Texas 42

'42' is a game that much like Rook, but it is played with dominos. IT is played as partners. It is commonly played in Texas. There is a group of us that gets together monthly. We have dinner and then go to one of our homes to play dominos and have desert.

For the last few years Bob and Diane Shoemake have invted us to their cabin in the mountains. We attend a concert on Friday night and then play dominos the next morning. We have really enjoyed the time.

This time there were four couples and we played at two tables of four. On this morning, Billy Burford (second from right) and Charlotte were partners and they were on a roll. They won every game!
Turman Smith enjoying a quiet moment on the back porch right after a breakfast of waffles and fruit.
Billy Burford and his wife Bev love to ride up on Billy's Honda motorcycle.

Bill and Diane's cabin, is really a beautiful home that is on the side of a wooded mountain at Bryce Mountain Resort.

Shenandoa Valley Music Festival

Over the weekend we traveled to Orkney Springs, VA and attended two concerts put on by the Shenandoa Music Festival. On Friday night we heard Be'la Fleck and Toumani Diabate'.

The stage is under a pavilion with seats for two or three hundred people. But many come with their lawn chairs and sit on the lawn and listen to the music from under the stars.Our hosts were Bob and Diane Shoemake.

Be'la Fleck is said to be the premier banjo player in the world. I have never heard the banjo make sounds that we heard that night. He is truly amazing!

Toumani Diabate' is a kora player from Mali. The kora is a harp like instrument that has its roots in African music. Toumani comes from a long tradition of kora players. Oral tradition says there are 71 generations of kora players that preceded him.

The combination of the banjo and the kora made for some beautiful music.

A Long Time Coming

On Sunday, during our visit to Mechanicsville, we had a chance to catch up with Bill Pippin. Bill had to tell me that he was baptized last month! Bill is seventy years old. He started attending Mechanicsville Baptist when he was fifteen. That was when he started dating Deane who has been his wife for almost fifty years. He says he made a commitment to follow Christ in his late teens, but never got around to being baptized.

He says he had a lot of excuses, but none of them good. One of them was a problem with a pastor. He and Deanne asked him to marry them, but he refused. Not long afterwards that pastor ran off with a woman from the church who was not his wife. Obviously the pastor had some problems of his own.

I asked him if he had been struggling with that decision for a long time, he said for about fifty years. He said there were many times he was ready to respond to the invitation, but his feet would not move! He has been a believer and has been living for the Lord for many years, but he knew in his heart he needed to make that public commitment.

Bill has high respect for his pastor, Don Reed. According to Bill he is a real people's person. God must be using Don in an amazing way, there were two other grown men baptized that day!

I am impressed with Bill's spiritual grown and his unapologetic testimony. It is an awesome testimony.

It also tells me a lot about the influence and responsibility of a pastor. It is an awesome responsibility that cannot be taken lightly.

There is nothing more powerful than the testimony of an ordinary man who has met the Lord!

"When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."

Acts 4:13

Seat mates

When you board a plane you never know who you will be sitting next to. On a recent flight from Charlotte to Richmond my seat mate was a twenty month old named Cameron...and his mother Carey.




Mom and son were traveling to Richmond to join her faimly and they were all going to the North Carolina Outer Banks for a week on the beach.

He was cute, a toy monster truck and an action figure kept him occupied. When they first sat down his blond curls had me fooled. I asked what 'her' name was, mom quickly replied, 'his' name is Cameron.

At one point I was trying to take a little nap, I felt something tugging at my finger. It was Cameron. Children cannot be ignored!

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Matthew 19:14

Mechanicsville Baptist Church

We worshipped on Sunday at the Mechanicsville Baptist Church located in rural Louisa County, Virginia. The church is more than 180 years old. I had the privilege of serving as their interim pastor several years ago. It is good to go back and visit with long term friends.

The building dates back to pre-civil war days. Prior to 1858 the church was known as the Free Union Baptist Church. That year significant slave membership decided to move down the road and start there own church. They took the name of the church with them which implies that they had the larger membership. The church then took on the name 'Mechanicsville' because there were a number of blacksmiths and wheelwrights located along this stretch of road. The old slave entrance (now sealed) is still visible on the right side of the building.

Ultimately a church is not about the building but about the people. It represents the 'fellowship of believers.' Above is Margaret Morris with my wife Charlotte. I performed the funeral for Margaret's husband over ten years ago.

Butch and Barbra Morris have been through a terrible legal ordeal over the past year. Butch has a powerful testimony about how how God has transformed his life and how the fellowship has supported him through his ordeal.

Bea Ornduff (top) and Hattie Crebbs are two of the saints that have invested a lifetime into the ministry of the church. Hattie was the church organist for many years. She told me once that she was the organist for twelve years before she needed to formally join the fellowship. Before that she had been a member of the Episcopal Church and played the organ in both places

During my time as interim pastor, Bea and Hattie would spend the afternoons visiting the sick and the shut ins. It was common that I would go and visit someone and Hattie and Bea would have just been there.

Mechanicsville is a multi generational church. Above are three of the youth present on Sunday, they are Angel, Katie and Elizabeth with Samuel peeking through from behind. Angel and Katie are tenth graders in Louisa High School, Elizabeth is transferring to Messiah College in Pennsylvania this Fall. Samuel is a fourth grader.

"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

Ephesians 4: 3-5

Favorite Hymn

An early morning walk through Deep Run Park always reminds me of one of my favorite hymns.

When through the woods and forest glades I wonder

I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;

And when I stand on lofty mountain grandure

I hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee,

How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

Then sings my soul, my saviour God to Thee,

How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

"Come let us sing for joy to the Lord;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song."

Psalms 95:1-2

Scripture for the day

Teach us to number our days aright,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalms 90:12 (NIV)