staff made decisions about what could be reduced, eliminated, or adjusted.
I also did some figuring on my own and discovered the difference a dollar could make. The reality was that, if we received an average of $1.00 more each Sunday for each person attending worship, we would eliminate our cash flow deficit and be on course to meet the financial goals we set for ourselves this year. Not everyone could do so, of course, while others could do more than that.

We shared that news with the congregation, and it generated an immediate positive response that has continued, at least so far. We had the best months for giving in April and May in the last four years. At the end of May, our pledges had been paid at a 99.2 percent. We had an actual "cash flow balance" of $12,996.30!

We are not out of the proverbial woods by any means! But, we can focus on a different verse in the healing story, claiming in a new way the reality that, with God, "all things are possible!"(Mark 9:23) And, in many ways, it is the simple story of the difference a dollar makes!

I hope you don't mind but I really felt the need to share that example of what God can do through us. There truly is no end to hos power or his love.

Sunday I went to church services. We are still working on getting our two congregations into one so I went to the morning services which are in English. Also I video the services for our website for the church since I am the current webmaster. www.bvecum.110mb.com The serce was a terrific praise to God and filled me again with his miraculous love. After the service our Pastor told me that she will be out of town next week and invited me to speak for her. Needless to say I thanked Jesus for the chance to spread his love and agreed. God is good.

Sunday evening I attended the Spanish services. Now I admit tha the first time Beautiful Becky and I attended it was simply so that I could get the video for the website. After all I speak maybe 10 words of Spanish ant she knows even less. But even though we didn't understand the words we did the love and we now look forward to every service. Not to mention that even with the language barrier we have made friends with each and every one of them.

This week was different however. The Pastor is at seminary and the speaker was the same Rosalia that I talked about earlier. There were 4 of us there who did not speak Spanish and so she presented her message in both languages. Let's just say that when she announced alter call there was a line waiting.

More great news my friends. I spoke with Rosalia after services and she has agreed to share God with us with her own blog here on G.L.O.V.E.. I'll be putting up links to it on the site as well as all of the blogs as soon as it's up. Please watch for it and make her feel welcome here. Now if I can only convince Ozmar to join us as well.

I'll leave you with this week's prayer list:

Mollie, Craig, Austin, Teresa, Anne, the family of Teresa, Caroline, her daughter and grandchildren, Joe, June, Isidro, Becky, Joe, Emmy, Tom, Brookside Vida En Cristo United Methodist church, G.L.O.V.E. and all of our visitors here, our churches everywhere, our local and national leaders and our brave soldiers in the armed forces.

Father God you give us so much as you fill us with your love. Father God we thank you for allowing us to gather here in your sweet name. Lord watch over all of your children and help us to share your love with everyone we come in contact with. In your great name of Jesus the Christ; amen.

Thank you my friends and be blessed.

Ok, where to start.....?

Again I apologize for getting so far behind on my posting. Icould offer more exuses, but they are just that, so instead I'll just promise to try even harder.

I did get my weekly message up on the site on time which is a very large miricle for me right now considering that I'm trying to keep up with so much that I didn't even decide on a topic until last night and then my voice program went down so I had to type it out by hand. That may not seem bad to you but I type with 1 finger and can't spell that well. But, it's up and I pray you read it because it's a topic that I think we all need help with sometimes. Next week and the week after I will be looking at the same parable but from different viewpoints.

My heart and prayers go out to Mollie, Craig and Austin. For details click on Mollie's blog in the link section to the right. Please remember my friends that God is with you and I am only a phone call away.

You know as a minister I am not allowed to ebdorse polititians or address to strongly political issues, but it does seem to me that we are seeing more and more cases like Mollie's where badly needed medical services are being cut to fit the budget. If this isd an indication, and it does seem to be, of what we are heading towards with the government taking over ... well all I can really endorse is that you call your congress reps and let them know that if they want your vote you expect better from them. We don't need little children like Austin being deprived becaue of mony.

