27-28

The offical number of miles I get per gallon in my new car. I am so happy. We were debating on getting a 4 cylider because of gas milage, but I am not a big fan of putt-putting. There are times I want to step on it and go, that's why I got the 6 cylider. But I was afraid that I had been a little stupid considering I spend much time on the road. But as long as I am getting 27-28 miles to the gallon around town, I'm happy.

VBS

Yesterday was a long day at New Columbia GMC. After morning worship, 14 people came to the parsonage for lunch, after which we went VBS calling. Vonnie prepared a wonderful meal of ham, potatoes, macaroni & cheese, fresh rolls and a veggi tray served with ice cold pepsi! We then spent the afternoon calling only to return to finish preparing for a special themed service for the evening service. Our theme for the service was "Heaven". We had special singing throughout the service with Michael DeStefano playing a medly of song about heaven. Pastor Tolley and myself both preached, two points a piece. The outline was: The Design of Heaven, Directions to Heaven, Destiny - Heaven, and Heaven - it's your Decision. There were many posotive comments and people were encouraged. Now for a week of VBS!!!

The Masons

The Masons are soon leaving our congregation. They are under appointment from HIM to be missionaries to Mexico. I have had the wonderful privilege to dedicate their two children to the Lord. Here is a picture from just a couple of weeks ago when we dedicated little Taylor Scott. Last year we dedicated Kyle. What a talented family. Our prayers are with the Masons as they prepare to answer God's call.

Finally...Excitement to Report

This is a picture of Walnut Street in Mifflinburg, PA around 11:30 last night. We saw this scene as we drove by. I was curious and drove around the vlock. Police were everywhere. Telling us what alleys to use. Today's paper said 52 year old, Mr. Showers, had called to report a dog "pooping" on his lawn. When police arrived, he had a loaded handgun and was pointing it at the police officer. A standoff took place until 1:00 am this morning. No one was hurt do to fine work from our local tactical team. All of this over dog "poop".

Final Pictures

As I was viewing my past blog posts, I realized that I had not posted pictures of our new laundry room. The previous pictures were when Don Hallenbeck was tearing everything out. Here is the final outcome. It is so wonderful having the laundry on the first floor. No more up and down. A big thank you to the church board for the added convenience.

New Car

Here it is. Our new car. I really like it. Vonnie does too, but she calls it "grannies" car. Oh well. I am very thankful for it.

Church Picnic

Today was our annual church spring picnic. It was a beautiful day. We have it at the Watsontown Park. It is in the middle of a grove of trees and is greatly shaded. We had a great lunch and then we had some cake. The cake was for Michael and Crystal Mason. This is their last picnic here. They will soon be headed to Mexico as missionaries. Michael and Crystal served as our Minister of Music for the past three years. They will be greatly missed. We also played hillbily horseshoes and real horseshoes. Luke Brinkmann and Justin Steen was the team to beat. They were undefeated. They won 8 straight games. I've never seen so many ringers and leaners. Oh well, there is always next time. All in all it was a good day.

Making the Best of a Bad Situation

As you know, because of a recent post, we had bought a Jetta. We were extremely excited. It was awsome. It wasn't long until we realized we had been taken. This awesome car was in reality a piece of junk. The story goes like this. I found this car through the magazine "Autotrader". I called about it and it sounded nice. It was very reasonably priced. I asked why a 2002 was was so low priced. His response was that he had just paid it off. He had just finished school and he wanted to get rid of the car. His names was "Rocky". I got down to Reading, PA and found his house. It was in a very nice sub-division. When we got there, I soon found out that "Rocky" was short for Raqeb...that's right...Raqeb Ahmed. He had told me he had replaced the battery because it didn't start right. We bought the car and headed towards Cabelas. We went in and when we came out the car would not start. Alternator was bad. He replaced it. The next day he was going to meet me in Lebanon, PA where I was attending a viewing. He called and said he couldn't meet me there was some other problem. In short I had owned the car three days and I still didn't have it because it had been the shop two times. When I finally got it, it needed to go in again. I was bummed, frustrated, and I quickly became an advocate of racial profiling. To me, Arabs and cars go just about as good as Indians and hotels and gas stations! Oh well. The good news is I just traded it in at a local, reputable car lot. I paid $6,500. for the Jetta and Got $9,200 for the trade. Not bad. We ended up with an Oldsmobile Intrigue. It has less miles and is in excellent condition. I am finally at peace!! No more cars for a long, long time.