Sunday, January 9, 2011

Aug. 2010 Reflections on the Summer

This has been a hot, happy summer. Our 3 ½ week vacation trip through TX, NM, CO, UT and AZ (added to our lazy days at home in Grapevine) was a wonder of sights, sounds, relaxing with family and friends and meeting some interesting new people along the way. Sights = animals in the wild – bear, elk, deer, pronghorns. Sounds = live music performances by Hayes Carl, Bowling for Soup, Tejas Brothers, Monte Montgomery, Michael Martin Murphy and Bill Hearne. Sights = snow topped mountains, waterfalls, views from the Continental Divide, rock formations at Arches National Park UT, Monument Valley AZ, Valley of the Gods UT and Natural Bridge National Monument UT, canyons and cliffs at Lake Powell UT, stars and planets over the sky at the lake, rivers rushing over rocks. Sights = Native American art and jewelry, paintings of Georgia O’Keefe, adobe churches where worship has continued for over 400 years.

While moving through our daily life at home we both spent time doing our small parts for local charities. Darrell kept up with orders of Amtrikes (adaptive bicycles for special needs children) and fundraising for his chapter of Ambucs. One outreach program at our church is Project Read where we provide books for families who come to the locations that provide free lunches for children during the summer. I worked with a group who gave out books at the GRACE/Scribner location each week. Through this project, God let me see his work in a very personal way. One of the moms that I had come to know as a “regular” came to me on one very windless 100+ temperature day and asked if I could help her get an air conditioner. I was surprised and was thinking “no way I can do this!“, but I had her write down all her contact information and told her I would see what I could do. In my vague memory I pictured an air conditioner that we once had at Darrell’s hunting cabin – what became of that unit? I stopped by the church office & left a note with the secretary asking for help for an air conditioner for this family & she said she would pass it on to one of the pastors. When I got home that afternoon I questioned Darrell about that AC from his cabin & he said that he had given it to his friend Curt several years ago to put into his garage/workshop. Later that evening we were settled in watching TV and Darrell had a phone call from Curt. He was calling to ask us what we wanted to do with the AC we had given him because he had bought a new larger unit. Well, we knew exactly what we were supposed to do with it! God surely has a plan to take care of all of us! So he delivered the AC to us & we delivered it to the woman with the request. I saw her again last week and she was so thankful that her children now had a cool place to sleep. That was one of the best events of the summer.

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