fear and father's day

This Sunday's Gospel addresses the Disciples' fear while in a raging storm while the Savior is asleep. This Sunday is designated as father's day as well. In one hand I hold the Sunday Gospel in the other hand I hold Father's day. I start throwing them up in the air hoping they will melt together some how or another for Sunday's sermon. I know that it will be hard, and actually I may even be juggling them on Sunday Morning while delivering the sermon.

But in my life fear and father go together. My father believed you were to drive the fear of him into my life and he did a really good job of it. I am sure he isn't the only dad that did that. My dad has been dead over 10 years now, and I miss him. I am not so afraid of him anymore. Nope, after a lot of years of therapy I came to know him and love him. I hope I am not making my kids afraid of me in the same way.

Sometimes, I think Dads have gone to the other extreme, that kids have no respect for their dads. And sometimes Dads are absent dads or they are long gone. Boy all this leads to mixed up feelings toward God the father and Jesus. We wonder in life is Jesus is asleep instead of being awake and calming the storms of our lives.

Just thinking out loud as we head toward Father's day.

the kids at Annual Conference

Pictures of the kids at conference for those that want to know: The picture with the bright shiny person is the bishop getting ready to serve communion. Katy is facing us in that picture. The kids all came in singing and playing instruments. They then laid on the altar backbacks filled with items for kids in Africa at the in Zimbabwe at the Ishe Anesu Project. The kids helped serve communion with an adult by their side. People were of course oohing and aahing over the kids. Our friends who were sitting behind us were commenting, like "look at him leading the group, isn't he cute" "She is concentrating so seriously on the cup making sure she doesn't spill it," and "we have to take communion from her." It made me proud. Bob couldn't seem to move, and he was blocking the aisle. I kept telling him get up and get some pictures, but he couldn't move. Finally I crawled over him, ran down to the front and made a fool of myself trying to find them and take pictures. Kate and Kara served, Zach said he was too shy to do that. They all made some good friends, learned about Jesus and had a good time. They want to come back.

Family Picnic at annual Conference

We are recovering from our loss of our doggie. Everybody has been wonderful in their support and care, including you all.
For the first time my hubby and kids have come along to Annual conference. And for the first time they had a family picnic this afternoon for all the families. You had to preorder your meal, but other than that it wasn't that difficult. Chick-Filet provided the lunch. They had blow up bouncies for the kids, miniature golf, basketball, face painting, popcorn and children's music. I helped face paint and got my face painted by my kids. Got to see several of my peers and their families as well. Ran into the Bishop and his wife walking around. Saw one of my best friends who got hired away from our conference to work for Jurisdictional VIM. That was really neat. Tomorrow when everything gets started, there will be no time for socializing and fellowshipping. It will be all business and voting on the amendments. So today was special.
We got the hotel, and got settled. We then went out to dinner. We then came back and went swimming. Somehow or another, Kate cut both her big toes. She was pretty upset about it. they are going to check out the pool to see if there is anything around that she could have cut her toes on. We sure didn't see anything. Instead of going to the memorial service and to the clergywomen's gathering, I stayed with the family. It will be an early and long day tomorrow.

Lily Bear's Demise

Lily was a sweet heart of a heinz 57 with a little wolf in her, little chow, little German Shepherd and God only knows what else. She was found out on a busy highway in a box as a puppy with her little brother. The finder God bless the friend, thought she would be perfect for Kate whom we had just adopted from China. So here comes the friend with this mess of a puppy and puts her in Kate's lap. Well, how do you get rid of a puppy that your little child has fallen in love with and is the right size for her to hold and cuddle with? I couldn't. Bob wanted to but we didn't. We already had two other dogs, and three cats while living in a small parsonage. But she stayed as Kate's puppy. She was a mess as a puppy, aggressive, ate all the stuffed animals we had or she could find, and barked at everyone. But she still stayed. Then one day it was really bad weather; Lily stood at the window looking out, agitated and making funny noises. Bob went to check out what was bothering her, and there was a tornado just a block away. The dog stayed, and was never to be discusses of removing her again.

Lily was very protective of her kids our children, and loved them. She loved having her back rubbed. She loved going for walks. She also like to run. The minute the gate or a door was left open she was on the loose. The first couple of times we would try to chase her down with no luck of finding her, so we just learned to wait on her return.

After we moved to Florence we noticed she started to have seizures so we took her to the vet. He wasn't sure if she had a brain tumor or epilepsy. He treated her for epilepsy and told us a small tumor wouldn't show up on xray, but would show up when it got big. That was about three years ago, I guess it got big.

One other time in Florence, Lily had gotten agitated and was trying to get our attention about something. We followed her outside and the airconditioner was on fire. Another time she was agitated and wanted us to pay attention and there was another tornado passing by.

When we got back from the vacation we noticed that she was losing big clumps of hair, was cowering, unhapppy and crying in the night. We decided it was time to take her to the vet.
He agreed it was time to put her down.

This morning we had the kids say good bye to her before they left. Katy just hugged and kissed her all over and didn't want to say goodbye. Kara hugged her. Zachary drew a picture of her and wrote her a letter. He then held her for a long time. I talked to her and told her how much I loved her and how much she meant to me and how much I was going to miss her. Bob took her to the vet, held her as she went to sleep and cried and cried.

Bob and I had lunch together and cried about her and told stories about her. Bob told me when he went home, Koda, our other dog was really sad already. Koda and Lily had become best buddies after the other two dogs had died during our time in Wadley.

Thank you God for this little abandoned puppy who grew into a big dog, who loved us and protected us. We will really miss her. Watch over her and watch over us in our grief. Amen.

I don't have pictures of her on this computer, I'll post them later from my home computer.

Thank you all for your love, prayers and support.