Let's Get Acquainted: "Stan and Peggy Silva"

 

What does German square dancing, Parents Without Partners, a girl named Josie and the title "Ditty Bopper" all have in common?

The Silva's.

Stan and Peg Silva moved to Mt. Vernon about two years ago after a life in the army and a long stay in Albuquerque.  They met while in a group called Parents Without Partners.  Stan was dating Peg's best friend, Josie at the time, but it was Peg that Stan instantly had eyes for.  She refused his repeated requests for a date while he was dating Josie, so Stan did what any man would do: he asked Josie would she mind if he asked her best friend out.  Without even a slap on the face, she agreed and the rest is history.  They were soon married, moved every 18-24 months all around the world while in the Army, raised their three kids and finally found themselves "in the friendliest" community they've ever lived in....Mt. Vernon.

After getting settled into their beautiful Mt. Vernon home just down the road from the square, they decided to check out First United Methodist Church.  Like many of us, they immediately felt that ever-present "Spirit" the minute they walked through the double doors.  It felt like home.....and between new friends Harry & Joanna Earl as well as Pastor Jack Wallace, they knew FUMC was where God was wanting them to call home.

Their love for square dancing was put on hold these past two years while Stan had double hernia surgery and Peg healed from a stroke and broken shoulder.  Each time, their church family rallied around them bringing food and making sure they had a way to their doctor appointments.

Oh.....and what does Ditty Bopper have to do with the Silvas?  That was Stan's occupation in the Army.  Google it.....I think you'll find it quite interesting!

GROWING SEEDS: The One Thing You Can't Win Without

 

 

 As I sat in the high school auditorium last weekend, next to three newby Pageant attendees I coaxed there with the promise of pure entertainment, my face couldn't help but have a Julia-Roberts-coat-hanger-type-smile plastered all over it.  If I elbowed them once I elbowed them fifty times, "Isn't this just the greatest??" I said repeatedly.  They hesitantly agreed.

"When you seek My face in response to My love, both of us are blessed. 
This is a deep mystery, designed more for your enjoyment than for your understanding."*

Its no secret I love the Ms. Mt. Vernon Pageant......because, crazy as it may sound, God is sitting smack-dab in every row, every clap, every click of every camera snapping memories.  It's a Polaroid of this blessed little town we have been chosen to live in, friends.

Many of us come from a large city....a place where the cost of your dress, the maker of your shoes, the size of your waist....matters.  But not here in Mt. Vernon.  We live in a place where it is not just okay, but necessary to begin the pageant with heartfelt prayer and our hands over our hearts as we sing along to God Bless America. A place where most every girl thanked God FIRST and the local Dodge dealership SECOND that provided her a truck to ride in the Christmas Parade because her PaPa's truck broke down.  A place where it didn't matter whether your dress cost $200 or $20....it was the confidence and the joy that radiated out of that dress that mattered.  A place where the color of your skin, the style of your hair or the size of your waist had no bearing on the outcome at all.....and you were most grateful for Dairy Queen and Blizzards.....but always God first.

"I am not a grim God who discourages pleasure,
I delight in your enjoyment of everything that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable. 
Think on these things and My Light in you will shine brighter day by day."*

And I pray each contestant, each parent, each audience member like me, never forgets the one thing we can't win without.......God.  He's the real reason we were placed in this precious town.....whether sitting next to one another at the Ms. Mt. Vernon Pageant or in the pews of this beautiful church...a place where, if we open our eyes wide, we can see Him in everything we do and everyone we meet.

"I have awakened in your heart a strong desire to know Me."

*Sarah Young

GROWING SEEDS: "COME....Let Me Walk Through Life With You"

 

"The biggest thing God is doing in your life is teaching you to trust Him.
And faith in Him usually leads you through difficulty, not around it."

Many years ago, I found myself in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a small fishing boat for an 8-hour deep sea fishing excursion.  A storm was brewing ahead of us and about 45 minutes into the eight hour day, most everyone was hanging off the side of the railing giving up their breakfast.  Somewhere between throwing up the eggs and the toast, I remember thinking, "I'd give everything I own for a helicopter rescue right now."  I was desperate...I was scared....and I wanted off that boat!

It's interesting that most times God doesn't detour us around life's difficulties.  He leads us right through the big fat middle of the storm....where we get hit in the face with the blinding rain, the hurricane-force winds and we become intimate friends with the railing on the boat.  Where this life's journeys take us through cancer, through train wrecks, through miscarriages, through heart attacks and yes, even through death. 

We tend to say, "Father, show me how to go AROUND the storm....how to pass OVER the fire.....how to AVOID the waves altogether."  But He smiles that loving smile of His, looks us straight in the eye and says, "No, I want you to understand I'm deeper than the water, My presence is more mighty than the wind.  And I want you to be able to trust Me in any situation, and the only way you're going to learn that is by going through the storm, not around it."

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, Liz." 
Isaiah 43:2

And then He holds out His strong and scarred hand to us and says, "COME....let Me walk through it with you."  

"LET'S GET ACQUAINTED".....Robert & Christy Jones

 

"LET'S GET ACQUAINTED....."      Robert and Christy Jones

MT. VERNON OPTIC HERALD:  "A train collided with a Pilgrim’s Feed truck at a RR crossing in Franklin County on Tuesday, October 28, 2014.  The impact separated the trailer’s cab from the frame......The cab came to rest against a tree and fence row....The driver was Robert Jones.....his condition is unknown at this time."

It was a Fall Tuesday afternoon when Robert Jones was busy at work making deliveries in his 18-wheeler.  The last thing he remembers is his front wheels being on the train tracks.  The next thing he remembers is its Winter....February to be exact....and he is broken and in pain at the hospital.  He has a massive head injury, broken back, broken tailbone and the bone in his knee straight down to his foot has been replaced with metal. 

He is told by a co-worker that there were 11 semi-truck accidents that year with trains....

10 didn't make it.  

Robert was the 11th.

He and his wife Christy have found themselves these past three years painfully walking a path that has taken them over boulders and mountains to climb, yet...they keep walking.  They don't give up and they keep believing God is in charge and leading them down this road for a reason.  They wish they knew what that reason was......so they patiently wait to see what God has planned for them.

Christy, already suffering from seizures and now Robert, learning to walk again with the assistance of his homemade cane, started attending the First United Methodist Church in Mt. Vernon a few months ago.  Their friend and neighbor, Joy Stone, kept inviting them until one day, they walked through our double doors for the first time. 

"I walked into this church and I immediately felt His Spirit", Robert said.  "These are the nicest people here at First United Methodist in Mt. Vernon", Christy added. 

We may never know the reason this happened to Robert and Christy.  But maybe God needed them sitting in the late service, middle section pews of this blessed church of ours.  And maybe God is working mighty miracles with, and through, this couple who are growing stronger with each new day. 

So, go...shake their hands..give them a gentle hug...and welcome them into our family.  It's what we do when the love of Jesus runs rampant through the aisles of this church.