Greetings!: Isolation Continues

What do you do when you are forced to isolate yourself at home? That is a something that we never thought would happen to us - but it has! On March 28, I published a blog on isolation and I listed some of the things that I have encountered and tried during this new experience. I am learning more day by day.

But here is even a better question What do you do when your birthday falls during this time of isolation, as mine did? There are no restaurants open to get your free meal. Family can't visit you and you can't visit them. So you stay at home, follow your normal isolation routine, and enjoy a frozen dinner that your wife prepares for your birthday. No cake, no presents. That works ... at least it has to!

But I did have one surprise. My son, his wife and three of my grandchildren showed up that evening in my backyard with signs and balloons and they sang Happy Birthday to me. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday gift. Unfortunately I couldn't even hug them to say thank you.

There are numerous things that we are dealing with during this isolation. One of these is fellowship with others. We miss being in church and in Awana and seeing our friends. In the weeks since this all started our phone seldom has been ringing except for calls from "scammers". We have had calls from family members, a call from a friend who needed prayer, a call from our pastor, one call from a friend and a call from a former member of our church who offered to help us. But that is it. Where has everyone gone?
On the other hand, my wife has been busy calling friends who are all alone. I am sending e-mails to friends. They appreciate the encouragement of hearing from a friend who cares and misses them, just as we do. We all need to be encouraged during these difficult days.

With churches closed we are learning to depend upon television, radio or the internet for our services. On Sunday mornings we continue to enjoy the senior pastors at Westminster and Calvary. Their sermons are practical, interesting and their length matches our learning styles. However we do wish that the musicians at Calvary were better, but that is a different subject. During the week we enjoy David Jeremiah, Chuck Swindoll and Focus On The Family. We are really blessed with the availability of many good speakers who minister to us while we are confined.

I also thoroughly enjoy the music played on WDAC, our local Christian music station. Now I know that I am old, but their music styles generally meet my needs and I listen to them day and night.

Another major adjustment has been shopping. For the last ten months we did our grocery shopping online with Stauffers and enjoyed it. We had placed 25 orders with them before the virus hit. Now so many others are using them that we are hardly ever able to get a reservation. We also tried to use Wegmans but we could never get a slot there for an order. We have begun to use Giant when we can get a slot there. However they have a poorer selection of products available online. They don't even handle paper napkins! And usually we only get about half of what we order from them and they don't contact us so we could order a substitute as Stauffers does. In our last order from Giant, 16 items were not available when we picked up our order. But we bounce back and forth between these two when we can get a reservation. And we have enough.

Then there is personal hygiene. The last haircut I could get was on February 12 - over two months ago. And that is a long time ago, unless you are trying to be Samson. I've also tried ordering several items online from CVS and Walgreens, but delivery time has been several weeks from them, if they aren't sold out. I may have to eventually risk things and go directly to their stores.

But, as I suggested in my previous blog, there is now time to do some interesting things, such as read, pray and put jigsaw puzzles together.

However the most interesting thing that I have done is to make an addition to my weekly hymn blog. For the past few weeks I have added a new feature, "Peace in the Battle With CoVid". Each week I am featuring an old hymn which speaks of peace and God's leading in difficult times. Apparently folks need and appreciate this since my readers each week have increased from around 700 to almost 1200 each week since I have done that. Hopefully this feature is ministering to many.
I've also learned to appreciate even more the gift of my salvation and the assurance of a home in heaven when my life here on earth is done. Now I'm not anxious to leave my family here on earth, but I also realize that at my age I'm just a single exposure to this virus from going home. And what a beautiful place that will be.

Well isolation is not fun. I miss my family. I miss church. I miss sports. I miss the many activities that were so easy to do before all of this disruption. And maybe life here will never be the same and we will need to adjust to the new normal. But God is faithful. He doesn't change. He cares. He provides. And we trust Him!

Take care and keep looking up! A better day is coming!

(1) Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior, all the day long;

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior, all the day long.

(2) Perfect submission, perfect delight,

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.