My Vacation Week

I have been on vacation since this past Monday, August 20Th, and I thought that I would share with you, some of the things that I did. My wife has been working this week, so I have been Home Alone, as you would say.

On Monday, I was not expecting to do much, but that changed early in the morning. After doing my normal Monday Morning chores, I called my oldest grandson (18) to see if he wanted to go to breakfast with his Papa. It turns out that he did so we went to Hudson, NH to eat and that is where our day got interesting.

After Breakfast, I asked him if he wanted to go for an adventure ride, too which he replied, YES. At that point we headed from Hudson, NH to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

First stop; "The Basin"

Here is the link to the video of the Basin...
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25329956/video-2012-08-20-12-56-00.mp4

From the Basin, we traveled to North Conway, then into Conway, NH, had lunch and drove home. We had traveled a total of 294 miles. Yep; it was a great day being together and we arrived home at 5:30 PM. The grandson then went home, packed a bag and headed to his uncles house in CT.

Tuesday; I decided to stay home and chill. Watched some TV and just rested. Someone told me once that, that was what you are supposed to do on a vacation. REST!

Wednesday; I had breakfast with a few of the Radio Club Members (Normal for Wednesday) and then went to Andover, Ma. to watch trains, as this is one of my hobbies. Here are links to three (3) videos; (1) Commuter Train; (2) Amtrak from Boston to Portland, ME; (3) Freight Train.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25329956/video-2012-08-22-07-55-17.mp4

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25329956/video-2012-08-22-09-44-24.mp4

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25329956/video-2012-08-22-09-20-42.mp4

Thursday: I was asked to go to my youngest daughters house in Hudson, NH for breakfast, but the catch is that I was the one to do the cooking. Her three children like the way I make French Toast, so those were my orders. Breakfast went well and I decided to wait/work at her house until her only daughter came home. She arrived home about 11:30 AM, and I asked my daughter what she wanted to do for lunch. Well; we ended up going to T-Bones for lunch. We called my oldest daughter and she came with her three youngest plus one little boy from our church that she watches a couple of days a week. So, it ended up to be a nice time with my two daughters and 6 of my 8 grandchildren for lunch. Here are the pictures...

Well; today is Friday; and I am at home doing the resting thing again; however, I plan on going to lunch and check out a BBQ place in town that I have never gone to before. I will let you know how it is/was. I will post a blog about tomorrow, Saturday, as I have plans for tomorrow. "Stand By; More to Follow"

Blessings:

A Sad World

I read a news item this morning about the 14 year old boy who was struck and killed by a car on Rte 93 this past Wednesday, late in the afternoon. The report stated that there is/was a possibility that he was having an argument with his mother. This, once again reminds me that we need to pray earnestly for the youth of our church. 

We are hearing more and more about this type of incident involvin

g children and their parents. We must remember that it is our responsibility to teach our children what the Word of God states...

Ephesians 6:1 KJV
(1) Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

Colossians 3:20 KJV
(20) Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

ALSO:
Colossians 3:21 KJV
(21) Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

I truly believe that if you center your children in and around the Word of God, incidents like I have described above will be greatly reduced, if not eliminated. Bring your children to Life Application Classes and Youth Group. Help them to be well grounded; not well rounded.

A Bitter Sweet Trip to North Carolina

Hello Everyone:

For those of you who follow me on Face Book, you are aware that my wife's nice Lori (in North Carolina) is now on Hospice. About a week and a half ago; my two daughters stated that they felt an urgency to go and see Lori while she is still with us.

Some hasty plans were made, rooms were booked, routes were planned, other items were prepared, and a departure time was set for Thursday night, August 9, 2012 at midnight. The anticipation was so high that no one could sleep (mainly me, as I planned to do most of the early driving) so we ended up leaving at 10:00 PM. The van was packed with all that we were taking including, myself, my wife, our two daughters, and two grandsons (Ages 18 & 9).

