Big Revelation

We just returned from Chicago to learn that Jesus is coming soon! That's right...you read it here first...Jesus is coming soon! Curt Sparks told me that his contract with Sycamore View was "until Jesus comes" and today while Tim and I were in Chicago, i hear that he announced that he and Nedra (yes, he's taking her with him and she just started a new job at HUGSR!) will be moving to Kansas City in January, so I guess that means you'd better get ready because if Curt was telling the truth about his contract, then Jesus will be coming in January! I have not yet had the opportunity to speak to Curt personally, but I will...I might have to twist his arm and make him promise to send me a hand craved Santa very year from now until "Jesus comes"; I'm not sure that I can trust him on that particular statement anymore. We'll have to work something out...At least when we go to visit John and Laura in Kansas City, we'll have a church we know we want to go visit!

Now back to our Chicago trip. We really enjoyed it. I got lots of studying done. Tim got lots of networking done. It was decided that the 2008 Southern District ADID Meeting will be in Atlanta. That was not my first choice, but they didin't ask me. Tim will be the president then so I will have to get out of my room and be nice to the other wives.

We went to see two Broadway shows. On Friday night, we saw "Piriate Queen" and on Saturday night, we saw "Altar Boyz."
The music in both was fantastic. The story in Piriate Queen was happy and sad and then it had a happy ending so, of course, I loved that. the "Altar Boyz" had great voices and the whole thing was sadly about the insecerity and way we "go through the motions" of church too often without really worshipping as we really should be. We wanted to see "Wicked" but it was sold out. We also enjoyed having Showtime in our room so we could just watch movies...you know how we love movies and some good ones just happened to be on when we were in the room. That was a serendipity.

We got home tonight and are enjoying sitting around doing a little of nothing...We ended up not getting to go to Harding homeconing and we really hated that! Tim had a meeting that he really needed to go to on Saturday at noon and the weather was not supposed to be good Saturday afternoon to fly so we just decided to stay. We really enjoyed out extra time togethrer, but we really missed seeing all our friends! We were especially sad today to read that Dr. Joe Pryor had died. He was a great man who had such a godly influence on the lives of so many people! May God comfort his family.

Sitting in Chicago

Well, here I sit in the Sheraton in Chicago...a very nice hotel and outside it is cold and rainy and yucky...I have gotten a lot of studying done at least yesterday morning and then in the afternoon Tim came and got me and we walked on a wild goose chase to find this wonderful area full of art galleries. The sun was shining and it was beautiful, but it was cold, so after walking about two hours and not finding any art galleries open (they were all open by appointment only) we headed for Starbucks to get warm and use the computer. We went to the third Starbucks before we found one that had internet access! (I thought they all had it!) Today, Tim had a luncheon to go to and considering the weather, I have stayed in my nightie in the hotel room studying all day, ordering room service for lunch and now finally giving in and paying for a day of internet service to the hotel. Neither of us was very smart when we left home. Obviously, we were both just ready to get away because neither of us brought warm clothes. Tim does have his fishing jacket and I do have some "Traveler's" from Chicos that I can layer but nothing to keep the rain out. I WILL plan better when I go to Italy!

Food for thought

I have been having this interesting discussion with John and Laura on their blog (hackerwright.blogspot.com). This morning in my quiet time I ran across this thought and I decided I needed to share it with everyone instead of just them. Makes you think...

"To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives; it is the only way we can leave the future open." Lillian Smith

There once was a woman who experienced a dream about jumping off a cliff. As she jumped with fear, she was suddenly aware of a wonderful floating feeling. She opened her eyes and found that her skirt had become her parachute. She was safely floating comfortably.

"leaving the future open" may be one of the most important commitments we make with our lives. Believing in something not yet proved may just be believing in ourselves.

We never know what will make good parachutes. When one is leaving the future open, it helps to know that there are parachutes not of our making in our lives.

For Christians, I believe that the parachute is our Lord Jesus Christ and the Scripture that was inspired by the Hand of God and the future that awaits us is a home in heaven in His Glorious Presence. However, this is something that I must choose to believe. For some scholars, they can work it out, or at least part of it with with history and archeology, and such, but for me...it's mostly just faith. I choose to believe. That way, I have the best possible life here on this earth with wonderful Christian friends who love and support me like a family...I can call on any one of them to help me when I am in need or when I am celebrating and when I die, heaven is waiting for me. If I'm wrong about all of this BUT I REALLY DON'T THINK I AM WRONG, and there is no life after this one, then I've had a great life on this earth anyway!