I talked with my own pastor this week and we decided to have our first official youth meeting on Thursday September, 10. I'm not sure how many kids we will have but I am hoping to have a group for 10 - 15 year olds and another for ages 16 - 19. I plan to use our current Thursday night community parties to advertise as well as taking flyers to the locale schools next month.

Speaking of our parties, that's one reason I have been lax in posting. We had the first one this last week and it wore me out. But I have to judge it a complete success. I'm not sure how it happened because I would have bet against it but everything fell into place just in time. The food donations all came through and our volunteer cook is one of the happiest men you will ever meet. All of the paper goods had been left on a counter but were gone when we opened the church. One of the ladies in our congregation took off and in no time brought us everything we needed to get by God bless her. Our praise band did not make it like we planned but one of our members grabbed a speaker on a stand and a cd player and we soon had music for the whole neighborhood. Then the fire department rolled up right on time and people started showing up from every direction. Once they opened their spray nozzle it looked like it was raining and with as hot as it's been it wasn't just the kids playing in it. Even our pastor got soaked. They were nice and put me to work at registration so that I could be in out of the heat but it was still a lot of work. I had to get people to sign in and then give them thier tickets but there were times it was really good that we kept the other side of the ticket because quite often I lost track of all the poeople going through.

For those of you who can't go to your church for bible studies I am working on setting it up for our pastor to do an online interactive bible study from the web site I am building for our church. I will post the information when I get it going but please email me and let you know if you are interested.

I went for my physical this last week. No surprise he wants me to lose weight. So do I but it's easier to say than to do. But I am starting to go to the Y every day starting tomorrow with my kids and do as much as I can. I also have to quit smoking at the same time, joy, joy. But he never gave me trouble about it before so I know he's serious. The main reason is that I now have COPD. But if I quit smoking and lose the weight I just might live long enough to go blind from the glocoma and occullar distrophy. Of course I have to have more tests and go on oxygen at night and maybe during the day. It seems that my sleepp disorders keep me from storing up enough to use during the day.

Enfuriating Emmy came home safe and sound from her mission trip. She spent her time this year helping to rebuild a home that was torn up by th hurricane and came back baked but full of love for God for letting her do it. She as got to swim in the Gulf (her first time in the ocean) and went on a tour t N.A.S.A..

Beautiful Becky and Jolly Joe Cool are both progressing on their driving lessons. I pray that one of them gets through it soon so that they can get around without me before it is too late. The only thing that has kept me from checking into the hospital lately is knowing that I am the only driver in the house. I have to admit that it's pretty hard to keep going right now though. I o otst raumatic stress yndrome an I ne tr ttyf y dn' but ne f thethings t can d is to causeyuto have flashbcks Trust m Im not tang about eries here. When oavea asback its llikets hapeg rght tere an ow nd you ca' tel that it's not reall. Well I am blessed with these flashbacks and the more depressed I get the worse and more often they are. Now lets just say that the only time that I would ever willingly check myself into a hospital is if I were feeling seriously suicidal. So that tells you how bad the depression is right now. But all I can do right now is to keep praying to God kee me safe. I can't really tlk to friends or family because I don't want to be abron t tem I really can't believe 'm even writing this and should delete it. But I do have faith that God will keep me safe. I know he will keep you safe as well. Thank you for letting me talk.

What's going on...

