FBC Homecoming
July 31, 2005
First
Baptist Church, Pontotoc, held its annual homecoming on July 31st.
Instead of two morning services and one evening service, homecoming Sundays
are different in that church members are offered only one morning service,
the one held at 11:00 a.m. The evening service is replaced by a song-fest
of sorts, which is held in the sanctuary after folks have finished eating
in the fellowship hall. I would prefer the morning services were combined
every Sunday, but I don’t expect that to happen in my lifetime, as I’m
told we can reach more folks for the
LORD this way.
Felicia sang a solo, Sunday morning, and because she didn’t sit with
the choir before her solo she was unaware her ex-boyfriend and his new flame
were seated front and center in the balcony. Now, some folks with lesser
grit might have succumbed to the temptation to frown or scowl upon such a
discovery, but not Felicia. She just smiled and sang, in spite of the
distraction. Sarah thinks Felicia’s solo may have been one of her best,
and now figures the way to get Felicia to sing her best is to prop up an
ex-boyfriend and new flame in the balcony whenever Felicia is scheduled a
solo. That may not be as difficult as it sounds, especially at the rate Felicia
plays "catch and release."
There’s an old joke about a little boy sitting behind a bald-headed
man in a country church, back in the days before air-conditioning made it
possible to keep most flies and wasps outside the doors and windows. It seems
the lad had great difficulty in maintaining his composure during the service
and his father asked him afterwards just what his problem was.
"Well, sir," he began, "There was this wasp that kept ‘light’n
on the bald head of the man in front of me. And every time it bowed up to
sting him, its legs flew out from under it."
It wasn’t a wasp that distracted me while I tried to listen to our guest
preacher for the annual homecoming service at FBC, Pontotoc, and the man
in front of me wasn’t bald headed, but I couldn’t help remembering
the old joke. Rick Willett, son-in-law of Floyd and Ruth McCullough, was
seated directly in front of me. He and his wife Rosalie were in town for
the homecoming occasion and to visit Rosalie’s brother, David, who had
also been home much of the summer from his teaching job in Germany. With
Rosalie’s sister, Anna Downing, and two of her children seated with
her, the McCullough family pretty much filled the row in front of me.
Wade Walton, one of FBC’s own, was called to the ministry a few years
ago and will be attending Baylor University this fall. Wade had just begun
his sermon when I saw that which first appeared as a tiny gnat hovering inches
above Rick’s head. But, as I tilted back my head to take advantage of
the higher magnification in the lower portion of my bifocals, I could see
the object of my attention was a tiny spider. I flirted with the notion of
flicking it away from Rick but figured that would cause too much of a distraction
around me. Instead, I watched the small, unthreatening spider settle atop
Rick’s hair. I figured a spider whose entire body, legs and all, would
fit inside a capital "O" the size of this one, couldn’t possible inflict
a bite on a human.
The spider soon disappeared from my view, and I was able to concentrate on
the sermon. But, from time to time, I’d notice the spider on the end
of an unruly hair projecting skyward, and while it may have been spinning
a web, I couldn’t see the web. If one has ever stood near a screen-door
or window screen and looked through it, one can imagine how it’s possible
to see beyond the near in order to concentrate on that which is distant,
but just as the screen itself has a tendency to come in and out of focus,
so it was with the tiny spider. No matter how much I concentrated my gaze
on the young preacher, the spider directly between the preacher and me kept
drawing my focus from the preacher.
After the congregation stood and sang our usual parting song, "The Family
of God," I tapped Rick on the shoulder to alert him of his uninvited guest,
explaining, "You may want to hold you head downward and use your hand to
brush a tiny spider from your hair. It’s been there since the beginning
of the sermon."
My announcement didn’t seem to bother him as he did not immediately
act upon my suggestion. Personally, I don’t want a spider near me, and
had someone informed me a spider was in my hair, I’d have slapped myself
silly trying to dislodge it. Since dinner (okay, lunch) was ready in the
fellowship hall, I didn’t hang around the sanctuary to see if Rick brushed
the spider out of his hair or not.
The food line was fairly short by the time I reached the fellowship hall,
but there was no shortage of food. I’m a little picky when it comes
to potluck dinners and apart from some home-cooked vegetables, there wasn’t
a lot of food that appealed to me, a fact that was not overlooked by Dewese
Butler who sat across the table from me.
