Happy Friday to all of my awesome brothers in the Lord. I'm down for the day due to having blown out my knees over this last month of putting floors down in the old rent house I was renovating. After I finished that, I joined Pastor Eric, and young master Eric Deweeze, moving the projector and lowering the video screen. Believe me, it was not as easy as it sounded. I hadn't been under the sanctuary in a long time, but I rediscovered it anew. To add insult to injury, there isn't a place in the attic that I haven't been now. Needless to say, my knees and legs are shot. That's not a whine, it's just a fact. Took a some Naprosyn for the first time in a long time. Hopefully it will be the only tablet I take for a long time to come. The rain is nice, which gives me a reason to plop down, and as long as I don't have to stand up, I'm okay.
I'd like to take an opportunity to share some thoughts far removed from our study into fatherhood, and then share with you an idea for getting together, virtually.
First of all let me tell you that I miss all of you very much. As you know from last week's blog, I miss your children, too. After I wrote that blog I began to notice more teenagers congregating outside. That worries me because some of the horror stories I've read about young people who've had the coronavirus, and how bad it is. It seems to affect young people differently than older people. I also don't think it's particularly heroic, or spiritual when I read, or hear of Pastors having regular church services. As we've already seen just in our own State, the virus doesn't care whether you are spiritual or not. If you think I'm being sacrilegious then read Philippians 2:27. Our governmental leaders are asking us to avoid services in order to protect life, and I believe that this is exactly what we should do.
My next concern is everyone's personal well being, and ensuring that none of us slip through the cracks during this time of isolation. I don't know of any other way to do this other than to do an old fashioned 'roll call' every other day to ensure we're all okay and having our financial, and spiritual needs met. So, beginning next week, I'll use our Men's group text to put out a check. For those of you who don't ever reply or enter into the text messaging, a simple thumbs up would go a long way to letting all of us know if all is well.
In this same vein, we have many in our congregation who are elderly, or alone. Let's make sure to check up on each other. If someone needs financial or food help let's make it happen.
This virus has hit home in our own community in ways that are hard to explain, but in each case, the person who came down with the virus picked it up out of State. The spread of the virus is following traditional epidemiological outbreak patterns. There used to be a video game on XBOX that was designed to simulate a pandemic. This pandemic is following that pattern to the letter. Probably the one thing that we should be thinking is not to make a trip to any other State unless it is absolutely necessary. Without knowing who our three 'cases' are, and how long they had it before becoming symptomatic, there is no telling who might be infected. That is why I encourage all of you to follow the CDC guidelines.
I'm saying all of this because I don't have any idea how much longer we're going to need to self isolate. If ever there was a time to pray, now is that time. Pray for a vaccine, a treatment, and most especially, our nation's leaders. I can tell you that our own Senator Tom Cotton was trying to warn people about this way back around January 20th. But, of course, our illustrious congress was too busy trying to impeach President Trump to listen. The media didn't become concerned until less than a month ago. I don't blame our government, I blame the Chinese Government for lying to everyone.
Protect your children, and protect one another, keep tabs on your parents. I don't know how much longer we're going to have to self isolate, so that is why I'm going to ask you to weigh in on an idea I have.
This is my crazy idea for how to resume contact with one another. There is a video conferencing app called Zoom that appears to be easier to use than even Skype. I've researched it, and watched videos about it, but I don't know if all of you would be interested in it or not. Sooooooo, I'm going to ask you to do a search about it, just type in 'Zoom Conferencing' in your search bar. If you like what you read let me know via the Men's text group and we'll work from there. If even one of you don't have the means to video conference, then we won't do it. I don't want to leave anyone out due to hardware or network issues. IT is extremely data heavy because it is in full HD. If you are on DSL or even cable broadband, you may experience buffering. That would be unacceptable. If we can't get everyone on board, then I'll pump out the blog for that weeks lesson, and you can use the comment block to give your two cents. I would like feedback from all of you who are in our Men's group by Sunday so I can plan accordingly. Just text me and let me know what you think.
There are some of you I haven't seen in over two weeks, and I would love to hear from you just to know you're okay. Look for a new lesson sheet sometime next week.
Love you all, and please be safe. I Want to see all of you alive and well the next time we can get together.
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