I Love Lucy Show…Remember Lucy and Ethel working on the assembly line in the chocolate factory trying to keep up? There. That pretty well describes George and me. We begin each year thinking we can accomplish our ambitious goals and already we’ve lost control and are throwing chocolates everywhere but in the box. You too? I heard from someone in the the know that Americans are the hardest working people in the world. When I consider our families and friends I can see why that could be a true summary. There isn’t a slouch in the bunch. I can’t imagine a single one of them lounging on the sofa sipping cokes and watching soaps…or “I Love Lucy”!

The past three weekends have been short round trips of 600-900 miles with some pretty neat opportunities of ministry in Garden City, KS, at the Faith Baptist Church with Pastor Pat Nath, in Albuquerque, NM, at the Fellowship Baptist Church with Pastor John Adams, and now this weekend of Palm Sunday we’ll be hosted by the Valley Community Church in Rocky Ford, CO, with Pastor Kurt England.

Every church is unique and has it’s own personality. Besides challenging the congregations with a variety of gospel songs, Scripture set to music, and teaching the context of the verses, we also find an important aspect of our ministry is spending time with the pastor and his wife and family, and various individuals. It is intriguing to learn how the pastor came to shepherd that particular church.

For example, Pat Nath was a young man serving our country in the Navy, working on submarines. During a leave he went to visit his grandmother in North Carolina. She told him he was welcome to come but he had to go to church with her! She was a brand new Christian and loved going to church! (Imagine that!!) Well, Pat obliged her and he too received Christ as His Savior and Lord. (How thrilling that must have been for his grandmother!) It wasn’t too much later when Pat knew he was supposed to become a pastor. Twelve years ago God led him to Garden City where he and his wife Virginia and two daughters have been faithfully working in the community to build a lighthouse out in the plains that are populated with ranches and stockyards. Along with valuing Pat’s military service for our country, we are also impressed with his, and his wife’s, willingness to serve the Lord in a kind of “behind the scenes” place.

March 20th was our 21st Annual Board Meeting of Abbas Ministries, Inc. The majority of the board have been with us from day 1. How we appreciate their wisdom and encouragement. They are integral to our making it this far along the trail. We thank the LORD for them.

We are the throes of trying to produce a recording…maybe two! While we were in Albuquerque, George set up a recording studio (sort of) in our daughter and son-in-law’s home and recorded our three granddaughters singing Psalm 100:1-2. Hopefully you’ll get to hear their sweet voices, too, when we release a children’s recording.

Besides working on a recording, George has been arranging new music for us, which means lots of practice to get them right! He also prepared a backup track for a dear friend of ours who is a choir director. She was anxious to do a particular song but just could not locate accompaniment music, so she called George. He listened to the song and went to work laying down a piano track, then some strings, electric guitar, drums, etc. It sounded almost like the original! Boy, was I impressed. A project like that would have taken me months.

Though we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection every Sunday–which by the way, is the reason Christians go to church on Sunday–the official holiday called Easter, is only a week away. We are blessed to present music in our home church that Sunday. If you’re in town, come visit us at Columbine Baptist Church which is located in Littleton, CO. The address is 5660 Coal Mine. Take C-470 to Wadsworth and go north to Coal Mine, and go east, past Pierce, to our church. Breakfast will be served by the men and 8 AM. Worship service will be @ 9:30. If you need further directions call us at 303-881-0044, or call the church at 303-979-4409.

May we all maintain our place on the assembly line (don’t eat too many chocolates!) doing whatever God has for each one of us to do, and doing it with all our might for HIS GLORY!