Thank you, God, for all of my Christian friends (you know who you are...I couldn't begin to name you all!) and for giving me your Holy Word as a road map of how to have the best possible life here on this earth and to tell me how to get to heaven!

The Revel

We had a great time at The Revel with Carol and Charley and James and Laurel. There were beautiful crafts and jewelry and artwork of every kind. Tim really had fun talking to all the artists and gathering their cards so he could send them invitations to the next National Art Exhibition sponsored by the Memphis Germantown Art League and looking for judges for their shows.

Carol and Charley have a beautiful new house for which Carol was the contractor. I don't know how she did it. It would have made me absolutely crazy but she loved it and the house turned out great. Charley says if she ever wants to build another house she can do it with her new husband. We really enjoyed being with Laurel and James, too. Tim and Laurel spent quiet a bit of time painting together and James is really into music now. On Sunday we ate lunch with Charley's mom and dad. It was really good to see them again. I downloaded photos from Tim's camera directly onto facebook and I don't know how to get them onto this blog from there.

It was a great weekend.

Finally Vivian Photos

These are various photos of Vivian with her hair in crazy ways before the hair cut and photos of her and her principal and two other teachers who all shaved their heads as a result of the challenge to raise money for Caleb. She also sent me a newspaper article. It says that Caleb said from his hospital room, "At least they won't have a bad hair day now." I'm proud to call Vivian my friend! Her students; however, are not very happy with her because her hair grows so fast, they already can't see her scalp anymore!

Addendem to Zoe

We flew in Friday night and spent the night with Cathy and Scott and Noah. We had a great visit with them and enjoyed it so much. Thanks, Cathy, for providing us with transportation and a bed and breakfast and such a good visit!

Zoe Confernece

We had a great time at the Zoe Conference. We was a great time of worship and praise. I attended the break out sessions by Rhonda Lowry, wife of the Lipscomb president, and it was a great lesson on grace. She used the prodigal son as the basis for her lesson. She also sent us out to meditate for 30 minutes...I find that very hard to do...to be still and quiet and not let my mind think but try to listen for the voice of God (not speaking out loud to me, but in my heart). Thirty minutes is a long time for me to be still and quiet without going to sleep! But I made it. Randy Gill spoke on Saturday night. He did a great job, too. We got to see so many friends that we haven't seen in a long time. I am going to try to post some of the photos here, but Tim is not here to help me so I don't know that I can do it by myself. I did get them off the camera and onto my desk top but I'm not sure how to get them onto this blog spot.

Well, I've spent about twenty minutes trying to get the photos on here with no success, so I'll wait til tonight and get Tim to help me, but we saw Janet Johns Bowers, Lwana Case Gill, Ken and Crystal Delano, Shannon Cooper and his cute little wife, Alita Gable and Travis and his cute little wife, Andee and Jimmy Cone, as well as several who were there from Sycamore View and two or three who came up and said they knew us from Harding days but, of course, we didn't have you, Beckie to be our brain for us and neither Tim nor I could remember who they were. I think I'm not going to do so well at homecoming this year without you, Rebecca Jane...

Laura left yesterday to go on a camping trip with her school with her new job. She is working with a Kansas City Environmental School that has a camping trip once in the fall and once in the spring. She is responsible for the fundraising in the whole school and planning all the field trips and when she's not doing that, she will be assisting the science teacher. I think she will enjoy it. I also think it is ironic because it is just the kind of thing I would have done at her age and I did do for her and Joe all through their school years when she used to tell me that she was never going to be like me but as she reminded me yesterday-she is getting paid to do it and I never got a pay check, but I did get paid with lots of hugs and thank yous from the teachers and the children.

Have a good day!

They raised $15,000+

Vivan called this afternoon. She was so excited! They raised over $15,000 so Dr. Foster, Vivian, and two of the fifth grade teachers all got haircuts today in front of the whole school. She said the children were so excited that they were all going wild and some were even crying they were so happy! All the Mobile TV stations and newspapers were there to cover the story. Vivian is supposed to send me a disc with the photos on it so I can post them on my blog. Hope they will come soon!

It's official!

