Serve by Design

Our area has been in a persistent drought for most of the summer and now it is early fall. There are contractors digging up and down our street upgrading the natural gas line infrastructure. They must haul in large containers of water to enable their workers to dig and bore holes. Recently I engaged one of the project team members about how they thought everything was going. He said, “It’s so dry! We are used to finding some moisture at six feet. But it’s like rock and it slows us down!” This very dry season in our weather has many of us identifying with the Texas local who claimed that the four seasons ought to be renamed: drought, flood, blizzard, and twister! 😊 Lake Sallateeska I participated this week with a group of twenty-five pastors and church leaders for fellowship and spiritual refreshment. We met for two days of serious study and considerable “carrying on” at a Southern Illinois encampment that has a comfortable, but humble, motel unit and conference area. This year’s s...

The Southwest has experienced a rough summer of drought conditions and extremely high temperatures. As we were making our way out of the Great State of Texas, after three weeks of catching up with family and friends, we listened to a Waco radio station forecasting another dry and hot day. The weatherman said that they had already registered 49 consecutive days without any measurable precipitation. Sadly, we observed this to be the case for many under the heat dome that had its grip on several states in the lower forty-eight. "Lipstick on a Pig?"😉 Image credit: istock.com We spent most of our time in the Austin area during our visit and watched station KXAN for the evening news. I was captivated and somewhat amused during one of the nightly newscasts by a unique service being offered. As would be expected with the adverse weather conditions, some lawn care businesses were trying to service their customers and recoup some of their seasonal losses with a unique addition to thei...