Happy trails at Cowboy Church

January 21, 2012

Have You Heard…about The Cowboy Church? I attended services this past Sunday at The Cowboy Church of the Hill Country, just off Camp Ben McCullough Drive. Since services are at 10 a.m., I arrived early just to look around since it was my first time there, and I was greeted by several folks who were standing around a cook-fire.

The big pot held scrambled eggs and sausage and there were a couple large pots of coffee. Something special about eggs and sausage cooked over an open fire. I was invited to sit in on a men’s Sunday-school class before the regular service. The church is located adjacent to a large arena where stock-horse competitions are held frequently along with various cattle events. The church is about six years old and meets each week. Besides the regular service there is a Wednesday night Bible study and Tuesday night prayer meeting.

An interesting addition, not found in too many church organizations, the Cowboy Church has a shooting team that meets on the third Saturday of the month. For details call the captain of the team, Larry Howell at 934-2313. About every other Sunday, a “pot-luck” dinner is held after the service. This weekend is the day for the dinner and from what I hear it is worth the trip. I’ll be there.

The church is in a growth stage and typically has 40 to 50 people at the services. Most were wearing really nice cowboy hats. I also noticed a smattering of kids of various ages and even a few dogs attending the service (remember, dog spelled backwards is God). There is an interim pastor and they are just about to select a permanent pastor. The music is provided by a western band called “Head ‘Em Up Band.” The pastor asked the band leader to introduce the band members and the guitar player said, “OK. Over there is him, that’s him, that’s her and I’m me.” Sounded pretty clear to me. The music was the good-old-fashioned church music. The hymns included “The Old Rugged Cross, Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and the last song to end the service was “Happy Trails to You.” The music was one of the appeals for me since, as you regular readers know, I don’t particularly care for much of the modern church music where there’s not much imagination, uninteresting melodies and uninspiring lyrics. Other than that, it’s OK.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good church with extra-nice folks, then try “The Cowboy Church of the Hill Country.” Their address is 8322 Sharyl Cove, but it’s just off Camp Ben McCullough Road, about five minutes from the intersection of Slaughter Lane. Hard to miss the sign for the church. The web address for the church (even cowboys have web pages these days) is www.cowbuychurchhc.org. I’ll see you there.

Have You Heard…there are possible alternatives to Tuesdays for voting. Tuesday as the official national voting day was established by Congress in 1875. The rationale was because in the mid-1800s, the most common days for voting in most states was Tuesday or Wednesday. That was because the country was mostly an agrarian society and travel was by horse or horse and buggy. For farmers to vote, many needed a day to get there and a day to return and the voting and travel couldn’t interfere with the Sabbath. So Tuesday was the day of choice since Wednesday was typically market day. However in these modern days Tuesdays are difficult for many families who must take time from work, deal with kids coming home from schools, and the other distractions of most work days. Added is the inconvenience of standing in lines for hours to vote. This is probably one of the reasons that the US has such a poor record of participation in elections. Most states do not have a long “early voting” period like Texas. In Florida, for example, early voting is only a couple, or three days, and those days are also on week days and line waits can extend for hours. Now, some states have realized the impractically of weekday voting and hold primary elections on weekends. For example, the South Carolina primary election last week was on the weekend. But the National Elections are still held on a Tuesday.

Since we have had no problems with changing days for holidays, such as President’s Day, MLK day, etc. to fall on Mondays or Fridays instead of the actual dates, then why can’t we change elections to weekends. The usual argument against this plan is that that it would cost more. Well, let’s consider the loss of productivity relating to people taking part of the day off work to vote and consider the convenience for most people to even be able to vote on a Saturday or Sunday. So, let’s all ask our congressmen to consider changing the national voting day. Maybe they can agree on this practical proposal, or perhaps they’ll just argue about it as with most issues and the proposal will die in committee. Any bets?

Thought for the day: Elections are coming…Candidates want world peace, equality and jobs for everyone. And the fox wants to protect the chickens.