At about 5:00 PM on Thursday night, I received a text from Lynne's sister Sheryl stating that Lori had been moved into Hospice Impatient in Durham, and she thought that we may want to change our plans, and not come down until the next weekend. That was not going to happen; we were all set to go and advise Sheryl of our decision. None of us that were going were going to wait until the next weekend. We could not even wait until midnight to leave, that's why we left at 10:00 PM. LOL

This trip was going to be bitter sweet, as we were not happy about the reason for driving to North Carolina, but I was looking forward to it, as I was going to be able to spend some time with my family members, (more on that later).

The drive was uneventful, we had no problems with the van; the weather was good, except for a short time of downpours around the Baltimore and Washington area. Three of us took turns driving so it made it a little easier. We arrived at Durham, NC about 1:30 PM; but we had made about 1.5 hours of stops for gas, food and just taking a break.

One of the compelling reasons for our trip was the fact that Lori had been in ICU for about a month and she was very tired of being their, so she informed the doctors that she wanted to go home, be on Hospice and be surrounded by her family and friends. That is all that my two daughters needed to hear; we were going.

Lori has also made a request of her mother; that was to celebrate Thanksgiving with everyone. Those plans were scrubbed for a short time, but then re-instated. Plans were to cook all the food at the house and bring it to where Lori was. There was going to be about 25 people for dinner.

On Friday night; we all went to see Lori as it had been about a year since we had seen her last. We saw a lot of changes to her physical being; but, her spirit as a fighter was not diminished, she just knew that things were not going according to her plans of getting better. You could feel the emotions running high as we entered her room, as all of us loved on her and told her home much we loved her and were praying for her.

Saturday afternoon, everyone returned to see her along with the addition of many other folks who wanted to be there with her. The food was all prepared and laid out on the big table in the foyer and we had an early Thanksgiving with Lori. I have included pictures below; enjoy:

After the dinner was over, Lori went back to her room and we waited until we could go in, in small groups to say our good-buys to her.

We believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord as personal Savior; we believe that He is still the Great Physician and is still the Miracle Working God. We believe that He can still heal Lori of her Cystic Fibrosis, but Lori is ready for whatever happens next. She has made her peace with her Lord, and that is important for all of us to know that. We all were glad that we made the trip to see her. If the Lord does not heal her, then we have seen her for the last time here on earth; but; will be reunited once again in the Sweet By and By.

I had mentioned earlier about being with family members. Here is what I mean! Love your children; love your grandchildren; spend time with them; don't let the busyness of life rob you of the Blessings that God has given you. Pray for your children; bring them to church; introduce them to a loving God, as we may not live on this earth forever; however there is an eternity that we will live somewhere. Teach you children to make the right choice, and that is to except Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Here are the pictures:

Walking With God

Here is a quick posting for today. I quoted this to a man in a nursing home that I visited today, and he asked me if I could print the following out, so that he could put it on the wall in his room. "I Did"

Today, God will walk beside you
He will walk in front of you
He will watch your back
He will lift you up
He will never let you down;

"If God be for us; who can be against us?
Romans 8:31

Have a Blessed Day:

My Dearest Helen:

It was in 1972 that we first met. My wife Lynne and I started to attend "The Chapel" in Melrose, Ma. I am not too sure as to who started going to the Chapel first Helen, or me. It was not too long after I started attending that Pastor Skane asked me to start to lead Worship on Sunday's. Soon after that is when I started to sing "The Lighthouse." Upon hearing that, Helen said (and told me later) that she did not know who that man was, but wanted to sing with him someday. A friendship started at that time between Helen, Lynne and myself and it continued to build through the years. I am not sure if it was in the early 70's we started to pay visits to Helen's home and met Danny and Marybeth, but they were very young.

Fast forward to the early 1980's. My wife and I had moved to Dracut, Ma. due to the job I had driving for a local bus company on charters and tours. I ended up traveling up and down the East Coast and into Canada.  When I was away, Lynne took our girls to the Lowell Assembly of God Church and she enjoyed it. When I was home, we attended the Riverside Assembly of God in Methuen, Ma. However; the day came when I gave up driving the bus and was home on weekends with the family. I had asked my wife Lynne with regard to what church we wanted to call home. She, without any hesitation, said, "Lowell Assembly of God."