Hello, hello, love... well, at least it's only been two days since my last post, so I seem to be getting better. Things have been pretty busy around here. I've been fighting both depression and heat, so it seems that all I get done is sleeping right now. I did finally get last Sunday's message put up, but I'm ashamed of the fact that it was two days late. Those of you who are familiar with me know that I always try to make my weekly message priority, which means that I have no problem letting other things go if I need to in order to get the message link up by Saturday evening that it's there for you on Sunday morning. I think you'll agree, though, that the message I have for you this week is well worth the wait. I know it's one that I often need in my own life, and believe that there for honest with ourselves most of us do. I will warn you that right now, you may find quite a few typos in it but I will be cleaning those up within a very short time. We heard from infuriating Emmy last night. They have made it to the work camp in Texas City and had their first days work. Before going from the church they were staying at into the work camp they took time to do some sightseeing and shopping in Houston and went down to the Gulf of Mexico. I'm guessing from the location that this was somewhere around Galveston. Unfortunately they weren't able to go swimming but they still got to enjoy the view. Please, whatever you do, don't tell her I said this, but I'm really kind of looking forward to her coming back on the fourth. Jolly Joe cool is still trying to stay cool. I got a glance of him the other day and I could swear he had a control for Xbox growing out of his ear. But I guess he didn't get to be as good as he is by not playing. Beautiful Becky only has one more class to go in order to finish up for the spring. I have no idea what she has coming up for fall classes but at least she gets about five weeks off between them. And the really great news is during that five weeks she gets to do inventory at the store. Our summer party nights are shaping up pretty well. We start off on July 9 width a live praise banned from our church, hot dogs and chips for every one as well as having the fire department come out to do on hosedown for the kids we passed out 500 fliers this last weekend around the neighborhood and so we are expecting probably to get anywhere from 2 to 500 people however we are preparing for up to 1000. There is no cost for anything so if you happen to be in the area please stop in and see us. We are at Brookside-Vida en Christo United Methodists at 2760 S. Roosevelt Ave. in Planeview in Wichita Kansas. Of course, we do have other things planned for each night but were keeping them under wraps until the time comes. Most of the large entertainment is aimed at children as we are using to recruit for our VBS, our champs program for helping children who need extra school tutoring and also for the new youth group that I will be starting in August. But we do have music and other games and activities for the adults as well. As I said all of this will be free of charge and it doesn't matter who you are, or where you live or go to church everyone is welcome. If you only want to come for the Thursday night parties there will be no pressure put on you to come at any other time however don't be surprised at the number of people who try to make friends with you no matter who or where you are. Well, I promised Jolly Joe cool that I would take some time away from preaching today and let him teach me how to kill mutants. So until next time please remember that we love you here in love and so it is God.

