Blessings from God.

Saturday morning we went out for breakfast at a local  Mexican restaurant called El Dorado.  The service was quite slow but the food was pretty good.  The interior was decorated attractively.  We went to purchase more items for our New Years Day party.  Saturday evening we entertained a couple who spent 4 years in Saudi Arabia.  He was in the service but not all of the time he was there.  He worked with a private company.  His wife was with him all of the time.  They had some interesting stories especially about women in the country.  Women are considered little more than chattel.  They are Andy and Brenda Baldwin, and she recently resigned as an activity director in our park.  She had trouble working with the other lady who was her partner.  We just had popcorn and soft drinks while playing Sequence.

Sunday was a better sermon than last week.  We had 35 in attendance and were blessed by the service.  This was the day that the Packers played the Vikings in the NFL.  We have many attenders who are from both places.  Two of our leaders have an ongoing friendly feud.  They dressed in their team outfits.  We came home after worship and worked on food prep for Tuesday.  I did a great deal of chopping.  Our neighbor, Lloyd, is a good creative cook and brought us some cheeseburger soup.  It was really delicious.  We are hoping to get his recipe.  We took a bike ride in the afternoon.  We love to get outdoors in this wonderful weather.  There was a slight wind but was not so strong as to make the ride difficult.  I met a pastor from Iowa who said he might be interested in replacing me at Trail’s End next season.  Of course this all depends on whether our Lord wants us to sell our house.  If we get our asking price, we will assume He is OK with our retirement.  The pastor, Wayne, did say that he would substitute for me if needed.  We entertained Don and Donna Reddel with more popcorn.  We discussed what we might do in our Bible study for people in the park.  We had a good time mulling things over with them but didn’t come to a final plan.  The best part of the day was that Olivia is making some progress in her treatment for learning behavior.  She is beginning to open up to the counselor and identifying some of her problems.  We praise God for His provision for her recovery.  We will know more when Stacy talks with her counselor next Wednesday.  Things look good enough that we will pay the down payment for her trip to the camp next summer.  We will continue praying.