Now strap your lightning sword of judgment upon your side, O mighty warrior, so majestic!
You are full of beauty and splendor as you go out to war! In your glory and grandeur, go forth in victory!
Through your faithfulness and meekness, the cause of truth and justice will stand. Awe-inspiring miracles are accomplished by your power, leaving everyone dazed and astonished!”
The Joy of the Lord is my Strength
DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn. She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”
What have I loved about my church – going to church – being at church? Well, I love being with fellow believers. I love sharing events that happen in our lives, and that we can pray for each other, and see God’s hand in it all.
Photo Credit Pixabay
I love seeing people come to faith in God through Christ Jesus – both young and old(er). I love to see the faith in older believers being given to the next generation. I love seeing young families in church – just the fact that Moms and Dads come and bring their young children with them. Perhaps the young ones don’t understand everything right now, but they will see the faith of their parents, and that will last them their whole life long.
Photo Credit Pixabay
I love to see the Pastors and teachers willingly give of their time to study God’s Word and bring the truth of God to the Sunday School classes and the congregation.
Photo Credit Pixabay
I am grateful that we have the capability of the live streaming of the worship services on those Sundays that I am unable to attend the service myself for illness. And that’s the ONLY reason I don’t attend church services. While I am glad to have that opportunity…..it is just NOT the same as being in the same building with the same people, worshiping the same God. I really LOVE that time together! And, I must admit – I don’t usually sing along with the live stream!
I must say, however, that while I was Church Secretary all those years, it occurred to me that I was going to “church” six days a week and only getting paid for five days – because Sunday was one of my days “off.” When I worked in the private sector, Sunday was a day that we went to church, as part of that weekend. But here I was working at the same place I worshiped each week. It was a strange feeling, and one I had to get past.
I love, here in Orlando, that we have such talented people in our body of believers, and that they are willing to share their talents with our church. I love some of the decorations that our Disney Cast Members create for our special events – Christmas, Easter, military observances, etc. We have former Disney Cast Members who work our sound and lighting equipment – and the live streaming. Their talent is unmatched!
Photo Credit Judy Wills
Photo Credit Judy Wills
I love that we have, among our body of believers, those who work with Wycliffe Bible Translators and CRU (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ). They are a fountain of information. It amuses me/us when the guy in our Sunday School class, who works on the logistics for the Jesus Film, gets into a discussion with some of the class members and writes some kind of formula on the white board! The rest of us, who are NOT engineers, just sit and laugh at them. It makes for a fun class.
There is more I can tell, but that will have to wait for another posting.
WE….ARE THE CHURCH!
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
I’ve written before about the “serendipities” that have happened in our lives. I really enjoy them. And a lot of them are related to church. With the Air Force, we’ve moved around quite a bit, and so have been members of many different churches. As result, we occasionally come across either someone we knew before, or someone we have known in common. I really love that kind of thing!
For instance, just recently, I saw on facebook that some friends of ours from our church in Heidelberg were in town,
Heidelberg Castle
The building where Grace Baptist Church met – photo by Fred Wills
doing the Disney
Credit Pixabay
and Universal parks
Credit Pixabay
I made the comment to her, after some of her pictures, that we wished we had known they were in town…we would have made an effort to meet up with them. She replied they hadn’t known we lived in Orlando, and that they were in town for a few more days and their schedule was quite flexible. And so, several days later, we met up at our favorite BBQ place.
Photo credit Judy Wills
They and their oldest daughter met us there – and we discovered it has been 39 years since we had seen each other! WOW! God is so amazing to bless us with friends that we have kept.
And another serendipity happened while I was Church Secretary at South Orlando Baptist Church here in Orlando.
This couple (Ted and April) came into the office one day…new to our church and community…and said they had just moved here from Virginia. They had a lawn service here, but also had some lawn equipment they didn’t need, and thought the church might could use it. I told them we had a lawn company as well that did the church’s lawn care. And then I told them that we had moved here from Virginia, as well, and what part of Virginia did they come from. They mentioned the Hampton Roads area – which was near where we had lived. I mentioned we had lived in a small town, Seaford, just eight miles south of Yorktown. They replied they also had lived in Seaford. I mentioned we had been members of the Seaford Baptist Church, and they replied that they had been, as well.
Seaford Baptist Church as it was when we lived there.
Copied from the cover of a pictorial directory
I said that we had really enjoyed the Sunday School class, mainly because of the teacher, Larry Edwards. Ted nearly fell on the floor and said, “WHO?” I said Larry Edwards…and Ted said…(wait for it)…that’s my brother-in-law!
Such a small world! Larry and Janice came down to Florida at one time, and we met them at our favorite seafood restaurant for a visit. When Ted and April arrived, they looked at the four of us, and said “it’s really strange seeing you all together.” Again, God is so very good to bring people into our lives where we can become friends…life-long friends…and have the assurance of seeing them when we all get to our heavenly home.
