Why are my eyes wet again?

Oh, it might be because I was just writing to Judy R. in Winona, responding to her e-mail about the lovely weekend she enjoyed. Saturday she was leader of a women's Bible study, based on "Taste and See That the Lord is Good", which was the theme of the retreat she attended recently in Stillwater. She had the ladies hum the melody to "Go, My Children" while she read some closing passages and said the prayer. Judy reported it was well received, with some of the ladies wiping their eyes at the closing.

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She told me that when she was at DMLC and toured with the choir, they sang "Now the Light Has Gone Away" in German for their closing, and knew they hit a home run if some of the ladies were wiping their eyes. When I wrote back to her, I reminded her about how Pastor Hahm sang that hymn to Mom at his farewell dinner, but said he could not look at her while he sang. He gave her a foretaste, because he has promised to come back and sing it again for her funeral....but she will already be in heaven, singing God's praises full-time! I sent Judy the hymn in German, shared with me by Gretchen, my friend from church.

Pastor Hahm addressing the assembly at his farewell dinner. A dear man, missed by his former members, but appreciated by his new ones!

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Speaking of Gretchen, she met me at my car this a.m. before Bible study and gave me blue gift wrapped present. She finds these treasures in her home when she is going through her things, and today, I got a treasure! It is a wall plaque that looks like a mini-chalk board, with the message: "If God meant for me to cook, He would not have invented restaurants!" We just had to laugh about this, and I told her I was in full agreement, as she knew I would be! She is so thoughtful, doing the things for people that make them feel so special!

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Well, I stood with binoculars at the ready and listened to the radio announce the count down and lift off of the Space shuttle Atlantis.....but, where is it??? Karen, my next door neighbor, was also watching from her patio and neither of us could spot it, which means it must have been either too cloudy that direction or it went in a more northerly direction, over the top of our building and out of our sight. Nuts! I so enjoy the shuttle launches and am disappointed that I could not see this one. Hopefully the rescue shuttle will not have to go up, but I will certainly watch for it, if it does have to be launched.

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The radio is also reporting a double tragedy on the northside of Jacksonville, the kind of tragedy I am familiar with. It seems a set of twin girls, aged 18 months old, were found floating in a retention pond, were air lifted to Shands, and are in critical condition. I hope that God, in His mercy, will take them home if they are badly brain damaged. Justin and I often talk about that, because one of his teachers at St. Johns had a son drown, only to be resuscitated, living the next seven years in a vegetative state in an institution, and then finally dying. Prayers for the family of the twins would be most appreciated, asking for God's will to be done for these girls, and support for their family.

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For the next few days my nest is empty, as Joanne is going to visit her sisters in Atlanta. We think we solved the mystery of the smelly refrigerator and it was not really fish! Even though all the finest noses in northeast Florida sniffed and squeezed, no one, except for perhaps Martie, seemed to find the cause of the fish odor. She had taken out the potatoes and washed them, sniffed them, and put them back in the drawer, dismissing them as the offenders. Well, yesterday, Joanne was in the fridge again, rooting around while making her supper, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. She had me smell the potatoes, and sure enough, there it is! The smell is solved!!! And I owe her an apology, accusing her of "fowling" my fridge with her wretched fish, and instead, it was her wretched potatoes!!!!