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By Ruth Gadberry
Still July, still hot. We’ve already passed the middle of July and will soon be saying hello to August. Already. A little shower now and then would be great. It isn’t nearly as dry this summer as some summers we’ve experienced. Hang in there. It will get cooler and wetter but probably not for awhile yet.
News bulletin! The weather people say there is a possibility of showers Tuesday and Wednesday of this week! Nothing definite and not everyone will get even a shower. It sounds good anyway.
There was a good attendance at church Sunday morning. At least Ruth thinks it was good. She couldn’t see how many people were seated in the gym. Every other row of chairs had been moved into the gym, giving people plenty of room for social distancing. Quite a few people were wearing masks but not everybody. Lots of people celebrated birthdays last week.
There was also a good attendance for Wednesday night Bible study last week. More people are encouraged to attend Bible study, especially since they aren’t involved with the youth and children’s activities right now. Bible study is really a very special time to learn and share with each other.
The prayer list doesn’t seem to be getting any shorter for folks at FBC. So many people are sick or have problems we don’t even know about.
Did we hear correctly on this? That Glenda was a guest of the hospital in Atoka? Hopefully she is back home now and feeling much better.
Don’t forget to pray for those folks in the nursing homes. They can’t even have visitors and you know that must be discouraging for them. JC and Ruth miss visiting with Sis Wills every week but they do pray for her every day.
Sringtown First Baptist Church will observe a 24 hour time of intercessory prayer this weekend. They will meet at 6:00 o’clock Friday evening for prayer and someone will be praying every hour until 6:00 o’clock Saturday evening. God honors prayer. Pray, and see what God will do.
The women will be meeting again Sunday evening at 6:00 o’clock. They always have a great time and all ladies are invited to join them.
A big volleyball challenge was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, immediately following the morning worship service. The youth were challenging the adults, or was it the other way around? Anyway, they would share a lunch of pizza and then the action would begin. Being old people and not interested in playing volleyball, JC and Ruth went home so they don’t know how things worked out.
When will things get back to normal again? You know, Sunday School, Children’s Church, Youth and Children’s Wednesday night activities? Feeding the kids on Wednesday nights? All those activites that helped make Stringtown First Baptist Church so special. When will those activities start again? When school starts? Before, or after? What about Vacation Bible School? Sunday School?
Preacher Joey has asked all the deacons, Sunday School teachers, teachers and workers involved in any of these activities to meet with him following Bible study this Wednesday night to discuss the situation, make suggestions, make plans and see what and when things can be started again.
Ann is now a Redden resident again! Well, sort of. Partly. She is moved in but not yet un-boxed. The moving in process took place Saturday with several family members helping. There were several vehicles packed to the rooftops. Pickup trucks, a stock trailer – packed tightly with other stuff tied on front of the trailer. Someone suggested they put a rocking chair on top and then it would look just like the Beverly Hillbilly’s. Anyway, the house has been cleaned, repairs made, the lawn mowed, and everything moved inside. Do you still need to put in a hot water heater Ann? She can handle the un-boxing whenever she wants to and gets around to doing it. She is glad to be back ‘home’ again. Her family is definitely happy to have her back among them.
Ray has been coming out every week to water the bushes he set out for Ruth. The thornless climbing rose bush has a bunch of little green leaves now and looks good. The honeysuckle bushes still look like dry, dead sticks. Is there any hope for them? Ruth wonders about that.
Ray, with Beth’s help, is building a guinea house this week. They’ve already bought baby guineas but Brayden is still baby-sitting them until Ray gets a house built for them. Hopefully it will be completed in another day or two. When they get their baby guineas, JC and Ruth will get theirs and bring them home to the Guinea Inn.
Charles, did you find your missing cows? They don’t seem to be with the Gadberry cows. In fact, a couple of theirs are missing as well. They are probably across the creek where they go visiting occasionally.