And I doubt we would have had any of these connections without being part of the church. God is so good!
WE….ARE THE CHURCH!
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
Now I would like to talk about the church we are members of now. We’ve been in that church since 1996, and love it.
Just six months after we joined this church, the pastor said the church secretary was leaving, as her husband was being transferred from the area, and they were accepting applications for the position. I told Fred I wanted to apply. He looked at me strangely and said, “are you sure?” (We had thought we would come to Orlando to play at Disney) I said, “well, it feels right.” And so I applied, and was hired. That position lasted nearly nine (9) years for me. I guess it was where God wanted me.
Judy’s picture as Church Secretary
Within just a few months of my becoming church secretary, both the Minister of Youth and the Minister of Music left to go to other churches – one in Texas, and one in Colorado. There was no problem with the church – they both needed to take care of ailing parents. The Senior Pastor was a bit beside himself! When he found that Fred had two seminary degrees, he asked Fred to come on as a temporary/part-time Administrator. That position eventually became nearly full-time, and he held that position for about 14 years. Some temporary position, hmmmm? He still dips his hand in whenever he is needed.
Fred’s picture as Church Administrator
This body of believers has about 40 different nations represented in our church – and we are all worshiping the same God! It’s wonderful! The first pastor we worked with said many times that “this is what Heaven is going to look like – all different nationalities and languages, all worshiping together.”
Recently our church held its 40th Anniversary as an established church.
We had a Saturday evening worship service, with a young man preaching, that is the son of one of our members. He is now a pastor in south Florida, and also a Seminary professor. As a black man, growing up he said wherever his family lived, “there were white churches, and then there were black churches.” Every single city/town/state they lived in. However, he said, when he came to South Orlando Baptist Church to preach the very first time…he saw heaven – so many different races and tongues within the same congregation. He was overjoyed with the blessing that gave him. He is always willing to come and preach at our church. That is another reason we love this body of believers.
I would like to quote myself from last week: This congregation is not a mega-church, as so many are these days, but a nice-sized church of about 800 members. Of course, not all attend at the same time, so we have between 300-350 attending each Sunday. That changed when the pandemic hit, unfortunately, and we haven’t gotten back to full-strength yet. However, between all those attending, and those watching through live-stream, we are close. I am thankful for the live-stream, so I can still “attend” church when I am home on a Sunday for some reason or another. But it’s just not the same as being with other believers and worshipers.
WE….ARE THE CHURCH!
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
I spoke with my son on the phone yesterday. I never take that for granted. You see, in September of 2021 my son had Covid really bad. As on a ventilator bad. The prognosis wasn’t good. In his early 40s he had tons of co-morbidities. He was in a local community hospital and eventually transferred by helicopter to a major medical center over 300 miles away. (Truly a God thing.)
And as per Protocol, no one could be with him. It was traumatic for those who love him. But praise God, after more than two weeks in the hospital he was off the ventilator and able to go home.
Here is what I want to share. As we talked about his time in the hospital, he said he didn’t remember anything. Not going to the local hospital, not been intubated. Nothing except being asleep and having weird dreams.
We were devastated that he was alone. My mother heart could barely endure that.without the comfort that only God can give, I don’t think I could have endured it at all. Yet, our son doesn’t recall experiencing any anxiety.
As we talked I felt that sharing his experience might bring comfort to the heart of someone whose loved one didn’t survive and was alone.
I truly don’t know if his experience was the norm, but I hope it was.
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books
My 2022 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
O God in Zion, to You, even silence is praise!
You are the God who answers prayer,
All of humanity comes before you with their requests
Though we are overcome by our many sins,
Your sacrifice covers over them all.
And your priestly lovers, those you’ve chosen,
Will be greatly favored to be brought close to you.
What inexpressible joys are theirs!
What feasts of mercy fill them in your heavenly sanctuary!
How satisfied we are to be near you!
Psalm 65:1-7
DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn. She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”
Our church in San Jose, California was small, but I do remember they did a “musical” that Christmas, Love Transcending by John W. Peterson. I remember the songs in that musical and how I loved it. Apparently it made quite a impression on me.
Credit Google search and Amazon
Our church in San Antonio, Texas, was a HUGE church! We had a nice-sized choir, and each Christmas we did some sort of musical. I don’t remember much about acting done with the music, but there probably was some. I do remember that the musical Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian Carlo Menotti was done one year with actors/singers playing their parts.. The “mother” in the musical was the wife of our Minister of Music. She was a good friend, and a wonderful singer.
Credit Google Search and Central City Opera
I also remember one Christmas season we did Sing We Now of Christmas by Mark Hayes. Wonderful, beautiful piece of music. And the final year we were there, we did Messiah by Handel. That piece of music will always be a favorite of mine. It is magnificent and full of praise to our God.
