Gloria Christiansen,Hinds county Gazette April 23 2009

Rip Noble, preaching at the special services
held at the Edwards Presbyterian church recently.


I didn't even ask her name.

I am writing this early Sunday morning…Because of the very busy week ahead… Rip Noble is preaching for special services at the Presbyterian church today, tonight, Monday and Tuesday evenings, the Edwards Fellowship Club is coming here for dessert Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday I am going to Raymond to get Susan to cut my dog Charlie’s hair, and Annie to polish my toes nails. Then Saturday there is a wedding shower for Marianna Harpole out at Peggy Ann‘s. And in the middle of all these goings-on ….….The L C has Yankees coming ….to visit…He is delighted. They are coming from Pennsylvania…they were part of his church family up there.

So, any spare time, I have this week, will be devoted to practicing my best southern manners and of course working on my southern accent, because Yankee love the way we talk down here in the deep south. If I do say so myself, I have perfected my accent to a level high enough that I can fool most Yankees…..but not to the degree I can deceive you all.

In my efforts readying this house for Tuesday, I cleaned off my desk and under a pile of papers, I found the journal from my recent buss ride. March must be the time for the traveling carnivals to crank back up…one lady was traveling from Indiana to Port Arthur Texas, to join back up with the carnival she has worked for seven years. Coming out of Florida there was a carnival worker, young lady, who was on her way to Tupelo Mississippi, to visit her family.

I am thinking, that buss travelers quite possibly have more tattoos and body piercing then the average person traveling by most any other means. My favorite was a woman, she was densely tattooed on all parts of her body that were visible, she was small built and very thin, in fact she was scrawny, she had several teeth missing. I am guessing she was my age,…..There was something about her that draw me, maybe it was her smile…..it was sincere and genuine. She was a chain smoker so when she got off the buss she went with the smokers, a younger crowd, I watched as she interacted with them…..she was motherly toward them….she seemed have a honest affection for them and them for her.

It was in Tallahassee, outside the terminal where the smokers had been banished to….That I got up the nerve to chat with her a bit…found out she was going to FT. Myers too…it was her birthday she was going home to see her family, her mother and aunt would be meeting her at the station…I asked permission to take her picture…I did not take many picture of the people traveling on the buss….It was not my world, it was theirs.

I took her picture, they called our buss…as we were walking back across the terminal together, she saw a young man standing near a bank of pay phones…she excused herself, “I have got to go check on my buddy.” She explained, that Tallahassee was his destination…and he could not find anybody to come pick him up. She was worried about him, I went on by myself and took my seat.

I only talked to the tattooed lady that one time…we did however exchange smiles each time the bus stopped. I have thought about her a lot, and wondered about me…questioned if I had met her in my world, would I have given her a second thought? Would I have judged her based solely on her appearance? And missed her sweet compassionate heart? Her caring nature?
I have come to believe, If I had not met the lady with the many tattoos, even though the encounter was a brief one…it would have been my great loss…..

I better get going…I think Dave Harpole is singing Beulah Land at the special services this morning…I don’t want to miss that!

Love to all , call if you need me.
This is the web page for the church Rip Noble is pastoring You've Found Hope!

GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com

Gloria Christiansen Edwards Mississippi

Here in mid Mississippi we enjoyed beautiful Easter Sunday …the temperatures were just right, warm in the sun and cool in the shade. The grass is so appealing right now so a fresh, lush green….perfect for hiding eggs and perhaps grazing goats.

The community Easter service was held at the Methodist church this year. Dean Rydbeck, the pastor at the Edwards Presbyterian Church brought the message, it was an encouraging service. We were treated to special music by Marilyn Bland, she sang “We you there” , it brought goose bumps to my arms.

After the service, the Methodist ladies served the most delicious brunch in the Family Center….I so enjoy our community services….it is a wonderful time of fellowship, being together with our friends and neighbors…most occasions when we are together, as a community, it is for a funeral.
By the way the Presbyterians are having special spring services, beginning next Sunday morning and evening, and there will be evening services Monday and Tuesday too. Rip Noble will be the speaker….Many of you will remember Rip, he grew up in Edwards, much of the time at his grandpa’s Hardware Store on Main Street…Of course, most of you know who his parents are…. Lindsay and Blue Noble. Rip is preaching in east Tennessee now. I am not sure of the times for the services…but there is a sign on the corner, right there at the big E D W A R D S in the bank…that has more details. And you can call me, I have a flyer, but it is in the truck…but I will go get it..…If you need me to.

I have cut down my variegated privet hedge, I had here on the west side of the house…..I don’t know why I planted them in the first place. The white flies love them! Any way I have been hard at work on that bed…It is looking so nice…I laid down pine straw, potted up some Double Knock out roses, places the pots on the straw, then rolled the crepe myrtles I have in pots over and placed them on the straw…I have nothing in the ground …its all in pots. My feed dolly has come in handy….moving the big pots here, yonder and there!!!

Well I have got to go…work on that bed some more….I want it to look nice for next Tuesday when Dave Montgomery and I show our art for The Edwards fellowship club. My art is not fabulous, but I am working at my yard…. hoping it will be.

And I want to make some more leaves this morning, Bob Kemp has some big collard leaves…soon as it get warm they will be gone…they have already gone to bolting and have the prettiest yellow flowers.
Love