I am not sure how long we were there, but it seems that it was not long before Helen and I were reunited and her wish came true as to have an opportunity to sing with me. Shortly after we started to attend LAG, Pastor Dick asked me to lead Worship, and if I can remember correctly (really not sure) Helen and I started to sing together. That only lasted a little while, as a young woman in the church named Susan MaAneney asked Helen and I if we would be interested in hearing some music that she had written. Helen and I listened and learned the song, as well as other songs that Susan has wrote, and not too long after that day, "The Gospel Messengers" was born. God has a plan; God always has a plan. I believe that it may have been as long as ten years until all the pieces (people) were in place, but Helen's dream of singing together, with an extra benefit of the third person (Susan) completing the Trio.

Time moved on and the Gospel Messengers, began to travel to other churches to sing and bring the Word of God; we were able to travel to the tiny churches of Central Maine, Newport, Vt. and even down to Virginia to Minister. The group lasted several years until Susan left, but Helen and I continued to sing together. When we traveled one of the hardest things that we had to overcome, was convincing people that Helen and I were  not married; people thought we looked like the Cambell Soup Kids (remember them on the label) and everyone thought that Susan was our daughter; even though Wayne (Helen's Husband) and my wife (Lynne) were with us, it still did not register in peoples minds. We had many a good laugh about that.

As Helen became ill, our singing days became fewer and fewer; but there were still times when the pastors would ask us to sing a song and Helen and I would sing an old standby "This is the Time I Must Sing."

Helen; the songs that we sang together in the years gone by, will never be sung as we did before. There will be a great void to my right, as you will not be there, but you have gone home to receive your reward for all the service to Jesus Christ that you have given and for the countless lives that you have touched, and will continue to touch in the years ahead till the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Enjoy your rest from all the pain and heartache you have endured, until we join you singing around the Throne of the Lord.

Memorial Day Cookout; Plus.

Memorial Day Cookout; Plus.

As a Minister, you may expect me to be blogging about something going on in our church, like weddings or funerals; which we have as of late. Or; maybe something that I have been preaching on; I will make mention about the Ministerial side toward the end of this post. But this posting is more on the side of human drama, some of my family to be exact.

The long Memorial Day Weekend started out to be just that. My wife had taken a couple of extra days off so she would end up having from Friday, until Wednesday off, which she had been looking forward too. As for me, I worked Friday and took Saturday off as I normally work Saturday’s and have Monday and Tuesday’s off. So my long weekend was to run from Saturday until Wednesday, with the exception of Sunday which is a normal day for me to spend at the church.

We had canceled the Sunday Night Corporate Prayer time due to the long weekend, which we do on the major holidays. One of my daughters had invited about 40 family, friends and folks from the church to come to her home for a Memorial Day cookout, which we knew would be fun, as it always is.

My wife and I had left the church after service and returned home to change and gather up the food (salad) that we were bringing to the cookout, and then headed to my daughter’s house to join in the fun.

Upon arrival, we got some of the food that was already cooked and sat down with the group that had already arrived. About 15 minutes after sitting down, I heard someone say that my daughter had left with her oldest son (15 year old) to take him to the doctor, which ended up to be the hospital.

As the story unfolded, we found out that during the morning church service, he had been experiencing stomach pains. When he arrived home, he settled down on the couch, but the pain kept getting more severe. A short time later we were informed that his white blood count was very high and the symptoms lead them to believe that he was having a problem with his appendix. Additional information received told us that a CAT scan and possible surgery was a good possibility.

With that news; my son-in-law, my wife and I left the cookout and headed to the hospital about 15 minutes away. We arrived and went to be with my daughter and grandson. The CAT scan was taken sometime after we arrived and then the word came that he would have to have his appendix removed.

Being a holiday, the hospital had to call in a surgeon and nurses to staff the operating room as well as recovery.  I believe that we arrived at the hospital about 4:30 PM or so, and my wife and I did not leave until 10:00 PM, which was after our grandson was out of the OR and going into recovery.

