I decided this cannot wait.......

.........so have to write while the sentiments and memory is still fresh. Starting with worship, it is Transfiguration Sunday which serves as preparation for the Lenten season.

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As I was getting something from my mail box before taking attendance, Fausto, the Master Gardener who tried to cure my lemon tree, approached me. Usually he calls me "sweetheart" and will plant a kiss on my cheek (The Kiss Hello episode of "Seinfeld" comes to mind), and he did just that today. But then he handed me a baggie with a wooden figure in it. He said, "Timmy would have been in the (Pioneer) class we had Wednesday night, so I made you one of what he would have made." It is a duck-looking thing with a clothes pin incorporated, to hold a recipe or papers on a desk. His gift, his gesture, totally caught me off guard and blew me away, and the tears flowed without restraint. Later, when I spoke with his wife about it, she said she knew he did this, and he had asked her if I was going to cry. Julaine told him, "Of course she's going to cry!" I couldn't very well prove her wrong, could I?

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Sadly, church was far too empty for such an important day, and this type of response to hearing and attending this meeting after church would be reflected in the LES Teams' evaluation later. Afterward, I was greeting at the door and trying to encourage folks to stay for the pot luck/luncheon and the meeting. Brad, ushering today, came out afterward and told me he recently saw Mark, my policeman friend who used to be Brad's partner, for only a few minutes on a crime scene. I told Brad that I would love to have Mark and family plus Brad/Laurie/family at my house one of these days, but Brad is so busy finishing their new home to go out visiting.

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I mentioned to him that I wished I could help them out but there really isn't much I can do. Brad then said the sweetest thing to me---he said that I do plenty for him (tears time again!) I cheer him up when he comes to church in a bad mood. He said he can count on me for that. Then he told me Laurie had gotten a bunch of their stuff out of storage, including old photos, and he found one of him holding Timmy as a baby. He describes himself as looking like a kid in the photo and I said, "I bet Timmy did, too!" and we laughed. He apologized for making me cry but I assured him they were good tears, the best kind. Wow, what an emotional day!

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Flash forward through the marvelous meal and fellowship to the meeting presentation by the Team. Gulp! This is a big deal, folks, and it saddens me greatly how little interest there seemed in this report. Understandably some folks with families had sick children at home, or were sick themselves but those with no good excuse......I am part Pharisee today, okay? The two guys took turns presenting their portion of the report, Phil addressing the community issues and Greg the congregational issues. The long and short of their determination was "not at this time", this was not the right time for a number of reasons, to add grades to the preschool. I understand some of the young moms left the session in tears, horribly disappointed by the results of this survey. The facts were there, no one can argue with them, but certainly they were saddened that no grade school would be available right now or in the near future, for their children.

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Greg got the more distasteful job of having to "hold up the mirror" of the congregation, so those in attendance could see what the accumulated research showed. I hate mirrors! I hated what showed up in the "mirror" Greg was holding, and as we know, mirrors do not lie. We must keep in mind none of the results are the personal or subjective opinions of the Team. In my own case, I was not surprised at all by the outcome but am heaving great sighs of sadness over the state of our congregation...........

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After the meeting, folks were getting busy packing up the tables and chairs and such, putting the classrooms back to rights for tomorrow. I stuck around in the church to chat with folks, see what the feeling was and such. The Team, at the end of their report, pointed out the many positive things we have going for us already in place plus spelled out a number of things our congregation CAN do in order to flourish and share the Good News with our neighbors. Love that ending on a positive note! I thanked Phil for his hard work of putting all the community stuff together so nicely, sorting through the data gathered for months by member of our Steering Committee, etc. He shook my hand and expressed to me how he enjoyed our time together Thursday and Friday, and then complimented me on the love I have for my church family. He told me to keep up my efforts of being the "mother hen" to my fellow members, and when I looked surprised at this comment, he said, "Well, in talking with folks it is obvious the love you have for your church family." Never saw that coming either and once more, out of his sight, I wept once more.