Blog or not to Blog...that is the question.

It has been a while since I have considered blogging.
The reason is not that there has been so little to write about, but that there has been so little time. We have been so busy.

Our last two weeks have included:
Dinner, Church, and choir on Wednesday nights
Dinner theater rehearsals on Thursday nights
NCAA basketball tournament- Go Tigers!
Tigers lost last night-Can't wait until next year (Top recruiting class coming in!)
Bible Study Friday nights- Hebrews (We love going to the Daniels and studying..& eating :))
Our brother and friend, Robert Brown, passed away and his funeral was last Sunday.
He was the driving force and contractor on all three phases of our church. He completed his job, and now he is home with the Lord, in a house not made with hands. He truly has moved into our Father's house.
And Jean Ann has been ill for a week now. Everyone has been praying for her. We spent two days at the doctor's office and lots of money (that we don't have), and now she is doing better. This is her first day back to work. I love her so much!
I have been doing everything I can to help her and take care of her. You feel so helpless sometimes, you know?
I do believe in prayer. I believe that God listens and answers all of His children's prayers, according to His will.
We are so blessed.
Our weeks are full, but they are full of our love for Jesus.
Thank you for all your prayers. I will continue to blog, to write, to dabble and discuss what's going on in our paths that lead us home.
Until He returns-
In His service,
Wink and Jean Ann

Pastor Winters is Home

While we were all sitting in our church during Sunday's worship services, First Baptist Maryville in Illinois was being visited by evil personified as through the front door and down the ailse came a suspicious person with a gun.
The pastor, Brother Fred Winters, was shot and killed during the 8 am service by a 27 year old man who officials say was mentally ill.
Keith Melton, one of the men who disarmed the gunman, said in an interview that at first no one realized the danger.
The gunman walked in about 20 minutes after the service began as Winters, 45, the senior pastor, was reading from Psalm 128, Melton said. Winters, a married father of two, said to the man, "Good morning."
"Then he started shooting," Melton said. "No one heard him say a word."
Sedlacek fired four shots with a .45-caliber handgun before the gun jammed, the State's Attorney's Office said.
One shot hit Winters' Bible. The pastor called out "Somebody help me" as he ran to a side aisle, the gunman following, Melton said. He grabbed the gunman by the waist and pushed him against a wall. The man raised his arm, now holding a knife, and stabbed Melton in the chest. Melton was treated later for a wound about an inch deep, he said.
The gunman crawled under a pew, where other men quickly held him down. During the struggle, the State's Attorney's Office said, the man stabbed parishioner Terry Bullard and then stabbed himself in the neck.
Bullard, 39, and the suspect remained in serious condition at St. Louis University Hospital on Monday night, spokeswoman Laura Keller said.
Autopsy results showed Winters was hit with one bullet that went through his heart, Madison County coroner Steve Nonn said Monday.
Smith said police found at least 30 rounds of ammunition on Sedlacek.
On Monday, churchgoers and employees celebrated the memory of the popular preacher. Another pastor at First Baptist, Mark Jones, said he received more than 1,000 e-mails of support.
Winters had expanded the church over 21 years from a few dozen members to 1,500. His life's work was spreading the word of God, Jones said.
"He died doing exactly what he believed passionately about." Two men in the congregation subdued the gunman, and both were stabbed in the process. Those wounds are not life-threatening.
But, now the wounds of this church are deep and the mourning will truly begin as they bury their pastor, husband, father, and friend.
Let's keep them in our prayers.
I can't even imagine this happening at our church. We all feel so safe, but the world is full of the unsafe, and Satan is attacking on every front.
Let us all take his last sermon from Psalm 128 to heart. Blessed is he that fears the Lord.
Death where is your sting?!
Here it is as we pray for this church and their loss.
1 Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways. 2 When you eat the labor of your hands,You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. 3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine, In the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants. All around your table. 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD. 5 The LORD bless you out of Zion, And may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. 6 Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
Amen.