Author: Jeff Hampton

For Wilshire Baptist Church

The card inside the box of flowers said: “From your loving husband. I will keep you forever. You make my whole self smile. I couldn’t trade you for anything in the world.”

The flowers were delivered to our front porch by mistake, but at first we opened them thinking they were sent to LeAnn as a “get well soon” gift following eye surgery. But then we read the card and checked the address on the box. The number was right, but the street name was wrong; the correct destination was the boutique Belmont Hotel near downtown Dallas. I called the flower company and talked through the mistake and learned that the flowers were ordered by a man who was celebrating his anniversary with his wife. We were told, “Keep the flowers and we’ll send them a new box.”

Continue reading “Freewheeling Love”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

On our vacation to Yellowstone in September, we flew into Great Falls, Montana, the town where I was born, for a personal history tour. One of the first sites we visited was First Southern Baptist Church. The red brick building looked much the same as it did in my father’s Kodachrome slides from 1959 and in my own photos from a visit in 1999. The only change I could see was that it has a new name: Big Sky Baptist Church. Otherwise, from the outside it looked well-maintained, healthy and prosperous.

Continue reading “From One Generation to the Next”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

So, what did you do with your extra hour late Saturday or early Sunday? Did you enjoy an extra hour of sleep? Did you churn out another hour of work? Did you stay out an hour later and play? Or did you take a time out?

Continue reading “Time Out”