Our church in Panama City, Florida had a wonderful music department and Sanctuary choir. I can’t remember much about “musicals” we performed, but I do remember one special program we did that had a lot of patriotic songs in it. I suspect that we did more than one Christmas performance, but that it was probably more of a concert than an acting musical.
Our church in Seaford, Virginia was relatively small – about 200 active members when we joined there. The choir wasn’t huge, but we had some great voices in that choir. While I don’t remember all the names of the musicals we performed, we did them with such professionalism that people from around that area of Virginia would come to see our performances. We usually performed more than just one service – three or four times – enough anyway that we could accommodate all who would like to see it. Very seldom did we do just a concert – it was almost always a musical, with acting. I remember one Christmas musical that had images of Christ going through his torture before His crucifixion, and I wondered why they put that in a Christmas musical! But of course, we couldn’t have salvation without Christ coming as that baby and going through all He did on the cross.
I remember one Easter musical we did at Seaford, where they had rented a lift and a smoke machine, and actually had the actor playing Christ ascending in the “clouds.” WOW what an impact THAT made!
We did another musical at Seaford Baptist church, that required our music director to purchase a recording of thunder. During the performance, we had a thunder storm pass over. The director said she wished she hadn’t spent the money on the recording – God provided the sound effects better than the recording!
I remember one of the Christmas musicals we did there, Christmas is Calling You Home by Mark Hayes, and that was a huge hit. It was just so well-written, and well performed. Fred and I enjoyed it so m
uch that we impressed it upon the Minister of Music at our present church to try it out – which we did.
Credit Google Search and Cloniger and Hayes
WE….ARE THE CHURCH!
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
O Lord, my God, your greatness takes my breath away,
Overwhelming me by your majesty, beauty, and splendor!
You wrap yourself with a shimmering, glistening light.
You wear sunshine like a garment of glory.
You stretch out the starry skies like a tapestry.
You build your balconies with light beams
And ride as King in a chariot you made from clouds.
You fly upon the wings of the wind.
You take your messengers into winds of the Spirit
And all your ministers become flames of fire.
Psalm 104:1-5
DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn. She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”
I would like to make a short detour here. Still talking about The Church, but instead, some of the music we’ve sung, and performances we have participated in.
While I don’t really remember much about what we did in Albuquerque First Baptist Church, back in the 1950’s , it was probably mostly just sort of a “concert” of either Christmas or Easter music, perhaps with a narration interspersed between songs, depending upon the season of the year.
Photo credi Google search-t First Baptist Church, Albuquerque
But the beginning of my fondest memories of the “cantatas” or “musicals” started shortly after Fred and I married and moved to Fort Worth, Texas. We joined Travis Avenue Baptist Church there, and were so impressed with the choir that when we joined the church, we didn’t even give the choir director an opportunity to invite us to choir. We asked her how we could join in! She was quite surprised!
Credit Google Search and Travis Avenue Baptist Church
I don’t remember a lot of the Christmas and Easter musicals we did at that church, but I do remember one special “musical” we performed. It’s called God’s Trombones by James Weldon Johnson,and is a Negro Spiritual.
Credit Google Search
It is actually seven Negro sermons in verse – made into a musical. It is a wonderful, beautiful musical, but because it is not “politically correct” to sing those wonderful songs, we never hear about it anymore. But I loved the way our director staged it. It was an evening service, and the choir was “scattered” around the sanctuary, in our “Sunday-go-to-meetin’” best clothes. After all the preliminary church stuff was completed, one of our choir members took one of our handbells – the large, deep-voiced one – and began “tolling” for church members. So we began rising from wherever we were sitting, and made our way to the choir loft (we had about 80 choir members). That “picture” has stayed with me, all these years later. It was a wonderful performance, with all the glory going to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Only one other musical event from Travis Avenue that I/we remember was the year we performed The Seven Last Words of Christ by Joseph Haydn. I don’t remember a lot of “acting” during that performance, but I do remember that we had an actor portraying Christ, and he was actually “hanging” on the cross, set up in the baptistry. He “sang” the seven last words of Christ on the cross. It was an extremely moving presentation.
Credit Google Search and synaxis
While it wasn’t at the church, I was able to join with some from the community to sing with the Seminary choir (Southwestern Baptist Seminary – Fort Worth, Texas) performing Messiah by Handel. The rehearsals were in the evening, and after working all day long, then heading to Seminary for rehearsals…well, I only participated in one performance. I was just too tired to do justice to the music. But it is a magnificent piece of music.
The Rotunda – Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
Credit Google Search and SWBTS website
WE….ARE THE CHURCH!
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust! Psalm 91:1-2
DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn. She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”
(C) Copyright 2012-2024 Old Things R New All rights reserved. This website is an Amazon affiliate and the income from sales helps to defray the cost of running the site.
Old Things R New 