The Month of Thanksgiving – 12

I am thankful for each of Madge’s and my children who have grown into fine, strong, respectable adults. Today I will begin with our first born.

We named her Charity when she was born, because the name means “love” especially godly love.  That name is fit for her still.

I am thankful for her because she is my daughter, because of her faith in God, through His Son Jesus Christ, and she also loves her family, and has been strong, faithful, and loving in being a wife to her husband Paul; and a strong and loving mother to her three children – our grandchildren; Rachelle, Jonathan, and Caitlyn.

I am thankful for the Lord’s goodness in watching over her through the years; and especially these last two years.

Thank You Lord for Charity and her family.

The Month of Thanksgiving – 11

On this 11th day of the month of Thanksgiving I am thankful for my wife Madge.  She has loved me, stood by me through thick and thin, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health as she is an encouragement to me.

For over forty six years she has tolerated me when I was very unloving, or unkind to her. I love her more than my own life, and I thank our Creator for her every day.

Thankful from the banks of Flat Creek,

`tim

The Wind of Wednesday

It was early Wednesday morning which the wind I wrote of previously came, and struck a bit of fear in my mind.  That wind had some power and did some damage.  Not to my home, or my life.  The damage is something which can be fixed.

The damage was at our family cemetery, just up the hill from where my wife and I live.  There was two good metal gates which hung at the entrance off the road, now there is only one which is in good shape; the other badly damaged.  Both have been de-hinged from the post and the tree.  One was hung on a post and the other on a large oak tree.

I noticed this damage as I was going out our road to our Pastor’s luncheon in Cassville.  I stopped at my parents house and let Dad know about the tree limb which was on the gates, and the damage done.

One of the sad parts about all that wind is there was very little rain in the storm – it barely got the ground wet; it settled the dust.  Thank the Lord for the lack of damage.  It could have been much worse.

-Tim

What a Summer

It has been a different kind of Summer for me.  I have not accomplished near what I have wanted to concerning the old house and getting it ready to live in, and mostly due to be ill.  I have decided that the illness has been caused by the dust of the old house; at least much of it.

My wife (Madge) and I have decided to buy a double wide manufactured home, and set down on the old farm stead.  We are waiting now for everything to get approved and such.

It won ‘t be too long and school will begin again.  I have had my physical and passed it and looking forward to the new School year.

It has been a great Summer in that we were able to go to both Youth Camp and Children’s Camp at Baptist Hill in Mount Vernon, MO.  We were blessed to serve the CGL’s and campers as cooks and kitchen help.  It has been our privilege to do so for the past four years.  We hear that there were 24 children who trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in Children’s Camp, and a few less than that at Youth Camp with other decisions being made as well.

If things go well I may use this site as a daily log of driving the bus during the School year.  If I don’t every day, maybe I can at least once per week.

My wife and I celebrated our 37th Wedding Anniversary just last week.  We went and spent two days in Branson.  Nice place to visit, especially in November through February, but rather busy in July.  Really Branson is a great place to visit for family relaxation and fun.

See you next time.  Continue to have a great Summer.

-Tim A. Blankenship

The Season of Christmas ’08

It is now officially Winter as of the 21st of December. On that day it really turned out to be quite cold. My last day of driving the School Bus for the year of 2008 was on Friday December 19, and we had a Christmas dinner at 11 a.m. It is quite okay for me to call it dinner, because dinner has always been the time others call “lunch”.

The bus drivers all agreed to bring their favorite dish or dessert, and we made a potluck dinner of it. I asked permission to bring my wife, and I was told, “If she is preparing the turkey you’re bringing, then I wouldn’t have even bothered asking”, but maybe not quite that way.

I mentioned it being cold on that first day of Winter. The temps dropped down into the single numbers on that evening, but then it has warmed up to the sixties the day following Christmas, and today [Saturday 27th].

We had a great time with my siblings, my parents, my wife and kids, and my siblings spouses and kids and all the grandkids. There must have been nearly sixty present at my parents house. At our small home we had about 21, and is it ever crowded with only one bathroom, and really only one bedroom with an upstairs that is open. There are at least two families who stay upstairs overnight at Christmas time.

The most important time about Christmas is Jesus Christ, and remembering His birth, His incarnation as a man; the day that God became man, to dwell among us – Immanuel is “God with us”. A great part of Christmas is the family get together.

I do need to admit that by the time it is all over I am ready for a break, and right now I am having a break. The house is empty with the exception of God and me. Those times do serve as a time to freshen your thoughts, and receive assurances from the Lord and His Word. I even went for a short walk this afternoon, and it was after the temps started to go down. It is beginning to feel like Winter again.

We may indeed have a strong, hard, snowy, icey Winter this year. I am praying we don’t, but I have no say in the matter. I only pray for God’s will, for safety, for warmth, and all our needs to be met, for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is always the season to be thankful. Even in the Winter.

-Tim A. Blankenship