Happy Wednesday, everyone. We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

My wife and I celebrated the Lord's supper in our home worship this past Sunday. It's really pretty simple.

I take the position that, unless someone is at risk as a recovering alcoholic, we should be using real wine. It doesn't take much, just little cups and couple of sips in each one. We chose to use gluten-free crackers for the bread because of my wheat allergy. See how that works? You could easily use apple cider and corn bread if that's your local stuff.

I read a few verses from Luke 22 and noted the whole point of the passage is the end of the Covenant of Moses for Israel. The Seder was the symbol of how Israel as a nation was born. Thus, Jesus stripped away the Passover Lamb because He replaced it with His sacrifice on the Cross. All we need now is bread and wine as the symbols of the New Covenant at the birth of His nation of hearts.

Then I cited a few words for those two elements, and we consumed them in silence. That was it.

Back when my heart wiring could tolerate caffeine, I never would go to Starbucks unless someone else paid for it. What a horrific high price they charge! They give a free cup of Joe to veterans on Veterans Day. I imbibed in that freebie a few years ago, and ordered the dark version. It was nice and strong and there was some depth to the flavor. But it still wasn't all that good, and not worth the several dollars they normally charge for it. I got far better coffee for the equivalent of a dollar in any one of the Dutch train stations back when I was stationed in the Netherlands.

Now, just about every year for the past decade or so, as the calendar approaches Christmas, a bunch of people come crawling out of the woodwork claiming that Starbucks is trying to destroy the sanctity of the holiday by removing the traditional symbols of Christmas from their cups. Instead, so they claim, the cups come out with non-religious symbols. We are supposed to believe Starbucks does this out of spite for the Christian meaning of Christmas.

I won't bother cluttering this post with all my arguments against the notion that Christmas is specifically connected to Our Savior. It just ain't.

Each year, the claims about Starbucks get more outlandish. We've been treated to variations of photoshopped pictures with Satanic symbols on their cups, which then never show up at any Starbucks shop anywhere. Oh, wait! There it is, down there on the bottom rim of the cup! That printer's mark is a Satanic symbol! This is just about on the same level as the "Jesus Frisbee" which is supposed to be mandatory for Frisbee golf if you expect to have a valid Christian witness. Frankly, I think the Starbucks' new artwork for this year is pretty nice. I like their cups, but even if I could drink their coffee, it's just not that good. That's the real issue, if you ask me. It's an insult to my Creator to come that close to making good coffee, but then miss the target and act like it's liquid gold.

This isn't about politics, but the man himself: I wasn't really aware that our POTUS had a personal pastor, but I'm not surprised who it is. It explains a lot. You can find reviews out there of her personal scandals and so forth.

The windy season strikes again! I don't mind the cold, ice and snow, freezing rain or plain old cold rain but the wind in this holler is enough to drive you nuts and knock you on your A double S if you ain't careful. I got a weather station which I'm gonna attempt to mount to the deck but, I'm confident that the wind will tear it to shreds. I want to know if my estimate of wind gusts is accurate. My guess is over 60 mph based on how it feels riding my bike. Accuweather says 45 mph gusts in Blowing Rock which is always lower than in the venturi section of the holler where our home is located. It messes with my internet which takes me to the point of exasperation. Plus, Georgia Southern are beating App St at home in OUR crappy weather, it's a disgrace aaarghh!

I'm a little late on this week's announcement!

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

Happy Wednesday, everyone. We are participating in our weekly corporate prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

The madness came close to us last night.

Our apartment complex was originally two entirely different facilities. We live in the nicer part; the other part is inside a fence line and is more dump-ish. The office is in there. I went there yesterday around 4PM to put more money on our laundry card (it's the cheapest deal in this area). I passed a group of young men I didn't know, along with an older one I did know. Yes, they were all black. I had a bad vibe that was unusual for me. I tried to tell myself it was nothing for them to congregate like that, but it was actually unusual. Their manner registered in my military police experience as people who were slightly tense and watchful, not just good ol' boys out having a chat. They were unemployed, and not retired like me and that other old guy.

Last night around 11:30, there was a shooting while we slept. My wife heard something her sleepy mind thought was tapping on our bedroom window, but it was gunfire across the way in that other part of the complex. Four were transported to the hospital, and I believe one died there. Crime scene tape decorated the area of the shooting and streets were blocked for a few hours. Early this morning at least two local news channel were out there (KWTV 9 and Fox 25), and I can still see some kind of official vehicles. The crime scene tape is mostly gone now, but the news crews are still out there, including one remote broadcast rig.