"It looks like you didn’t get enough on your plate," she chided.
"Oh, I believe this will be plenty." I replied, knowing a dessert or two
would fill whatever emptiness my stomach might feel after the mostly vegetable
fare.
Barbara and I visited with Dewese and Billy across from us and with G.W.
Gilliam on my left and Debbie Ray beside Barbara. Kevin Morrow, a Bible Teacher
at Pontotoc High School, had invited, Rachael, a new Bible teacher for the
elementary grades to homecoming and the two of them also sat across from
us. Rachael’s home state is Washington, but she is a graduate of Columbia
Bible Institute in North Carolina.
The dessert tables were as impressive as the other food tables, but only
an untouched chocolate meringue pie appealed to me. It was delicious, and
my only regret was in not getting two slices instead of one.
Barbara and I made our way back to the sanctuary for the song-fest and were
looking forward to hearing our granddaughter, Anna Butler, sing. We were
talking to Sandy Butler as we waited for the informal service to start, when
the Minister of Music coaxed me into sitting in the center section with the
choir. I followed Sandy, and we sat on a row beside Larry Young.
As a congregation, we must have sung a dozen hymns or more before any of
the special music was presented. Anna Butler sang "Ten Thousand Angels Cried,"
the same song Barbara and I heard her sing at West Heights Baptist a couple
of months ago. Needless to say, she did us proud.
I enjoyed the congregational singing as much as the opportunity to sing with
the Adult Choir, but by the time the choir sang, my voice was about gone,
especially in the lower bass register. The best part for me was getting to
harmonize with Sandy (alto) and Larry (tenor) and the folks around us.
There’s something to be said for singing in unison, but there’s
more to appreciate when there’s two, three, or four-part harmony to
be heard.
Homecoming seemed to pass all too quickly, but all in all, it was a good
homecoming day, and I’m already looking forward to attending the one
for next year.
Dancing Hearts
How It Happened
Earlier this year, Barbara and I got new cell phones. It occurred around
the time that AT&T Wireless was bought out by Cingular. We each got a
cell phone capable of taking digital pictures and later bought one for Jason,
taking advantage of special rates for additional family members.
I had a contract with AT&T for my business phone and could not migrate
the cell phone service to Cingular at the time we purchased new personal
phones.
Teens and persons under thirty seem more inclined to purchase a cell phone
with digital imaging capabilities. As it happened, our granddaughter, Anna,
already had a similar phone and was able to show us how to take pictures
and link the photos to the names of persons in the phone’s address book.
Thus, whenever I called Barbara from either of my phones, a picture of me
flashed on her phone’s display as well as my name.
Both of my phones have caller ID, which is enough for me, and I’ve never
gotten around to making any pictures of my family in order to link a photo
to a phonebook entry. I get by just fine seeing the name of the caller on
my display.
It wasn’t long after we bought the new personal cell phones that I happened
to notice that whenever Barbara dialed my business phone, three flashing
red hearts appeared beneath her name.
"Isn’t that something?" I remember thinking, at the time, but was ignorant
as to why the hearts suddenly showed up whenever Barbara called me.
It didn’t do the same thing on my personal phone, just my business phone.
I showed the flashing hearts to Barbara. She liked the feature, but neither
of us knew what had transpired to make the hearts suddenly appear beneath
her name.
"Do you suppose it has something to do with our Cingular family plan and
the buyout of AT&T by Cingular?" she asked.
We considered that there might have been a connection, except when I phoned
Barbara nothing similar happened on her phone. Afterwards, I began to refer
to the appearance of the three flashing hearts as simply "dancing hearts,"
and the persons to whom I showed the dancing hearts got a kick out of it.
I should explain that when it comes to cell phones, I tend to stick to the
basics, i.e., I make calls, receive calls, and check messages. I don’t
care a hoot for text messaging and wonder why Felicia and Anna don’t
just call someone rather than sending a text message. Text messaging is too
much like "chatting" on the Internet, which is another communication medium
I can do without. Yet, for every user like me, there must be a million like
Felicia and Anna.
