This 'n That

Well, we're back after the extended Memorial Day weekend. My weekend went an extra day as I spent yesterday involved in a ministry of the heart.

I participated in a Board Meeting of Southland Bible Institute (www.southlandbibleinstitute.org), a small school in Ashland, KY. My heart attachment is because SBI was founded by my grandparents in 1942. The Bible institute movement has about died out but, I believe, there remains a place for such training in our Christian culture. Southland is going through a difficult time right now but I trust it will result in a renewed opportunity to train students, especially from Appalachia.

Over the weekend we had one of those things happen that you can't plan for - the impeller for the swimming pool's circulation pump broke. But in the midst of it there are things for which to praise God. First, it happened 10 days before camp opens rather than in the middle of a hot summer camp with a hundred kids wanting to go swimming. Second, the Lord prepared, in the past, His solution before we knew we'd have this problem. By following God's "guided" steps through two other businesses in Hazard, Mark Clark entered a pump dealer with whom SMMM had never done business. There he found Dexter, who with his wife, has attended Camp Nathanael's annual Married Couples Retreat for a few years. Dexter is now "pulling out all the stops" to get us back on-line. We're not repaired yet but we think it'll be ready by week's end. Pray about that, won't you?

Oh, by the way, it's also blackberry winter. Today's temperature is twenty degrees cooler than yesterday and rainy. Those are classic signs of blackberry winter. Now summer can begin!

That's what's happening along the banks of Troublesome Creek until next time.