An Awesome Weekend!

Over the year and a half (plus) that I've been keeping this blogsite, I've entered more than one entry about a very memorable weekend of events. The weekend just past is different, somehow. "Wonderful" or "memorable" or similar words just don't fit the bill to describe it. I choose "awesome" because the hand of the Lord working on me and thru me was SO EVIDENT!.

Actually, it commenced ordinarily en'uf. Sort of. I.e., "Friday nite lites" took place, only I didn't attend any football game, not even the Mules playing at home in Heights. You see, I got socked with a fierce cold in mid-week, after we had a "blue norther" blow thru on last Monday. Altho' I was feeling much better by Friday afternoon and the weather had also recovered to "perfect football weather", I didn't want to risk a relapse should a biting wind spring up. So I stayed home and listened, mostly to the Mules' romp over the Memorial Minutemen (55-0), but also to the Rockets' win (at their home stadium) over Robert E.Lee H.S.

For three days I prayed for the Lord to relieve me of the cold, and for as many I prayed for His Spirit in my sermon preparation for Sunday the 28th. I had been asked to preach at Mexican Christian Church, even tho' it wasn't a Fifth Sunday, because there were a special event the day before at the church and another just a week or so earlier elsewhere, that occupied the Pastor's time. As usual, I went first to the lectionary readings; the Gospel reading was Luke 18:9-14, Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in prayer at the Temple. Humility is a subject of which I cherish to preach, but nothing notable had come to my mind by Saturday morning. THEN that changed in a hurry!

Before dawn I hopped into a van driven by my brother in Christ and in Kairos ministry, Paul Smith, and loaded with other men, to head southwest down IH-35 to Cotulla. This small county-seat town beyond Dilley was to be site of the third Team Formation meeting for us on Kairos Weekend #2 for the Dolph Briscoe Prison. If you've been reading my blog all along (or at least for a year), you know what an awesome event Weekend #1 turned out to be! And I've all confidence in our Lord, that He will use us to make #2 just as much a "Wow!"

Meeting site was the Methodist Church in Cotulla, home church of Jim Daniel, Lay Director for Kairos Briscoe #2. It was a distinctive structure, white with green gables and trim, and an arcade (arched walkway) with courtyard (un patio, in Spanish) behind it between the sanctuary and the fellowship where we met. Interesting! Kind of a Spanish style , at least in layout.

Theme for this formation meeting (I had missed the other two due to work schedule) was "Humility". This was no mere coincidence, because all thru the session ideas for the sermon with the same theme kept coming to mind. Also impressing on me was pondering of "Lord, what have I to contribute? I know my limitations and faults and so do You." The response of the Apostle Paul (Philippians 4:13) cropped up: "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." It's NOT about me; Kairos is about being Christ's arms and legs (and voice) for the 42 Candidates who will experience Kairos Briscoe #2. As we departed for the journey back home I felt refreshed and ready to go and serve on the weekend (15-18 November).

After being dropped off by Paul & company at my room and going out briefly to run an errand, I popped a movie DVD into the laptop player Mom had given me. I needed to finish watching this one because it and the other movie were to be due on Monday. The two movies are the Western classic "The Magnificent Seven" and its Japanese original "Seven Samurai", by renown director Akira Kurosawa. I had seen the Western several years ago, probably on a movie-classic channel such as AMC. That it had a Jap precursor leapt out at me at that viewing. I'd read comparison/contrast of the two in my on-again-off-again research into the Westerns, or "oaters", genre of films. So when I saw that both movies were available in the S.A. public library system I requested both.

By this point (Sat. eve.) I'd already seen "Seven Samurai" and about half of "The Magnificent Seven". One thing that astounded me -- despite my years-earlier viewing -- is the theme music of this Western; its lush orchestration not infrequently enters my mind while I'm walking somewhere on a sunny day. I had considered that the music playing in my mind was either from the Marlboro commercials or from TV Western "Gunsmoke"! So the source being "The Magnificent Seven" took me by pleasant surprise. Just as pleasant as the music itself! Isn't it remarkable, dear reader, that the usual theme music for Westerns (silver-screen or TV) features vivid orchestra music rather than the perhaps-expected solo guitar and/or harmonica?

In case you know nothing of this classic Western or its Jap original, the plot for both is that a village of farmers (in remote Japan in the one and borderland Mexico in the other) is suffering depredations from a large gang of bandits led by a merciless chief. In desperation these peace-loving farmers turn to professional fighters to resist the bandits. In Japan it's the Samurai, traditional warriors of that society. In the Western version it's hired gunmen, led by Yul Brynner. (This last caught me by surprise on that earlier viewing of the Western; Brynner will ALWAYS be for me the actor who played exotic Oriental monarchs, the King of Siam and Pharaoh Ramesses -- and it was strange to see his bald head in a Western!)

As I watched the conclusion of "The Magnificent Seven" I could understand why it is considered a classic of the genre. I saw why it's also a pivotal film produced between the "golden-age" oaters (think, "Stagecoach" or "Shane" or a Randolph Scott flick) and the "spaghetti-westerns" of director Leoni and actor Eastwood, which became the death-knell of the Western. But what most kept leaping at me was that HERE was an opening illustration for my sermon of the morrow. Lift up those Mexican farmers as paragons of humility; they KNEW their limitations (when it came to combat) and were NOT too PROUD to ask for help (from professionals).

And so, Sunday morning I went to Mexican Christian Church and preached. And what a joy it was! Especially the cold symptoms were largely under control (at least until I went to give the closing benediction). I'm certain that a smile brightened my face all during Worship.

In my sermon one item was the upcoming Kairos Weekend retreat at Briscoe (remember what I said was the theme of Saturday's meeting?) and how anyone and everyone could assist. I laid out my Prayer Chain sign-up, and the cookie instructions. And got a few signers out of the typically small number of attendees. Later on this day, while riding the bus, it came to me that being a fourth Sunday it should be the monthly meeting for Emmaus people at Laurel Heights UMC. So I went by that church, and indeed it was Emmaus meeting day, plus youth-group meeting. So I got to address TWO more groups on this Lord's Day, about Kairos Prison Ministry, Weekend #2 at Briscoe, and the needs with which they could help.

Wow! What a way to end an AWESOME weekend!