ACCEPTING YOUR MISSION

We have gotten all dried out here in Scott County. The first time we looked at the house on this road, we noticed the "Flooding Possible" sign right away. Everytime we had heavy rains, we always expected to see flooding, but never had these past two years. Well, Sunday was the first time. As most all of Kentucky and Tennessee experienced torrential downpours for extended periods of time, we could hear water rushing down the hill at the edge of our yard. In the morning, Mark could not wait to get out and explore the situation. He said he could have put his canoe on the rapids coming down the hill as it washed over our driveway and out into the road and field across the way. Our closed gate had collected all kinds of debris as the water rushed through. I guess the entire road was flooded all the way up to and including the road that leads out to Cynthiana Road. Church was cancelled and we experienced our first flood. Guess the sign was right. Fortunately for us, we had no damage, just a very interesting morning seeing all the water. It was high at 6:00and had gone down considerably by 10:00.

I mentioned last month how much I enjoyed the blooming trees. The redbuds were particularly noticeable. This month it is the Black Locust trees. They have clusters of white flowers that hang down from the very top branches. They are so visible looking out across the tops of the trees from the roadside. We are lucky to have quite a few of them in our yard and they are so fragrant. It is wonderful while it lasts to to just breathe it all in, it's just so sweet an aroma.

I am currently trying to tend to some blue hydrangea's and some purple petunia's now that the lilacs have lost their blooms. How sad to lose them. I'm also trying to figure out what to plant behind the daffodil's and tulips that are no more. I'm looking into lilies and iris. As for vegetables, it's a slow start with my yellow squash, zuchini and cucumbers. I think we need a few tomato plants as well.

I put up the oriole feeder weeks ago, but no luck seeing one of them yet. However, I put up the hummingbird feeder with the same mixture of one part sugar to four parts boiling water and have already seen our first little hummer. Now I need to buy some more suet cakes for the woodpeckers, because one of them has been visiting the hummingbird feeder since his suet cakes are missing. With the finch feeder out there, we had our first indigo bunting with the goldfinch. The bluebirds are busy coming and going from their house, they're always my favorites.

I continue to make progress in my Purpose Driven Life book. The first four purposes are really easy to work toward. They include loving God, being a part of his family, becoming more like Jesus and serving Him by serving others. I hope we all work at these daily in our lives. The last one is a little harder, but probably, one of the most important. It is our mission, which is telling others about God.

It is so important to God that it is mentioned in each of the four Gospels as well as the follow up chapter, Acts. The first time it's mentioned, it's called the Great Commission and states, "Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples". In Mark, Jesus says, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation". In Luke, we read "...repentance and forgieness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations". John writes, Jesus said "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And finally in the book of Acts, Jesus tells all his disciples "you will receive the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses.....to the ends of the earth". God made it clear that he didn't just want some of his created people to know about Him and our Savior, Jesus. He wanted all people of the world to hear this Good News. The disciples got the ball rolling and it is now our turn to keep it going.

Rick Warren expresses it as your ministry being your service to believers and your mission as your service to unbelievers. I hope we can all have the passion for our fellow earth dwellers to be active at both our ministry and our mission.

It has been such a beautiful day in this area. I was able to take the two boys, Riff and Roy for their walks, but it seemed a bit warm to take the old folks, Taffy and Pepper. We'll hopefully get another walk in as the evening air cools off a bit.

We're planning a wonderful Mother's Day. I hope you all enjoy a beautiful time spent with family on Sunday as well. Have a great day and stay safe, luv, Susan