Reality Check with Ann Downing...

Sunday was a good, good day! Karissa and I started off in Sturgis, MI and enjoyed making new friends at Sturgis Church of the Nazarene. Sunday night, we were with “old” friends in Goshen, IN for the second time (it’s really good when they invite you back :)). It was a delight to be with them again. Lots of great things happened Sunday. First of all, it was so much fun for us to have Paula and Bob Alt spending the day with us at both a.m. and p.m. services. The crowning joy of the day was when it came time for the offering Sunday evening. To my amazement, Pastor asked his very young son to assist him. I completely expected that he would be passing the plate only, but no….his Daddy asked him to pray over the offering. Again, I guess I expected that a preschooler would be saying a little one sentence prayer, but again, NO. He prayed a lengthy prayer for the offering. To say I was touched isn’t beginning to describe how this affected me. Bringing up a child in the ways of the Lord...

I can’t remember when church wasn’t a consistent and constant part of my life, and it is a real challenge to come up with many memories that don’t, in some form or another, include gospel music. Growing up on a cotton farm meant a lot of hard work.   We didn’t hire help because my family did it all.   You can imagine how excited I was as a kid to plan for the weekends when I knew gospel singing would be a huge part of Saturday and Sunday.   Twice a year, those convention songbooks came in from the Stamps-Baxter Music Company.   I remember Daddy and Mama talking about how great it was that a few of the men paid for those books and carried them to every Friday night singing, Saturday night singing, Sunday afternoon singing, Sunday night singing – and I’ll not overlook all-day Sunday singings.   Daddy, Mama, and others in the community offered to pay for books but Mr. Willie, Mr. Claron, Mr. Tommy, and others who paid for them wouldn’t take a dime.   It was...