One Down . . . Four To Go

This morning started with Bible study.  And in their new church!  Stonegate has been renting space for the past 7 years and they were finally able to purchase a church -- and what a beautiful church it is!  They have been working day and night over the past 2 weeks and it is amazing!  God promised them a building and as we all know -- He never breaks His promises!

After Bible study it was time to head back to Bloomington for a quick doctor appointment and just before going inside I got a call from Rita telling me the men were at Don's removing the tree NOW, not Thursday!  And she thought I would be upset!!!!!  Are you kidding!!!!!  I was overjoyed and couldn't wait to get there and watch!

There's high and lifted up . . . and then there's this!  And "this" has a chainsaw in hand and uses it as if it were a feather!

There were only 3 men who took turns in the bucket.  Sometimes they just cut the branches and let them fall and other times they had to tie off the branch with a rope in order to get it to fall where they wanted!

This branch may not look very big in this picture but my oh my . . .

When I left they were down to the trunk and said that was the most difficult part. 

We are so extremely grateful for these men and their willingness to be such blessings to Don.  We are also over the top thankful to Rita who went above and beyond to help us out in this situation. 

The Southern Baptist tree team has their truck in the shop and could possibly be here this weekend (or next) to take down the remaining 4 trees.

I had to leave Don's and go to a meeting about taking over as director for the local COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disasters) --- take note of what that stands for as I won't be typing it out each time I refer to it.  I do have some paperwork to get under my belt and we scheduled our next board meeting and our next open meeting.  It is our goal to sort of "revamp" the COAD and bring in as many organizations as possible.  It was a great meeting but . . .

I have always been amazed at the lengths satan will go to distract us from what God has for us and this meeting was a perfect example.  If you embarrass easily you might want to stop reading right here and catch the next blog.  If not . . . read on and realize . . .

As I said, I had to leave Don's to make this meeting.  I was in a rush.  All the time I was at Don's the tree "shrappnel" was flying through the air.  I thought nothing of it although I did sort of stick my head out my truck window as I was driving to hopefully have any sawdust blow out of my hair.  I guess I didn't think about other things flying through the air.

As soon as I walked into Barry's office and sat down I felt something in my bra!  (I warned you!)  Now it's rather difficult to feel something in there --- let alone feel it start to bite!  And it continued to bite, over and over again!  Not knowing where the restroom was and thinking each bite would be the last (and being an idiot) I kept "readjusting" myself in hopes it was the end.  And with each readjustment it would subside -- only to bite again.  By the time the meeting was over I was nearly ready to strip my shirt and bra off right in front of anyone who happened to be there!  I did refrain and when I got to the truck I did find a rather nasty ant and let's just say . . . the ant is no more!!!

It was yet another object lesson for me.  satan knows how important this COAD is and that God has called me to this position.  He also knows God has something very big planned for all of us and he was determined to stop me during that meeting -- which is part of why I refused to excuse myself and break the focus of our meeting.  So . . . lesson to self . . . satan has no boundaries (like I thought he did anyway)!!!!

The meeting was a huge success, Don's rebuild is moving along with huge success, lives are being changed and God is glorified in the entire process! 

So satan . . . take that "bite" and put it where the sun don't shine!!!!!!

Until next time . . .it's only when we give up that the blessings stop!             Susan and Monty