News, Notes, and Random Thoughts

6:31 PM I just found a recipe for Chile Chocolate Almond Cookies. Seems like a strange taste combination. If anyone tries this recipe, let me know how it goes.

2:27 PM Today is the 200th anniversary of John Newton’s death.

1:38 PM Anthony Bollback has posted the December edition of China Clippings.

1:27 PM Gerard Baker says 2007 was a bad year for the “God Squadders” (his term). I really liked the last three paragraphs of the article.

11 AM We spent over an hour at the Lee County Health Department getting our yellow fever shots (required for our upcoming trip to Bolivia–Jan 5-14). Most of that time was spent waiting plus there was quite a bit of paperwork to go through. The woman who gave us the shots was a Med-Evac nurse in Vietnam. She turned out to be a walking encyclopedia of information about hepatitis A&B, malaria and yellow fever. Marlene and I both had to get a yellow fever shot and the requisite documentation. In the interest of full disclosure, I should report that when it comes to shots, one of us is strong and one is a big baby. I am not the strong one.

6:49 AM This Sunday I’m teaching the Ferris-Duncan Sunday School class at Harrisburg Baptist Church in Tupelo. Most of the men in our Bible study (and most of the men who took part in the Angel Tree deliveries last night) come from that class.

6:43 AM Last night we had a great time delivering gifts as part of Angel Tree, a ministry that provides Christmas gifts to the 2.3 million children who have a mother or father in prison. We visited four homes in Tupelo and nearby Verona. First home: no one there. Evidently they had recently moved. Second home: gave gifts to the grandmother who will give them to the children. Third home: a mobile home where we gave gifts to the grandmother and mother for the children. Fourth home: Gave the gifts to the great-grandmother who will give them to the children. At each home Mickey Aldy shared the gospel and then we joined hands and prayed together. It was crowded because there were two vanloads of men from our Bible study.

6:34 AM I now have 260 friends on Facebook.

6:20 AM Two articles reveal both sides of the church in China. Time Magazine reports on China’s New Bestseller: The Bible while multiple Chinese house churches have been raided during Christmas services.

6 AM Checking my email. Not much overnight. Things always slow down just before Christmas.

5:35 AM Reading the Tupelo Daily Journal. The headline reads “Power of Prayer” and the subhead says, “God saw Jeff Gray through tragedy.” In other news the Ole Miss men’s basketball team defeated DePaul last night at a tournament in Puerto Rico. The High School Sports section picked Ethan Reece as one of two “players of the week,” noting that he averaged 35 points and 11.5 rebounds in two recent victories for Pine Grove. Under “One Christmas Wish,” it quotes him as a saying, “For one more person to know the Lord as their Savior.” You wouldn’t see that in a lot of newspapers around the country.

5:15 AM Time to get up and feed the dogs. Dudley and Gary have been sleeping better since we moved their beds in front of the Christmas tree. But after 5 AM if I get up for any reason, Gary wakes up.