LAZY SUNDAY MORNING
Good morning all. I was hoping for a sunny day to get rid of the rest of the snow. It really looks bad in the parking lots. Dirty, ugly, looking. It's been in the 40s the past few days. Been nice, but still a little on the chilly side. Oh well, as I have said a hundred times before, it is Winter!
We had a good Sabbath Service Saturday at church. We had about 40 there. That is about what we average now. We have lost a few members, but hopefully they will come back soon. We sure miss them. We were averaging about 50 in attendance. We are a small church, and I like that. I don't want to be in a large one, where you really don't get to know each other. But the problem with a small one, is a lot of times there is a lot of family and feelings get hurt to easy. I have attended the church in Claremore most of my life. For about 5-7 years I attended the Tulsa, Oklahoma congregation. I enjoyed those years over there, but after my youngest child was born, I wanted to start back to my home church.
Barry Mauldin was our speaker. He is from the Shawnee, Oklahoma Church of God (7th Day). I have known him most of his life. I attended youth camps and all day meetings with his dad Mike through my teen years. Later when we were both married with children, we attended the Tulsa congregation at the same time. Got to know Mike's wife Marsha. She is a very sweet person. I am glad I met her. They are orginially from Shawnee, but about 20 years ago, Mike's job transferred him to Owasso, where they still live today. Most week-ends they return to Shawnee for Sabbath services, as well as Barry who now lives in Stillwater and works on the OSU campus. He is a graduate of OU. He was hoping they would hire him, but didn't. That's how he wound up at OSU. Big rivalry there between football teams. At my house we are big OU fans. My husband doesn't like OSU one bit. He calls it Zero State at Stoolwater. Of course that is funny for us OU fans, but the OSU fans don't like it much.
Pastor Ivan was able to attend services, but not to speak. He goes in Monday for another surgery. He is really getting tired and worn out. Pray that God will give him strength and see him through all of this. We had a special prayer for him a couple of weeks ago. God can heal him. The question is, will he? Is that God's will? His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and he knows what is best for each and everyone of us. At the last exam the doctor found another hole in Ivan's bladder. It was caused when the doctor was putting in tubes for his kidneys to drain, he punctured the bladder with one of them. The bladder was healing nicely, until then. The Doctors and nusrses had been amazed with his progress. He will be happy when he no longer has to be in the hospital having surgery. He would love to be pain free. And the church would love that to happen also. Please continue praying for Brother Ivan.
Another member of our church has been going through a lot of health problems himself. That is Brother Bob Cowan. He has a heart problem and sleep apnea and a few months ago he started having pain in his kidneys. The doctors thought it could be kidney stones. So they ran a bunch of tests. They found a growth in one of his kidneys. They were concerned it was cancerous. Cancer runs in Bob's family. He has lost a few siblings in the past few years from cancer. It was a small tumor that had probably been there for about 10 years. It is very slow in progressing. So they gave him a couple of options that would include surgery, or he could wait about six months and see if the tumor grows. That is what they have decided to do. Wait 6 months and see what happens. He told me Sabbath he had been pain free for two days and hadn't taken any of his pain meds. Praise the Lord.
Kyle Hall, Lawrence Eddy's son-in-law, has been going through a lot of pain with his back. He had surgery about 20 years ago. He started having problems again and they went in and did surgery in another area. He now cannot drive or walk up stairs in his house. He is in a lot of pain most of the time. The doctors cannot figure out why he is having so much pain. Finally after running a bunch more tests, they have decided it might be due to the first surgery and the hardware needs to come out. When they did the second surgery, the doctors removed part of the hardware, but not all, because the bone had started to grow around it. He had another appointment with a doctor Friday and he has suggested that they put a shot into the area of the old hardware and see if that will relieve his pain. If it does, that will mean the problem is the old hardware. If that happens then they will go in and take the rest of it out. They are praying that will get rid of his pain. Please pray for him and his family.
There are a couple of others that really need your prayers. I don't want to go into detail at this time. Just take it as unspoken requests for healing. There is so much sickness in this day and time. The world is constantly getting worse. Which should be a sign to us that the end is near. We need to be ready as if tomorrow will be the end. My prayer is that I will see you in the kingdom, some day soon.
