My Baptist Hymnal - A Testimony

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I was looking for tunes to share with you in this hymnal I got from Memorial Drive Baptist Church (MDBC) in Houston. They were phasing out “The White book" in favor of more current songs, so I asked for one of the extra copies. It's the same one we use here in Wildwood Baptist Church.
 
I thought about how much I had learned from it. I thought, “This is a gift from God to me." Then I thought, “There should be an inscription to that effect in the front of it.’
 
So I opened the front cover and I saw...
 
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16
 
This hymnal was given to the glory of God with love and gratitude by Dennis & Phyllis Carey April, 1994.
 
Dennis and I shared a cubicle at BP and it is probably the hand of God that made that so. Dennis is truly a Man of God, with a dedication that I can only hope to achieve.
 
A few weeks after we had been assigned as “cube mates", I looked over Dennis´ shoulder at an email he was reading. This is considered “bad form’ in a cubicle environment, but I could not help but noticing the bold headline “Men´s Ministry’.
 
I asked about which church he went to, he said MDBC, and started giving me directions, but as he was trying to remember street names, I started telling him how to get there. (You get off 10 at Echo Lane (where I went to Memorial High School), turn left on Taylor Crest, right on Piney Point and it's down on the right, next to St. Francis.)
 
I attended Episcopal Youth Conference (EYC) at St. Francis back in early high school in the early 70´s. I went to “child physical therapy classes" (to address hand eye coordination issues) at MDBC back in 1964 or ‘65. I sorta enjoyed the songs, the exercises and crawling around on our hands and knees, etc.... If any of you have seen me juggle, you know those classes must have worked!
 
Anyway, I am not a stranger to the work of MDBC. I have been attending their Tuesday night ministry series for the last couple of years and I have learned a lot. I get fellowship, an examination of the Word, and a three dollar “home cooked’ meal that can't be beat. All this on the one night that I am in Houston, with all kinds of tempting other ways to occupy my time. MDBC has been a blessing to me in more than one way.
 
So, in that light, I hope to convey this gift of God from them to you; my brothers in Christ. Selah
 
Mr. Phillip Sand Hansel II
03/06/09