Sunday School Songs & Hymns

 One of the conditions of our coming to work here at Lone Star Corral was that we have off on Sunday's so we could attend church.  One of the things we realized last summer was how much we missed being in fellowship with other believers on a regular basis.  No problem we were told.  This week our days off were Saturday and Sunday.  Starting next week our days off will be Sunday & Monday's.

So today we attended First Baptist Church of Hondo.  It is a pretty big church and they have a school associated to it.  We don't know if this is where we will settle.   There are a few other churches in the area that we would like to check out.  We would appreciate your prayers as we seek where the Lord would have us settle while we are in the area.

Back to today's service.  Today's service was designed to honor those turning 90 and 100 this year.  There were 7 or 8 people being honored.  Between all of them they had over 650 years serving the Lord with 465 of those years serving at FBC of Hondo...an amazing and encouraging statement for sure.  One thing we noticed, at least today anyway, they sing hymns.  We sang Standing on the Promises, The Old Rugged Cross, When the Roll is Called Up Yonder and Only Trust Him.  And they did a special medley of Sunday School songs: Do Lord, I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy, I'm in the Lord's Army, The BIBLE, I Am a CHRISTIAN, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, This Little Light of Mine, Hallelu, Hallelu and closed with If You're  Happy and You Know It.  Oh the memories of singing these songs as a young child in Sunday School at the little Assemblies of God Church in Rancho Cordova that flooded my heart.

And more surprising was the tears that flowed when we sang "Jesus Loves Me."  That song holds special meaning to me ~ it was sang at our son's, Royce, funeral.  It is hard to believe he has been gone from us for almost 34 years and yet every time I hear or sing that song tears just start to flow.  And when the tears flow I think of that precious little boy who was only with us for a short time yet I have so many strong memories surrounding his birth, his time here on earth and his death and the service we had for him.  One thing that always comes to mind is the fact that my mom came to the service.  I have only known my mom to attend a service at a church three times in my adult life: when I married Ron, when Royce died and when Ron and I renewed our marriage vows on our 25th wedding anniversary.  And then I say a prayer of thanksgiving that even though my mom did not attend church after she divorced my dad she never stopped me from attending church and for that I am thankful.

I first new at the age of 12 that I wanted to follow Jesus.  I made that commitment when I was 17.  Because of that commitment I was led a a little church in Las Vegas and that is where I met Ron (remind me to tell the story of our meeting and meeting Ron's family ~ that is a blog post in itself).  We married and together in 1976 we rededicated our lives to the Lord one weekend in the back of our little pickup truck inside the camper shell.  And we have followed the Lord for the last 35 years.  We have faced some hard struggles, had to climb some pretty tough mountains, rejoiced in the beautiful meadows and sang from the mountain tops.  And for all of that I have to say a prayer of thanksgiving for a mom who did not stop me from attending church when I was child.

Thank you Mom for that small gift.  No not a small gift, probably one of the best gifts I have ever been given.