Random thoughts from early 2011

As a man who's been around this old world long enough to pause and reflect AND a pastor who has a great concern for the spiritual health of not only the members of our church but of those who have left the church, I can't help but wonder how the church in the United States has reached the state it is in now. When did the 'Teachings' of the word of God become a minor concern in the church today. It would seem the for many of those who attend church today, making sure that church 'activities' for our families have taken precedence. I wouldn't be as concerned if those same people were actually involved in these activities/ministries but the great majority seemed to want these ministries yet don't want to be involved in working in the ministries they want for their families. Have we really become a 'McDonalds generation. We want what we want when we want it but only want to go through the drive through.....no involvement. I am truly shocked by those I've talked to who would go to a church who's beliefs they don't subscribe to, just to have the activities that would keep their families involved.

My concern is deeper than just that however since I can't believe that our attitude toward our church would be different than our attitude towards our relationship to Christ! Do we really think we can have a proper, satisfying, faith-filling relationship to Christ by giving Him, at best a 30 second prayer at meals added with a 5 minute prayer before bed???? Will attendance at worship church (no Sunday School; no evening or midweek service) really be all we need? Will that kind of a time investment give us the faith that sustains WHEN (not if) life goes bad/ our family turns against us / our health fails / and society at large writes us off as not valuable?

I have questions about these things. I feel that I have been born 'out of season' in the sense that what I see in the Bible about what God expects our personal life; our family life; and our church life in no way resembles what they actually are as being played out in our lives.

I know that the 'MESSAGE" is the only important aspect BUT I presently don't see the "MESSAGE" being given the prime and supreme position it is commanded to be in the Bible.

May God help me to do what I can as close to the way God wants me to do it.

I've been gone from this for a long time

It has been some time since I made an entry. LaDonna's health has and continues to be my major concern. Although she has been doing better, still we have no real answers as to what and how serious her liver problem is. Diagnosed with hepatic encephalopathy in May of this year in Cincinnati while we were there for our 40th anniversary, she is scheduled to meet with a Doctor at the University of Kansas Medical Center (Dept of hepatology) in Kansas City, KS (called KCK around here) next week. We are praying there is something they can do to improve her liver as well as her quality of life. She is unable to attend 2 church services on Sunday due to the medication she MUST take.

I will try to update this on a greater basis, including both church life as well as our personal day-to-day activities that I deem interested in someone who follows this blog.

We're AIR CONDITIONED AGAIN!

It's about 3:15pm on Monday the 2nd and the furnace / heat pump assemblies were replaced in about 2 hours this morning. The timing was also great as they finished right before the bad storms came rolling in. They put in a different model Lennox system so I hope this one works better than the last one. It really is good to have air conditioning again! My asthma really doesn't like humid conditions so I'm feeling better and I believe LaDonna is also.

That''s all for now.

God Bless,
Pastor

Monday Morning and things are looking up

It's Monday Morning about 10am and the week is starting out on a good note here at the Mingus house. LaDonna continues to improve and we thank God for that; but the BIG news is that AFC Heating and Conditioning are here to install our new heat pump/ AC / furnace today! They are on the job as I write this. They have already moved the new furnace unit into our basement so LaDonna and I are excited at the prospect that we may not need to survive another night without air conditioning! Of course the 'hit' on the checkbook is not desired but it's necessary! I'm hoping they can get it all done before the thunderstorms and possible hail hit us. I believe the storms are scheduled to be over the 'metro' between noon and 5pm.

LaDonna took only some pain medication at bedtime last night. She took none yesterday so that is good news!

It was great being back to church yesterday! The only thing missing for me, was, of course, LaDonna. But that will take some more time and we both are attempting to be patient.

That's all for now.

God Bless,
Pastor Dave

It's thursday and improvement is continuing

It's Thursday afternoon, the 29th and LaDonna continues to improve slowly. She is still eating semisolid food due to her teeth and that may be slowing her recovery some.

