The second Sunday in my favorite (one of my favorites) time of the church year, End Times. Oh, those deeply meaningful hymns...Sadly, our congregation did not sing "Jerusalem, the Golden" today, which I guess would be because we have no one to play the piano or ogan for it. The hymns from the Supplement are not in the MIDI, though I was sure one of our members had loaded all that several years ago. Hmmmm....anyway, I wanted to sing it and know I can't without sobbing.
We did sing "For All the Saints", four stanzas worth, before the MIDI stopped. I don't know if all the stanzas aren't loaded or if the operator just cut if short. I made a noise when it stopped playing, and Terri patted my leg to comfort me. I wanted to sing some more!
After worship four of us went to Chili's, a lesser number than usual. Terri had to go to work, Justin was at the football game, and Michael had a meeting. He is dog sitting for his brother and family while they are off camping in GA. Michael wears many hats!
When I got home, I tuned in to the Jaguar game where they started out in a favorable position. This, however, proved short-lived, and they lost to the Cardinals. It was downright embarrassing at the end, oh my. I guess last week's victory was a fluke, just enough to please Gretchen.
While I was worshiping, eating, and watching football, my family was enjoying special worship as well at my home church. First German was celebrating the 140th anniversary of its current structure. A former pastor, Joel Otto, was the preacher and a former teacher, Carl Nolte, was guest organist. The Lancer Singers from MLHS added their voices to that of the church choir with special anthems to "join the full throng". The church band played as well, not an orchestra because of not having stringed instruments.
I saw photos on Facebook posted by Pastor Hoppe, including one where my family is seated at table in the gymnasium waiting their turn to eat. Three of my sisters are there, my niece, her hubby, and the three little boys, plus, of course, Grandma K! I was so tickled to see this picture, and others taken inside the church proper, where Pastor Schaefer presented a slide show history of the building, etc. Everyone was in their appointed pew! This made it easy for me to pick them out.
In the afternoon, I watched the Packer game on the iPad (they lost, too!) and on the laptop tuned into the anniversary service from the Seminary. It was great, it was lovely, it was well done, it was significant. And, I saw people I knew in the choir and in the congregation. 150 years for the Seminary and 140 for the church building. A really good 'heritage' Sunday!
