This afternoon our church hosted the joint Reformation Festival service. After the service we enjoyed an amazing feast with the meats prepared by our Chefs Mike 'n Mike and our members bringing the side dishes and desserts. It might not have smelled like Fall around there but it did smell like smoked Boston butt!
From left is Michael Kelley as acolyte, Pastors Hoyer, Schleicher, and Kuske
We had special music presented by Rachel Huebner Cochran and Suzanne Chappell, both from Victory. Robert, our member, sang the psalm as our cantor. The service was composed of three devotions based upon the readings, with stanzas of "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less" being sung in between the readings. Judy J. looked over her shoulder at me when we began, and fished a tissue from her purse in preparation for her coming flow. She and I weep at many of the same hymns, which I love about us. By the time we sang, "When He shall come with trumpet sound...", I was gone, Terri holding my hand. I got to return the favor for her when we sang, "In Christ Alone".
Gretchen and Terri wore red tops for Reformation!! This is Gretchen's favorite day of the church year and enjoyed it greatly.
My friend, Anne Hoyer, enjoying the bounty of the buffet. This year we made sure she got a brat because two years ago when we hosted, she was late getting into the Fellowship Hall and missed them completely.
Before the service began, I introduced Anne to my friend, Ellen, who is wearing the purple sweater in this photo. She is the wife of Pastor Schleicher. We don't get to see each other very often but when we do, it's like we never parted. She saved me a seat across from her so we could talk.
We met two years ago on the July 4th holiday weekend, as she was doing flowers for a wedding at The Club. Her husband was mission counselor for my pastor years ago in VA (small world!). Anyway, we made fast friends after meeting at church, with them coming over to my house in the afternoon for a visit. They moved here from TX in January of last year and love love love their congregation at Keystone Heights. It's too bad that Ellen and Anne didn't know each other yet, and I hope they do get to spend some time together again before next Reformation!
This man on the left, Corey, serves in the Navy and is stationed at Kings' Bay, GA. He drives about an hour each way. When I saw him at worship in the morning, I was thinking he would not be there for the Reformation service. Sure enough, there he was! I asked him if he'd gone back up to GA, but he'd actually gone to the Mall to pass the time between worship and the Reformation Service. I was impressed! He took care of some Christmas shopping while he was at it. His family is not here with him as he has time at sea (submariner) so his wife, Ann, and three daughters are in New Ulm, MN. They knew our member, Sterling, from when they served together in Hawaii. Very cool!
Here is one of the Langley boys with some food on his plate.
...and here is Cinderella (a.k.a. Sandy) working alone in the kitchen after she finished her meal. She wanted to get a jump on some of the clean up. Later the place was swamped with folks...it looks like a big kitchen until you get people in there!
