Happy Thursday!

My Uncle Gene Smith passed away this morning. I hope he and Casey have found Mamo and are eating apricot fried pies and telling jokes to Jesus. Gene lived a long life and his last few years were difficult with health issues, but he and my Aunt Imogene attended as many family events as possible, shopped every day and loving to eat at Golden Corral. He will be missed. He was always the uncle who had something in his pocket for the nieces and nephews when we were all children and always put a few dollars in a birthday or Christmas card each year. Please keep our family in your prayers as we mourn the loss of this precious member of our family and celebrate with delightful memories of his life. I have been asked to sing the service, but I have no further details as to date and time.

Geni and I worked in her classroom this afternoon and well into the evening. I cannot begin to tell you what a ghastly disaster this room was when we saw it today. The room was filled with Kinder and bi-lingual curriculum thrown on the floor by the door. The pile was as tall as me (almost). There were 24 student desks and 30 plus chairs all the size for pre-k students. There were 5 tables and a teacher’s desk. So we got to work and with the help of some kind volunteers of school staff especially the librarian we rid the room of the wrong curriculum materials. As I would empty a box, the librarian would fill it and remove it. The custodial staff took away all of the desks and replaced them with 3 rectangular tables and 1 round table. Geni retained the teacher’s table and one of the other rectangular tables for the computers. I helped her put up one bulletin board and then we cleaned as much as we could. In short we did about a week’s worth of work in about 4 hours. The room looks neat and tidy and nothing like it did when we walked in. She still has some work to do and she will pick up her children at 2:30 pm tomorrow afternoon and take them to their new room for an introduction, see their seats and hear a story. There is still much to do as she has no proper curriculum as yet because it has to be ordered. Please continue to pray for her and I will keep you posted.

Prayer: “Father, thank You for first loving me, in spite of my sin. Today, help me to extend the same kind of grace to my brothers and sisters. Amen”

John 15: 9, 10 “ As the Father loved me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

You know the greatest evidence we have showing that we have passed from death into life is love. We all will pass from this earthly life into a bodily death, but it is through a step of faith that we die to sin through Jesus and pass into eternal life when we enter into a relationship with Christ. We are given this amazing gift because God loved us first.

I am learning in my Old Testament class that Israel pretty well followed this pattern: they did evil in the sight of God, God punished them, Israel repented, God rescued or delivered them and then the pattern began again. I know this does not sound like news. But because of Jesus, God loves us in spite of our sin and does not deliver punishment, but grants forgiveness.

Are we kind enough to offer the same grace to others? We are all children of God and experience this life together. So if God extends this precious grace (something we really do not deserve, but is given anyway) and forgiveness to each of us then it is imperative that we offer these same gifts to others. Just some thoughts for the journey...

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, mighty and powerful prayer warriors, Bruce, Gaylene , Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

Bruce says that when Satan works hard at the beginning of the Karios weekend, by Sunday he will be left weeping in the corner. Due to a change in the new Warden’s policy, the closing on Sunday will not be open to free world visitors. Please continue to pray for the 42 pilgrims (inmates) who are learning about God’s love and how to surrender to it. Also, please continue to pray for the restoration of health for little Tatum, Sheena’s sister, Sheila and her family.