Westminster and Weldon's Meat Market

My hometown of Hot Springs has been so built up heading west down Central Avenue, that I wouldn't even have known I was in the place where I grew up if it weren't for the landmarks of Westminster Presbyterian Church and Weldon's Meat Market. The only two establishments that seem to have remained from when I was a child.

I continue to marvel at the number of shopping establishments that have sprung up both in Little Rock and in Hot Springs, yet the populations of the two towns aren't much bigger than they were 20 years ago. So we all simply must be buying more. Our need for stuff seems to have grown by leaps and bounds.

I was in Hot Springs for the 122nd meeting of the Presbytery of Arkansas. I am a lousy Presbyterian. The policies and procedures that must be followed in those meetings drive me up a wall. We actually had to vote on our ability vote on an item without amendment. Which meant we all had to agree that an item could go before Presbytery and be voted on without anyone from the floor begin able to offer up changes. And then there was a woman who was a candidate for ordination who had to preach and then be examined on the floor of Presbytery. I really am not a fan of the process. Between the seminary classes, the hoops you have to jump through with the Presbytery, the ordination exams and the public oral examinations, it is not a kind and gentle process. You better be ready to put on the Gospel armor if you want to ordained in the PCUSA.

There was some really cool news about the solar power initiative our Synod (made up of Presbies in OK, TX, LA and AR) are beginning. We are the Synod of the Sun, so it only makes sense that we would help bring solar power to places in the developing world in desperate need of alternative energy source.

And then, on a personal note, I got approval from the COM to be the "temporary supply" pastor for First Pres in the downtown North Little Rock neighborhood of Argenta. I start a week from tomorrow. It's a place with a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to seeing what Jesus might be stirring up in us and through us there in Argenta.