Better Late Than Never

Wow, am I ever ashamed of myself! I came here tonight to make a regularly scheduled blog and noticed that I don't have any sort of regularly scheduled blog. I don't have an excuse for this. I fully intend every time I make a blog to continue to do so on a regular basis. The optimum would be to post every day. But I would probably be happy with twice a week. But over a month? How could I let time get away from me like that? Well I guess all I can does apologize and try again. I think that part of the problem is that I still haven't decided exactly what this blog is for. I know I want to use it to keep you updated on things on the site change. I also want to use it to let you know what's going on in my personal life. That way, you know more about me and understand me personally when you read my messages on Sunday morning. Come on, you do read my Sunday morning messages don't you? And have you noticed that lately that things are changing on the site again? Surely you've noticed all the bright colors and design. I'm sure you've noticed by now that the verse of the day is now in four languages, English, Spanish, French and Vietnamese. And I really hope that you will take time to sign our guestbook and send in any prayer requests you have. You notice that we now have a form on the main page for prayer requests. Don't worry about the fact that it asked for your name feel free send it in anonymously. All that's important is that we lift each other up in prayer when needed. There are a few other changes to the site, but I like to find those for yourselves. As for my personal life, I'm spending most of my time trying to think cool thoughts. Here in Kansas right now we are under heat warnings of night and day. With some of the medicine I'm on I'm supposed to stay out of the sun and heat and be very careful of dehydration. Which means that I get the beautiful Becky shoving water at me every chance she can get to make sure I drink it. This would really be irritating, considering the fact that I detest drinking water, if I didn't know that she was doing it out of love. But be real here, if God had intended us to drink all is water why did he invent Pepsi? I guess it doesn't really matter since beautiful Becky happens to be here, laughing and telling me that I still have to drink the water. Well, God made her too, and he gave her to me as though life mate to watch over me and take care of me, so I guess I'll just set the water next to my Pepsi and drink them both. Infuriating Emmy leaves tomorrow with her church youth group for Texas on their annual mission trip. Don't tell her this but I'm really going to miss her. As a normal 16-year-old girl, she doesn't want to hear about her daddy missing her when she's gone, and remembering the times she used to just be happy snuggling up to him. But you know, she really has grown up into a lovely young woman, and I'm very proud of her heart in the fact that she goes every year to help others. I always looked forward to the look of wonder in her eyes when she returns. These yearly trips really let her see how much God does for her and her own life and make sure want even more to share it with others. And what can I say about Jolly Joe cool? I'm not sure if he's actually trying to set a new world record for videogame playing or if it's just all the emotional turmoil he's been going through. I won't go into details here as it's really not my business to tell things like that, but let's just say, the 2009 may not be his best year emotionally. Not having had what could be called a normal life, I'm not sure if I should have expected this with him or not. I know that all young men have to grow up sometime. I'm just not sure how fast that should be. And I don't know if he should be fighting at the way he is. I do know that he wants to grow up, and yet in so many ways, he also wants to stay a young teenager. Like I said, I know that my life was not a normal one. I went through a lot of the things, a lot sooner, than most young men do. And so it seems like the things I went through, probably between the ages of 13 and 16 he is getting hit with all in this one year. But, while he may be on an emotional roller coaster, she is also very very intelligent. I have no doubt that he will get through this, maybe with a few scars on his heart, but much stronger for all of it. Beautiful Becky, the queen of my heart, the impress of my eye, then meaning for my existence: right now the beautiful Becky is so busy I'm surprised she even has time to remember her name. She's going to a lot of changes at work, she's getting a new manager, I'm sure in time that you use to each other, if he doesn't meet with some very strange and unexplained accident. Not that I believe for one moment that the beautiful Becky would ever do anything violent. In fact, I'm sure she'll have a good alibi. I'm working on several of them for her right now. But I know how much she likes her assistant manager, in fact, she thinks so much of him as she keeps telling me what a shame it is that his old job had to downsize and let him go. And I know that she wants much more for him. After all she keeps talking about how she wishes his old job, would hire him back. Or that maybe he would get another offer from another company where he could do well. But, in spite of all this, she's working very hard not to show the frustrations from trying to do her job was about half as many hours as she needs on top of having to do what they call return to vendors which fills up what little workspace she has, and I'm sure if she ever gets over the fact that she can't find the restroom anymore should be fine and smiling again. And in a couple of weeks she finishes up for spring courses at college. Once she manages to get all of her coursework turned in. She'll have about a month off, and I know that that will do wonders for her. And on the other side, she is not only getting the training she needs at our new church, but she is making many friends there and becoming an integral part of the church itself. She is now the official worship leader, she managed to let herself be nominated and elected by our pastor to hit up the committee for an eight week series of Thursday night. Community parties, that we will be having in order to help bring people into the church. This may not seem like much of a job, but trust me, having to oversee every single detail is more than I could ever dream of doing. And even though she is still in college, and everyone there knows this. Some of them are now are referring to her as the assistant pastor, and the pastor has said something to them to change this. And in fact has actually knowledge that it is true. Also, since our pastor has told her that she is the leader in evangelism team she is working very closely with integrating our English-speaking congregation with our Spanish speaking congregation and making new friends with them as well. So yes, she does take quite busy, but I honestly don't think that she would have it any other way. Well, I have a lot more to say, but I think I'll save it for later day, hopefully even tomorrow. I just want all of you to know how much I appreciate you joining us here at glove. And yes I do realize when one of your answers a post here. I make sure that if it's one of the other blogs besides my own that that writer gives your response brought to their attention. And I want to thank Chris for what he posted on mine. Thank you all for taking the time to reading my posts, and may the Lord be with us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Help!!!... I've fallen and I can't wake up!!!!!

