Church Attendance

[crisipicada]

actually i was not able to go to church. i just pray and read Bible. why i am always tired and so exhausted and feel dizzy. like the world is turning around. oh my here i am again so many health issues. please help. i know that i am only 7 months old when mama give birth to me and very sickly so i cannot blame them for being sickly. but i really try to be healthy.

[Edwin]

actually i was not able to go to church. i just pray and read Bible. why i am always tired and so exhausted and feel dizzy. like the world is turning around. oh my here i am again so many health issues. please help. i know that i am only 7 months old when mama give birth to me and very sickly so i cannot blame them for being sickly. but i really try to be healthy.

I will continue to pray, Crisi, that you will feel better, and that your health will improve.

We drove a long ways Sunday to attend church, but our granddaughter was having a bad time, so we just couldn't go in after getting right to the church. We will try it again.

[Edwin]

Church is just day after tomorrow, and we will hope to actually go into the church and attend the service rather than just driving to the parking lot, and then leaving like we did last week.

[Edwin]

Well, we missed church last Sunday as it was Memorial Day and we had our usually family celebration. Hopefully next Sunday in two days we will be in church again!

[Edwin]

We actually got to go to church 2 Sundays in a row! Last Sunday the young people had the service including the Youth Pastor doing the preaching. It was all good, but we didn't know very many of the songs/choruses. A lady, near our age, in the pew ahead of ours this morning commented, "They finally sang something I know," and she was referring to an old familiar hymn that they had just finished singing. The latest thing is that the churches with younger people want to throw out old the old hymn books, and just sing contemporary music flashed on the overhead. Our grandson is a worship leader in a church near Spokane, and he tries to mix the contemporary music with some old hymns. His mother, one or our twins, told him that he needed to keep the contemporary music on the program because they are in a University town, and drawing the younger people is important to them, so that as the older members die they will still have people to fill their church, which makes sense, but I still like the old hymns out of the church hymn/song books. We saw a lady that we knew very well close to 15 years ago when we used to attend that church before we moved away. I played my trombone in the church orchestra at that time, and she was one of the pianists. She also directed the church choir, and had me play a background on my trombone for one of the Christmas music programs. 15 years is a long time, and she introduced herself to us this morning, and then she was embarrassed because suddenly she recognized us from those former years. Since she was a pianist, I told her that since we saw her last I had learned to play the piano. She said the same thing as I have maintained that playing the piano provides a wonderful avenue of worship to God, and it is a wonderful blessing from the Lord. She told me that she found that playing church music on the piano blessed her soul. She also shared with me that she had very few lessons, but just kept at it, and learned it on her own, and that is the way I have been doing it. I play for me and God, and if anyone sneaks around and listens to me play that is fine with me, otherwise if I try to play something for someone to impress them I make too many mistakes, so I just play it, and however it turns out, it turns out, and that is fine. I am not really an excellent pianist yet, but I am getting there. I wish I would have learned years ago, and I tried, but it just seemed too discouraging for me, but I am thankful that I have had the opportunity in the last few years to learn the piano.

[Edwin]

We have my great neice here with us who is half filipina. We took her and our granddaughter, and we went down to church this morning. Our kids here were butchering our hog. They are Christians, but they got offended so they are presently not attending church, and they do things on Sunday that we would not do, but that is up to them. Anyway they told us that they were going to kill and butcher our hog while we were gone. I am a farm/ranch boy, but I never got used to killing animals. I can kill chickens easily enough, but that is all, and it bothers me to kill other and especially larger animals. I did kill a cow once without feeling badly about it, but she was very sick, and I was putting her out of her misery, and that has been many years, like about 39 years ago. Anyway at home when my Dad and older brother were getting ready to butcher an animal I would go to the house where I couldn't see what was happening, and cover my ears with my hands. So they took care of our hog while we were at church, and also eating at KFC, as well as looking through Walmart. We stayed away until we were sure the hog was killed, and when we got home they had it laid out on the table in two large halve. We helped wrap while the kids cut it up, and my great neice and our granddaughter carried the meat to the freezer. I am not fond of eating pork, but a little is okay for me, I just don't think eating too much of it is good for a person's health!

[Edwin]

We did attend church yesterday/Sunday. It was a good service. There was a young mother there with a little child just over a year old. She had a heart valve replacement this last Wednesday, but her body rejected the valve, so they have to do something again for her, and they were praying for her.

There is a church camp going on right now, so even with 2 services combined the attendance was down. When I was growing up in the church we had an enthusiastic song leader who chose the songs, led them with a strong singing voice, and directed the singing as a choir or orchestra director would. There was always a pianist and most of the time an organist, and sometimes other instruments playing, or an orchestra playing along with the piano and organ. I played my trombone in those orchestras many times. People would jokingly refer to that as the 3 hymns and a sermon service. They always used the church hymn/song books to do their singing. Sometimes the church would have a chorus book, or sing choruses from memory. Then many times there would be a testimony, or sharing time during the service when people would get up and tell what the Lord had done for them. Prayer requests were usually taken before someone leading would pray, while everyone would pray along with that leader.

How have things changed. Now they have a worship team, usually having one person as the leader. The preacher last Sunday referred to the church hymnal/song books as gathering dust because no one uses them, and the reason he made referrence is that he was quoting words from a hymn at the end of his sermon. They use the overhead and transparencies, and usually they are choruses that is being sung, many of which we do not know. The prayer leader usually the pastor or youth pastor verbalizes the requests rather than taking them from the congregation, and prays for them, as well the prayer requests are written in the church bulletin. They did actually have a testimony/sharing time in the church service yesterday/Sunday. The preacher mentioned problems in the church, but didn't elaborate, and he also mentioned the break down of the marriages, and said that in our church we have couples who have been married for 40 plus years who are not making it lately in their marriages. He preached a short sermon, and then told everyone to go to prayer, and dismiss themselves and leave when they were ready. I/we are not happy with all the changes, but change is the nature of life, and things will change. We just have to make the best of the changes even though we do remember the good old days.

[crisipicada]

My sunday class already started and thanks be to God I do not need to attend my english and math classes because i passed the assessment tests. Thanks be to God I do not need to be hurry and travel for almost two hours to come to class by motorcycle again.

[Edwin]

My sunday class already started and thanks be to God I do not need to attend my english and math classes because i passed the assessment tests. Thanks be to God I do not need to be hurry and travel for almost two hours to come to class by motorcycle again.

That is great, Crisi!!!!

[crisipicada]

Yesterday, Pastor Zaldy and his wife visit me here in the station. Since i was not able to attend church since i started to attend sunday class. Nice to talk to a pastor and his wife who has concern about spiritual life to us, their sheep.