Thursday

Today is the 58th annual National Day of Prayer. You can go the the official website at http://www.ndptf.org/home/home.html to get more information. Let’s celebrate a country that has honored prayer for many years and practice our wonderful freedom to pray.

“I mean that I want us to help each other

with the faith we have.

Your faith will help me,

and my faith will help you.”

~Romans 1:12 NCV~

Continue to pray for Wanzie Williams as arrangements are being worked out for physical therapy.

Continue to pray for the Melder/Pezant family. Little four year old Haley continues to have kidney issues because of the e-coli.

Tracy Williams is doing well following his surgery. Continue to pray for him.

From Melissa Simpson:

I know this couple in McComb who really needs our prayers. Talmadge is 81 years young and had surgery about 4 weeks ago. He is doing good but the healing of his body is really going a little slow for him. Marvis is really taking good care of him. I spoke to her this morning on the phone to check on them as they only live about 3 minutes from where I work and ask her if she needed anything and she told me to keep on praying for the healing of Talmadge. I told her I would put them on the prayer link. This is a really wonderful couple and they have a church that is there for them. But hey! one more prayer group would be wonderful.

Thanks
Melissa

Don, Diane, and Josh Denton

I got sleep! Today was a day that I was able to rest. I spent the evening with Don this evening. Just a few updates.

Don is on again off again with a private room. His level of headache pain has not changed. The doctor decided to put Don back on steroids starting at a smaller dose to help with his symptoms. Hopefully within the next few days, Don will be able to see some relief from his symptoms.

Don’s veins are not working well. They collapsed today when the nurse tried putting another IV in. Don is having problems with swelling in his hands and arms too. So a “line” has been put in.

The nurosurgeon talked of us being able to go home by Friday. That is not going to happen. Don is not well enough to go home at this point. Hopefully next week.

I am praying that we will be able to be home for Joshua’s birthday. I have planned his little party for Saturday the 16th. And my hope is that we can keep this part of our life as “normal” as possible. So please pray that Don will be well enough to come home.

IF…all goes well and Don shows improvement by Friday, Josh and I will go home. I have to get our pets from the boarding facility. This is taking longer than I had thought that it would.

And I have to get my mail and I am hoping that Joshua will be able to play with some of his friends. We will then go back to St. Louis on Sunday, Mothers Day.

Having an illness like this changes everything. Last year I would have been upset if Don forgot Mother’s Day. This year, all that matters is that Don is with us. I am so grateful to God that we have each other.

So much in that way has changed for me. One learns what is important in life, when someone you love is so ill.

We continue to ask God for his mercy and grace upon us. We continue to hope and believe. Believe for answers and hope that whatever this disease is, it will be treatable and restore Don back to us.

As much as I don’t want to leave Don up here, his parents will be here for him. And I will only leave if I know for sure that it is OK. It is so hard to make decisions sometimes.

Thank you for your continued prayer for Don, Joshua and I. It means everything to us. Thank you for continuing to touch us in the way that you do. People we don’t know just reach out to us and love us in a way that only God could show them.

I believe God uses you all to show us that He has not left us and it encourages and touches me deeply. Bless you.

