It was a pretty wild weekend for me.
Saturday morning was devoted to getting the house ready for a birthday party - my grandson, Will, celebrated his 2nd birthday. That began at 2:30 in the afternoon. I left the party at 4 pm to head down to church for our Saturday service. I preached and served communion to the faithful. At 6:30 we did the rehearsal for Melissa and Rich's wedding and that was followed by a dinner that was held in our Christian Life Center hall. There must have been 50 people there including several that had traveled from Holland (family on Melissa's side). By the team the hall and kitchen had been cleaned up it was almost 10 pm. On Saturday night that's my bedtime!
On Sunday, I preached at 8 and 11 am and had a very interesting Bible class as we did another segment on Martin Luther. Great discussion by the group made for a very fast hour. Then we readied the sanctuary for the wedding. At 2 pm the doors leading into the Sanctuary opened and Rich got to see his beautiful bride. Melissa was gorgeous and so was the wedding.
Picture taking took almost an hour giving me enough time to run home, change clothes, pick up Sherri and head over the the wedding reception. We stayed through the dinner, dances and toasts and then decided it was time to leave. I've learned that people party more hearty when the pastor isn't around!
I finished my evening by going over to visit one of our members who is on hospice care and seemingly doesn't have much time to live. Her family and I were comforted by her consistent confession of faith in Jesus Christ and could rejoice that "Whoever believes in (Jesus) will not perish but have eternal life." My pillow felt wonderful as I went to sleep that night.
So yesterday? Sherri had a class to teach and I had the house all to myself. I spent a lot of time reading a book for review from Baker Publishing (review coming soon!). In the afternoon I watched a documentary about filmmaker, Steven Spielberg. I had forgotten that he spent part of his formative years living with his family in Phoenix. Oh, I think there was a nap in there somewhere - maybe while the baseball game was on???
Going over my schedule it looks as if this week will be very busy. It is good to have meaningful work. Though the hours are long for clergy, the opportunity to be a part of the lives of others and to be able to offer encouragement through the Gospel makes it all worthwhile.