Okay, I'm sure I probably have your attention with a title like I've just used. I guess it was kind of a joke, but at the same time. It's all true, real. I'm trying to make sure I post something on the air every day, but usually by the time I get to it in right at the end of the day for me, which means you get me in my foggiest, and though I give my best to make sense for you that can be pretty hard to do. Tonight, I won't take up much time. I just wanted to let everyone know that I have come to a major decision. Last Thursday was supposed to be our national day of prayer. Unfortunately, our government decided that such a day should be canceled on the ground's that they felt that non--Christians would be unfair to non-Christians. To be honest, I really don't mind this. I actually prefer the separation of church and state. I know that most Christians feel as I do and would love to see everyone embrace Christ. But I also feel that is necessaryfor everyone to be able to make the choice for themselves even if this means that it is also possible for them to choose another religion, or even not at all. I really hope that this doesn't sound sacrilegious to me , but I'm not saying that I don't want people to choose Christ. What I saying is that while I wish that it were within my power to bring every single person On Earth into God's love. I also feel that it needs to be a choice. Unfortunately, I know that there are those who will not choose Jesus, but I also know that what he offers us is not inslavement but be joining into the family of the Father. If it were possible to do this without each person making their own decision that it would not have been necessary for Christ to have given his life on Calvary. The great news is that I am not a member of this or any other government. Therefore I don't have to worry about being fair to other religions. I do recognize that they exist and I recognize that they have the right to believe as they wish but as a follower of Christ I recognize that my mission in life given to me by Christ Jesus himself is to do everything I can to educate those who are not followers about what Christ offers and show as many as I possibly can into the love of Christ and the Father. Therefore I have decided that here at G.L.O.V.E.. We will do as the government has asked and cancel last Thursday's national day of prayer and instead declare the year 2009 to be the first annual year of prayer. We hereby vow to spend every day of the year praying that as many people as possible will find their way to Christ. if this is unfair to other religions then I apologize that the true God Jehovah offers the love that no other can but I invite you to embrace that love and find out yourselves just how wonderful Christ love really is.

Best & Worse

Remember the words of William Grimshaw who once said, “When I die I shall then have my greatest grief and my greatest joy—my greatest grief that I have done so little for Jesus, and my greatest joy that Jesus has done so much for me.”

A Word to the Wise...

Just remember, that no matter what you may choose to wear to church. The best accessories will always be The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.

1 in the morning

Well, here it is Friday morning, and barely after 1:00 AM and I'm finally getting around to posting a blog. You'll notice I've decided to start this one out with a picture of my alter ego Myrlin who of the two of us. You have to admit is the much better looking.

You'll have to excuse any typos I make tonight because of the fact that I am so tired, but then again, that's pretty much my normal state these days.

Things are looking up, however. Joseph is coming along well with his driving lessons. Becky has gotten new glasses and has had her driving rights restored. The only problem is that since it's been more than a year since she has had a drivers license she will have to retake both the written and driving portions of the test in order to get her license fully reinstated. However, once they have both passed their tests and gotten their licenses then they can take over most of the household driving as well as driving themselves back and forth to work. That means I won't have to get up to get Becky to work before eight o'clock in the morning nor will I have to stay up in order to bring Joseph home at anywhere from 11 o'clock at night until 130 in the morning. Which means that I can actually get some rest.

The typos should also get better due to the fact that Joseph bought a new voice recognition program that does most of the typing for me. Now, as long as I make sure to pronounce the words correctly they should get spelled properly. It's taking me a while but I think the program and I are starting to understand each other better.

I did finally get caught up on my weekly messages and believe it or not I actually had this next Sunday's written in on this site. All I have to do is go in on Saturday evening and add the link for it. This means that I can catch up on some of the other areas where I have fallen behind lately. There are so many different sections that would take months and months to complete if they are ever totally completed and yet I have so many more that I want to start on. My very first priorities right now are setting up a guestbook as well as a prayer request form so that we can list prayer requests on the site itself so that everyone who comes here will be able to find them and pray for them or add their own prayers to them or possibly both.

I have also agreed with Rev. Cynthia Smart at Brookside United Methodist Church to put together a basic website for her. We are still going to have to work out a lot of details of what she wants for her site such as putting up both still pictures of all of the wonderful people in the congregation here as well as allowing people to view and download video of the homilies.

