Here I am Lord, Send Me...Isaiah 6:8

Softly and Tenderly-Music Video

Click on the title and go to see a beautiful video of a mission in Africa.

Labor Day - A History Lesson

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend! Hope to see you at church.

Back in Session

Back in Session

Who of us is not affected by school being in session? I know I am but then again I work for the public school system. But even if we do not work in schools or even work we are all affected by it. We have to deal with much heavier traffic in the mornings and the afternoons and we all have been caught behind a school bus that seems to stop every 30 feet! 

We all get so busy during the school season. We have football games, basketball season, soccer etc... You name it. All of our children were in the marching bands. If you think you are busy now...just wait. So, with all this busyness, I want to remind you to take a little time for yourself and stop to reflect on our great God. He is in charge of all of our busyness and when we forget Him...well we have total chaos. 

Where is It?

It’s Gotta Be Here Somewhere

By Martha Bolton

Do you realize the average person loses up to six weeks every year looking for things that he or she
has misplaced at work—files, pens, computer disks, the boss.
We lose things at home, too. We misplace our glasses, car keys, slippers, remote control, checkbook,
wallet, hairbrush, pens, and pencils.
When we finally find the missing item, it’s often in the strangest of places. Like when we discover we
put a cucumber in our purse and our cell phone in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator.
And has this ever happened to you? You’re in the middle of looking for something when you forget
what it was you were looking for. Now, you would think that this would take the stress off finding the lost
item. After all, if you can’t remember what you lost, it stands to reason that you would no longer worry
about having lost it. But that’s not how it works. Forgetting what you’re looking for only makes matters
worse. You stress even more because you know you lost something, and the longer it takes you to find it,
the more valuable you’re sure it was.
When you figure we’re wasting six weeks of our lives looking for articles we lose and work and at
least that much time looking for things we lose at home, maybe we should try to do something about it.
Maybe we could all benefit from signing up for one of those memory seminars. Haven’t you wondered
what goes on at them? Do they serve ginseng-spiked punch and sit around playing Pin the Tail on the
Whatchamacallit?
I saw a helpful product in a catalog recently. It was an electronic locator. It came with four different
pagers that would send a beeping sound to whatever item it was programmed to find. Pretty ingenious. I
bought two sets. One set to use for the four items, and another set to locate the pagers for when I lose
them.
I’m sure you’ve done this, too—gotten into your car, driven off, and totally forgotten that you had set
something on the roof. That’s always exciting, isn’t it? Soda cans, your briefcase, mail, pizza. You don’t
realize it until you’re on the freeway going seventy miles per hour and you see someone passing you
waving their arms frantically. By the time you figure out that those lips being whipped in the wind are
mouthing “Pizza on the roof,” the pepperoni is already sliding down your windshield.
Memory loss isn’t all bad, though. There are some positive things that can come out of it. If you can’t
remember your outstanding bills, you have a lot more spending money. If you can’t recall people’s
names, you have a whole bunch of new friendships to make and enjoy. And if you can’t remember your
embarrassing moments, what’s to keep you from the fun of making more?

Excerpts from Sharing a Laugh. © 2007 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

His love endures forever!

Summer Time is Here!

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

I can't speak for everyone but summer is my favorite time of year and it has always been that way. Now that I work for the school system it is like a bonus that we get to take off a few weeks every summer to relax. Whether you head for the beach, the mountains or just the backyard it is a blessing to be able to time off from our usual routines and go on a vacation. Just a friendly reminder, God has blessed us with this time off and we should not neglect to give the glory to Him that he is due. Have a blessed summer!

This blog will resume when summer ends. 

Great is your Love...