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: