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JU LY FIRST B APT IST CHURC H / JE F F E RSON C IT Y, MO
TO PORCH IS HUMAN The heat and humidity confirm what we already know … summer has landed. From this point forward, we can bless the coolness of the mornings when we have it as a gift to compensate for the toleration of the afternoon heat. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? This is the time of year for picnics and outdoor activities. Lemonade is a wonderful treat in the shade while sitting in our favorite backyard lawn chair after mowing the grass. Some families spend a good bit of time at the neighborhood pool splashing in the cool waters. Others play golf more regularly. Tennis for some. Long walks in the evenings.
“Porching is a way to recharge your batteries,” says John Buchino the author of Porching: A Humorous Look at America’s Favorite Pastime, a book that makes the case for the constructive lazing. Buchino is not only a professor of pediatrics and pathology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, he also has a cool sense of humor. Did you know there are health benefits from such good habits as sitting on the porch? The average porcher burns up as much as 50 calories an hour by rocking in a rocking chair. Some would say that number increases slightly by rocking at a faster clip.
My friend Kyle Childress wrote an intriguing article a while back about his membership in the National Association of Porching. That’s right, he’s a card-carrying member of a group that revels in the gift of the front porch. “Porching” is a newly minted term that grows from an old and some would say ancient pastime.
You see, some of us who are overworked and frantic with anxiety would look upon the porching crowd as, well … good-for-nothings. They are social radicals who are challenging the very social fabric of our society that would suggest that unless you are doing something, you’re lazy. “Most people in America move at a fast
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UPCOMING Online Worship July 3 Church Office Closed July 4 Youth Mission Trip July 10 – 17, 2022 South Dakota Mission Trip July 17 – 22, 2022 NEW SUMMER WORSHIP SCHEDULE (Through September 4) 9:00 am - Combined Worship Service 10:15 – 11:15 am Bible Teaching Classes