Battery Charge

I am power dependent.

The wife and I were so stoked about navigating the river for our extra day weekend, only to discover that our boat battery was dead just moments before our attempted launch from Ellis Landing. 

A bummer but we were not bummed out.  We have a charger at the house!  We could charge our dead battery and be on the water in a couple of hours…  that was our thinking, anyway.  Just so you know, an Interstate Marine Battery usually need several hours to fully charge from a 5 volt slow charge.  Most boaters probably already know that.  New lesson for Team Weber, though.

We finally dropped in a bit late and ready to fish the banks of the river.  As is our custom, we use the current and our trolling motor to navigate the boundaries of the picturesque Alabama waterway.  Great plan, except for one thing…our trolling motor battery was dying!  There was no possible way that I could position the boat for my angler spouse to catch the big one.  After that, I WAS bummed out.

I had what I needed for both batteries to be fully charged, but had gotten used to launching out without first charging up.

You know what I’m talking about.  You’ve been drained, too.  You’ve been running on empty.  You know what it’s like to keep charging on without being charged up.  It’s an uncanny presumption that we sometimes fall prey to, the notion that more to do will rev us up when actually we are woefully left on empty.  Someone, somewhere said it best; “You can’t sail today’s ship on yesterday’s wind.” 

“Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:19

This is just one power-packed segment of the Apostle Paul’s prayer request for his friends in Christ.  If there is one thing that Redeemer God is all about, it’s being the power supply for those whose energy packs have been exhausted.  Where do you go when you need some voltage in your amp?  The Heavenly Father’s supply is all you really need.  You may need more than a brief charge, so take the time to power up properly before you launch out on your day today.

While you’re plugging up the power supply to your Kindle, GPS, cell phone and laptop, pay attention to your spirit first.  Running low can cost you more than a morning boat trip on the last day of your holiday weekend.   

It’s all gone

Can you imagine losing your husband, wife, or children?  If your home and all its memories and contents were literally blown away, how could you even function, much less consider recovering or rebuilding?

The city of Phil Campbell, Alabama was just about blown off the map in Franklin County when the tornadoes came raging through on April 27^th.    Death and damage rocked this rural community as well as neighboring Hackelburg, just a bit to the west, but also in direct line of the storm path.

Pastor Sammy Taylor of Phil Campbell’s Mountain View Baptist Church and I became friends just yesterday.  Because of relationship connections that extend from Camden to Phil Campbell shared by our church families, I wanted to speak to the pastor that I had read about to offer encouragement, intercessions and the assistance of the good folk here in the Camden Baptist Church.   

Pastor Sammy and I became fast friends. 

He told me of the 16 families within his church whose homes had been totally destroyed.  He mentioned to me the 3 fatalities of those who were members of the Mountain View Baptist Church.  He told me of the sad fact of 12 precious lives that perished just across where the MVBC gathers to worship.  His heart was understandably saddened.  My heart was overwhelmingly stunned to hear first-hand of such calamity.

The building that houses the Mt. View family is gone as well.  Pastor Sammy has answered the pastoral call for 33 years at MVBC and the Phil Campbell community, and he is not backing away from the greatest challenge and calling of his life and ministry now that the damage is done.  In the midst of the wreckage, Pastor Sammy sees hope.

Camden Baptist Church will respond in a direct partnership with Sammy and the Mountain View Church now that the recovery process has begun and is progressing.  Next Tuesday, I and members of the CBC Mission Action Team will meet Pastor Sammy personally.  We will take with us a trailer of items that he specifically mentioned are urgently needed.  We will begin to develop an action plan that will assist our brothers and sisters in Christ and express the grace of Christ in the midst of such painful loss.

I am asking all CBC family and friends to rise to the challenge of living beyond ourselves once again.  Pray for Pastor Sammy and the Mountain View Church Family.  Assist by the contributions that you can make both financially and through provisions that are being asked for through the ITEM LIST that has been posted on our website. 

“It’s all gone.”  We cannot replace what has been lost, but we can express the heart of our Loving God and Redeeming Lord in the days, weeks and months to come to our new friends in Phil Campbell.  ‘Faith without deeds is dead’ says the Word.  At CBC, we will put shoe leather to our faith once again…this time in Franklin County, Alabama.