I really felt bad for my daughter and son-in-law, because as you know, any type of interruption in our normal lives can throw all the family schedule’s to the wind, which this incident did. My daughter spent the next two nights in the hospital with her son, while my son-in-law took care of the 13 and 8 year old at home, plus traveling back and forth to the hospital.

The good news is that life is getting back to normal. The grandson came home on Tuesday, late afternoon and he will be home for the rest of the week, but he is doing fine.

Now; to add a touch of the Ministerial portion of this posting; in today’s society, we have a tremendous amount of technology that we can use to communicate. I use it every day in my ministry, as it is a great asset. Most of the updates and postings this past Sunday were communicated by way of texting and Face Book. Many years ago, when someone would be admitted to the hospital, the person who was with the one being admitted would have to call home and let the family know what was going on, and in turn they would have to call the other family members and advise them of what was taking place. This would mean that you may not be able to get a hold of the person you were calling, and not be able to leave voice mail and such. The old process would take a long time.

Today it is much different; within just a couple of minutes of posting on a social media program, or by sending a text, everyone can be contacted at nearly the same time.

Upon finding out that my grandson was going to need surgery, I posted a request for prayer for him on Face Book, which I use to keep in contact with family, friends, folks from my church, as well as other Pastors and Missionaries. It was not until mid to late Monday morning that I found out how far my request for prayer had reached in a very short time. I received comments stating that folks were praying in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nova Scotia, and even a Missionary in Japan.

That my friend is the Power of Prayer, and yes God is still in the business of answering the prayers of His children. Don’t Believe It? Try it; become a Child of God and see if He won’t do the same for you and your family.

Blessings:

Vacation is over

Well now; my one week of vacation is now over and it is back to normal; if you can call it normal. 
I left off with the Saturday and Sunday of the vacation week, and now let's take a look at Monday and Tuesday.


Normally on a Monday I assume the duty in taking care of the laundry chores; however; being on vacation on the day before (Sunday) I completed the laundry chores so that I would not have to get up so early, which was very nice I might add. Monday, I have made plans to meet with another Minister from Haverhill, Ma. for breakfast, so we met at the Owl Diner in Lowell. We had been there before so a return trip was warranted. We had a good time and the food was very pleasing. After breakfast and chatting was over, I returned home for the rest of the day.

All the kids in the Massachusetts School's were off the same week I was on vacation, so that meant that I could do something with two of my grandsons, which we did. I explained that in an earlier vacation posting.

This week, my grandchildren who live in NH were off, so I took them out for breakfast on Tuesday and then spent some time with them at their house and returned home about 11:00 AM for the rest of the day.

In the general description of my Blog; I mention that it is a look into not only my family, but being a Pastor.

So now we make the switch back to the daily routine of being a pastor, but routine it's NOT.

I have been asked before if a pastor only works one day a week (Sunday) the standard answer that we give them is "follow us for a week" 

This past Wednesday was my first day back to the ministry (We do not call it a job) in nine days (7 days vacation; 2 days off). I had already scheduled one hospital visit, and a visit to see someone at a rehab center. Including these two visits, let me share what else transpired.

• Multiple phone calls; including one about someone being diagnosed with cancer and one being diagnosed with a brain tumor that was inoperable
• Went to visit the hospital and rehab center which took up about two and a half hours
• Someone came by the church to pickup some food for someone from our food pantry
• Someone else came by to have me order some books needed for a class starting in two weeks
• Someone came by to pick up a couple of applications for kids camp this year and ended up talking to them for about half an hour 
• Handled more phone calls, e-mails, and text's and of course talking to my peeps on Face Book answering some questions for them
• At 5:00 PM, I had an appointment to meet with a couple to go over their wedding plans that will be taking place next month. 

At 6:00 PM Bible Study started and ended at 7:30 PM; left the church about 7:45 PM to go home. So basically arrive at the office at 7:15 AM and left at 7:45 PM

Don't know where the time went, but the day flew by.

