The Prodigal Son, Part 4

Yesterday I completed the four-part series on the parable of the Prodigal Son.

Here is the Part 4 sermon:

(Click here to download the MP3 file.)

A Delightful Weekend

Margaret and I just had a great weekend! Saturday night we, and our friend Ron Jones,
went to Stewart’s Brewing Company for dinner and to hear some good music.

Ron and Margaret

The food here is very good! I had crab cakes (bottom), Margaret had a steak (middle),
and Ron ordered the salmon (top)

We had also gone to Stewart’s to hear the Barrelhouse Blues Band whom we enjoy a great deal.
I tried to get a couple of pictures of the band playing but the pics didn’t turn out. Click on the link and
you can view their website. The group is led by Charlie “Choo Choo” Rickner who does
the lead vocals and plays harmonica. If you like Blues, you gotta’ hear these guys!

Sunday I preached at Pleasant Hill Wesleyan Church (PHWC), located about 5 miles NE of Elkton, MD

Our first introduction to PHWC was back in 2007 when we were invited to share our
missionary work at the TFC Chapel in Elkton. Since then I have preached there many
times. They are currently between Pastors and I am preaching some of the Sunday
morning services. It feels good to be preaching more frequently again!

Our Friend Jack Clark

This video is about our friend Jack Clark. Please add him to your prayer list and feel free to email him at jackwclarkjr@gmail.com and say “Hi”!

Kittens

We have two kittens, Peregin “Pippin” Took ,and Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck. Pippin is an 11 month old 12 pound male. Merry, despite her name, is female, 10 months old and about 8 pounds. Technically, Merry is Merry II. Pippin and Merry I were litter mates we got from a friend. Merry I had to be put down shortly after we got her because of a birth defect – a perforated bowl. We quickly replaced her with rescued Merry II, aka “Squirt”.

Pippin and Merry I were still on the bottle when we first got them. Pippin, aka “Pip”, is a gray short-hair with a white blaze on his throat. Merry I was jet black. Merry II is a yellow long hair with white socks.

Pip takes after me, over-weight and lazy

He has two favorite activities: eating and sleeping.

Despite our similar dispositions, Pippin has adopted Margaret as his servant and Merry me.
Yes “servant”. You don’t know that dogs have masters but cats have staff?

Pip is very outgoing and eagerly checks out all visitors to our home, be
they 2- or 4-legged. Merry is more shy and cautious.

Merry was born with her spring wound too tight. She is a playing machine,
and our resident cat burglar. She can easily open drawers, cabinets, and etc, looking
for items to run off with for play. You have to be careful what you set down near her,
she is likely to grab it and run off with it before you know what happened. Size of the item
is not a issue. She has made off with items as large, or larger, then she is,
i.e. - stuffed animals, Margaret’s feather duster, and etc.

Merry with the feather duster when she was only a few months old

Merry playing with one of the cat toys.

Most of the time she has to play alone. Pip is usually too lazy to join in.
He also gets upset when she pesters him too much while he’s napping.
Being much larger than her, he can get pretty rough with her if she gets on his nerves.

You can see our photo album of Pippin, Merry I, and Merry II here.

Trip To The Delaware State Fair 7/25/11

I didn’t realize it had been nearly a year since I posted to this blog! I’ve gotten lazy just posting pictures and comments to Facebook. We’ll, I’m back, at least for now!

Yesterday Margaret and I made our annual trip to the Delaware State Fair. One thing about Delaware, nothing is very far away. It’s only about a 30 minute trip for us to get the the fair grounds. Yesterday was the day for us to go partly because it was Seniors’ Day—we got in for free. There are some good things about being a senior! :-)

We arrived about 11:30 and our first objective was lunch at the Grange

Margaret in front of the Grange dinning hall

Margaret had the fried chicken platter (right), and I had the ham platter. Good stuff!

Next we went though the wildlife exhibit and then on to Margaret’s favorite stop, the peeps in the fowl exhibit.

This farm girl was right at home!

Next we were off to the 4-H exhibit hall

This is about 1/2 of the Place Setting entrants

Our favorite Place Setting exhibit was a 1st place winner, the Blue Bunny Willow

We loved the rabbit ear napkins

Among the numerous science exhibits was this one about the affects
of various styles of music on plant growth

Apparently they didn’t include Southern Gospel music in the experiment

Just a small portion of the equipment on display.
The two items in the bottom right, with the chimneys, are outdoor wood/corn furnaces.

There are small garden plots throughout the grounds. This one includes a waterfall and pond.

We had to stop at the farm animal petting area which included this miniature horse
(included for our friend Elaine)

Next to the peeps, the baby pigs are Margaret’s favorites

This was one of the vendors in the Marketplace under the grandstand.
We had to get pictures of this for our daughter Sheri who LOVES all things purple!

The Purple products

Some of the craft exhibits in the Dover Building

More crafts

Our very own Smyrna Citizens Hose Company volunteer band parades through the grounds each evening at 7 PM

Our last stop of the day was the Ice Skating Club’s presentation of Peter Pan
(click the image to watch a video of the closing number)