Yesterday was a big day. I took the test at the Refinery to go to the lab. I passed the test, so starting in January I will cease to be a top operator and begin training to be a Lab Tech. I'm excited about the change. It will mean less overtime so my pay will go down, but I want more time off and I can make it with out the overtime.

The other big thing yesterday, was it snowed here in SW Louisiana. That is a rare event, though this makes two years in a row that we got snow. Befor last year, it had been over a decade since it last snowed.

I just watched Bama defeat Florida for the SEC championship. Now I'm watching Texas and Nebraska play for the Big 12 Championship.

I plan to build a fire on in the fire pit in a little while and chill outside.

Coram Deo,

Kenith

Working straight days this week. Friday is Rescue team training.

It is going to be in the 30's tonight. That is cold if you live this for south. I love it. Before global warming (i.e. the Ice Age) it froze regularly down here. :-)

Coram Deo,

Kenith

I'm on vacation this week. Monday, Lisa and I went to Ship to Shore in Lake Charles and I bought a used kayak. I did not take it home because we had promised to take the boys bowling. The four of us are all TERRIBLE bowlers, but we don't bowl but once a decade, so I guess we never will be good.

Tuesday morning, the boys and I got up early, jumped in the truck and headed east on I-10. We traveled 200 miles east to the Global Wildlife Center. Lisa and I had visited the center years ago with Morgan and Christian, but the younger boys had not been there. They loved it.

After leaving Global Wildlife Center we drove back to the west. Just before reaching Baton Rouge, we pulled on the road to visit the Bass Pro Shop. We had fun there too. I bought the boys each a winter cap and we piled back in the truck to for the two hour drive home.

On Wednesday, Woody picked up the boys and me and we went to Ship to Shore and picked up my kayak. He then showed me a easy to access back swamp that is near the house where I can launch the Kayak. I plan to put it in the water no later than Saturday.

Lisa prepared a ham, rice dressing, sweet potato pies, pecan fudge and sugar cookies ( I helped) for Thanksgiving and we took it all a 1/2 block away to Elisabeth and Woody's to feast with her side of the family. We had great food, desserts, and drink.

I am so thankful to the Lord for all the incalculable ways in which He has blessed me.

Coram Deo,

Kenith

I worked off this morning at 6:00 AM and slept until 11:00 AM. I got up ate a Wasa cracker, peanut butter and honey, then I went for a 2 mile walk to wake up.

I did not attend Bethel this morning because I worked last night, so I attended St.Michael's Anglican Church this evening.

Lisa cooked chicken and sausage gumbo for supper. It was great. Her brother Troy came home for Thanksgiving Holiday and he visited with us this evening.

Good day,

Kenith

Liturgia Expurgata

I like and prefer to worship in a more liturgical manner. I was born and raised Roman Catholic for a time, then (with my parents) switched to being Baptist and as a young person I attended some Pentecostal and charismatic churches as well. I’ve also experienced worship at Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Church of Christ, and Eastern Orthodox churches as well. These churches have a great diversity in styles of worship, ranging from very subdued and solemn to frenzied and chaotic.

 

I much prefer the more structured and liturgical forms of worship. I have been a member of a Presbyterian (PCA) church for more than two decades, and I came to the Presbyterian Church from a Southern Baptist Church. At that time our little Presbyterian congregation worshipped a great deal like the Baptist Churches I had attended, except the Baptists sang only the 1^st, 2^nd and last verse to most songs and the Presbyterians sang every verse to every song used in worship and the Presbyterians did not have an “alter call” at the end of each service.

 

Our little PCA church was really Southern Baptist except for the fact that we were Calvinists and we baptised babies.  This is not true today. Over the years, as a congregation, we have become more and more “Reformed” in our thinking and our worship has become more liturgical. In that same period I have grown to love liturgical worship and find most non-liturgical worship to be a lot less worshipful.

 

Now that I have come to appreciate a more structured and worship in which the worshippers truly participate in the worship, I have become more and more interested in liturgy and its history and so I started searching for books on the subject. I was very excited to find Liturgia Expurgata or, The Prayer-Book as Amended by the Westminster Divines: An Essay on the Liturgical Question in the American Churches, by Charles W. Shields on Google Books. I’ve read it and found it to be interesting and informative.  Now I want to study the subject more and I want to discuss the issue with a more knowledgeable person like my pastor.

 

After reading this book, I appreciate our little church’s liturgical form of worship even more than I already did.

 

Coram Deo,

Kenith

 

Yesterday, I worked a normal 12 hour shift and came home. Several guys came over to visit. Lisa and the boys had already set the fire pit on the back patio. Gary J., M.K., and Woody came over. We opened a bottle of old vine Zinfandel that Woody brought with him. It was great and while sipping on red wine, we sat near the fire, presented definitive ways to accomplish world peace and also sure answers that will heal our nations medical woes.

After the Zinfandel we opened a bottle of Greg Norman's wine. It too was good. It was at this time that my cousin Chris arrived. We visited for a while and as the fire burned down our group broke up and everyone headed for their own homes.

Today, I worked another 12 hour shift. One of the boys needed help with his homework. Lisa and Morgan went to Chili's for a a bit of relaxation and I hung out with the boys.

Later,

Kenith

Wish I Was Hunting

This morning as I stepped outside to come to work the air was cool and crisp. The heat and humidity was gone, driven out by yesterday’s cold front. I noticed, as I walked to my truck, that there was no wind. It was a perfect morning to be in the woods on a deer stand or squirrel hunting. I wished that I was leaving the house with my guns going hunting, but instead I was off to the refinery and to work.

 

I love squirrel hunting. It is so much fun to walk slowly through a creek bottom looking and listening for squirrels. Fox (or Red) squirrels are smarter than Cat (or grey) Squirrels. If a Cat Squirrel sees you he will hide, but if you are quiet for ten minutes or so, he will soon forget about you and start running around again. A Fox squirrel will hide and remain hidden as long as you are in the area, unless he is forced to move.

 

Squirrel hunting is a blast. Deer hunting is not as much fun but it is far more challenging and you see more creatures roaming around you as you remain very quiet in your stand.

 

The weather today is great for either type of hunting. Too bad I could not do either one.

 

Later,

Kenith