Thank you Veterans!

Tuesday November 11 is Veterans Day. A day that is set aside to honor those who have or are serving in the armed forces. Thank you for the blanket of freedom that we sleep under tonight!

Billy Graham at 90

How are you doing as you approach your 90th birthday?

I don't have the energy I once had. And I do have some physical problems that the doctors have to watch. Someone said to me recently that the most exciting part of his day was waking up and discovering what was hurting today that didn't hurt yesterday! Sometimes I can relate to that. But seriously, I'm thankful for each day, and I'm thankful for the measure of health I do have. Every day is a gift from God, no matter how old we are.

And I've discovered that just because we'll inevitably grow weaker physically as we get older, it doesn't mean we must grow weaker spiritually. In fact, we ought to be growing stronger spiritually, because our eyes ought to be on eternity and Heaven—on the things that really matter.

Read the remaining article

;-)

You're born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there's a loophole.
Billy Graham

Meet Alice

(Thats Jim in the Picture, Alice is the car)


I am a car nut, I would have a warehouse full of them if I could. A 1970 Chevelle and a 60's Impala have always been on my wish list of cars to have. Jim is a friend of mine that I have known for years. His grandmother (Alice) bought this car new in 1967. She played the piano at church. and really did drive it mostly to get groceries and church on Sunday. It has never left the county. It has 43600 actual miles on it. When Alice passed away, Jim’s father started tinkering with it. When he discovered he had cancer this became his project car, it has a couple of dents, so he started sanding on it. He did not make it far before he passed away. The car sat in the same garage untouched for the last 8 years. Jim called one day and asked if I was still interested in the Impala, what kind of question is that. He and I struggled over the value of the car, me thinking it was worth more, and him thinking less, both trying hard to not damage a friendship. At last the price was settled and after fresh fuel, a little TLC, Alice came back to life, and I drove her home. I don’t know what it is about these old rides, nostalgia or what, but I do love them. I have a little work to get her back to show room, I will keep you posted.

A Blog

So there I was trying to find some catchy way to get back into the habit of blogging, when I came across a story about a football coach:

I heard a true story about a football player who graduated from collage. He wasn’t that great a player but he was a great strategizer with a quick mind. The head coach came to him one day and said, “Will you let me teach you to be my assistant coach?” He said, “Yes sir, what do you want me to do?” The head coach said, “I want you to be a scout for us and help me build a strong and competitive team again.”

So the new assistant coach said, “What kind of player do you want me to find?” The coach said, “There’s the kind of guy that when you knock him down he just stays down.” The assistant said, “Well we sure don’t want that kind of player!” Then the head coach said, “No way, but there’s the guy that when you knock him down twice – and he stays down.”

The assistance said, “We sure don’t want that kind of player!” The head coach said, “No way! There’s also the kind of guy that when you knock him down he gets up, and he gets knocked down and gets up and gets knocked down and he gets up again and again!” The assistant responded, “That’s the guy we need!” To that the head coach taught his new assistant a valuable lesson, he said, “No! What we need is for you to find the guy who keeps knocking everyone down!”

Yep, I like they way that coach thinks .....

I feel the same way about my Blog lately ;-)

Hurricane Gustuv

Little Rock is a part of the NDMS Nation Disaster Medical System. What this means is that whenever a city meets with a disaster such as a hurricane, and evacuation from area hospitals is needed, this program springs into action. Each participating hospital in the destination city sends in a bed count for specific types of patients they can receive the goal then becomes to match the number of patients sent to the number of patients able to be received. Little Rock has been a part of this system for many years, but I think we had all believed that it would never be tested. Tested it was for hurricane Katrina. We learned a lot of lessons that year.

Saturday we had the opportunity to test our skills and lessons once again.
We started off Saturday at 10AM at MEMS getting ready to receive patients that we were told would arrive at noon. The first plane did not come till late that evening which meant a lot of tiring waiting @ 12 hours at first. The logistical preparation for the evacuation was in credible. A total of 30 ambulances were gather at one time, not to mention support staff for treatment, carrying stretchers, food, etc…When the planes finally started coming it got busy, real busy.
The preliminary totals are.
13 aircraft were received (a mix of C-130 and C-17)
233 patients were off loaded, triaged, treated and transported to local hospitals

There at the end of the event we had three C-130 and two C-17 on the ground at the same time. One of the planes was from Canada that had been called in to serve the evacuation.

The leader for the Nation Disaster Medical System said in his report:
This was a massive operation. Probably larger than anything seen during Katrina/Rita and certainly the largest reception activity ever completed over such a short time.

There are not many times when my work at MEMS conflicts with my job as Pastor. One of the understanding Deacons said, “I see your work/ministry at MEMS as an extension of this local church” I sincerely appreciate that kind of support. Thank you to this congregation for freeing me to stay till the job was done late Sunday night.

Small People......

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great" -- Mark Twain

;-)

"If everything's under control, you're going too slow." - Mario Andretti