Both my phones have features I’ve never used, and it’s rare that
I spend any time scrolling though the menu screens looking for new features,
and I hate to read an instruction manual unless I can’t figure out a
feature on my own.
I recently noticed that my business phone has an option to assign a phonebook
entry to a particular group. Groups include: friends, family, VIP, business,
and other. I had no idea why I should use the feature, but for some reason,
I assigned the phone system at SUPERVALU Indianola to the "business" group.
When I’m out of the office, I try to keep my calls transferred to my
cell phone, so I don’t have to check voicemail. Within minutes after
assigning "business" to the Indianola number my cell phone rang. As I glanced
at the caller ID, I was surprised to see three coffee mugs flashing at the
bottom of the display.
It didn’t take me long to decide the dancing hearts must have something
to do with a group assignment, so when I got off the phone with the caller,
I checked the settings associated with Barbara’s name in my phone’s
address book. Sure enough she was assigned to the "family" group. I have
since assigned the phonebook entry for Jason to the family group, and the
one time he has called me since then the dancing hearts appeared beneath
his name when the phone rang.
I have not played with all other group assignments to see what figures appear,
but I have seen "crowns" for V.I.P. entries. I don’t recall assigning
the family status to Barbara’s name, but apparently I did so soon after
I entered her name in the address book. However, it only works when she dials
my cell phone number, for if the call is transferred to me from my office
in Indianola, then the display defaults to the Indianola number, not the
number of the caller.
It’s probably a matter of coincidence that the dancing hearts first
appeared shortly after Barbara and I purchased the new personal cell phones
and is most likely due to her use of my direct-dial number rather than using
my office number to reach me. Whatever the case, I like the dancing hearts
and will keep them associated with calls from my wife.
Bodock Beau
Senior Citizens
This newsletter is read by a number of senior citizens, which makes the following
a fitting selection. The latter portion reminds everyone else of that which
one may expect to become significant if one lives long enough.
Senior Citizens
Senior citizens are constantly being criticized for every conceivable deficiency
of the modern world, real or imaginary. We know we take responsibility for
all we have done and do not blame others.
BUT, upon reflection, we would like to point out that it was NOT the senior
citizens who took:
The melody out of music,
The pride out of appearance,
The romance out of love,
The commitment out of marriage,
The responsibility out of parenthood,
The togetherness out of the family,
The learning out of education,
The service out of patriotism,
The religion out of school,
The Golden Rule from rulers,
The nativity scene out of cities,
The civility out of behavior,
The refinement out of language,
The dedication out of employment,
The prudence out of spending, or
The ambition out of achievement,
And we certainly are NOT the ones who eliminated patience and tolerance from
personal relationships and interactions with others!!
Does anyone under the age of 50 know the lyrics to the Star Spangled
Banner? If you are under 50 and do know the lyrics then you are among
the few who do!
Just look at the Seniors with tears in their eyes and pride in their hearts
as they stand at attention with their hand over their hearts!
Remember.......Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what
the heck happened!
Yes, I'm A Senior Citizen!
-
I'm the life of the party...even if it lasts until 8 p.m.
-
I'm very good at opening childproof caps with a hammer.
-
I'm usually interested in going home before I get to where I am going.
-
I'm awake many hours before my body allows me to get up.
-
I'm smiling all the time because I can't hear a thing you're saying.
-
I'm very good at telling stories; over and over and over and over...
-
I'm aware that other people's grandchildren are not as cute as mine.
-
I'm so cared for -- long term care, eye care, private care, dental care.
-
I'm not grouchy, I just don't like traffic, waiting, crowds, lawyers, loud
music, unruly kids, Toyota commercials, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather,
barking dogs, politicians and a few other things I can't remember.
-
I'm sure everything I can't find is in a secure place.
-
I'm wrinkled, saggy, lumpy, and that's just my left leg.
-
I'm having trouble remembering simple words like.......
-
I'm realizing that aging is not for wimps.
-
I'm sure they are making adults much younger these days, and when did they
let kids become policemen?
-
I'm wondering…if you're only as old as you feel, how could I be alive
at 150?
-
I'm a walking storeroom of facts.....I've just lost the key to the storeroom.
-
Have I already sent this to you?
Contributed by Ken Gaillard
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