Betty’s Week
By Betty Shearer
Was going to begin this column on my soap box, but think I’ll move that down a notch and tell you about my computer woes. Came in early to write the column, which I’d gone home without completing last night (Monday). Settling into my chair, I realized my computer was down. I do know how to bring it back to life—only problem was when I revived it, I found a totally different animal than the one I’d left when I went home.
For some reason the computer I’m using has two hard drives—don’t know why, because I don’t utilize one hard drive. David thinks they were put on by Ed, for who knows what reason. Well when I left, we think, I was running on HD2, and when the thing came up this morning I found HD1.
We have not to date found HD2 again, so some of the copy I’d set yesterday had to be re-key-boarded. At eleven a.m., I was starting where I should have been at eight—I’m a little behind.
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Now to the soap box! Was listening to news last night and this morning and the reports were that the housing market is down by about a third in many areas. My question is if my house is worth only two-thirds of last year’s value, why does my insurance and taxes not decrease to that value?
Another news flash was about the huge bonuses given to the heads of failing businesses that have received bail-out money. I can’t believe our government is so stupid that it just hands out billions of dollars with no guidelines on its use. Is the fate of our nation in the hands of such irresponsible individuals?
I’m studying Isaiah right now and it’s kinda unsettling to read that the king of Judah, even though warned by God of what was going to happen if he did not put his trust in Him, rather than forming alliances with other nations, would be wiped out. Only a ten percent remnant would be left. The correlation to what’s happening in the U.S. is so close it makes me apprehensive. Think it’s time for us to pray harder for our leaders.
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Recently, with Brother Bo driving my van (he was checking it out), Brother Rance riding shotgun, Misty and Carolyn on the second seats, and Jimmie and me on the back seat, we went down to Oakland to see the Herron House, where Misty’s and Trea’s wedding will be held in June. After we left Oakland, Bo took us on a back-roads tour of Yalobusha, Tallahatchie, and Panola Counties. At one point, he turned to me and says, “Sis, do you know where you are?”
My answer was “I hope we still in the U.S.” Then I continued, “Please don’t all five of you drop dead at once, because I’ll never see civilization again.”
Finally got on the Enid/Teasdale Road and I knew where I was—reported that I now knew where we would enter the Pope/Crowder Road.
One interesting aspect of this trip was seeing the tremendous damage done by the tornado in that area last year. There was very little structural damage, but the number of trees wiped out was astounding.
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I attended the second Lenten Luncheon at FUM on Thursday. Was at the table with Angie Chandler, Crip Tyler, Don Holloway, Charmie Weeks and Robert Reid. Mr. Robert was apologizing for not having been in to pay his subscription, informing me that he’d been in the hospital having surgery. I’d missed hearing of his being ill, and told him I was going to have to get on Niece Becky Jones for not keeping me posted. He says he’s recuperating pretty well and I hope he will continue to improve.
Brad Sartor presented the special music and he was wonderful. Should have known he’d have a beautiful voice, as he comes from a long line of great singers. Grandfather P. G. Scarbrough directed the music at FUM for many year, he was followed by Brad’s uncle, O. T. Parsons, and Grandmother Martha Lee Scarbrough and his mother, Paula Kay, both sang in the choir—the list could go on and on. Mom says his great-grandfather was a singer.
Brad presented a beautiful prayer, acapala (not easy to do). The message was so good and the rendition gave me goose-bumps. Thanks, Brad, for this tremendous worship experience.
Rev. Raymond Aven brought the message and it was so timely and well delivered. Raymond is a great preacher.
The delicious hot vegetable soup and cornbread was just the right meal for the cold, blustery day. I did enjoy it and heard many others saying the same.
This week Bro. David Freeman, pastor of First Christian, will be preaching, and Mim Carpenter will be presenting the music. I’m looking forward to this worship service—I’ve not been privileged to hear Bro. David and although I’ve heard Mim sing in the choir for years, I’ve never heard her solo.
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Early Saturday morning a group of Woodland Hill members gathered to de-clutter the room that will be our sanctuary. About two dump trucks loads went out and we swept up tons of sheetrock and saw dust. I’m surprised that any of us were able to talk or sing Sunday morning. Even with all the hard work, we still managed to have a good time.
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It was Woodland Hill’s turn to bring the worship service at Yalobusha County NH Sunday afternoon. A good number of our members were present and there were many NH residents attending. I especially enjoyed a visit with Brent Shirley (Ludie’s nephew) following the service. We began discussing our ages and I found out I was the older and then we went on to talk about how long we’d known each other. Brent says, “I don’t think you and Ed were even married when I first met you.” I expect that he is correct, because Ed and I dated for 14 months and almost every time I was in the Valley during that time we visited with Ludie. I’m sure Brent was there on one of these visits.
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Since we were not having services at Woodland Hills Sunday night, a group of us went over for a visit with the Mt. Comfort congregation in Bruce. This church is the one our building is patterned after.
Tim Sutherland and his family are members there, and it was good to see him. We always enjoy visiting with the pastor, Bro. Dub Harrelson, and it was great to hear him preach Sunday night. Another treat was hearing the girls’ quartet from Bruce High School who brought the special music. One of the girls was Jennifer Hathorne, daughter of Bro. Daniel and Christi Hathorne. Bro. Daniel is a former pastor of Coffeeville FB, now pastor of Bruce FB. This was the first time I’ve seen this young lady since Ed died, and I could not believe she’s so grown up. This group was fabulous.
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Only visited with Mom for a few minutes on Saturday afternoon. She was fine.
Arriving back at home, I as surprised to see a strange vehicle coming up my driveway. As I opened the door Betty Davis hopped out. Al has a new vehicle—a cute Jeep. They were on their way to Batesville to eat and had stopped to invite me to go along. Was good to visit with them, since we’d not seen each other in several weeks.
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Hope all you folks who get Spring Break are enjoying it—weather is certainly cooperating. At lunch it was suggested that maybe my HD2 took the break. Well, if it did I wish it had taken me with it.
