It is a beautiful Monday morning. The sun is shining brightly and the temperature so far is mild. We were predicted to have severe storms Friday through Saturday but thankfully that did not happen. Certainly other places got hit hard. The state of Iowa got torn up in several places by tornadoes. Julie and Jim had really strong storms over in New Albany, just two hours from us and east of them there were tornadoes too. Blessedly I have heard of no deaths with the exception of the nine members of one family that were killed when the "Duck Boat" tourist boat capsized when a sudden wind came up in Branson Missouri. The wind was calm when they went out on the excursion but that storm just came up out of nowhere and sunk the boat.

Julie and Jim came over this weekend and they brought my birthday present from them and Lisa and Gary. It is a yard sweeper that I can pull behind my John Deere when it is leaf raking time. Jim even assembled it for me to save me the trouble of doing that. We carried it out to the yard barn in the back yard because that is where I get the leaves. I'll still mulch up the leaves but this way I won't have all of that mulched up stuff piling up in my yard. It's good to have some of that as a mulch but I know I had too much last fall. I can just take it all over and put it in the mulch bin.

We had ninety-three in church yesterday; what a wonderful crowd that was. When we sang the hymns the sound just resonated throughout the sanctuary. It was enough to give a person goosebumps. We have a couple of baptism Sundays coming up and those generally tend to generate a larger crowd, especially if it is an infant. These however will be a teenager and a twenty-something year old; so, I don't know what to expect. The first one will be conducted in our outdoor chapel which will be a beautiful setting. Yesterday's crowd was due to a large family coming in to celebrate an anniversary. And we also had two young girls playing the piano for our special music portion of the service. That brought in some grandparents and extra aunts and uncles. My old mentor once told me that as a pastor people aren't coming to church just to hear the preacher so you have to have a reason beyond that for them to come. I have always tried to keep that in mind. At my last parish we made sure that the choir didn't sing on the same day as communion. Then we would try to have something else for people to look forward to on the other Sundays.

Today is an office hours day and then this afternoon I think the only thing on my schedule is to wait on a phone call from a parishioner that is having his son baptized, work on a sermon, practice my horn, and fill the bird feeders. Ms. Kate is doing laundry today and I usually help with that.

This is the last full week of July. It is "Fair Week" for our county. I doubt we will go. Our need to walk around a fair grounds has long gone. It was a big deal when I was a youngster involved in 4-H. That was some fun times. Stay cool today and enjoy the blessings that God has provided. Since you are reading this, God has allowed you another day on earth. Make the best of it. Shalomn.