Sept. / Oct.

Sept. Oct. the uttermost parts of the world

It's been pretty busy lately and I haven't had an internet signal available till now. I'm hijacking someone's wifi signal (thank you whoever you are, I promise not to black hole all the band width.)

I went up to Roseville Wed. afternoon for the dog training and was able to work in four different training sessions, including one where I actually took the leash! I have been staying at the business owners place for three days and then met Corinne, Lauren, Alyssa along with my cousin and others in Davis last night (Friday) for dinner. After dinner Corinne and the girls had to find an Urgent care somewhere in Sacramento because Lauren has an ear infection or something and is in a lot of pain. I came up here to Napa and the girls made it in later.

I've had a couple of conversations this week that have got me thinking. The first was when I was asked if I thought that a persons life could be blessed if they had no children. The reason they asked was because once at church he heard that if you had children you were blessed and so he assumed that because he didn't, that somehow he wasn't. What really got to me was that he wished he had a family, but felt now it's too late.

Imagine living with the thought that no matter what you do, the rest of your life will be less than what it should be. I think a lot of people feel this way with a lot of situations and for a lot of reasons. I shared with him that there are many people who don't have children or who have even lost children that are still blessed. I told him not to dwell on what you can't change, but on what you can.

The second conversation was over lunch after a lesson, the trainer and O were talking about the changes that take place in our lives and the importance of not thinking so much of ourselves to the point where we make others a convenience for our needs and have little or no regard for them, their feelings or their needs. When she dropped me off at my truck she asked me where the church i was pasturing was at. I told her no where right now, that's one of the reasons why I'm dog training. She very kindly added that if I started a church in their area that she would go and bring her whole family. Wow, i thought, that was easy, all i had to do was listen and share a little of what the scriptures teach and the Lord faithfully fills in the needs.

Both these conversations stirred in me some of the things I have been studying for the services I'm teaching this Sunday in Acts. There is such a need in every community for people to be what Jesus told us we are to be in Acts chapter one, "witnesses". Erwin Mc Mannus explains it as "proof" of God, and that the smallest denomination that God measured for the disciples was not people, families or small towns, but whole cities, like Jerusalem, Judea and eventually the entire world.

So maybe once again I am thinking to small, maybe the Lord doesn't want me to talk to a few people, maybe He wants something more from all of us, maybe He wants us to affect whole communities and not just one, but a whole bunch of them. I have at least three in my mind right now, anyone up for a challenge? Definitely going to need a couple of add shots for this one.

... and from reading Acts, i don't think caffeine is enough.