She is not back to normal as far as her entire digestive system is concerned as I've given her some imodium. I believe that was anticipated as that medication was mentioned as a possibility in her release orders about medication.

She is not taking much pain medication at all now. She is taking 3 or 4 'laps' around our back porch concrete pad a couple of times a day now. I have to remind her that her incision cut her diaphram open and that will need a lot of time for recovery.

She is not taking any of her vitamin supplements yet because her digestive system is not back to normal and we need to see that improve before we introduce anything else to her diet.

Of course we miss the church a lot but, I will be, someway, returning for Sunday services this next Sunday. LaDonna is still weeks away from a trip that long and strenuous. And she is nowhere near being able to sit up for that long yet.

That's about it for now....God bless to all who have prayed and are continuing to pray.

Pastor

LaDonna is getting better and better at home

It's the 27th of May (our oldest, David Russell's birthday) and LaDonna is continuing to improve at home.

First of all, she's really happy to be at home.

She is limited to our family room level of our front-to-back split house. We put a twin bed there. Her appetite is improving even though I'm limiting her to soft foods due to her dentures problem I've discussed before in this blog. I'm giving her scrambled eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, and mashed potatoes and Salisbury steak for lunch. Last night she had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. She has had ice cream for in between meals. I'm trying to figure out how to give her variety in her meals and at the same time giving her something that will be easy on her gums.

She walked out on the back deck (downstairs, of course) today, several laps so that is good for her.

She has to go back to see the surgeon June 4th (staples removal and check up of her recovery) and our family doctor June 20th (for recovery checkup), as well as the previously scheduled trip to St Louis to Barnes Hospital for her vitamin A problem June 24th.
We have heard nothing about the liver biopsy yet.

Of course, going to the state meeting in Springfield the first week of June is completely out of the question and I'm glad we already canceled our trip to the National in July. LaDonna's complete recovery will pretty much take care of the entire summer. Her attendance at VBS in June is, of course, also out of the question now.

I imagine it will be at least another month before she can make the trip to church. I'm figuring her first long car trip will be the trip to St Louis to Barnes Hospital June 24th. And that will probably be a 3 day affair: day one will be the trip over; day 2 will be the actual visit to the doctor; and day 3 will be the trip back. Of course the Lord may accelerate her healing so nothing is set in stone. I AM hoping she is well enough for me to go to church this coming Sunday without having to get our son Doug or daughter-in-law to come over from Topeka to be with her while I'm at church. My two weeks of vacation time away from the church will be up by this coming Sunday. The Lord will take care of all though. He always provides a way.

We are still without any air conditioning; the complete replacement of the heat pump/furnace is supposed to start sometime the first week of June. The hardware is costing nothing but I have to pay for the labor...which is somewhere in the $900 category. This has been an expensive spring to be sure.

Continue to pray for LaDonna as, of course as it is with most of us, she wants to recover quicker than her body will allow her.



That's all for now.

God Bless and thanks for all your prayers.

Pastor

Sunday afternoon, May 25th and we're home!!

I didn't get a chance to blog anything from the hospital this morning because they told us that LaDonna could go home and it happened so quick. Thank the Lord that He was gracious to bring LaDonna back to a healthy enough condition that she was able to come home today.

She still has a long recovery period to go before she will be back to being able to go to church and do all the things she did before but yet she is on her way!

We bought a twin bed and have put it in the family room so she will not have to do the stairs, at least at first. Also it's cooler down in the family room which is important because, if you read the earlier blog entries, they won't be able to replace the furnace/heat pump in our house before the first week of June.

It's the hottest day of the year so far but the wind is blowing good so we have all the windows open (which we never ususally do because of my asthma) but it's bearable.

Continue to pray for her quick recovery.
The entries will probably only be once a day now. Also pray that I'll be able to attend to all of LaDonna's needs. First up, I'll have to find out what she can eat (due to her teeth/dentures problem that started these bad 2 weeks) as well as being easy on her 'reconstructed' digestive system.

God is great and we praise His name.

Love & prayers,
Pastor