Weekend Wrap-Up

Lots of things happened to all of us this past weekend and it all took place in many different states.

First there was a men's retreat that Pastor Dad, the Bear, and Karen's hubby attended out in Indiana along with several of their buddies from various churches. They seemed to experience a great time of "male bonding" around the Word of God, sporting competitions, and several board games. Since one of our friends (a missionary to Russia) was the keynote speaker there was also a touch of the extraordinary present. We were introduced to this missionary and his wife when I was an expectant Momma Bear over 14 years ago. When the Bear was born they sent us a congratulatory email from Moscow. Now the Bear got to meet the man we've admired all these years and figure out first-hand why we admire him. Seems to have left quite an impression upon our young man.

Second, I spoke to a group of ladies in Kentucky. The weather was a bit chilly but the fellowship hall was decked out for spring. I much appreciated the time I spent there and my only prayer is that something I said that day will be used to encourage the pastors' wives and other ladies in attendance as much as I was encouraged. One of the correlating fun things was that all 4 of our church's pastors' wives rode together in my car to the event. We are a fun-loving group of ladies and I laughed the whole way to and from the actual event.

Third, the Bear got to take part in a piece of citizenship in action by traveling to Cincinnati with one of our sons-in-law for the Tea Party. We do take our children to political rallies, etc. on occasion so the Bear has been around this type of thing his whole life. Pastor Dad and I are not rabid in our political views as we do not set our hope upon the government of the USA (after all the government is supposed to be "of the people, by the people, for the people" and the word "people" denotes imperfection) but we do feel that since we are part of the "people" we have a right to participate in the process.

Fourth, Lulu safely returned for her extended stay having driven straight from where she put Dan on the plane in North Carolina to here in Ohio yesterday. Dan is now safely in California (Hi Dan!) and we are adapting to Lou's semi-permanent residency with us as a result.

Everyone is tired today but looking forward to a great week. Now that I have finished delivering Saturday's devotion I might be able to return to my regularly scheduled programing this week. I seem to only be able to muster one decent devotional a week and since I have been working exclusively on the one that I just gave, I have not had the "oomph" necessary to do one for the blog. See you tomorrow with my next installment.