Until Death Do We Part

Today, Saturday, June 7, 2008, Jay Powell and his new wife, Ann Marie, began their married lives together. As the vows were being read at the wedding that afternoon, the vows that really screamed out to me were "til death do we part." So many people make this covenant before God and people, but give up before "til death do they part." My mind went to John and Sandy at that moment and thinking how after 46 years of marriage their "til death do us part" ended this morning at 10:30 am and Jay's and Ann Marie's was beginning at 3:00 pm on the same day. The wedding was beautiful. Jay and Ann Marie are both beautiful and I pray that God will be their strength and they will keep their covenant and they like the Norsworthy's will be able to say, "it was until death we did part." Above are pictures from their wedding

Bitter Sweet - John Norsworthy

On Saturday, June 7, 2008, our dear friend, John Norsworthy was healed completely from his cancer and went to be with the Lord. What an honor and privilege it has been to be a part of this man's life for the last two years. God has shown Himself in and through John and Sandy throughout this most difficult time in their lives. They have both lived in the grace and strength of God's almighty hand. The last thing that John did before going to sleep and entering his glorious new home was to raise his hands in his bed and say, "Thank you God for saving my soul. Thank you God for making me whole." Not long afterwards, his physical body was made whole along with his spiritual body. I write this on Wed. morning, the day of his funeral. Randall and all the other guys in our CG will be pallbearers, which is a great honor. I praise God for placing us in their lives for this special time. As we have studied the book , "Heaven" all this year in our CG, it is obvious that God orchestrated all that has taken place. We made the decision to do this study even before John was diagnosed with cancer. God knew what John, Sandy and all of the rest of us needed and put it upon our hearts to help us for what He knew would be taking place in all of our lives over the next few months. Having done this study together, we all have a completely different outlook on death. We know now that John is the one to be envied. Praise You God!

LOV Bible Camp

This week was the beginning of 8 weeks of Summer Bible camp at Light of the Village. I was able to go out and help a little on Friday, June 6. There were certainly a lot of children, which is absolutely wonderful. Dolores heads up the camp and student from UM and 1st Baptist of Holly Springs, MS were there also to help. They began with everyone in the school for an opening assembly where the boys did their rap and we went over the rules for behavior and recited their memory verse for the week. Then, all of the kids were divided up by sex and by age group. Each group had team leaders which consisted of the above as well as some of the more responsible older kids from LOV. Most of the boys from the school served as team leaders. Friday was water day. Each group would move to a different area approximately every 20-30 minutes when a bell rang. In each area, they would play a water game of some kind with the exception of the Bible time where Mrs. Dolores had a Bible study with the students sitting under a tree. One of these pictures shows the Bible time. As I sat and observed, I could not help but think of the things that most of these children would be involved in were they not here at this Bible camp during these 4 hours. There is so much crime and just awful things that go on in this neighborhood. And here is this ministry, taking and providing tremendous fun, as well as teaching these children about Jesus all Summer long. This is true ministry.

Keeping My Angels-June 4, 2008

Randall, Brandon, and Ryan had to work late tonight. Elizabeth is out of town and Brittany has a hair appointment. So Nana picked up Carter from school and Brittany brought Ryleigh by our house. As usual, our time was spent watching Cars (Autobegood) and Dora the Explorer. These are a few pictures I took of these two most precious children!

Light of the Village Sunday Service May 31, 2008

On Sunday, May 31, Tom and Linda Peak, Wayne and Melissa Stevens, and Randall and I went to "Light of the Village" to worship with them as well as serve them lunch. We enjoyed ourselves so much. The little children were absolutely so adorable and so loving. As soon as they came in the room, many of them lifted their arms letting us know that they wanted us to pick them up and hold them. How precious they were. Joseph, Joe, Demetreus, with Marco on sound began our service off with some Christian rap that they had written. I was very impressed with the words as well as the rap portion. After the music, John Eads taught the lesson. While John spoke, Dolores, Tom, Melissa and I took the children under the age of 5 outside and played with them so that the service would not be disrupted for the older children and adults. It was burning up outside, but we had so much fun, swinging, and playing with the children. I have some pictures that I took of some of the children posted here. One picture was taken by one of the children who was just fascinated with my camera. We also took a bunch of K-Mag t-shirts out to them that we did not use at Dayspring and gave them out to the children. They were very excited to get them! For lunch, we served bar-B-Q sandwiches, baked beans, potato chips and ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. As usual, the blessing of going and sharing ended up being ours! God always gives us the joy when we do what He has commanded that we do. The JOY WAS OURS!

Randall's 53rd Birthday

Randall turned the big 53 on Friday, May 30. We celebrated with Morris, Julie, Tom and Linda by going out to eat at Zea's and then going to the news Indiana Jones movie. This picture is taken of all of us at Zea's. I gave Randall the shirt he has on for his birthday!

Light of the Village End of the Year Field Trip

On Monday, May 19, 2008, Julie and I took the boys that we taught art to this year from Light of the Village on a field trip to Gulf Shores. Besides Julie and myself were Joe, Joseph, Dacino, Demetreus, Marco, Lawrence, Curtis, Nicky, Victor, Mrs. Dolores, and the sister's of Nicky and Joseph. We had a great day. We started our day off with going to "The Track" and riding the "Wild Woody" race cars. When asked at the end of the day what they enjoyed the most, the boys all said the race cars. After the Track, we went for lunch at McDonalds. Going to the beach was next on our agenda. 3 or 4 people braved the waters and went in. The rest of us just watched from the shore. We ended our day with a dolphin cruise. This was a great little cruise where dolphin would jump and swim right along side the boat.The best part of the day came however at the very end. On the way back home in the van, Mrs. Dolores led Joseph's sister to the Lord. We all had the privilege of getting out of the van in the Dillard's parking lot, and joining with her as she prayed to receive Christ as her Savior. WHAT A GREAT ENDING TO A GREAT DAY!
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