"REPORTS OF MY DEATH ARE GREATLY EXAGERATED!"--Mark Twain

After surviving a Perfect Storm this Blog is once more alive and well! Brief “weather report”:

1.   Our family has recently experienced two major medical emergencies. (Comment---911 is very, very fast in Shawnee!)

2.   Desktop computer is still in the process of being relocated. Laptop will not connect to internet. Broadband modem stopped working.  It was replaced by an ATT provided modem/WI-FI combo. I have enough working to revive the Blog. Can’t keep my classmates waiting!  (Vanity and pride are a constant enemy of the Soul.)

3.   Extremely hot weather---30 days over 100 degrees---and several large wildfires in OK and our county has kept us glued to the TV. Many, many homes destroyed. Dollar loss immense, so far just one fatality. Emotional loss beyond estimate!

AS I REPORTED IN AN EARLIER POST, “THINGS THAT HAVE NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE HAPPEN ALL THE TIME !”

"GONE WITH THE WIND"

As I prepare this post, the all-time great classic "Gone With The Wind" is being shown on TCM.


Here's a couple of true related stories:


1. At Purdue, I was friends with a young (16 year old high school grad) genius from Ruth, KY. He went to see the movie while at Purdue and when intermission came, he thought the movie was over and left! This super star became a VP with IBM!


2. Also at Purdue, I had a very good friend who I asked to come visit me during the summer. "Just ask anyone in Jennings Co., they will give you directions." The very night he came, I had taken my wife-to-be to see the movie. I got home around 1:30am. There was my friend talking with my Mom and Dad. I was embarrassed and my folks were upset at me. My friend said he asked a number of people where I lived. Finally he found a person who gave directions. He said, "You must be pretty good because the sheriff had never heard of you!"

BLOG HACKED-----All Clear Now

I have spent close to a month putting the blog back together. Good to go.

WOW ! What Spiritual Insight !

A woman in the community where I pastor came to know Christ. She had a long, long history of drugs and trouble with the law. What a change Jesus made!!!!


She recently told me, "I was walking around Lost and now I am working hard to be missing!"


On the surface this may she not seem to make sense. But think about: She was Lost, separated from Christ. On her way to a real Hell. Then she met the Master and now she is awaiting His return to take His church away!!!!!

• In over 30 years of ordained Christian ministry and many years of study, I have never heard a more concise, profound, and meaningful statement of the change Jesus has wrought.

"Jesus Loves The Little Children Of The World"

During research for a recent sermon I discovered some frightening statistics about our children. It should break our hearts and demand better performance by our child protection agencies. Consider:

* A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds

* More than 5 children die everyday as a result of child abuse 

* About 80 percent of abused children that die are under 4 years of age

* 50-60 percent of child deaths due to maltreatment are not reported as such on death certificates


* 90 percent of child abuse victims know their abuser


* Child abuse happens at all sociological, ethnic, cultural, all religions and levels of education


* 30 percent of abused and neglected children will later become abusers of their own children


* 80 percent of 21 year olds that were abused have at least one psychological disorder


* Estimated cost of child abuse and neglect 2007 is $104 billion


* 1/3 to 2/3 of child maltreatment involves substance abuse


* Parents who abuse alcohol and other drugs are 3 times more likely to abuse their children


* 2/3 of people in treatment for drug abused reported being abused or neglected as children


* 14 percent op all men in prison were abused


* 36 percent of all women who were abused as children are 59 percent more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28 percent more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30 percent more likely to commit a violent crime


* 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually abused

You Don't Say !!!!!!

DURING OUR JUNIOR OR SENIOR YEAR WE ATTENDED THE ANNUAL CAREER DAY AT NORTH VERNON H.S. THE GUEST SPEAKER WAS TO BE A HIGH LEVEL REP FROM GREYHOUND BUS COMPANY. HE COULD NOT MAKE IT; SO HIS SPEECH WAS READ BY SOME LOWER LEVEL GREYHOUND SUIT. THE RESULT WAS AMAZING!


It was apparent that he had never previewed the speech. He would stop from time to time and express amazement at what he was reading. Few paid any attention. Both students and the speaker were very glad when this torture came to an end. 


I cannot remember the subject of the speech. I did remember the bus ride home. Guess I always will.

MEMORIAL DAY 2012

ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT GETTING OLDER IS---GETTING OLDER!!!!

ANOTHER GREAT THING ABOUT GETTING OLDER IS  BEING ABLE TO BETTER APPRECIATE THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE GUIDED, MOLDED, AND SHAPED OUR LIVES. 