JC, Ruth, and Beth all had appointments with their heart doctor in Oklahoma City last week. Ruth had an electrocardiogram, Beth had blood work, and all three saw the doctor and her assistant so they were at the hospital for a long time, especially since they got there quite a bit early. Someone at the door took their temperature and put an arm band around their arms to indicate that they were allowed to enter the Heart Hospital. Ray didn’t have an appointment and wasn’t even allowed to wait for them in the lobby so he just had to go shopping and wandering around.
It seems that the coronavirus is quite active in the Oklahoma City area. Their doctor advised them not to eat in Oklahoma City, don’t even go shopping. Just ‘get out of Dodge’ as soon as possible. The hospital cafeteria was even closed.
She believes that if people would stay at home as much as possible, practice social distancing, wear face masks, wash their hands often and practice all the other suggestions, that in six weeks we would see a big drop in the number of Covid-l9 cases. She believes that when school starts the number of cases will go up, up, up and they will have to close the schools again. Maybe not in small country schools like Stringtown but in big city schools. She also believes wearing a mask is 80% effective in protecting yourself and others.
Then there is the other side of the picture. Ruth knows one family of three who all had the virus. The husband didn’t feel well one day, the child had fever and a chill one day, and the wife didn’t have even one symptom. They all tested positive and were counted in the daily Covid-l9 count.
Yes, the virus is something to be concerned about and something we really should take seriously. More people are killed in car crashes, drownings, flu and other viruses, and all sorts of things. We don’t get too shook up about that. Of course most of those things aren’t contagious and that makes a big difference.
A lot of people think the Covid-l9 won’t be nearly as serious after the November election takes place. Right now it seems that President Trump is being blamed for all sorts of things concerned with the Covid-l9. Some even believe he was responsible for starting the virus in the first place. How? That hasn’t been determined. Some think he isn’t doing enough to slow the spread of the disease. He should have stopped travel sooner, closed businesses sooner and not opened them so soon, and on and on. Others take the opposite view; he should never have closed business, schools, and everything else because it’s bad for the economy. He can’t win for loosing! Some people will think it’s his fault, no matter what he does.
By the way, are you praying for your President during these difficult times? Not only the President but all those in government places who are responsible for keeping things going, making the right decisions and all that stuff? Okay, so maybe you don’t even like some of them. Maybe you don’t trust some of them. They may need even more prayer. You don’t have to pray that they get their way on everything. You can pray that God will guide them into making the right decisions, etc. Maybe you wouldn’t vote for them again, no matter what. That’s okay too; it’s your choice. While they are in office, your prayers might help them help us. Think about it.
Beth is trying to adopt a cat, or something. A cat has been visiting their yard but doesn’t come close enough for her to touch it. She has been putting out milk and bread and it’s gone in the morning. She never sees if it’s the cat or something else who gets it. She doesn’t want a house cat; she is allergic to cats. One that would stay in the barns or wherever and catch mice would be welcome.
Beth and Ray had a couple of cattle guards put in and the driveway now has gravel on it. Their plan is to build a yard fence around the house and a tree and to the first cattle guard. That would make it possible for them to remove the electric fence that keeps Zack’s horses from getting out on the road or into the yard. Last week they moved the electric fence to just around the yard where the fence will soon be. Now the horses can go across the driveway or anywhere else in the pasture. Guess what? They won’t cross the driveway where the electric fence used to be. They go all the way around the house and yard to get to the other side of the pasture. They will go up to where the electric fence used to be and no farther. Are they pretty smart? Creatures of habit?
By the way, Beth and Ray were riding around in their chuck wagon last week when Beth told Ray to turn around and go back to that tree by the driveway. She said there was a set of bed springs in the tree. No way! That can’t be. Sure enough, there was a set of bed springs in the tree. Not the box springs everybody uses now but some of those old time metal coil springs. How did they get way up in that tree? Did someone put them there? Did the wind put them up there during a storm? How long have they been there? Is anyone missing some bed springs? If you’ve lived here forever, do you know anything about this mystery?
Make the mistakes of yesterday your lessons for today.