Yesterday was the lovely funeral service and the reception following. Today I added to that with Morning Praise at Victory with my 'other' congregation. It was wonderful to be in worship with them again, with Robbie added to the mix. Justin and I sat with Robbie, who sits with another young man, Daniel, also a student at UNF. On the other side of me was Erica and Stephanie.
Since I am there on Thursday mornings, I have occasion to help assemble the multi-paged service folder. I got a sneak peek and decided this would be a good week for worshiping at Victory.
The Order of Service was Morning Praise, which so reminds me (us!) of our former pastor, Pete. Robbie said he accidentally started to sing one section the leader was to sing, because at GS, HE was the leader! Love it! It felt so good to sing out on these familiar hymns of the liturgy played magnificently by Rachel, on the piano.
In the sermon, Pastor H. discussed how our nation is turning its back on the Lord, just as God's chosen people did in Jeremiah's day. We are His chosen people now and must be careful not to reject what God wants us to be or do. Timely in Jeremiah's day, and in our own.
It was a delight to see so many of my other friends there, including Linda O., on a break from New Beginnings Home, CO. Her daughter is getting married next month so she came home to take care of a few things. Her daughter serves with her at New Beginnings, and met a young man at one of the local congregations. So wonderful!
I also got to meet the new baby of Kristen and Brian, #4 for them. And, is her practice, has reduced back to her pre-pregnancy shape, rail thin, only 3 weeks after giving birth. That rascal! I believe this is their 4th child in 6 years. This couple is special to me as we went through Bible Information Class together at GS. Kristen remembers Mom coming with me a couple times, which is cool.
Following worship, Stephanie, Erica, and I were planning to go to lunch at Bahama Breeze. Justin's plans changed so he could join us, and I enticed Robbie to come along, my treat, before going to work. Yay! Robbie is the "yard dude" for Stephanie now---love this! Later, Jesse and his friend, Chelsey, joined us so there were 7 of us, grown from 3 originally planned. We watched part of the game from our table and enjoyed a lovely meal on the veranda.
Life is good!
