Home For A day

When Maggy and I arrived home from Prattville, I spent about an hour taking care of a few things and repacking. Then I drove over to Gulfport to my friend Les Ferguson's home. We loaded up in his truck and headed for Kosciusko, MS. I've known Les since I was 17 years old - when I first enrolled at Magnolia Bible College. Like many people, my college friends have been my lifelong friends. Les and his lovely wife Karen have three children: Kyle, Cole, and Conner. Kyle is a missions major at Faulkner University in Montgomery. Cole is the same age as my son, 16. Conner is ... I'm not sure how old Conner is ... but he is giving Les and Karen a run for their money. He is one hilarious kid! To this den of bearcubs is coming another one, William Casey, who is scheduled to be born in the next three weeks or so and immediately adopted by the Fergusons. They really have a lot of love to give, and they wanted to share it with someone who would need a new family. God bless 'em! We arrived at the home of Les' parents, Les and Margie Ferguson. Les Sr is the minister for the South Huntington Church of Christ in Kosciusko. At one time Les preached for the Warrenton Church of Christ in Vicksburg, where many of my mother's family attended. In fact, Les Sr baptized my grandfather just a few months before his death from lung cancer. Margie had a pot of taco soup and a pot of potato soup waiting for us. We sat up until midnight talking until we were getting too sleepy to go on! The next morning we joined the chapel service of Magnolia Bible College, where Les did a presentation on our work here on the Coast. It is interesting to me how different the work is between our two congregations ... just 40 miles apart ... but so different. Much of their business community was wiped out, whereas most of our residential community was flooded. Different problems. We made this presentation because next week almost 40 MBC students and staff will come down to do some missionary work among our two congregations, and we wanted to prepare them somewhat for the experience. While there I got to visit momentarily with Garvis Seymore, MBC President. Wish I could have spent more time with him, but our visit was a short one. Garvis and I attended MBC at the same time ... at least our school careers intersected along the way. He has told me that he read the blog regularly but just hasn't commented. (Now that I've outed you, you might as well comment! lol) He was familiar with the nerve ending test I underwent Saturday, as he has been through the same thing. Pray for Garvis ... he has an important work that needs God's blessing regularly. I was also pleased to meet Wayne Moore. Wayne has just accepted the preaching role at the Cleveland, MS church of Christ. I have several family members at that church and have served there twice as Youth and Campus Minister. Wayne seems like an outstanding brother and I enjoyed our visit so much. I look forward to hearing great things about his ministry in the Mississippi Delta. There were many others, of course, with whom I enjoyed talking. I don't get to talk to Allen Coker very often, so that was a treat for me. I could name several others, but my mind is getting fuzzy tonight! Our trip home was a good one, and I'm glad to be home ... for a day. Tomorrow I'll do what I can at the building for Hurricane Relief and also try to prepare for the MBC mission group coming down. I will try to get some pictures of the work crews. The crew from Smithville Church of Christ in Fulton, KY brought a big bag of Valentine gifts to my grand daughter. I thought that was awesome of them! Thursday we'll load up and head to Maggy's parents for one nights visit, then up to Kentucky where I will speak at two churches Sunday. Then Monday we'll race back home to be here for Danny Dodd speaking Monday - Wednesday night! Never a dull moment around here. I haven't talked to David in a few days, but I feel sure that things have continued on as usual around the church building. I'll update you tomorrow night on the relief effort. Thanks to my friend Mark who sent me a link to a cool Katrina presentation online. Even after nearly six months it is heartbreaking. I appreciate Brent Missildine for the kind comments on his blog. Now, Brent, that I've publicized your blog ... you have to update often! I've also been informed that I had a wrong link to Brent's congregation (Thanks, Rich). The correct link to that church is HERE. Thanks for reading and commenting. I have removed that annoying word verification thingy, so comment with greater ease now! Have a great Wednesday.