The Shepherd: May 2006

Friday, May 19, 2006

Patrick's Mission Trip

Just got off the phone with my grandson, Patrick Wilkerson. The excitement mounts! He just ordered his airline ticket to go to Japan this summer. He is scheduled to spend about six weeks there, leaving home on the 26th of June and returning home on August 7th. He will spend most of this time working with and substituting for missionary Glenn Watts. During this time he will also have some contact with the Japan Youth Mission tour that will be there from the United States and South America. They will have opportunity to visit many places in Japan and the last five days will be spent participating in the Asian Youth Mission Conference being sponsored by Japan Presbytery. This conference will have older youth and young adult Cumberland Presbyterians participating from all over the World. (U.S., Colombia, Brazil, Korea, China, Japan, erc.)

What a great opportunity for Patrick. He will be a senior at Berhel next Fall and is then going on to Seminary to prepare for the full work of the Gospel ministry. At this time he is interested in youth ministry or being an overseas missionary. I hope any who read this will devote special prayer for him and this mission opportunity.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Family Ties On Special Days

It's been nearly nine months since Jackie died. Jackie is our daughter who died last August at the age of 49. Needless to say, she has been greatly missed. Mostly, I'm sure, by her husband of 31 years, Paul and their four children, Melissa, James, Patrick and Joshua and Melissa's husband, Ben. But she has also been greatly missed by her sister and brother-in-law, Becky and Jim Syme and their children, Chris and Dana and Chris' wife, Ellen.. And then I add, Pat and myself. Pat and I have been greatly ministered to and blessed because of the close ties and relationships of this fourteen in our immediate family. God, in his grace, gave all of us a great gift of peace and comfort and affirmed our faith in the midst of our grief. I think He was able to do this for us because Jackie was a woman of such dynamic faith who faced death as a conqueror and at last welcomed her transition to heaven.

Since that sad time in August we have gone through nearly a year of "special" days in which we were reminded of how much we missed her. First, there was Thanksgiving which had always been such a large family day for us, then Christmas, which goes without explaining, and then her birthday in March, and Easter in April. Then this past Sunday, Mother's Day. As we approached this day Pat and I seemed to feel it more than all the other times. I suppose it was because we were thinking of Paul and their children. Then Patrick called on Saturday night and asked, "What's your schedule tomorrow? Dad, Joshua and I want to meet you for church and James will meet us there so we can all worship together. Then we'll go to lunch in Paducah, then go by and visit Mom's grave." Our brief time of blueness changed to joy and once again God's grace and family blessed another special day and together we "celebrated" the life of a wonderful daughter, a loving wife and a terrific Mom. I think all of us felt it was one of the nicest days we could have had.

Now, since Jackie went to be with Jesus, Jessica came along and the next generation has begun. Soon Olivia will be here and that immediate clan will have grown to sixteen.

Somehow I think Jackie is still a real part of what's happening in the family and the special days are made more special because of her. It's hard to imagine that my little girl is now a grandmother herself and is soon to be a great aunt.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Confusing Fun

Anyone who has read my first few "blogs" has already learned that I am a novice in the cyber world. I have had fun setting up my web page and this blog using templates that guided me along step by step. I am amazed at the development of computers since I first started trying to use them in the early eighties. I thought my Radio Shack Model III was a real doozy, especially when I had it upgraded to a Model IV with two floppy disk drives. (each floppy disk had a capacity of 640 K) Yes that's "K". There were no hard drives with their Mega and Giga capacity. Yet it was a marvel to try to keep up with the fast-paced growth of computers. As a senior citizen, I have fairly well kept up enough to dabble around with stuff like this, but I don't understand it all very well. I have done some amazing things with my word processor, Microsoft Word. I even did all of the type setting for a book I had published, sending in the camera ready copy printed out on a laser printer. The finished results, when printed, looked quite professional.

Now, the real reason I am posting today is my recent discovery that I could post to my blog by e-mail. That just fascinates me. Everything above is just some rambling so I can use this feature again.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Testing

This post is a test of a new feature I discovered today whereby I can post to the blog via e-mail. If this post appears, it worked.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Today's Blessings - Yesterdays Promises

I talked to my grandson, Patrick, last night. Finishing up his junior year at Bethel College this week, he is into planning a great missions opportunity with our church in Japan this Summer. He is in conversation with Glenn Watts who serves the Church there as a teacher/missionary. If all goes as planned, Patrick will spend four weeks or so in Japan filling in for Glenn while he comes to the States to attend PAS. He plans to be there also for the International Young Adult Conference being sponsored by Japan Presbytery. I am excited for him as this great opportunity opens up. As I think of this current blessing, I cannot help but think of a long ago promise, made in faith.

I was Glenn's pastor at the time of his birth. His parents, Bill and Pat Watts had been friends since our college days at Bethel. When they moved to Louisville they joined Hillview Church and became very active and committed members. There is a tremendous personal story concerning the anticipated birth of their first child and her death only days following her birth. This was followed by a seasonof darkness and threatened loss of faith by Pat, who was looked upon by our Church as one with amazing faith. As a young (and somewhat hurt and frightened ) pastor, I spent hours with her trying to convince her that God would make this up to her. It was a hard sell since she had been told years before that she would not be able to bear children and her first baby had been considered by us all as a miracle. But, in faith and fear, I promised her, God will make this up to you. Then, Glenn came along. And shortly after his sister, Lisa (also a remarkable girl of faith) came along. In ways more wonderful than we could anticipate, God's promised faithfulness became reality.

Now Glenn, who has served in missions all during his teenage and adult life, has served our church first in Hong Kong and now in Japan, is finishing his preparation for ordination to the full work of the Gospel Ministry and is blessing my Grandson with an unbelivable opportunity as he prepares for his senior year in college and preparation for the ministry.

To me, this is only symbolic of how the past promises in times of struggle are connected to current blessings of God's faithfulness.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Let's Form A Conspiracy

Many years ago, when I was pastor of the Hillview C. P. Church in Louisville, KY, I printed a paragraph in the bulletin each Sunday called, "Let's Form A Conspiracy". Those bulletins are packed away somewhere and I can't remember the exact wording but it went something like this. "Let's form a conspiracy today. Let's all conspire together to pray for those who lead the worship. Pray for the Pastor that he may be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Pray for the choir and music leaders that God may speak through their talents. Pray for those who worship with you in this place, that all may be filled with the wonder of God's love and grace. Especially pray for those present who may be troubled or who need to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. As we conspire together today let us pray for God to be glorified in our worship and that as we leave this place we will all be able to say, it has been good to have been in the house of the Lord."

Today, as I am made aware of strife, judgemental accusations, legal complaints and charges made among us, I want to say again, Can we humble ourselves and form a conspiracy of prayer? Is not God greater than our might? Are not His judgements wiser than ours? I am of the opinion that Satan is still the great deceiver and he seeks to destroy our witness and accomplishments for the glory of God by tempting us to battle one another for "righteousness sake". Let our battle be a spiritual battle and our victory be God's victory.

Prayer, not fighting. Faith, not fear. Concern, not blame. Love, not judgement. Let's form a conspiracy to personally repent and spread repentance throughout the Church. Could we have a conspiracy of prayer for renewal and spiritual revival? I sure would like to be a part of such a conspiracy.

The Shepherd