I do want to say hello to all of my friends who check on me here from Christ community Church, and to let you all know that I still love and miss everyone of you. I would like to extend to each of you a personal invitation to join us this next Sunday, May 17 to enjoy Becky delivering her first homily here at Brookside.

Well, I guess it's about time I wrap this up. Maybe next time, I'll start getting into more of the personal aspects that make me who I am and explain the deep unending love that I feel for my wondrous and glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

All for God... I'm just a speck

Ok, I'm not sure what prompted that title, but it's certainly true. I'm really not even sure what I'm going to write about tonight. I just know that I need to keep inpractice posting or I'm liable to keep putting it off and let it go forever. I'll have to let you decide if what I say has any meaning for you, but as well as site updates I really want it to be a place where I can bare my soul to you.

Updates: We haven't gotten as much done as I would have liked, but we are slowly making progress. I did write the tenth in the Psalms series and I'm working on 11 and hope to have it up tomorrow. Then if I can get lucky I'll be able to write the twelth and link it up for you either Sunday when it's due or Monday at the latest and be caught up. Joseph coded the pages for days 26 through 30 of Bible reading plan #1 and I added chapters 6 - 10 of Numbers in plan two. I also got another 10 days up in the history section so that you can read something that happened with Christianity each day through May 10th now. I know that this doesn't sound like that much, but if you are familiar with writing the codes for building web sites you'll know how much it really is. And if you want anything close to a life you'll understand why I can't get things up faster.

Updates in my so called life: I know that the big news health wise right now is this new flue and I plan to get to that but dirst I want to thank some very special heroes and thank God for them. Now I shudder to admit this but one of my personal vices is listening to talk radio. I co nsider myself to be pretty coservative and this seems to be the only way I can keep up with things since most papers seem to use a very liberal slant. I was listening yesterday when the host interupted his own show to ask for volunteers. It seems that there was a baby girl not quite 2 years old who desperately needed a quadrule organ transplant to live. I don't need to tell you what the odds are of all 4 organs being available at the same time in the same place and being a match for this poor child. But God being who and what He is provided a miricle and all of a sudden they had them. Only problem is that the organs were in Florida and the child I believe they said in Alabama and not much time to bring the two together. However a group called Angel Flights contacted the host whom I believe is a member and he asked for help on his show. Needles to say two wonderful people answered the call and at their own expense flew the baby and her parents in their own private plane to Florida in time for the surgery. To me these two represent what angels are supposed to be. Thank you both, the host Mr. N.B., Angel Flight and most of all Jesus Christ.

As far as this new flue I keep getting mixed messages. The rate at which it is spreading and the deaths attributed to it seem pretty upsetting to me, but according to the C.D.C. it is actually less than a normal bought of flue we get each winter. My thoughts are to try to avoid congested areas, be extra carefull to cover when sneezing or coughing, try not to have contact such as shaking hands any more than you need and wash your hands at every oportunity. And above all else don't forgrt to vaccinate yourself regularly with prayer.

I want to congratulate our own Becky who for many reasons decided to leave her home church of two years and join a new one last Sunday. Since then she has been given the job of worship leader and will also be preaching there for the first time on May 17th, so if you are in Wichita Ks. I invite you to join us at Brookside United Methodist at 10:30am to hear her.

I also want to congratulate Joseph who is up for the position of shift manger in his job. We'll be praying for you Joseph.

To Miss Mollie I send all of my prayers for God's healing touch for both you and Craig. If you want to see what exactly is going on with these wonderful people and why they need our prayers please read Mollie's blog for G.L.O.V.E. You'll find the link on the right.

I can't say I've been getting a whole lot done in my personal life. Becky is taking extra classes at college, Joseph is going back to work full time and Emmy being a sophemore and involved with her church always has something to due. We are working on getting Becky's liceince back now that we got her new glasses and Joseph got his learners permit but for now I am the only one driving except for teaching him which still takes a lot of time.