Tomorrow, Vivian will have no hair! Today the kids brought in $11,300+ as of early this morning.....she thinks they may even come up with $15000 so that Caleb's classroom teacher will have to shave her head, too! This is great for St. Jude! I'm not sure of the word for Vivian...

They're up to $8850!

This is Wednesday and they are up to $8850. Vivian will be hairless by Friday, but she's having fun with it this week. Tomorrow she's going to wear her hair gelled standing straight up all over her head and Friday she says its going to be pink and green. At least she's having fun with it and she says she's got lots of hats to wear after Friday is over!

It's gonna be close!

I called Vivian's school this morning. They have a little over $7300 today (Tuesday) with 3 days left to go. The secretary said that Vivian has her hair in little pony tails all over her head today so her scalp can start getting some sun...

Vivian Update

Vivian called today. They have $6300+ in hand and the news media was at school today to interview her. She told them what was going on and that the kids kept saying, "You're going down, Miss Walker!" Several of you have asked on my comments how to contribute to this cause...Fed Ex your contribution to Hutchins Elementary, 10005 West LaKe Road, Mobile, AL 36695. The money has to be in by this Friday, October 6. I can't wait until I hear what is going on when Friday comes!!!

Call from Vivian

Can you imagine Vivian with no hair? Well, get ready because we might be seeing a bald headed Vivian by next week! A child from her school is St. Jude. Her principal agreed to shave his head if the PTA raised $2000 for St. Jude and then they asked Vivian how much they would have to raise for her to shave her head...She told them at least $10,000.
Well, the first week is over and they've got $5,000 in hand and one more week to go so we might have a bald headed Vivian on our hands by next week! Go Kids for St Jude! This could really be fun! and keep 4th grader Caleb Mosley in your prayers!

Tim and I just returned from a short weekend visit with John and Laura. We really enjoyed getting to see a little bit of Kansas City but we mostly enjoyed getting to visit with our kids. We flew up on Saturday morning and got there about 11:00. They live in this really neat loft apartment just like you see on TV (but I've never been in one in real life). They live on the 4th floor and have a beautiful view of the river and the Downtown Kansas City Airport. We, however, did not go into that airport because gas was $1.50 cheaper a gallon at a little airport about 20 minutes away and there was no tie down fee for over night and when you are buying 50 gallons of gas, that makes a significant difference in the amount of money that you spend. We filled up their car for them today for the extra miles they had to drive to get up and take us back to the airport, but that was nothing compared to the amount we saved in aviation fuel! Yesterday, John stayed at home and graded papers (I tried to talk him into giving multiple choice test so we could all help him grade them, but he said that wouldn't work...they had to be essay - he's a conscientious teacher) while we went to the open air market and ate and Laura bought fresh vegetables. It was very European. She even carried her own cloth bag to carry her stuff home in and then we went to the Kansas City Museum of Art. They had some really neat sculptures and there was like family fair going on on the grounds where kids could do arts and crafts.

Then Laura took us to our hotel and we rested for a while and then they took us out to eat at a wonderful restaurant in an old railroad station. The food was wonderful and , I'm sorry, Beckie, but I broke the rule. I ordered a chicken pot pie and when they brought it, it was the size of a dinner plate and I just could not help it when the words came out of my mouth, "This is just too much food!" However, I did refrain from eating all of it...in fact, I only ate about a third of it even though it was delicious because the waitress has already told us that they had a wonderful cream bruele and I wanted some. It was worth leaving part of the chicken pot pie to have room for! Nice and crusty on top and slivered almonds all around it...soooo good! We had a really good conversation with Laura and John.

This morning they took us to the little diner for breakfast and the owner finally asked us to leave so someone else could have our table. There was a long line and we were enjoying our visit a great deal! She did tell us we could take out coffee cups outside and keep visiting but she needed our table to serve others. We really enjoyed being with Laura and John. Poor John is having to work really hard to prepare for his classes. He went to William Jewell and interviewed for a position in the philosophy department but they also had an opening in the religion department and the religion people liked him better so they hired him for that department so now he is really having to study the bible in order to teach his classes. i keep telling him that he just might study his way into becoming a Christian but he keeps telling me that he doubts that is going to happen. I'll just keep praying about it. He is so smart. He and Laura and a very good fit intellectually! Now if they would just fall in love with God! They know that is my deepest desire and wish for them, but I love them anyway!

Hey, and I made it through this whole trip without saying anything stupid or doing anything really dumb! I must be growing up a little!