Today; being Thursday; leaving directly from my house at 8:45 AM, my first stop was a hospital visit in Concord, Ma. at Emerson Hospital to visit one of our dear Senior Saint who has been diagnose with cancer. Did not arrive back to the office until 11:15 AM. Spent the rest of the day (until about 3 PM) on the phone, e-mail and texting taking care of business. I wanted to leave the office and return home before the rush hour started, which I did and continued to work at home doing the following...

• Answering the e-mail of two individuals regarding questions on the Bible
• Generating a short Blog for our church web site ("www.lowellag.org") 
• Started to put a sermon together for a week from Sunday
• Writing this blog entry which I am done with
• A non routine day in the life of a pastor

Until next time; Blessings

Vacation Days: Saturday and Sunday

I last left off on Saturday staying home for the remainder of the day;that is until my wife came home. She then informed me that she wanted to go to the Village Inn for dinner. Did I object, no way, as the food there is great. We had a great meal; I had Steak Tips (one pound), and they were huge. Lynne had a Sea Food Dish. After dinner, we returned home to spend a quite evening.

On Sunday, we went to a Spanish Church in Lowell, Ma. Where we know the Pastor. After the service, we went to dinner, and returned home for the remainder of the day.

Saturday; Vacation Day

Well; I guess that you can say that this is my last vacation day; however; I have Monday and Tuesday's off, so I will not be returning back to the office until next Wednesday, April 25th.

Went to breakfast this morning with the Senior Pastor and one other gentleman from our church, then went to fix some problems with a laptop computer belonging to the Pastor's wife, with success, I might add (for a change). Now I am hopefully home for the rest of the day working on the computer (what else).

If anything changes; I will post an update.

Blessings:

My Friday Vacation Day:

Today was the day that I decided to sleep in, which resulted in getting up at 7:50 AM this morning. But; that is great compared to getting up at the normal time of 4:30 AM. I figured that I would spend the day just relaxing and doing some light reading.

It did not turn out that way; I spend most of the remainder of the morning on church business. Making calls, e-mailing; texting and doing some planning; but; that is the life of a pastor, it all goes with the turf.

At least, up until now, I have been home all day, but am waiting for the wife to call to figure out what we are doing for dinner; we will see.

More tomorrow:

Thursday; Vacation Day

Woke up at 6:00 AM, to get ready to take my 4 year old grandson to breakfast; after coming out of the shower, he met me and stated that he had a good night sleep. I guess he did, as my wife stated that he was snoring so loud, that she had to leave the living room early and go to her room.

The wife also joined us for breakfast, and then it was off to Andover, Ma. to the "Ballardvale Station" where we arrive about 9:00 AM and stayed until 11:00 AM. Upon arrival, I opened the sun roof, and my grandson commented "Papa; you have an awesome car" because his mom's van does not have a sun roof. he stood in the front seat and watched for the trains to come, and come they did. If I have the count correct they were as follows....
2 Commuter Trains
2 Amtrak Trains
1 Very long Freight Train.
then we headed to his house for lunch.....Here are some pictures from today. Enjoy:

Today's (Wednesday) Vacation Day

Almost forgot to post today's activity while on vacation today.
Got up at 4:30 AM to meet some of the folks from the radio club that I belong to, for breakfast at 6:00 AM. After which I went to Walmart to pick up some things and returned home.

Attended a luncheon at a nursing home to thank the volunteers that come in to help. We go to this one nursing home every week and also on a monthly basis to hold a Service for the residents. The lunch was great and got to meet some of the other volunteers whom I have never met before.

Returned home to chill out until my 4 year old grandson arrived and we had chicken nuggets and fries for dinner, Watched a movie called Mr Popper and his Penguins.

Tomorrow, we go to breakfast then over to watch some trains in Andover, Ma. and then to his house for lunch.
See you tomorrow.

My First Week's Vacation in 2012

Hello Everyone:

I know that it has been way too long since my last posting, but it seems I never have the time or cannot figure what to post about. I really need to work on that or what is the point of having a personal blog.

