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Vol. 46, No.
19 SOUTHSIDE ORACLE July 18,
2003
My Tree
I walked beneath its boughs, enjoyed the shade
it cast, and marveled at its beauty. This was my tree!
It was thirty years ago. My mind went back
about thirty-five years. My parents had built a new home at the edge of the
city. A hundred feet to the south was a beautiful black maple that cast its
shadows over the depression between it and the house. We were having dirt
dumped around the house to better landscape the area. Between the black
maple and our new home was a volunteer sugar maple. Unfortunately the truck
ran over the little tree on one of its trips. I had seen a future for the
seedling so I straightened it up and for weeks took care of it until it
recovered.
In the next few years the maple grew rapidly,
but as I had left home I saw it only occasionally. Finally my parents moved
away. Now, it had been twenty years since I had been back home and seen my
little tree. We stopped to ask permission to walk the grounds of the old
homestead. Things had changed. Most of the five acres were filled with new
homes. The house was showing its age, the black maple, still beautiful,
obviously had only a few more years to live, but the little sugar maple was
now a beautiful mature tree.
Have you ever encouraged a soul or helped
another over a critical period of life? You were there at the right time to
bind the wounds and supply the needed strength. And then, have you
returned five, ten, or twenty years later to see the same one changing the
lives of others? What a thrill to know that you have a vested interest in
that person, and through him or her, in those lives that that one teaches!
What I felt when I saw my little tree is multiplied many times over when one
sees a life he has helped Jesus transform. It is then that you say, “It was
all worth it.”
The old black maple may now be dead. Its place,
however, will be taken by another. In a sense, soldiers of the cross who
have finished their course can live on through others whom they have
influenced to follow Jesus. When they have gone it may be said as with
Abel, “Though they are dead, they still speak” (Hebrews 11:4).
Is there someone today whom you can help? Touch
his life and one day you will be overjoyed to see what the Lord and you have
done for him.
__Monroe E. Hawley
The Bulletin Board
The Sick – Martha Sepulveda returned to
the hospital for a bronchial problem late last week, but has now gone
home….Lisa Gustafson is undergoing throat surgery this week in Cleveland,
but at this point we do not have complete information….Pat Young will have
shoulder surgery in Racine on July 22….Bob Ondrejka entered Waukesha
Hospital over the weekend for what was determined to be an asthmatic
condition. He was released Monday
The Wisconsin Challenge will be assembled
for mailing Monday at 7:00 p.m. If you would like to help, come at that
time.
Sunday Speakers – Monroe Hawley will
preach at the morning services Sunday and Daryl Miller will bring the lesson
Sunday evening.
Sarah Chukka is now in India where she will
visit for several more weeks.
Address Change – Julie (King) Danek,
(please contact the church office for the new address)….Heather Lukas
(phone) (please contact the office for the new phone number).
On Wednesday, July 30th, all of our
midweek study groups will meet together at the church building instead at
their usual places. We do this every 5th Wednesday.
Two years ago Last
year Last week Goal
Bible
classes 108 145
148 170
Morning worship
190 232 *221 250
Evening worship
57 60 80 80
Contribution
$3208.96 $3850.08 $4559.92 $4200.00
Calendar of Events
July 21 – Wisconsin Challenge prepared for mailing,
7:00 p.m.
July 27 – August 9 – Senior camp, Wisconsin Christian
Youth Camp
July 30 – Joint meeting of all midweek study groups at
church building, 7:00 p.m.
August 4 – 8 – Lake Geneva Encampment, Williams Bay
August 9 – Inter-congregational picnic, Kletzsch Park,
6560 N. Milwaukee River, Parkway
August 10 –16 – Family week, Wisconsin Christian Youth
Camp
August 10 – Elders & deacons meeting, 4:30 p.m.
August 10 – Praise and Palate, 6:00 p.m.
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