God Bless
Starlight*
We had a good Sabbath Service Saturday at church. We had about 40 there. That is about what we average now. We have lost a few members, but hopefully they will come back soon. We sure miss them. We were averaging about 50 in attendance. We are a small church, and I like that. I don't want to be in a large one, where you really don't get to know each other. But the problem with a small one, is a lot of times there is a lot of family and feelings get hurt to easy. I have attended the church in Claremore most of my life. For about 5-7 years I attended the Tulsa, Oklahoma congregation. I enjoyed those years over there, but after my youngest child was born, I wanted to start back to my home church.
Barry Mauldin was our speaker. He is from the Shawnee, Oklahoma Church of God (7th Day). I have known him most of his life. I attended youth camps and all day meetings with his dad Mike through my teen years. Later when we were both married with children, we attended the Tulsa congregation at the same time. Got to know Mike's wife Marsha. She is a very sweet person. I am glad I met her. They are orginially from Shawnee, but about 20 years ago, Mike's job transferred him to Owasso, where they still live today. Most week-ends they return to Shawnee for Sabbath services, as well as Barry who now lives in Stillwater and works on the OSU campus. He is a graduate of OU. He was hoping they would hire him, but didn't. That's how he wound up at OSU. Big rivalry there between football teams. At my house we are big OU fans. My husband doesn't like OSU one bit. He calls it Zero State at Stoolwater. Of course that is funny for us OU fans, but the OSU fans don't like it much.
Pastor Ivan was able to attend services, but not to speak. He goes in Monday for another surgery. He is really getting tired and worn out. Pray that God will give him strength and see him through all of this. We had a special prayer for him a couple of weeks ago. God can heal him. The question is, will he? Is that God's will? His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and he knows what is best for each and everyone of us. At the last exam the doctor found another hole in Ivan's bladder. It was caused when the doctor was putting in tubes for his kidneys to drain, he punctured the bladder with one of them. The bladder was healing nicely, until then. The Doctors and nusrses had been amazed with his progress. He will be happy when he no longer has to be in the hospital having surgery. He would love to be pain free. And the church would love that to happen also. Please continue praying for Brother Ivan.
Another member of our church has been going through a lot of health problems himself. That is Brother Bob Cowan. He has a heart problem and sleep apnea and a few months ago he started having pain in his kidneys. The doctors thought it could be kidney stones. So they ran a bunch of tests. They found a growth in one of his kidneys. They were concerned it was cancerous. Cancer runs in Bob's family. He has lost a few siblings in the past few years from cancer. It was a small tumor that had probably been there for about 10 years. It is very slow in progressing. So they gave him a couple of options that would include surgery, or he could wait about six months and see if the tumor grows. That is what they have decided to do. Wait 6 months and see what happens. He told me Sabbath he had been pain free for two days and hadn't taken any of his pain meds. Praise the Lord.
Kyle Hall, Lawrence Eddy's son-in-law, has been going through a lot of pain with his back. He had surgery about 20 years ago. He started having problems again and they went in and did surgery in another area. He now cannot drive or walk up stairs in his house. He is in a lot of pain most of the time. The doctors cannot figure out why he is having so much pain. Finally after running a bunch more tests, they have decided it might be due to the first surgery and the hardware needs to come out. When they did the second surgery, the doctors removed part of the hardware, but not all, because the bone had started to grow around it. He had another appointment with a doctor Friday and he has suggested that they put a shot into the area of the old hardware and see if that will relieve his pain. If it does, that will mean the problem is the old hardware. If that happens then they will go in and take the rest of it out. They are praying that will get rid of his pain. Please pray for him and his family.
There are a couple of others that really need your prayers. I don't want to go into detail at this time. Just take it as unspoken requests for healing. There is so much sickness in this day and time. The world is constantly getting worse. Which should be a sign to us that the end is near. We need to be ready as if tomorrow will be the end. My prayer is that I will see you in the kingdom, some day soon.
God Bless
Starlight*
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