I have been fighting the depression a lot lately which means less sleep. I'm not suicidal at this time but I'm not sure how hard I'd fight death either. Plus the post traumatic stress is causing more nightmares an panic attacks lately. It's gotten bad enough that I'm going to have to buy a rail for my bed because I have broken all of my ribs by litterally throwing myself out of be during the nightmares. Plus my head is getting permenant indentations from hitting my dresser and bookshelf with such force.

Well, I wish that I had been more cheerful tonight, but I warned you that there would be parts of me rgat are not pretty and I hope that you can accept me this way.

For now may God bless you and keep you safe.

More comments

Sorry for just cutting off like that. Unfortunately those of you with sleep disorders will understand that sometimes it hits and you just go to sleep no matter what you are doing.

Anyhow, as I was saying, when I worked on my last online ministry we had never heard of a blog so we didn't use them. We did provide a message board, but very few people used it. We also built our own chat room, but there were not enough of us to keep watch on it for visitors all the time, and we did have a weekly newsletter for those who signed up for it.

But to be honest all of these things meant to make the site more personal actually made it less so because we were always working on it instead of what really mattered.

So, I decided to chuck them all out the proverbial window this time. And then, being the good little borderline personality I am, my anxiety disorder kicked in asking how we would replace them and my OCD insisted that it woek as well or better than before.

And then like a 2x4 to the head it hit me. By setting up a blog for each person all of these things would be covered plus one big advantage. Unlike in our sermons we can be more personal here and tell you what's going on un our lives. Hey, It'll be kind of like being in therapy except I won't have to pay you $100.00 an hour to listen to me.

Now I won't promise to post at certain times or intervals but I will be here as often as I can. The problem is that along with writing most of the things going up here I have to write the codes in to get them to look like web pages. Also I have my beautiful wife to spend time with as well as my 18 year old (I sgould be so old) son and dixteen year old horemone I mean daughter and everyone has to go places and guess who's the only driver. Joseph did just buy a car and get his learner's permit but while he is learning fast teaching him takes up still more time. So like I say I'll post as often as I can but please understand if I'm not always prompt.

Hopefully in my next post I can start to describe myself and please feel free to contact me anytime by e-mail rev_tom_glove@yahoo.com. Until we get a request form set up you can also send prayer requests to me there as well and I will pass them on to everyone here at glove to pray over for you.

Until nex time I guess I should get busy o last Subday's sermon. (It's only Tuesday fer gossake.

God bless you my brothers and sisters in Christ.

More Rantings on a Friday night.

So here I am, sitting alone on a Friday night, just sitting here thinking about a few things. You know when I decided to build G.L.O.V.E. I'm not sure exactly what I had in mind. I did have experiance and training working as both pastor and assistant pastor in churches, but to be honest it's a lot easier working with people in person. In person you can get to know each person in your family and they can see by your actions if you are living the life you present with Christ. On the internet you have to just present your beliefs to people and pray that it will touch them because there is no way to personalize things for people you don,t know. And yet with my last online ministry while we did average over 2,500 people a month visiting us we still felt like a family. I don't mean just those of us who worked in the ministry, but also all of those who wrote to tell us that we had touched them somehow or just had a prayer request.

Myrantings and other chewy objects

Ok, so it seems that two pastors walked into a bar; the third saw it in the way and swerved to miss it...

Yep it's been three of those days today.

I'm working with Mollie (see Mollie's Magical Moments link at right) on our home churches first annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt.

I'm also working on next week's message for G.L.O.V.E. as well as working on the Bible study I'm writing on the book of Acts. I'm also working on adding more content for the site so that I can try to keep up and not keep you waiting.

I'm also working on an idea for a non denominational prayer walk that I'm hoping my church will host but that will involve as many of the Christian churches in our area as possible.

I'm tring to develope a book I want to write. Why I don't know as I hate writing, but I can't seem to help doing it.

I am the only driver in a family of 4 with my wife working and 2 "angels" in high school.

And on top of all of this I'm looking at the idea of starting on another degree in either summer or fall term.

And I'm doing it all on an average of 2 hours of sleep a day.

And I keep getting this feeling like I've lost something. Everytime I tell my wife this she justs says mind like she's asking me if I mind something but I can't think what.

