A little of THIS and a little of THAT

Prayers:

This past week, many many prayer requests have come our way:

1.) Niki Argo Milrainey had surgery on a brain aneurysm - PRAISES for a good outcome; 3.) little Koby (Jan Noland's great grandson) is in surgery as we speak...the little fella is only a couple of months old and has several heart defects; 3.) Another precious baby has received a difficult diagnosis this week (I am unsure if the parents want this publicly shared so I will refrain....God knows); 4.) my Aunt Wanda had major back surgeries last week (one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday) and though her back is doing well, she's having some other side effects that have kept her from coming home and, lastly, a blog that I found (http://www.bevinsfamily.blogspot.com/) has experienced a difficult loss; one that is hard to understand. This is only a sampling of the specific request(s) that I've been given over this past week; there are others (more personal) that I will not list. Again, God knows the hurts and the struggles of each of us. I don't know the answers but I do know Who is on the throne and, for that, I am thankful.

Family:

Over the weekend, we traveled to see my Dad, Stepmother and Brother. We had a great visit; one that makes you think about how unfortunate it is that we don't do it more often.

They live in Roane County which is where there was a recent ash spill. Though we have seen it on television, seeing it in person is something altogether different. The areas that you see that are filled with ash debris is what used to be a lake. The towers that you see in the background is the power plant that is the source of the spill. Perhaps you can get some sort of feel for how far we were from the actual site and how far the ash traveled.

Dad has a beautiful yard with water features, etc. Things are just barely starting to bud so the pictures, at this point, aren't very colorful but we did take some of some of his garden areas and, hopefully, we can get others in a month or two when things are in bloom.

Jeff took these pictures of the boys which are pretty funny.....

We got to see Walt play basketball (and he even got a dunk - just not on film):

Last but certainly not least, Providence had a Baptismal service Sunday night and it was such a blessing to witness EIGHT baptisms. There were children, adults, brothers, sisters, Moms and daughters....WOW! One of the children, as his testimony, sang "Jesus Loves Me"....it makes me tear up just thinking about it. That really is all of our testimonies, isn't it?

Following the service, we had a Fellowship at Fat Mo's and, as always, PBF'ers showed up for a great time. What a blessing the night was.