What a slave driver!

The Maestro, Robbie, worked us hard last night at choir, all six of us put through our paces. Our Reformation anthems will be well rehearsed and hopefully, well sung on Sunday. We have a group rehearsal on Saturday morning and then again before the special service the next day. Victory has more people in their choir but Robbie said we have it down pat. They are not accustomed to working as hard as Robbie does it, probably since most of them are music readers. Only half or less of our number do read music and I, for one, benefit greatly from the repetition. One anthem we are singing reminds some of us our former pastor who introduced us to “Gloria” by Haas, many years ago.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a quiet one---no one came to the door and no place to be until choir time. I did venture to the mailbox in search of my letter from the insurance company and to mail some outreach letters. I had gotten stamps at Winn Dixie after Trivia Tuesday night so I could finish the mailing and restocked my soda for a day or two. The mail brought the sales flier from WD which has Diet Coke on special this week, so I will venture back over to fill my trunk. They also have Pepsi products on sale for a dollar less than the Coke ones, but my tendency is to drink the Pepsi products more quickly. Sweetness, perhaps?

Listening to clips from Paul Ryan’s speech from yesterday, what a powerful one it was! That man has a future, perhaps as someone’s VP choice in 2012? I just ate my leftovers from Monday’s lunch, half a bbq beef sandwich and the fries. Somehow the fries don’t translate well to leftovers so they got dumped out but the sandwich was good. Next week I will switch back to the soup/sandwich option as I like the new baked potato soup they are offering at Longhorn.

Justin is coming over today to do some vacuuming but wants to meet me at the bank where I do my business, actually a credit union, so he can get his coins counted. He is not an account holder there so cannot do it himself. He needs his mama! Since I have to go out again anyway to restock my soda for the weekend, we can take care of it then. He is working on Fleming Island so it’s convenient for us both.

Bible study at Victory was good again today, especially with the give ‘n take that happens. The lesson, about the Keys, was addressed more toward Pastors as they prepare for worship, remembering that the Word is inspired, God-breathed, and not to be messed with. I paraphrase, of course. Another section talked about how people expect to have a certain ‘feeling’ realized either in worship or when reading the Word. If one does not necessarily feel something does not mean that the Word is ineffective, or empty. We can be slaves to our sins, as found in John 8:33, which is also the sermon text Pastor H. is using this week.

We talked about how we carry things around that we don’t need to such as bad memories, grudges, guilt, or cruel talk. As this section was read aloud from the booklet, as we later discussed, many of us could insert our names in the various spots! Funny how it works out that way sometimes---probably far too often! We must live our lives as lights to others and not bring darkness where we go.

*

Since Mom was at her church (FG) this morning working on the newsletter with Linda J., I made prayer chain calls on the way to Victory. One of our elderly members, a charter member I understand, is going to have heart surgery early next week following a cardia cath. procedure yesterday. It sounds like Twila’s case when she was not urgent enough to do the surgery immediately but was too tentative to send home…so she had to wait, just as Arlene does. She is 90 years old but keeps on truckin’ along. One lady I will contact by e-mail as I did not have her correct phone number in my phone and is extremely hard of hearing. It works better for her to do via e-mail.

I did get Mom at home as I drive back to Orange Park and we got talking about the presidents and who served during the Korean War and such. Once I was home, I could look things up to answer our questions about Douglas MacArthur and Harry Trumann and Eisenhower, all brought about by a crossword puzzle stumper she had earlier in the day! So glad to have the Internet to solve these mysteries!