The Ultimate Triumph of Thy Plan

With all the upheavals going on these days, it helps to recall that earlier days had their problems as well. The following prayer is from Peter Marshall, who was serving as Chaplain to the U.S. Senate in 1948. He gave the following prayer on the morning after the Communists took over Hungary.

O, God, our Heavenly Father, restore our faith in the ultimate triumph of Thy plan for the world Thou has made. In spite of present difficulties, our disappointments, and our fears. Reassure us that Thou are still in control. When we become frustrated and give up, remind us that Thou are still holding things together, waiting and working and watching. When we make mistakes, help us to remember that Thou does not give up on us.

This prayer also struck a Masonic chord with me, as it is similar in certain sentiments to a prayer in the 32nd Degree of the Scottish Rite.

Donald Lefkowitz in Hospital

News just in from
Rochelle Lefkowitz

“As many of you may know my husband Don, had a bad fall at home a week ago Tuesday.

He was rushed to Baptist Hospital and they found that he had broken his hip. They did surgery that same evening. They were able attach the broken bone with a metal plate and screws. He spent several days in the hospital due to severe pain and observation.

On Friday of that same week we were fortunate to have him admitted to M.J.H Rehab for physical and occupational therapy, where he will be staying and in rehab for from four to six weeks.

He is in a wheelchair and is learning to walk with a walker and building up muscles and nerves that were affected. He is doing very well and it is a slow process in getting him walking again. His spirits and motivation are extremely high and he is doing very well.

 Per many requests he may be reached or wishes sent to
         Donald Lefkowitz
          c/o   M.J.H Rehab
          36 Blazberry Rd.
          Cordova , TN.
          Room 207A
   Main number 758-0036 
Direct line to room
302- 1809

Please continue to wish him well and a speedy recovery with your prayers,

Thank you,

Rochelle Lefkowitz”

Meetings in May

• Saturday – May 7th – Spaghetti Dinner – $10.00 per person, benefitting Zia Temple  # 148, Daughters of the Nile. Right here at Zaman Grotto, folks!
• Saturday – May 14th – Volunteer Unit breakfast at 8am and meeting after.
• Wednesday – May 17th – Pot Luck Dinner at 7pm and Stated Meetings of the Grotto & the Ladies Auxiliary at 8pm.

AND, we have a bunch of Rentals of the building for Wedding Receptions, Birthday Parties & other events. Please contact Al Hanson, PM, or Charlie Moore, current Monarch, to volunteer to help with these rentals. (Their phone numbers are on the Officers page here on this very blog.) These rentals are very important to Zaman Grotto, as they help cover our operating expenses.

Spaghetti Dinner

We will host a SPAGHETTI DINNER with Salad, Roll & Brownie on May 7th, from 5pm to 8pm, here at Zaman Grotto (7818 Holmes Road, Memphis, Tennessee).

Proceeds of this dinner go to help Zia Temple # 148, Daughters of the Nile.  Cost for the dinner is just $10.00 per person.

From the Secretary – April 2011

We still need your 2011 dues. About 50 members have not paid yet. Please get them in as soon as possible.

Membership is still declining.

The Monarch will be setting a Ceremonial date soon. Talk to one of your Masonic friends, get a petition and send it in.

– Jim Connors, Secretary

From the Master of Ceremonies – April 2011

Prophets,

My goodness, another time for the newsletter. Time passes fast when you are having fun!

It would be nice to see a bunch of you Prophets and your Ladies at our meetings. We have a nice potluck before the meeting. So, please bring a pot and join us.

– K.C. May, Master of Ceremonies

From the Chief Justice – April 2011

Prophets,

We’ve had a good start to a new year and I hope to keep it going.

While looking to the future, let us not forget the past and all those Brothers who have given us this opportunity.

May we have a good year for the Grotto.

– Jimmy Stewart, Chief Justice

From the Monarch – April 2011

First, I want to say that everyone here at Zaman Grotto sends out their sympathy to Past Monarch Wesley Rikard and his family in the loss of his wife, Doris, who passed away peacefully at home on March 29, 2011. Please keep the Rikard family in your prayers.

I have appointed Jerry Rogers, Harold Hobaugh and David Swain to serve on a committee to investigate our dues structure in light of our selling the back of our property last month. The money from the sale is in the bank.

Please attend the Scottish Rite on April 5th — please call Prophet Glen Pitts (General Secretary of the Memphis Scottish Rite) at 901-526-7679 to make your reservations.

Let’s all put extra effort into membership this year and ask your Blue Lodge members to join us for great fellowship. Every Prophet is on our Membership Committee.

Please remember all of our sick (in your prayers). Here are a few that I know are sick:

• Thomas (Tom) Brimhall and wife, Gladys;
• Clarence Stewart (father of Chief Justice Jimmy Stewart), who lives in Cherokee Village, AR;
• David Rikard, PM;
• Paul Russell;
• J. C. McCarley, PM, and wife, Geneva; and
• Joe Cassini, PM.

Our Prayers and Love go out to each of these families. Let’s pray for all our members and their families.

We still have Pot Luck every month before our Stated Meeting. Bring a dish and come on out and be part of this great fraternity.

– Charlie Moore, Monarch

P.S. For everyone who missed the Party on March 19th, you missed a good time.

Zaman Grotto joins the blogosphere !

You ever notice how every website has certain pages that change every month and others that rarely, if ever do? As the webmaster for Zaman Grotto, I noticed this some time back & have been thinking about a better way to offer the changing information.

Recently, I started blogging to get some of my own thoughts out to what I hope will be a wider audience. So, why not blog the monthly news and changing bits for Zaman Grotto, as well?

This semi-official blog will focus on the news about Zaman Grotto, mostly as reported in Zaman News, the monthly newsletter of our group. My plan is to post each article that is newsworthy here.

If you want to see the actual newsletter, it is on our website, at least for now.

Once I see how this is working, I may stop posting the newsletter on our website and just let this blog be the “newsletter page.”

I called this a semi-official blog because, while I do not see it as my personal blog (I have one of those already), it is being done on a volunteer basis as a labor of love with very little direct input from the Officers, just as I have done the Zaman website for many years.

In short, please direct your feedback about this blog (good and bad, favorable & unfavorable) to ME, not to the other Officers of the Grotto.

So, WELCOME to the semi-official Blog of Zaman Grotto. Your host is Tim Gatewood, webmaster & Chaplain for Zaman Grotto.

You can see my own blog (Minister Is A Verb) here on WordPress and visit my website at timgatewood.net or see me on Facebook (Notary Tim Gatewood) if you are of a mind to do so.