Noni & Pops travels: The Lord's Day

This Lord's Day was a special blessing for Pops and I. We got to attend a church where we knew someone. In fact, Tommy England is in Bible College studying to be a preacher and our home church has given him monthly support for several years.
Pops texted him on the phone because we knew that he was somewhere in the Louisville area and asked him to help us locate a church for this weekend. It turns out that Tommy is an associate minister at North Hardin Christian Church which wasn't very far from where we would be. Tommy preaches there on alternate Sundays and this week was his turn to preach. How very fortunate for us.
We got up and got ready this morning and left the truckstop a little early. We wanted to go to the truckwash on the way. Our truck was very dirty.
When we got to the truckwash, we found out that they do all hand washing and brushing and that one of the employees didn't show up for work today. So one guy was going to wash and brush our truck by hand! Oh no, will we be late for church?
He got started washing and I could tell right away that when we left here, our truck would be cleaner than it's been since we had it. He was doing a really good job, but there was no "hurry up" in him. No sir. He was slow. After about a half hour another guy did show up and begin to help him. And what usually takes us 15 minutes, we got done in about 45 today, but like I said, it shines.
So we hustled down the road to church.
Sunday School was first and we were about 10 minutes late. We hated to disrupt, but the preachers wife persuaded us to go in to class. Tommy was teaching the class. He was teaching about the "lost writings." He was telling about the manuscripts and the ones that were found and used as our Bible, and how the many copies that were found were 99% accurate. He also talked about how other writings that were found and believed ie: Aristotle, Homer, Plato, many of their writings were only 90% accurate. He brought up about yet other manuscripts that have been found but not accepted into what is now known as our Bible, because they are known to be untrue or there were not enough of them found to support the writings. It was very interesting and I would like to be able to hear more about this area of study.
After class we went into the auditorium for worship service.
The service was very similar to our home church at Wills Mt. We felt very much at home as we often do in the Lord's church.
The service did have a somber feeling though because a long standing member had passed away this week and many of her family attend there. We pray that God will heal their hearts and give them comfort as they mourn the loss of this woman.
Tommy preached a good sermon on seeing people the way that Jesus sees them. He used the scripture text of Mark 2:14-17. He spoke of how many of us "ignore" or choose to overlook the real people and see only their sin if we notice them at all. He said we are to be "friends" of sinners like Jesus was and by doing so we could reach their needs much sooner than if we just comdemn them and go our way.
His sermon really got to me because I feel that through this job especially that Pops and I see people and their needs that we would not see otherwise. I pray that our eyes could be opened to see like Jesus sees and that we recognize these opportunities in a timely manner so that we can be used as God's instruments.
There are so many hurting, desperate people in this world. And they need more than pity. They need more than condemnation. They need more than to be overlooked. They are people. They are souls.
Lord, help me to be more caring toward others.
After church they asked us to go eat with them. We accepted and said lead the way. We had decided on Mexican food. When we got there the restuarant had been closed down for remodeling. So we went to Applebee's instead. It was a good time of catching up and fellowship.
We really enjoyed our time with Tommy, his wife, Tanya, their girls, Krista and Halli. Oh and I can't forget the joy of the day, Dalton. He is a handful of pure boy that comes and stays with them from time to time. He was just so stinky cute and a real show stealer. I could've just wrapped him up and brought him along with us.
I hope we get back this way real soon, but if not, I pray God watches over them and keeps them all safe until June when we will see them at Preaching in the Mountains in Hyndman, PA.
Love you guys!