But I guess God blessed me with a sleep disorder because he knew that I would develope this occular distrophy that is taking more of my eyesight all the time so that I can do as much as possible while I can.

And then once I have gotten to that point I know that He'll show me other ways to serve him.

Yep it's been 6 of those days.

And I thank my Lord Jesus for each one of them and pray for many more.

May he bless you as he does me.

Rev. Tom

Recent goings on

Blessings to all of my brothers and sisters in Christ.
There has been a lot going on both in my personal life and with G.L.O.V.E. Most of them are blessings and the other is still in disguise for me. Most of the changes are new content we are still adding. We try to add more everyday so please keep checking back often. Don't forget to read the daily verse on the index page when you come in. Soon I hope to be adding a daily devotion as well.
I am currently writing a basic Bible study on the book of Acts. It will consist of 14 sections taken in order. I plan to follow that with both basic and advanced studies but could really use your help. If you have questions on a book or subject from the Bible I would aprecciate it if you would let me know by e=mailing me at rev_tom_glove@yahoo.com. This would let me know what our members would like addressed so that we can work it into our studies.
Also please feel free to contact me if you write studies yourself and would like to let us use them or any other materiels you would like to let us share.
The wonderful news is that even though we are barely up and running again and have not even started to list our site in any search engines yet we have managed to receive over 100 unique visitors this month. God is indeed good as we try to share with all who join us here.
The horrible news is that I am forced to ask you for your prayers on something that breaks my heart. Last night someone broke into Christ Community Church U.M. where I am a member and vandalized it. I don't know the extent yet but I do know that they somehow droke into the safe and took the offering from yesterday's service, took most of the electronics, tore up our children's room and left the water from the kitchen going to caise flood damage. I'm asking you to pray for our church. I'm asking you to pray for our congregation. I'm asking you for prayers of thanksgiving that no one was there to be hurt and that the damage whatever it is was not even worse as at least we have a church to put back together. And yes I am asking you to pray for whoever did this terrible thing that God will touch their hearts so that they will come to him and turn away from such evil.

In God's service and love;
Tom

It's such a pretty world today

Look at the Son Shine!!!

Just remember that God made this day juust as he made us and since God is perfect and doesn't make mistakes the we and the day are made as he wants and made for each other so lets enjoy today as he gives it to us and give him all our thanks for blessing us with one more.

If you haven't checked out the website lately @ www,glove.110mb.com lately you're missing out. We still have a long way to go, but the design has been totally redone with links to everything now on every page as well as all of the new content we are working on getting up.

I'm about at the halfway mark in the series on the Psalms that I am doing in my weekly messaages.

We are now puting up Christian song lyrics, jokes, trivia, and a section on something that happened to do with Chtistianity for each day.

You can also find a link to the website for my favorite radio station KLOVE. Now you can listen to your favorite Christian music while you check out our site.

May you know only the love of Jesus Christ.

Tom

Hello

Welcome to the all new G.L.O.V.E. and my blog on it. Since I give a lot of the messages for G.L.O.V.E. as well as writung a good percentage of the materials we offer I plan to use this blog, for now at least, to give you updates for both the site and my personal life.

With the site I'm sure you've already noticed that we decided to give it a complete facelift. Unfortunately this means that it is taking awhile to get things back up and running but we will keep working as fast as we can to get everything back for you. The good news is that not only do we beleive that our site looks better, but it is now much easier to get around on. We think that all of the work and delays are worth ot if they make it easier for you to get to what you need to help you grow closer to God. We already have quite a bit back up and I will give updates here as more is added.

On a personal level I want to start by thanking God as always for all the many blessings he gives me in my life. I have recently been awarded a Doctorate in Practical Theology and have been named a Senior Minister with New Horizon Ministries, a Christian ministry I was ordained with in 1998. This now allows me to oversee other ministers which will allow any Christian ministreis on the web who wish to to affiliate themselves as a part of G.L.O.V.E..

Ub til next time I pray that you will walk in God's love and share it with others.