This is the best I could do on such short notice.

Hello and welcome to Wednesday, April 22, 2020. I woke up this morning thinking I had some of today's edition already put together, but, alas, if I did it somehow evaporated into the place where computer-generated items go to hide. I suppose I can add that to the list of things lost due to the pandemic. Not really. I think the real answer is I forgot to remember to work on it. At the present time, I am awake bodily but the gray cells are still trying to make up their minds. They have been known to play their own game of hide and seek. I did talk with about 15 different folks from our Bible Study Class yesterday. Maybe that's where the time went. It was so good to hear the voices of those we love and serve with. Since our group is the 'oldest' in our local fellowship, we enjoyed some banter and laughs about being shut-in, quarantined, detained, segregated, isolated, separated, and otherwise known as staying at home. I told one fellow how the wife and I had yet to throw anything at each other but perhaps we have had one or two loud conversations. I was on the speaker and she heard me and shouted out, "We have not! We have done very well!" The pastor describes those types of discussions as moments of intense close fellowship. One thing I did notice. Us old people did get the message about being at higher risk and it seems we all are doing our best to follow as best we can the guidelines given to us. One common thread is our sincere and collective desire to gather once again in our local place of worship. We all so look forward to that.

Another interesting thing is how this current situation is understood as being unprecedented. I say that because many of the folks I talked to are in their late 80's or older. They remember a lot of personal history including some about the impact of the Great Depression, the various wars we've experienced in their lifetimes which many served in, and, the hard times when the economy failed, weather disasters, and other challenges. This worldwide pandemic, in the minds and recollections of the folks I talked to bears little resemblance to anything in their lifetimes. Here is an interesting thing to consider. Almost everyone I talked to connected it to God's sovereignty at work. The experts might argue did He bring it or did  He allow it, but, the consensus within our age group is God is still God and He is at work even in this unprecedented time. We may be curtailed but He is not. I was able to share how God is using the online services of our local fellowship to reach, teach, and minister to people. Some of them do not have a computer or a smartphone, therefore, they have been unable to get our services. I am going to see about having some of them burned to a DVD for them. Others mentioned the end times images they could see in this situation. We are always to interpret any and all things through the lens of God's infallible Word. Many of them really wanted to talk. After all, what else did we have to do?

I will continue my calling today. I am a little more than half-finished. While the world may not recognize it, there is a huge deposit of wisdom among these older folks. Many of them are prayer warriors who have callouses on their knees, so to speak. They have the love of God written all over them as they shared their hearts for family, friends, neighbors, and a world in need of God's touch. I do know many are also plagued with their own health issues but they mostly talked about the needs of others. Needless to say, I called to encourage and cheer them up and in so doing I received encouragement. That reminds me of my baby sister Kayla and how she as a young mom lay dying from leukemia but she had a testimony of reaching out to and ministering to others. So many told me about going to see her hoping to minister to her but they came away having been ministered to by her. These older folks I talked to who have known the Lord for so many years have something valuable to share with others. I pray they will be able to do so. Amen. .....More later.