A bit of personal history

10/26/09 Yesterday (Sunday) I was in Church as usual. Our Pastor often calls for those who wish to join in prayer. It’s the kind of thing I grew up with - except that format was usually done at the mid-week Prayer Service. As I sit, barely hearing those who pray aloud (I know, I know. God hears them) I frequently will pray silently. I don’t feel comfortable praying aloud since I was Interim Pastor of this congregation of nearly two years.

Yesterday I began to think about my Christian heritage. What has it been which makes Sunday Worship so much a part of my life? Somehow, about the 9th grade, I felt a real “call” to Christian ministry. From that point on education became more important to me. But back to the heritage. My father and mother were very active in the local church. Dad was both Superintendent of the Sunday School and Chairman of the Board of Deacons. He was highly respected and there was never any move to replace him. Mother sang in the Choir and also taught in the Sunday School and at Vacation Bible School. Dad’s father had the Taylor Bible Class for many years at his Church. He was highly respected there.

When I was in High School my sister and one brother both entered schools for Christian service. Bill went to Crozer Theological Seminary and Dorothy Ann went to the Baptist Missionary Training School. Examples were being set. Long before that, however my Great Grandfather, John Andrew Mitchell Petit, was a Baptist Minister, and he was the founding Pastor of a number of Churches. He died young so I never knew him, but I still have memories of sitting in Church Sunday mornings with Grandpa Petit and him giving me a penny to put in the offering plate. This was in the 1930’s - depression time.

So there we have it. A rich spiritual heritage of immediate family plus Christian forebears. It needs to be said, however, that even though I planned to go to Seminary all through College other matters entered in and I didn’t get to Seminary until 9 years after I got my BA degree. Maybe more later.

Follow-up

This morning I got a call from my Broker in regard to a Corporate Bond I bought a couple of years ago. It is with Citi Group for $5,000. It hasn't been worth that since I bought it at a premium. It HAS paid regular dividends so I haven't worried to much about it. Now the outfit wants to convert the value to shares. I told Darlene to just cash it in and transfer to funds to my bank account with Valley Federal Credit Union. I had just been in the Office to talk with her earlier this week to make arrangements for dividends from several municipal bonds to be transferred to the account, and to make sure that when I am "gone" that any funds remaining in my IRA will be transferred to the Jim and Betty Taylor Scholarship Endowment at Rocky Mountain College. We established that before Betty's death as an Annuity from which I get a quarterly check. It will become an unrestricted scholarship fund at my own death. The dividends from the Munis will pretty much take care of property taxes in the years to come. As they come due the children will receive the value in order of age and due date.

As I suggested to someone the other day: Now that I've taken care of everything in case of death I'll probably live another 10 years. I see my primary care physician next week. I'll check with him about that.

Preparation time

Several weeks ago I suggested to a friend at Church that I'd call him and set up an appointment to discuss matters. Jared is a Funeral Director and very active in the life of First Baptist. When I served as Interim Pastor for nearly two years Jared made sure that my picture went up in the gallery of past Pastors. It hadn't occurred to me that I "belonged" there, but I had served a previous 6 months years earlier and I guess that my time served was at least as long as some "regular" guys.

Anyway I finally got around to that conversation today about final arrangements. He was more ready for the visit that I was, and was prepared to make a record so that when the time comes the Funeral Home will know how to proceed. We agreed that my ashes would be placed in the same urn with Betty. The niche is paid for and expenses will only involve preparation, etc. He asked about military service and I explained that I was drafted in spite of blindness in one eye. About 7 1/2 months later after duty in North Carolina, Colorado, and California I was granted an honorable discharge (for the convenience of the government) for the same physical deficiency. That means that while there will be no military presence at the funeral there will be a flag for some member of the family. Probably Paul since he is the only one who has a military record - U.S. Marines.

After the previous noted conversation with the Trustees of the Taylor Family Trust, and this visit with the Funeral Director I can now sit back for a long life having made Final Preparations.

Always something new

I've been watching football one way or another most of my life. This afternoon I watched a Pittsburg player who had just received a pass fumble the ball in he end zone. A linesman nearby recover the fumble in the end zone. The ball was placed on the one yard line for the next play. It seems that only the player who fumbles the ball is allowed to recover it if it crosses the goal line. Anyone on the opposing team can recover. I had never seen the action before and was surprised that the guy who recovered the ball was not credited with a touchdown. Live and learn - even at 84 years and 51 weeks.

Dinner time

As noted earlier, son Ken is in town for a meeting of Public Health personnel. Daughter, Annie. came by last evening after a meeting in Hardin, MT. She needs to get her windshield replaced. It was father's (that's me) privilege to take them out to supper at Jake's with son Pete as waiter. We all ate sensibly and then pretty much went our separate ways. It is always good to get the "kids" together and listen to them catch up with each other. That way Dad also knows what's been going on. While three of my children are far, far away in Oregon and Texas, and one dead of cancer in 2006, I do get to see the other three more often since they are Montanans and, of course, Pete is living with me and looking out after the old man. It was a good evening.