Greeting to All!

I hope that all of you are doing well! I really appreciate the comments that I have received recently that people have enjoyed the blog and are missing it since I have not written on it for so long. It has indeed been a while since I have written because since the middle of May I have really been busy. God is good - all the time! All the time - God is good! Let me try to catch you all up on a few of the things going on.

The end of May I took a continuing education week to finish up some things that I need to do for the workshop I was at the end of April. That week went very well and Buddy and I even spent some of it at the State Park about 12 miles from here. That week when the weather clear up, about Wednesday, we went out there and stayed until Friday. Then on Saturday I went to Indy with Buddy and the motor home, to the home of the ISP full time paid chaplain. His wife and children took care of Buddy while the chaplain and I went to the 500. What an experience!!!!! On Saturday night Georgetown Road is something else!!!!! Until the people take over the road, there are car, motorcycles, etc. traveling both ways, and people everywhere you look, most of them with bottles and cans in there hands. All along the road there are campers, etc. as well as food vendors, etc. It is a regular carnival at best. We stayed down there until about 1 am went back got a couple hours sleep, cleaned up and at 5 am were in route back to the track. We went all over the place with troopers and by ourselves. I spent most of the race in pit row, watching the race on the screen, and paying more attention to what was going on the the pits. It was really interesting and quite an experience.

June was a busy month with VBS, which I did not have to teach this year, but was around all week. And working on a number of the details with two of the churches that are wanting to leave our denomination that I am chairperson for the presbyteries administrative commission to recommend to the full presbytery how this should be done. The Book of Order is very clear about it, which we are following and are also looking at what is best for the ministry and mission of the presbytery. So it is an interesting task and one that will be on going for a while.

The last Friday of June until the 4th of July, Erin, Eric, and I went on a trip to Pittsburgh, Murrysville, Cincinnati, and Lexington. We traveled over 1100 miles in the motor home and had a great time. We visited three cemeteries, and two amusement parks for 3 days. I had not been to my or Marty's parents graves for a couple of years so that was really the reason for the trip. But then how do you take a 7 year old to those places without taking them somewhere for FUN. So in Pittsburgh we went to Kennywood which is the park that I went to for school picnics all through my public schooling. It rained the day we were there but it still was fun. We put rain gear on and kept on going as long as the rides did. Then we went to Kings Island and Eric and Erin went to the park two days but I only went one, because the other I went to my bothers grave in Lexington, KY. Again the second day at K I, when I was there, it rained. But again it did not stop us for long. During the rain we tried to ride the inside rides and then when it stopped we went back out. There was a late storm and they did close the park about an hour and a half early, but we were all tired and ready to go. So praise the Lord, a good time was had by all.

Then the first full week in July, Eric was still off work so mid week he came back over and we did some needed maintenance and completed some work he had started on the house. I hope to have it up for sale by fall if not sooner. It is a lot to take care of. I know that Marty is very unhappy with me because of all the weeds in the flower beds and because I have not been keep her birds feed. There are just not enough hours in the day, or days in the week to get done what I need to do.

Oh yes, I need to tell you, if you have not heard, that I have a rider on the motorcycle with me. It is really awesome. We don't get out as much as we would like to. but when we do we both really enjoy it. And who is it that loves to go with me - Buddy! Yes, Buddy rides on the back seat of the bike and just loves it. In fact, if I am getting ready to take the bike out and not take him, he will jump up on the front seat as if to say, "If I can't go, you are not going either!" That happened one time that Eric and Erin where here and they both about cracked up laughing at him. I do have a helmet and goggles for him, but like most bike riders he does not like them and most of the time does not wear them, and when he does it is under protest. I do have a seat belt on him, but he loves it. Most of the time he sits there and looks and smells from side to side. Sometimes he will have his front paws on the arm rests to look around and smell things a little better. We have had cars pass us and then slow down to see if what they though they saw they really did see. We do indeed have a great time riding. I have made several trips to Defiance on the bike, to a couple of Erin's ball games, but I have not taken Buddy that far as of now. His time will come, as I believe he could make it.

