Welcome to a warm, rainy, April morning. It is 57 degrees this morning and the showers ar light, and the sky is overcast of course. But there are a lot of birds singing this morning to welcome the start of a new week.

I started my Monday morning off with an early call from a funeral home. One of my parishioners passed away last evening. It was not an unexpected passing. The man has been in really bad shape for the past few months and has been bed -ridden for at least three months. He was ready to die and God has blessfully answered his prayer and taken him away from his pain and suffering. God is good --- all the time.

Today's rain will give way to a much nicer and hopefully warmer week. I think everyone is ready to see some sunshine for a few days in a row. I know all of my farmer friends in the church are chomping at the bit to get out there. A few of them got out yesterday and did some ground working. Ms. Kate and I went to Metropolis, IL on Friday and canme back home via the country roads rather than the interstates and all of the farm ground we saw looked pretty dry. I was surprised that there weren't a lot of tractors in the fields. But --- it is still too cold for them to be planting corn. The seed would just sit there and not germinate. We did, however, pass a few trucks that were hauling anhydrous ammonia tanks for spraying on the fields. So, the guys are doing their prep work and getting ready. The last few years we have had really good harvests around this area and I hope that continues.

I see I have a few empty feeders out there today. I guess I'll fill stuff up after the rain stops. There is a big red-readied woodpecker out there at the moment and he has two choices; he can eat sunflower seed or he can eat some suet. The bark butter feeders have long since been depleted of the last possible morsel, thanks in large part to the starlings and red-wing blackbirds. There are a couple of cardinals here this morning but most everybody is still under cover some where from the showers. I think I need to change out the cylinder feeder too. They have quit eating off of it for the most part. It is in a cage that protects it from the larger birds and I guess I don't see a lot of the small birds these days like I do in winter.

I just poured my second cup of coffee and I think it is time to quit writing and just spend some time in thought and prayer. I have a funeral to put together and a week full of church business to take care of. So, I need to ,are good use of quiet time. I hope you have some quality quiet time this week too. Take time to listen for the voice of God in the silent periods. Peace.