Love Thy Neighbor . . .

Love Thy Neighbor . . . .

This week has been about loving thy neighbor. It is Mission Vernon. Now you might be thinking, “The Bible says go into all the world”. . . . But is not the second greatest command “love your neighbor as yourself”? This is what we are trying to accomplish with this mission. We want our young people to grow up to all be missionaries in whatever country, state, or city they live in. We want them to love mission work not just mission trips.
I work with the youth of our church. It has been a wonderful experience teaching, encouraging, and loving those children. I feel I have been called to work with that ministry. I enjoy being apart of their lives. It is very rewarding. (Rewards are not the goal but are nice when you see the results of the work you have put in.)
My reward came this week. The youth are taking care of yards around Vernon. They are mowing the grass, trimming hedges, and carrying off trees and limbs. I have been unable to be apart of the daily work crews. I arrived home yesterday afternoon and noticed that my grass had been mowed. This is no big deal because I have a guy that mows it and I often come home to freshly cut grass. It was not until I had pulled into my backyard and noticed a dead tree was missing. I then noticed other trees had been trimmed up and the hedges had been cut back. That was when I realized that the mission crew had been to my house.
I know I am blessed by God to have the association of those kids. And love by the WSCC youth group. I know that I have made an impact in their lives (and the lives of the adults with them) because the crew came to the house and did work for me when in reality they had others places they could have been working and other things they could have been doing. My heart has been touched by this.
This mission has not gone unnoticed by the community either. This mission crew made the difference to another woman yesterday. The crew went to mow the yard of a house that was abandoned. The house next door was grown up as well. The woman in that house came out and asked them to mow hers as well. It seems her husband died in April and she had just enough money to have the yard done that month and the month of May. But she has been unable to save enough money to pay to have it mowed again. She offered to pay the youths for their time. They mowed her grass for free. I was told she had tears in her eyes from their kindness.
Love is the universal language. God does not want it any other way. For me, their show of love for me was sweeter because 1) it came from their hearts but mostly because 2) they were blessed by God with this loving desire to serve.
. . . And I am sure they will never know just how much their work meant to me, because I don't think I can find the right words to describe how I felt when I saw that tree gone and those hedges trimmed.

Important Update

High School Musical 2 opens on the Disney channel in ONE MONTH.

It's raining . . .

It's raining but then again, it always seems to be raining. Today I woke to the rain. Not since I lived in East Texas, have I seen it rain like this. I must tell everyone that it has rained off and on for the better part of six to seven weeks. Vernon has always been considered slightly wetter than a desert, getting around 10-to 12 inches of rain a year. Today is July 13th and at this point (before this morning's rain) Vernon had gotten around 25 inches and there is still about five months left this year.

I am not complaining because I like to watch it rain. And the rain has kept the temperatures down and I am not having to run my ac. This morning it was 65 when I went to work as oppossed to 95+. Its great. But sometimes I think I might become a duck.

I hope it will still be raining when I get off. I would love to play in it for a few minutes. I might as well because I have to walk about a block to get to my car and I will already be wet.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
LIFE IS LIKE A RAINBOW. YOU NEED BOTH THE SUN AND THE RAIN TO MAKE ITS COLOR APPEAR.---UNKNOWN

AND

ANYONE WHOSYS SUNSHINE BRINGS HAPPINESS HAS NEVER DANCED IN THE RAIN. -UNKNOWN

It's raining . . .

Mark Your Clanedars . . . .

This week we celebrated one of the country's greatest holidays. Everyone knows about this holiday and its importance. But so many holidays go unnoticed simply because we forget to mark our calendars for them.

Here are a few that really should be on everyone's calendar. Some are silly and some are sincere but all are real.

January 13 Penguin Awareness day
January 16 Appreciate a Dragon Day
Jan 21 National hugging day
Jan 29 Bubble wrap Appreciation day (this is way cool. I can hear the popping already.)
Feb 12-18 Random Acts of kindness week
Feb 11 national Shut-in Visitiation Day
Mar 2 World day of prayer
Mar 12 National workplace Napping day
May 15 National Chocolate chip Day (celebrate by making cookies. My address is . . .)
July 7 Father- Daughter take a walk together day
July 13 Embrace your geekness day
July 15 Gummi worm day
July 15 National ice cream day ( a personal favorite)
July 27 take your houseplant for a walk day(I am off the hook here. Mine do not like to be outside)
Aug 8 Sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor's porch night
Aug 10 s'mores day
Aug 22 be an angel day
Aug 28 race your mouse around the icon day
Sept 19 talk like a pirate day
Oct 26 Frankenstein Friday
Oct 30 Haunted refrigerator night ( I celebrate this at my house... there is some stuff in there that is very scary.)
Nov 30 Stay home because you're well day
Dec 15 Cat herders day (catch this somewhere. Its so funny.Hey Ever tried to herd cats.. . . . Get real)

These are just a tiny sample of the overlooked holidays. Check out http://www.brownielocks.com for hundreds more.

Hope your 4th was safe and blessed.