We've been involved with Facebook recently and haven't done much toward the blog. Maybe this will be the start of fixing that. I love Facebook but it doesn't replace blogging. However with the original purpose of our starting this blog (communicating with the family members in Africa specifically about Granddaddy's condition) our blogging will take a little different focus. As for my part (this is Lynn) I want to just add an every day perspective of our life in family, in ministry and in our relationship with Christ, with an occasional personal historical tribute to folks from my past who have had a lasting impact on me. This first installment is somewhat of a potpourri of all those I just mentioned. It all started some 27 years ago when we became associated with the family at the 6th and Jackson Church of Christ in Odessa. One of the first visits I made with the preacher was to the home of Lee and Maudie Martin. Lee was quite ill and it was Larry's custom to make regular visits to check on him. I had known Maudie through her work as the manager of the "Pink Lady" snack bar at Medical Center. The Martins had 4 grown children. Over the years I have performed wedding ceremonies, baptized, prayed with and preached funerals for this family. To say the least, we've become closer than brothers. Recently, B.D. and Catherine Berryhill have shared with us a series of audio books by Jan Caron called the Mitford series. It is about a small town Episcopal priest and the small town is Mitford, N.Carolina. They began listening to it on trips from Odessa to San Antonio for Catherine to take chemo treatments in her fight with cancer. They shared them with us mainly because some of the "small town situations" reminded them of stories we had shared about our working at a small church in a small town. We began to look for reasons to go into San Angelo so we could "listen to the book." We listened to the first book, and before we got the next one in the series, we laughed and said "we need to get Father Tim back from Ireland. I know that doesn't make any sense to most who read this blog, if we in fact have any readers left, unless you've read the Mitford series. But it has been amazing how parallel Father Tim's ministry is with the ministry we have here in Sterling City, Texas. For you see it really is a "community ministry." Father Tim knows everyone in Mitford. That's the way it is in Sterling. The people of Sterling introduce me as "our" church of Christ pastor. The Methodist preacher gave my cell number to his parishioners for any emergencies while he was having surgery recently. And many other situations similar to those found in the Mitford series could be shared but aren't because of confidentiality issues. The point is, any preacher who lives in Sterling City, Texas is going to be a community minister if he/she allows himself to be used of the Lord in this way. It's not always easy, but is ALWAYS rewarding. And God uses each of these to our benefit. So what is the point? "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!" And oh yeah, B.D. and Catherine, thanks for sharing the books, and I promise we are going to bring them home!