Also during July I spent a couple of days in southern IN helping with the flood victims. They did get hit pretty bad, but certainly did not have the structural damage that there was in New Orleans, but the mud and mess were all there. It was an interesting time and I hope helpful. Our ISP full time chaplain was sure glad to have some help. I think there were 3 or 4 of us who went at different times to help.

Then last Friday afternoon I went to Speedway again for the practice sessions for the Brickyard 400. What an experience again! It was awesome! I talked to several of the drivers and more than a half dozen of the crew members. I saw a lot and learned a lot. One of the crews changed the engine in the car in about one hour and had the car back on the track. It was something else to watch. On the troopers that I was with had met some crew folks last year and we went back to see them. Bottom line is that I watched the cars go around the track for about 20 minutes and then spent the other 2 hours in the area where the cars where coming and going for adjustments. It was a good afternoon.

Well as you can see I have not had much grass growing under my feet. I am planning to take 2 more weeks off in August - the week of the 12th and then the next week. I have reservations to camp the first week and not sure what will happen the second week. It just seemed to make sense to me that I need to face that time straight on and not try to hid under the escape of being busy. I don't really expect anything magical to happen just because it will have been a year since Marty died, but I am hoping that some of the anxiety and frustration of the grief process will be over and/or I will be able to deal with in some way during those two weeks. But then again one of the most difficult things that I have experienced and that I have talked to others about and they say the same thing, is that friends and even family seem to move on much faster than the spouse, and then there is not the support for the spouse that there needs to be. I was recently talking to one grieving spouse who went to church on the Sunday following the funeral, and sat completely by themselves. No one moved from their seat and sat with this person, even though they knew that there spouse that they always sat with had died. The other thing that is so sad and I believe I mentioned this in the last blog is that people don't like to talk about death, nor really ask a grieving person how their grieving is coming along. I know that I sound like a broken record, but believe me these things hurt.

I have talked to a couple of people that have been through very difficult situation and this fall I am hoping and planning to have a series of programs under the title "What do you say when....?"
then fell that in with such things as: when someone dies; when someone has a miscarriage; when someone is arrested; when someone has a pet die; when someone is divorced and didn't want to be; and there are a couple of others on the list on my desk that I will choose from. This all came out of a conservation with a couple other people when we were talking about how difficult we tend to find it to talk about some subjects. Then we started to think about what those topic were. Those folks were so excited about such a series of programs that two of them called me later to mention some other subjects that fit the bill. The bottom line is that we thought of more topic than we have time to talk about this fall. So I plan to pick four or five of them and get people who have experienced the topic to talk about it. I already have two people who have said they will do it. "Locals" watch for details. Praise the Lord!

Eric has found a house in Defiance and is waiting to close on it. It will be great when he gets in, but it is a "fix me up" so he will have a lot of work to do. But he is good at it and likes to do it. So he and Erin have their work cut out for them. Eric is doing a great job of teaching her how to cook and to do other things.

Jennifer and the boys have spent the last 3 or 4 weeks in TN taking care of her in-laws. When she went down both of them were admitted to the hospital. Both of them are now home and home health is coming in to help care for them. Actually, Jennifer and I have only left messages for each other since last Thursday, so I am really not up to date on what is happening. All I know it has been a difficult time for all concerned. Please keep them in your prayers.

Well I better end this so I can try to spell check and proof read this so I can get to bed before this day is over. Tomorrow is going to be another very busy day in which I hope to be able to glorify the Lord in all that I do. Praise the Lord!!!!

Buddy just woke up long enough to come over and get up on my lap, so I guess that he wants to say "HI!" as well. I think that probably before long he will start barking at me to tell me that he is tired and come on let's go to bed. When I stay up to late that is what he does to me. Marty trained him well and he really watches after me. Praise the Lord!! And I know that you are saying "Someone better watch after me!" OK, Ok, ok!

I hope this has brought you at least a little up to date and given you some idea of what I have been doing and maybe even a little as to how I am doing.

Let me hear from you as well. Do take care, have a positive day, and God bless.

Jack
Romans 8:28

PS I feel like I ought to proof read it again, but I also feel like I am looking at it crossed eyed. So it will be published as is and I am going to bed. I hope there are still not too many errors.