95 Years Young

Today members of the Wilson/McAuliffe clan gathered to celebrate the 95th birthday of "Uncle Joe" McAuliffe. Let's see, Uncle Joe is the eldest of four children, one of whom was Graham's mother. He is, in fact, the only surviving sibling. From those four came eleven or twelve children (all first cousins). And from those came... well, suffice it to say there's a whole passel of them! One of Joe's nieces hosted his party and about twenty-five relatives came from various parts of Texas.

What Holiday are You?

You Are Thanksgiving

You are a bit of a homebody who enjoys being in the company of people you love. It doesn't take a lot to make you happy. You're enjoying life as it is. You have many blessings in your life, and you are grateful for each one. You believe that life is about what you *do* have. You feel like you have enough of the good stuff. What makes you celebrate: Family, friends, and the changing of the seasons. At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The host of the party On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Spend so much energy preparing that it's a full time job

What Holiday Are You?

Resurrection Sunday

Happy Easter! We had a wonderful day today. Our church service was filled with songs of resurrection and a message of resurrection. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift! "It is finished" and Christ's work of redemption and reconciliation is complete. All that's left is for us to believe in the One who accomplished life on our behalf.



Our precious grandson is just over seven months old, and isn't he a smart one! Looks like he's reading that card! I wish I could describe the laughter that comes over him when he sees his "Ludee"! Oh, how I hope that we'll share that special relationship as long as I live.

Today we were joined by two close friends, Lois and Jo, for a wonderful meal that Meredith mostly prepared for us. (Okay, I did the green beans, Jo brought the salads, and Lois brought bread.) Dinner was delicious, but entertainment was provided by our canine companions, Treasure and Jefferson. When Treasure discovered Jeffie sitting on Murphy's lap, well, let's just say she had to reclaim her territory!



Have a wonderful Easter!

Cuteness Factor

How cute is this!!! With Easter coming in just five days, I can hardly wait for the "cuteness" factor.

More from the GES Meeting

My friend, Jo, who was with us at the conference and took more pictures than I did, graciously let me download her photos for the blog. So here's a more indepth pictorial of the events.

I mentioned that we left a very critical case at home, containing Graham's Bible, his manuscript that he would be speaking from, several books and our sample workbooks. Because we now have a laptop and I had placed the manuscript and powerpoint presentation on a flash drive, we were able to utilize the printer in the business center and print out another copy for him.

Graham's workshop was scheduled for the first afternoon of the conference. He had a nice size attendance, which included George and Viva, Jo, and a dear member of our Sunday school class, Charles and his friend. Doesn't Graham look "professorial"?

Here we are with George and Viva, heading out for another session. (Jo is behind the camera!)









Here are some more photos of the beautiful Riley Conference Center. I'm happy to report that GES has secured this facility for next year's conference at the end of March. If you want more information about the conference or GES, please check their website at www.faithalone.org. There will probably be more pictures from the conference. And thanks, Jo, for taking these photos and letting me use them.

Ludee's Cutie

Adrian is six and a half months old now and he's discovered that Ludee's house has lots of fun things! Besides giving me a huge and irresistible smile when he sees me, he is now interested in playing with the toys and spending time in his walker.

He has learned how to grasp things with his hand and he can really get the little horsey toy spinning! Meredith bought one of those mesh teethers that she puts an apple slice into and Adrian loves to mush the apple into juice while soothing his gums. That is the greatest thing - I wish I had had one when she was little.

I pulled down from the attic the old wooden high chair and Meredith put her padded cover thing (I cannot for the life of me think of what it's called) over the high chair and he fit in it perfectly. Okay, it's that thing you put in the grocery cart to sit the baby in. I'm drawing a blank! Anyway, it works great in the high chair and he loves it!

As you can see, Treasure is keeping up with his progress too! Well, mostly keeping out of the way of his progress!

Check out my Slide Show!

Annual GES Conference

We have just returned from the Annual Grace Evangelical Society Conference, held this year at the Southwestern Baptist Seminary's Riley Conference Center. First, a word about the facility. Prior to this year our conferences have been held at hotels in Dallas or Irving. The first conference we attended met at Tony Evans' church in South Dallas. So this was definitely a departure from the norm.

This facility is state-of-the-art fantastic. There are 65 guest rooms, all well appointed and wi-fi computer friendly. The conference area is made-to-order for plenary sessions, breakout sessions, display areas and book sales. Here are a few pics to give you just a taste of the center:

A view of the registration lobby. Our room was off to the right. The conference rooms are at the opposite end of the building.

An informal gathering after dinner on Tuesday evening to discuss the day's events. From left to right are Graham, Bob Wilkin, Jo Schweizer, Viva Garza and George Garza. George is a member of our HGW Board.

Nestled along the corridor between the Conference area and Registration Lobby is this lovely English Garden. Even though the temps hovered around 40 degrees, when the sun came out you could visualize the beauty and serenity of the garden. And, as this is a Baptist Seminary, you are reminded from the fountain to "Go ye into all the world..."

I felt really "connected" to the rooms in our hallway. Apparently one of the ways this facility was funded was through hefty donations from Baptist churches. And some of the guest rooms were fully funded and labeled with the donor and honoree. Our room was given by the First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls and the room next door by Castle Hills First Baptist in San Antonio! Even though I never attended the first, I was baptized at the latter and spent many wonderful years of discipleship there. Here are pics:

The conference itself was excellent. We were privileged this year to have as one of our speakers Dr. William Dembski, professor, author and researcher on the topic of "Intelligent Design". The Institute of Creation Research had two breakout speakers and a marvelous book table. I bought two books that I'm sure will interest my little grandson in a few years - one on Dinosaurs and one on the Young Earth.

Our Bible speakers were equally excellent. Dr. Bob Wilkin, the founder of GES, gave three very passionate lectures on searching the Scriptures and keeping the saving message of Jesus Christ clear. Our good friend and professor, Zane Hodges, opened up some interesting discussion on the literary structure of John's gospel, exploring the effects of classical literature on the the apostle John and his writings. One of our favorite messages was from Dr. John Niemela titled "Jesus Gives Believers Everlasting Life; Will Unbelievers Live Forever?" Caution: the obvious answer isn't always the correct answer!

As we listened also to the weather channel Thursday morning, we realized that, since we were driving back to SA that day, we would have to leave the conference early in order to escape the impending snow and ice that was just west of Ft. Worth. So we reluctantly packed our car and left before the third plenary session began. However, we did hear the announcement that next year's conference has been locked in at the same conference center for a date in March - Hooray!

Oh yes. One other reason we were there is to promote Graham's Sunday school teaching material. For some reason, known only to God, he failed to put the case with all the sample material (plus his Bible, books, and manuscript for the breakout session he was to give) in the car as we were leaving. So this was all we had for our modest little display:

In spite of lots of interest, without the sample material, people were reluctant to buy. Another lesson learned. And fortunately, I had his manuscript on a flash drive and was able to print him another copy! All in all, though, we had a very good week.