April 6, 2014

Listening to the Sermon

April 6, 2014

It has been a good Sunday - with a couple of exceptions.  One is that I slept the afternoon away.  As I have said here before, I hate to do that.  I have so much I need and want to do on Sunday afternoons and sleeping cramps my style.  Not only did I nap, I slept from about 2:30 until 8:00 this evening!  Not good!!!!  Now I don't know if I will be able to sleep tonight.  The second exception to it being a good day was the resignation of one of our church staff members.

After my nap I spent the next two hours in the kitchen chopping up ingredients for a couple of big salads for us to eat for the next few days.  I made a huge chicken salad and then a marinated carrot salad that I haven't made in a very long time, but I had been craving.  So now the kitchen is clean and my lunches for the next couple of days are in the refrigerator, as well as our suppers for the early part of the week.  That is, except for Tuesday night when we are invited guests to the Premier Opening night at the new Chick-fil-A not far from our house. Ron did their lock work, so that is how we are on the guest list.  It is at 4 Corners, near Home Depot.

After the sermon this morning, our Associate pastor in charge of our missions programs announced his resignation.  Tracy Sexton will be leaving after next Sunday.  He and his wife, Beverly, have been here for 4 years.  There were a lot of things involved in the decision, and we know it is the right thing for them to do at this time, but we hate to lose them.  Ron especially has enjoyed Tracy's teaching.  I have had trouble hearing him well because he talks very fast (hard on us hard of hearing folks).  They are returning to their home town in Alabama (I think).  Tracy is an excellent preacher and teacher and hopes to do both in a church there.  He was very torn up about the resignation, breaking down to cry several times.  There will be a reception for them next Sunday morning following the service.  There were a lot of tears over the resignation.  It is hard to say good-bye sometimes.

Good news is that this morning I used a cable I have for my Cochlear Implant that goes from the sound processor to any personal listening device - an iPod, radio, cell phone, etc.  I have a radio that I bought years ago that is set to our church sound system frequency and so today I tried hooking up to that.  I had thought of trying it in the past, but didn't want  to block out being able to hear other things, only hearing the speaker.  But I had come to realize that when I use it on the phone, I can still hear other things - not as well, but some.  Anyhow I especially wanted to hear the pastor this morning to hear about the trip they just took to the Philippines to work in a village that was heavily damaged by that storm last summer.  It worked very well and in fact Ron said that there was a lot he couldn't hear and I filled in the blanks for him.  It also helped on the music - not the melody, but the words.  Our youth minister was doing the music since our music minister and his family are on vacation.  It was good to be able to hear first hand what Tracy had to say about his resignation.  

Our church installed this particular transmitting system probably about 25 years ago.  Our first usage of it was translation.  People could pick up a radio and headset at the sound board and could hear the sermon translated into Spanish.  We have several people who server as translators.  Then they added a second frequency to play directly from the microphones to use for hearing impaired people.  Same concept, you pick up a radio at the sound board and hear the sermon, etc. through the headphones.  I had bought my own radio and had it set to the correct frequency about 20 years ago and used it for many years to help hear in the services.  At the sound board you just have to be sure you get the right radio: Spanish or English.  This allowed families with multi-generations to worship together.  Grandparents might only speak Spanish and younger family members might speak English, but this way they could come to church together and worship side-by-side.

Of course it was good to see our son and his family who live here, but they had been gone on a trip last weekend.  The two older boys were at the shop some Friday, but we hadn't seen the rest of the kids.

That same son shook us up this evening with a message of a fire a block from our shop.  Thankfully there was no wind today.  Don't know any details but by the address, it was at an air conditioning business.  We may be in for smokey smells tomorrow.

We did have some rain showers this morning - nothing too heavy, but every little bit helps.  It was heavier in the church area and Mom's house than at our house. 

As most days, the backyard was filled with chattering birds and I would have spent part of the afternoon photographing them if I hadn't slept the day away.