None of this ever threatened us. My initial guess is this was a drug deal gone bad, because the older fellow I knew hanging out with the younger guys is an alcoholic and drug user. When he walked over to that group, it was one of those rare moments when he moved with a purpose; he typically shambles along without a care in the world. Yet he stood an uncomfortable distance from them as they stood and talked quite a while.

I'm sure I will hear more about this from our rumor mill later today. As far as I know, everyone around here knows I'm ex-military police, and that my son is a sheriff's deputy. A few have told me that I am intimidating, though I have made no conscious effort to project that kind of image. So what I see here is just another symptom of the madness the Lord told me was coming.

Here is an article that is way better than anything I can write and says it better too. It is what I see daily.

abbeyvilleinstitute.org/blog/what-price-prosperity/

I woke up Saturday morning, made a cup of coffee and as I sipped it I thought "odd, Michelle's not in bed and not in here". I walked to window and her Jeep was parked in her parking space, " mmm...weird" so I returned to the bedroom and found her on the floor next to the bed. Shit! I touched her and she was ice cold, double shit. "Graham, call 911 now, we need an ambulance". I shook her and felt for a pulse...nothing, triple shit, I called her name, nothing then, as I raised her arm she let out a moan. She's still alive! Yay! I covered her with fleeces and talked to her as I started moving stuff because she's a big girl and was wedged between the bed, her nightstand and a wing chair. We have a California king size bed so, there is not much room between the bed and the wall. I told my son to tell Megan to stay in her room and wait for me, then said " boy boy move your car and wait for the EMT's". They arrived within ten minutes which is the same time as it takes to get from the BRFD to our house. Kinship matters, I'll explain that later. The EMT's did their thing and gave her a glucose (or whatever it is). Her blood sugar was 32 when I checked it just before the cavalry arrived. I know a low blood sugar event well enough by now. She was taken to the ER and they fixed her and she got to go home about 6 hours later. This one was the worst so far. It's easy to tell when a diabetic has low sugar and I've always been able to get her to take peanut butter and watch over her until she stabilizes. This time there was no way to up her b.s. but, with a shot. A procedure review is under way. I'm blessed with the ability to think clearly and act in emergency situations, in spite of fear. My son performed admirably and maintained his composure, upholding the family tradition. Megan did well to, while not being directly involved, I kept her apprised as the situation and she was okay. As her father, I didn't want her to see her mother in that condition because it would have upset her more than she needed to be. She prayed. 
   Everything is cool. Pray for us, we need to take a whole family approach to managing my wife's condition.
 Back to kinship. The folks whose families have lived in this community for generations all know one another and many are tied through marriage but, it is more than that, in effect it is a covenant community. What affects one affects us all and while not everyone may not agree with each other or even particularly like each other. We close ranks around our own. The dispatcher knew Graham because she worked for his Papa, Chief Tolbert the most respected lawman in living memory in these parts so, she immediately got things rolling. I was adopted by the community and I'm glad. It keeps me straight. Live is Good, thank you Lord.
  There are simple things to do to be welcomed in these tight knit communities.
1. Mind your manners!
2. Find where the locals like to eat and go there.
3. Be polite (see rule one).
4. Introduce yourself and whoever's with you, tell them where you are from and why you are there.
5. Annnnnd, even if it's nothing special, the food is as good as your Grandma's.
Follow these and you will be an honored guest.
Behaving like an uncouth Yankee know it all, "well this isn't how we do it up North" (yes, occasionally I've heard that) will get you the stink eye and wear out your welcome in a hurry.
  I wrote those guidelines because Boone was extra packed today with interlopers; ASU Homecoming, the Wooly Worm Festival in Banner Elk and Fall Color watchers. Ugh, I positively bristled at the outright lack of common courtesy on display. The most disgraceful thing was, that many were from Southern metropolises where they have abandoned their sacred and time honored traditions in favor of the pursuit of filthy lucre. I mean they tear down the statues of our heroes like the Noble Lee and desecrate the monuments to our fallen forefathers, absolutely scandalous, they have no shame; a rootless people hellbent on the destruction of all that is good. I better stop. The situation just frosts me.