We are moving into that time where the days are warm but the early mornings are really crisp and cool. Steve and Connie Freeland have set up their pumpkins in the front yard and even have a small corn maze in a field behind their house. The Pinsons have been shelling corn and have about half of Mom’s corn harvested. Fall is here!
CATCHING UP WITH OLD FRIENDS. This has been one of those weeks where we’ve had something to do every night this week. Brent and Sabrina Freelend have been in to visit all their family and we wanted to do something with them one evening but with our schedule and three of their four kids getting sick (they were up all one night and even went to the ER for medication) it never worked out. I did get one chance to visit with them and really enjoyed it. All their kids are really cute. Seeing Brock was like seeing a three year old Brent again some 35 years after the fact.
Brent is a chaplain for Corporate Chaplains of America. One of the neatest things about talking to him is hearing how he has been able to minister to those he works with. He been able to introduce a lot of people to Jesus in his ministry!
GIVING BLOOD. I took Mom to the Red Cross in Nashville Wednesday afternoon to give blood for herself for her upcoming surgery. I have given blood twice in my life and both times, while it was emotionally rewarding, I went into shock over the loss of blood. The second time I waited an extra long time to make sure I was stable and still almost passed out when driving myself home. Now, if any of you need O- blood I’ll come through for you, but after those experiences I don’t make regular donations. I have digressed. Anyway, I took mom so that she wouldn’t have to drive back from Nashville. She did a lot better with her donation than I ever did. She donates again on Friday (there isn’t a 56 day wait when donating for yourself).
...SING WITH ME! Nate is learning the ABC song. Now, he doesn’t know all the words/letters and hums through a few parts of the song but he is learning. Nate can also count to ten. Unlike singing the ABC song he will not do this on demand, you have to be lucky enough to catch him at it.
I have seen it up close for three kids now and I am still amazed at how kids learn to talk. The funny thing is that it seems to go in stages--like some concept about talking takes a while to cook in their heads and then when they finally do put all the pieces together for using the concept their speech changes overnight. Nate has moved from 2-3 word sentences to putting longer strings of words together to better express himself.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PAULINE. Friday was Pauline’s birthday. We celebrated with a dinner over at her house last night. Vicki made homemade spaghetti & meatballs and my personal favorite chicken/spinach lasagna. We also invited Derek, Amanda, Riley and Harper over for supper so it was a really fun evening. One of the best things is that the kids are getting to the point where they don’t all need constant attention anymore.
Mom brought three old photo albums over and we saw pictures from 1975-1977 that I had not seen in at least 20 years (which means Vicki had never seen them). That really added to the evening!
Speaking of Pauline, she is really doing well with her walking. She is starting to put her wheelchair aside and use her walker more. She plans to walk into church tomorrow which will be the first time she has done so in three and a half months!
FURNITURE, FURNITURE, FURNITURE. We went on a little outing today, stopping by a fall festival at a church in Springfield which was raising money for missions, visiting the park, etc., and while in town we stopped by a furniture store that was having a sale. What was so funny was that when we walked in Jenna got this starry-eyed look on her face and said, “This is beautiful! I wish this were my home.”
MRS. WHITTEMORE. Mrs. Venita Whittemore used to teach a Bible class and Mom would go to it on Fridays when I was a kid. Aunt Helen, Mom’s older sister, attended as well. When I wasn’t in school I was taken along. It was hard to leave for Bible class and see the Freelands riding their bikes as we left.
Most of Mrs. Whittemore’s teaching was way over my head at the time but one of the neatest things was her model of the Tabernacle. It filled a large table and her lesson was to set it up while explaining what each part of the structure meant. In 1976 my birthday was to fall on a Friday and after Bible class one day I slipped up to Mrs. Whittemore and asked if she would bring the Tabernacle for my birthday. When Mom found out she tried to tell Mrs. Whittemore not to do it because Mrs. Whittemore was about 80 at the time. With a sparkle in her eye she told Mom she would be glad to bring it and she did. Brent and Steve Freeland were my guests that day (I can’t remember where Brian was). It really made my 10th birthday special.
I have been thinking a lot about Mrs. Whittemore lately. The reason Mom dug up those old photo albums was because I asked if she had a picture from that birthday. I’ve also done a bit of research on her as I remembered that she taught several weekly Bible classes around Nashville. What I have learned has been most impressive, and humbling. Those who attended Mrs. Whittemore’s classes loved her dearly. I remember her lecturing and several ladies, Mom included, would tape her lessons. She was even on the radio with a weekly show named The Bible Class of the Air. When I called the station, WNAH, I learned that she had been the station owner’s Sunday school teacher and had been on the air from 1951 until her death in 1988. Transcripts of her shows were made available in booklets and I remember these at the Bible class. Mom and I got to digging around in her book shelf and found several hundred (with very few duplicates). These were distributed all over the world! The neatest thing I’ve learned is that there is a group of Mrs. Whittemore’s former students who meet every Monday to fill orders for these booklets. These things still go out all around the globe. To date over 61 million booklets have been sent out! They have even been translated into other languages.
Mrs. Whittemore never put her name on any of her booklets as she wanted all the glory to go to the Lord. She also never asked for money for her ministry, she just prayed for it. Those who continue her ministry still follow that model. I found a small web site about Mrs. Whittemore’s Bible class with a sample of some of the booklets on it. The “Listen to Venita!” links don’t work but the text is there.
Joe