OUR TEACHERS AND FELLOW STUDENTS WOULD BE HIGH ON ANY LIST. MOST OF OUR PCHS TEACHERS HAVE ANSWERED THE LAST ROLL CALL. SADLY, SOME OF OUR FELLOW CLASSMATES HAVE GRADUATED FROM THIS LIFE.

I AM THANKFUL TO ALMIGHTY GOD FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE SHARED FOUR YEARS, AND FOR SOME, 12 YEARS WITH YOU AND OUR DECEASED CLASSMATES.  


MEMORIAL DAY 2012 IS A FITTING DAY TO REMEMBER ALL OF OUR TEACHERS AND FELLOW CLASSMATES.

BOILED OKRA---A BIBLICAL SIN ??

Each region of the this great nation has their favorite food: Cajun, BBQ, Seafood, Chinese, Tex-Mex , etc.


Here in Oklahoma BBQ, Steaks, and New Year's Day special meal of black eyed peas, onions, cornbread, and mustard greens are considered foods of passage.

Oklahoma has the best fried catfish on the planet.Almost every garden has plants of OKRA. I can handle the deep fried and crisp pickled OKRA. I cannot stand boiled OKRA. It is slimy and nasty. Some say bread or tomatoes will make it better. No way Jose!!!           

Somewhere in God's Word there must be a verse that warns a person not to put anything in their mouth they cannot control!!!!!  


To illustrate the point:A woman threw a large uneaten pan of boiled OKRA into the air for two dogs to eat. All of it went down one dog's mouth and throat. The lucky dog turn to the other done and asked, "Has she tossed anything yet???????????"

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG !!!

In May we celebrated one year of this Blog. Interesting stats:


Posts:   119


Pages Viewed:  1906


Keep reading and I'll keep posting. Real good stuff coming.


Thanks to all!!!!


Glenn <><

EXTRA ! EXTRA ! EXTRA ! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Brief Geography Lesson:  Find Shemya, Alaska on your computer. It is a 4 x 2 mile rock at the western most end of the Aleutian Islands. During WW II this small island was a major factor in defeating the Japanese during their 1942-43 occupation of some islands in the Aleutian chain.       

In 1967, I served a one-year remote, unaccompanied tour of duty on this treeless island that GI's simply called "The Rock." (We would tell newbies there was a pretty girl behind every tree!) My job was the most demanding, yet the most interesting I experienced in a 20 year career.

Satellite TV was still a dream. We did receive the Armed Forces Radio Network. Mail planes often could not land due to very high winds or fog so thick even Superman had to walk!We once went 6 weeks without a mail plane. ( Ditto a food plane. We eat a lot of frozen liver!  For old times sake, I am tempted to order liver and onions in a restaurant and tell the server to scrap off the liver!) Even in good flying conditions, newspapers  would be 10-20 days late. I missed the letters and newspapers more than the fresh food.

I received two newspapers: A free subscription to the Chicago Tribune and the North Vernon Plain Dealer. (I once tried to get a job with  editor/publisher Dick Mayer.) Maybe I was born a newspaper junkie. During 20 years of moving I have read most of daily papers from our major cities and many international editions. 
 
In spite of very little money, my Dad subscribed to the daily Louisville Courier-Journal and the two North Vernon weekly papers, until he and Mom moved to North Vernon. Even today, my brother buys the Columbus, Madison, North Vernon, and the Louisville newspapers for our almost 97 year old Dad. Maybe we have printers ink in our DNA! 

Every now and then everything seems to go just right. My evidence follows:


At 11pm, Shemya time, I met a high ranking DOD official at our mini base operations building. He immediately opened his brief case and gave me a Washington Post that had the current day's date on it. He  had left Washington, D.C. around midnight and as he prepared to board, he bought the early edition of the Washington Post. The flight to Seattle was on time; the flight to Anchorage was on time, and the flight to Shemya was on time. Because Shemya was 7 hours behind Washington, D. C. and perfect connection I held a newspaper with the current date on it!


For a few brief and wonderful moments I felt I was back home with my wife and special daughters. One was born while I was at Shemya. I saw her for the first time in mid-December when I had completed my one year of remote service.

ho bout them reds

WARNING FROM 80 YEAR OLD MAN !

An 80 year-old man in our church told me as I celebrated my 70th birthday, "When you get to 80 you will find everything either Drops, Drips or Droops!!!

Great Early History of Paris Crossing

Visit this site: http://www.ingenweb.org/injennings/pariscrossing.html

"GET UP PECK---WE GOT 'EM CORNERED!"

Ronnie Harrison