Seeing that this is only Tuesday, April 17, 2012, and my vacation started yesterday, I will post the events that took place on this my first week's vacation for this year.

It started like any other Monday; doing the laundry chores, which means getting up at 4:30 AM to make sure I am at the laundromat at 6:00 AM when they open; (side note; they will change their hours of operation in two weeks and not open till 7:00 AM; thanks for the extra hour of sleep) I only get up that early, so that I am back home by 8:00 AM and still have the entire day to do whatever.

Monday; (yesterday) I had made plans to meet up with my 17 year old grandson (Oldest Grandson) to go to Andover, Ma. to watch trains; that's right Choo, Choo's. I have loved them since I was a kid. There is just something about taking time out of our busy lives and just sit and relax and wait. This is a great way to learn to have patients. Anyway; we got to the station just after 9:00 AM and we left about 11:00 AM. I found out that sitting there between 9-11 AM, you can see several trains. We saw the following trains in that time frame.
3 Commuter Trains (Running between Boston and Haverhill, Ma.)
2 Amtrak Trains (Running between Boston and Portland, Me.)
1 Freight Train (about 100 cars, 5 engines; Running between Selkerk, NY and Waterville, Me.)

After we left Ballardvale Station, we went to lunch and had a great roast beef sandwich. The grandson headed to the beach, and I headed home.

Later in the afternoon, I met my wife at our youngest daughter's home to see their new puppy, and have dinner, which was pizza and subs. Very Healthy Stuff. LOL.

The pup is very cute and here are some pictures of him.

Today; Tuesday, April 17, 2012, I took my wife to the area of Weymouth and Hull, Ma. where she grew up. We had lunch at Nantasket Beach, drove around a little looking at the ocean. The kids in Mass. have no school this week, so there were a lot of young people on the beach. We returned home, driving right through Boston, (Whew) and are spending a quite night home. The wife goes back to work tomorrow (she only took two days) and I will have the rest of the week. Loving It.

More to come tomorrow.

Tucking in your grandchildren, electronically

It has been far too long since I posted my last blog update, so here I am to try to get back into the swing of things.

Not that I have not been busy; there have been all kinds of things that have been chipping away at the time I have each and every week. There have been funerals, weddings, sermon preparations, Sunday School Class preparation, Nursing Home Ministry, Media Ministry, having dinner (rare occasion) with the wife, lunch with my two daughters and my grandchildren. Well you see; the list goes on.

I think that all of us live lives that are so busy, that the time we have becomes even more precious.

 Many years ago, I remember one of the ads from one of the big phone companies, telling us to “Reach out and touch someone.” This add aired on TV, with a grandparent calling up their grandchild and talking to them as they were getting ready to go to bed for the night. The grandparent, at times, could be seen and heard reading that child a bedtime story over the phone. But; my friend, we have come a long way….

Like most, if not all of you, my life if very busy, and it would be busier still if I would let it. But about a week ago, as a grandparent, I had a great experience. Due to the demands of my ministry (I don’t call it a job) I have had a smart phone for almost two years and it has been a great tool to assist me in keeping track of my sheep (our congregation) and it is a great tool indeed. Well; recently, my oldest daughter bought one and she has been enjoying it, with all the neat features that it has.

I had called her up for whatever the reason was and as I was talking to her, she mentioned that she has just put her three little ones to bed, and asked me if I wanted to say goodnight to them; (insert old commercial from above here). She took her phone upstairs with her as I was watching her climb the stairs. That’s right; she had the Skype Mobile App on her phone. She walked into their bedrooms and I was able to talk to them as well as see them, and in turn, they could speak to me as well as see me. I called my wife in from the other room to join in the fun as well.

The thing that struck me the most was the fact that we have all this technology and we can use it to perform the simplest of tasks, like tucking your grandchildren in electronically. It was a blast, and can’t wait to do it again. I admit that I only live five miles from their house, but it was still a great joy to be able to do that. I believe that the grandchildren got as much of a kick out of it as the wife and I did.

Thank you Smart Phone and thank you Skype:

What do we write about next time? Stay Tuned.