Diane

Richard Rowley Lipscomb
Richard died Tuesday, May 5, 2009, following a brief illness. He was born May 29, 1911, in Norwood, the son of William “Lynn” F. Lipscomb and Julia Pemble Lipscomb. Richard married Inez Hughes on June 7, 1941, in the home of the Rev. Dearman in Kentwood. Richard and Inez started their life together in Clinton. Richard retired in 1976 as secretary-treasurer of Community Coffee Inc., and he was the past president of the Baton Rouge Association of Accountants. Richard was also a member of the Stuart Cameron McLeod Society, an organization for past national officers and directors of the National Association of Accountants. Earlier in his career he had served in various positions with the Civilian Conservation Corps followed by an appointment by the LSU Extension Services as district secretary to the Bogue Chitto-Pearl River Soil Conservation District with headquarters in Kentwood. Prior to World War II, he was appointed as the project superintendent of the first project between the Soil Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, overseeing projects in East and West Feliciana parishes. As war appeared eminent, the project closed and Richard joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at their Shreveport office. From there. he went to Minden with the Ordinance Department. He was subsequently transferred to the Vicksburg branch of the General Accounting Office, then went to Little Rick, ending up in the Canadian Yukon, where he worked at the Whitehorse, Yukon, office of the Corps of Engineers. Another move led to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, where he served as administrative assistant to the chief project engineer on the airport construction and a section of the Alaskan Highway. Richard loved classical music and gardening. He spent many enjoyable hours on his patio, which was covered with beautiful flowers and plants. Richard and Inez were members of Broadmoor Presbyterian Church. He, with the help of Inez, spent many years researching the Lipscomb Family history and in 1978 published The Lipscombs of East Feliciana, a Virginia Heritage. They continued their interest in genealogy and researched Inez’s family meeting many people along the journey. He was a great husband, father and provider for his family and a true friend to all who knew him. Richard will be greatly missed. He was preceded in death by his wonderful and loving wife of 66 years, Inez Hughes Lipscomb, who was a native of Kentwood; his father, William “Lynn” F. Lipscomb; mother, Julia Pemble Lipscomb; three brothers, Wilbur S., Elvis F. and Clarence E. Lipscomb; and two sisters, Mildred Lipscomb James and Ida Lipscomb Jones. Richard is survived by his sons, John Pemble Lipscomb and fiancée Karen M. Holloway, of Brandon, Miss., and Rodney Kent Lipscomb and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Titterington Lipscomb, of Hammond; a brother and sister-in-law, Jack and Dorothy Hughes, of Kentwood; and sister-in-law, Beatrice Crawford of Vidor, Texas. Surviving nephews and their spouses are Larry W. Jones, of Baton Rouge, David E. and Barbara Lipscomb, of Houston, Kenneth and Diane Lipscomb, of Denham Springs, Jack D. and Mary Hughes, Paul M. and Mary Hughes, and Mark and Dera Hughes, all of Kentwood, and Wayne and Pat Crawford, of Vidor. Visitation at Rabenhorst Funeral Home East, 11000 Florida Blvd., on Friday, May 8, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., followed by a brief prayer service conducted by the Rev. Hawley Wolfe. Graveside service at Woodland Cemetery, Kentwood, on Saturday, May 9, at 11 a.m. Pallbearers will be Jack D. Hughes, Rodney Lipscomb, John Lipscomb, Mark C. Hughes, Mike Larsen and Danny Lamier. Honorary pallbearers are Norman Saurage III, Paul White, Clarence Bourg, Huey Coltharp, R.H. “Jack” Hughes, Luke Elliott Sr., Carlton Varnado, Robert Lewis, Roland Gary and Dr. Tom Graves. In lieu of flowers, please make memorial donations to Hospice of Baton Rouge, 9063 Siegen Lane, Suite A, Baton Rouge, LA 70810, Broadmoor Presbyterian Church, 9340 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA 70815 or a charity of your choice.

IT’S NOT EASY BEING A MOM

Judith Viorst once wrote an essay based on interviews she had with children. The subject was “What’s a good mother like?”

Viorst reports that the children expected their mother to get angry from time to time. “She has to,” said Ted, “or she’ll faint from holding it in.”

“But it’s best to remember,” said Randy, “that when your mother starts to act real weird, you have to look scared and serious. Don’t giggle. When mommies are mad, they get madder if you giggle.”

“My mommy got so mad,” said Megan, “that she yanked the plate off the table and all the mashed potatoes flew into the air.”

“And why,” Viorst asked, pretending she’d never heard of such shocking behavior, “why would a mother do a thing like that?”

“Well,” said Megan, “she told my older brother, Mike, he’s 11 years old, to eat the potatoes on his plate and he said ‘Later.’ And then she told him again to eat the potatoes and Mike said ‘Soon.’ And then she told him he had better eat those potatoes right now and he said, ‘In a minute.’ And then she stood up and Mike finally took a bite and told her, ‘How can I eat them? They’re cold!'”

It truly is not easy being a Mom! But how blessed we were to have our mothers. In this country, we will honor our mothers on Sunday, and I think it’s certainly appropriate. Paul said we as Christians are to “give honor to whom honor is due” (Romans 13:7), and I can’t think of anyone any more deserving of honor than our mothers. I hope that you will honor in a special way those mothers who are like Hannah.

In I Samuel 1, we have recorded the birth of Samuel. Before he was born, Hannah prayed a vow to God. She said, “O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.” (I Samuel 1:11)

The Lord heard her petition and she was blessed with the birth of Samuel. Hannah didn’t forget her vow to the Lord. She took her son Samuel to be trained at the feet of Eli, the priest of God. From a very young age, Hannah made sure that her son was preparing to serve the Lord.

I heard about a preacher a number of years ago who came home after preaching a gospel meeting, and he was asked how it went. Rather discouraged, he said that he had only baptized one young girl who was about 12 or 13 years old — all in all, comparatively speaking, not a very successful meeting. But, after that girl grew up, she married and became the mother of five sons who became gospel preachers. What a great impact that young lady ended up having in the world!

I know that mothers — especially mothers of young children — sometimes get discouraged because they wonder if they’re really accomplishing anything. Let me assure you that if you are instilling within your children a love for God and His Word, you’re accomplishing something. It may be years down the road before you see the results, but you’re having an impact. You’re making a difference.

Give honor this weekend to your own mother — and to those mothers around you — who, like Hannah, have vowed to give their children over to God.

Have a great day!

Alan Smith
Helen Street Church of Christ
Fayetteville, North Carolina

Have a fantastic day!

Anna Lee