Photo Update from the Sipes Farm

Before I tell you about our week, I should give a little update on my mom in case you’re wondering what’s happened since our last blog entry. Mom saw her cardiologist yesterday. She feels a lot better about having the catheter ablation procedure now that he has answered her questions. But she is not going to make a final decision until she sees the specialist. I think that happens next week on Wednesday. Otherwise, she’s feeling pretty well. If you would pray for her from time to time I’m sure she would appreciate that; I know I would. Her name is Elizabeth (Betty) Crawford.

We’ve been very busy speaking at churches and meeting with supporters, relatives, and friends. We have at least one engagement slated for nearly every day. In fact, we spoke at two churches Sunday morning and then went to a third in the evening, just to sit back and enjoy a concert.

Last night was a special treat. At the radio station we probably get more requests for music by Kevin Spencer and Friends than from any of the other artists we feature. And we have a lot of them! Kevin and his family live just a few miles from Mildred’s parents. So do his parents, J. B. and Barbara, who are also very popular at Inspirational Radio. They sing in about 260 concerts a year, but we managed to catch them between road trips and had supper with them last night. I’m surprised we didn’t get thrown out of the restaurant — we had way too much fun.

The night before that, we were up in Findlay and ate supper with our longtime friends, Milo and Joyce Gallant. That’s one of their daughters, Jennifer Withrow, in the picture below with her family and us. Mildred used to babysit Jennifer and her sister. Oh, the stories we could tell!!

It hasn’t been all travel and meetings, though. I helped Mildred’s dad get the blades off his mower so he could sharpen them. Then I got to use the mower for a while. If we ever get one like that at the radio station, I’ll not be letting anyone else do the mowing. It’s quiet, smooth, powerful, and has a 62″ cut and power steering. I like it! I also helped him get his big sprayer hoisted up and mounted on his little red tractor. He’ll soon be needing it for the fruit trees.

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We’ve had time now and then to enjoy some of the beauty of God’s creation. This has been an especially beautiful Ohio spring. That gave me a chance to try out the macro capabilities of our camera. The little “Spring Beauty” blossoms in the pictures below are about the size of a pencil eraser. They are all through the woods and in big areas of lawn as well. It seems like every tree that blooms is in full bloom right now, so everywhere you turn you see color. It amazes me that this sin-cursed world is often so beautiful it nearly takes my breath away. I can’t imagine what it will be like after Christ has finished His work of redemption.

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