A New Year & Hopefully A Better One...

I guess I'll start by saying , "It's been awhile..." It's amazing how several months can get by in between posts. But I've noticed that even Nicole hasn't been as consistant in her posting since she and Stan got married so I don't feel too bad. Guess she's found other things to keep herself busy. Ha... Busy, now there's a relevant word. And since I last posted in October we have definintely been busy. Not necessarily in ways that we would have preferred had we had the choice, but busy nevertheless. We lost both of Lisa's parents in the last 8 weeks. Her Dad passed away from a major stroke on November 13th and then 6 weeks to the day her Mom passed away on Christmas Day. To say the least, our holidays were a little different this year. By the time January 1st got here I was just praying we would would survive the year. And what a year it was. We lost good friends Tony Weston & Billy Sparks, my cousin Rachel, my Aunt Pat, of course my in-laws and others that I'm forgetting. Throw in a couple of surgeries for Beau and Blake and we had quite a year.... The term "it's always something" definitely came in to play every time we turned around this past year or so it seemed. This new year which I still have hopes will be better has started about like last year. Another tragedy took the life of our good friend Tammy Davis. Mick & Tammy pastor in Salem, Mo. Met them through Troy & Carla & Jeff & Rhonda. Tammy and her best friend plus another lady from their church were all killed in a headon collision a couple days ago. It's just unbelievable. We got to know Tammy really well back in September when we went to the Virgin Islands with the Harvest Foundation. She was a really wonderful person. I know she will be missed tremendously. It's become very difficult to look too far ahead, constantly wondering what will happen next. But look ahead we do and trust that God has some good things ahead. Our emphasis for the year is "Letting Love Fill Us and Flow From Us..." The challenge is to touch at least one or two people with words or simple acts of love each day in a way that will convey the Love of Christ. I pray that we will all rise to the challenge and start looking for ways to love the world in which we live. The simpliest of acts can change the hardest of hearts. Well I better get on to other things. Let me say whoever you might be, "I love you" and hope you have a great 2007... Now get out there and love someone...