One Full Weekend

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2010

Forever Young Meeting

I went to Forever Young Meeting at the church. This is a senior citizen get together every month with fellowship, program and lunch. It is not limited to the membership of our church so we have made friends and continue to make new friends from all over the area. Fellowship begins at 10:00 am--we recognize birthdays and anniversaries--we listen to announcements of up coming events. Our program for today's meeting was presented by one of the docents from the Dallas Arboretum. The Arboretum is a large acreage along the coast of White Rock Lake which was donated by several families to the city of Dallas. The displays are magnificent and plans for future are surreal. Following the program we had a meal of ham, sweet potatoes, broccoli, salad and desert. There is usually fellowship after wards, but I left to attend another event.

The Signing

I left the church and drove to Poteet High School, Mesquite, Texas. I met family and friends in the library to watch Patrick (grandchild #10) sign a letter of commitment with Howard Payne University to play football beginning the the fall of 2010. Howard Payne is in Brownwood, Texas. Patrick is lovingly called Moose by his friends and family. As a high school senior he is approximately 6'4" and weighs approximately 300 lbs. Unfortunately his days in high school football were undesirable--the team had been a loosing team for 8 consecutive years. However, he had some wonderful coaches along the years, they just were not the head coach and most of them left for different venues where their efforts were used to greater extent than they were at PHS. Patrick kept up with these coaches and continued to attend summer camps under the leadership of these coaches. So we are looking forward to Patrick enjoying HPU both spiritually, academically, and athletically. One of these coaches is still at PHS and was able to attend the signing with Patrick. This coach is a good coach, good teacher, and has been good for Patrick.

State Bible Drill Competition

Leaving the signing and returning to the church I helped set up the rooms for the children and youth from around the state to participate in the State Bible Drill competition. After that I registered the churches and children as they arrived.

This event was the State level for children which means it was the end of their year of memorizing scripture and scripture references and being able to locate them in the Bible, read them after locating them or quoting them from memory. They will take a few months off and then resume in September at a grade level higher than this year preparing for State Competition this time next year.

For junior high and high school students who participate in Bible Drill and Speaker's tournament the event was the Regional Level. Their next event will be in three weeks at the BGCT (Baptist General Convention of Texas) headquarters in Dallas. The winners for that even will then participate in the National event in Nashville, Tennessee.

After all the churches were registered in I was able to leave my post to go and listen/watch my youngest grand son Zachary as he participated in this competition for the first time. They have to be in the 4th grade to be able to participate.

The closing event for the day was exciting to see the children excited for their achievements and the achievements for their friends.

SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2010

State Bible Drill Competition resumed with children from other churches in the area.

Following the closing events for the day I helped pack up supplies and meet with the people responsible for next year's event regarding room locations, and additional activities for next year.

SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010

End of an Icon

Got up early dressed for church early so I would have time to watch the implosion of Texas Stadium. The stadium was the first home of the Dallas Cowboys and a major icon in Dallas and Texas. It had reached the point in it's life where repairs were prohibitive money wise. So the decision was made several months ago (after the new home for the Dallas Cowboys was completed and the team moved to the new location) to implode the building and use the grounds for another type of activity. The news anchors were on hand at 6:30 for memories then at 7:00 there was an impressive fireworks display. At 7:10 the switch was pushed to begin the end of a major icon. A child 11 years old was chosen to push the switch because of his efforts with the homeless people in the Dallas area.

Church

As usual the church services were very uplifting.

After Church

One of my long time friends and I began talking. Then we began to move our conversation to a restaurant. All together we talked for 3 hours. Can you tell that we have not had time lately to catch each other up on our family happenings?

Leisure afternoon watching the Masters Golf Tournament with a grand son. That was different.

Church tonight.

As I said in the beginning--One Full Weekend.