The Gratitude Dance

Go on! Do it! Every day!

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Saint Ruby Yenkala

I have noticed that there are people in this world that seem to change everyone around them. It seems like merely speaking with them, or shaking their hand, is enough to transform you. I believe that this is what Paul meant by a "fruit of the Spirit." Saint Ruby Yenkala was not always sunshine and roses, not always happiness. Sometimes, she was frustrating and infuriating, but she changed us, and I think, she changed us for the better, and she changed us for good. She was a white woman of Jesse Helm's generation who thought nothing of worshiping with, embracing, and helping people regardless of their color. She was a woman who should, by all rights, been sitting in the back of the church, keeping her mouth shut except to responsively pray or sing. And yet, ever since she walked in the door of Northminster, she was standing in church, telling us what was needed in the community, giving us the good news and the bad news. Ruby was Christ's eyes and ears and hands and fee
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Online Worshp for a Small Church (Week 1)

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With the COVID19 situation, my church Northminster Presbyterian in Pearl River, LA is experimenting with providing worship online. The idea is to let us gather together if only in spirit, and hopefully be a voice of God's peace and grace to the world. I'm going to document here what we did, in case it's of interest or use to other small churches. I'm quite the geek, so it's probable that this can be done more simply. I doubt it could be done cheaper, though... The team was our pastor (Sue Loper), my wife and church pianist Christie Ruppel, my daughter Emily Ruppel, and I. The four of us worshiped together and recorded it. Design We were hoping to approximate our weekly worship as closely as we could. Normally, we have a slideshow with the parts of worship, the hymn numbers, the Scripture passages, and some of the responses, along with some graphics in support of the sermon. So, I wanted to display the slideshow on screen, and also Pastor Sue. I considered
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A Sermon: What Happens when I Try to Write a Sermon in McDonald’s (Text: Matthew 5:11-16)

[I preached this sermon on October 13, 2019 at Northminster Presbyterian Church in Pearl River, LA]   I have superpowers. No, I can’t fly or bend inch-thick iron bars or explain why there are 14 schools in the Big 10 football conference and 10 schools in the Big 12. But I have my own superpowers, and at the risk of drawing the attention of some three-lettered government agency, I’d like to tell you about one of them: super-hearing. I can’t hear dog whistles or people whispering a mile away. It’s more subtle than that, and I can’t really control it. Let me explain with an example. Last Saturday, I had nothing written down for this sermon, and it was starting to bother me. I had ideas, but I never know whether an idea is any good until I try to put it into actual words, in actual sentences and actual paragraphs. So, I got out of the house and went to McDonald’s to get a drink and try to write. I had a notebook, an obscene number of pencils and pens (just to be sure I had o
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