Covenant Builders Preparation

Tomorrow, Saturday, I will not have a post. Betty and I will be conducting a marriage seminar at our church called Covenant Builders. We're spending most of today getting ready for it.

Covenant Builders is a program that we started about 10 years ago at our church in Ohio. It's purpose is to give couples a day when they can focus on strengthening their marriages.

We have a passion for marriages for several reasons. First, we know what our marriage has meant to us over the past 41 plus years. Second, we believe that marriages are a key part of God's plan for his kingdom here on earth. Finally, we believe that the adversary knows that if he can destroy marriages it will have a profound impact not only on the couple, but on their children and grandchildren, on their extended families, and on their friends.

So, we want to do all we can to support the marriages in our church.

We have 21 couples signed up and we'll cover topics on personality differences, communication, conflict, forgiveness, and God's plan for marriages.

If you're a praying person we would appreciate a small prayer as we go through this program on Saturday.

Saturday night we have tickets to the Bill Gaither Homecoming concert which should be a lot of fun.

See you Sunday for another Sunday Reflection.

Today is November 14 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Condaleeza Rice (Secretary of State), Yanni (New Age musician), Prince Charles (next in line to be King of England), King Hussein (ruler of Jordan), McLean Stevenson (actor, Colonel Blake on "M.A.S.H."), Senator Joseph McCarthy (1950's communist crusader), Aaron Copeland (composer, "American Spring"), Claude Monet (french Impressionist painter), and Robert Fulton (inventor of the steamboat).

On this day in 1832 the first streetcar -- a horse-drawn vehicle called the "John Mason" -- first went into operation in New York City. The vehicle had room for 30 people in three compartments. In 1851 Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" was first published in the United States. In 1889 inspired by Jules Verne, New York "World" reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) set out to travel around the world in less than 80 days. (She succeeded: making the trip in 72 days.) In 1951 the first world lightweight title fight was telecast coast to coast this day. In 1959 Hawaii's Kilauea volcano had its most spectacular eruption. In 1967 the Monkees received a gold record for "Daydream Believer." In 1968 Yale University announced it was going co-ed. And in 1994, after many delays, the first trains for the public were run in the Channel Tunnel - the "Chunnel" - under the English Channel.