A Weekend in the Life Of, Part II - Sunday

8:10am Decided to do an easy Mile this morning. I set an alarm last night, a Sat-Sun alarm on my cell phone, and it worked this morning. I probably would have slept another hour if it had not gone off.

Noticed I had a new voicemail alert on my phone. Checked my voicemail, found a message from Pastor Hardy timestamped 9:30 last night, asking if I could do the song sheets for today's service. It's kind of last minute-ish, but I can do it.

I came to the rescue last week. Cindy and Steve both realized on Sunday morning that no one had thought to print up the song sheets. What with all the excitement and preparation that went into the Saturday event, Vern & Angie's wedding anniversary, this just fell through the cracks. Steve usually does the song sheets, but he was busy sorting out a problem with the sound board he'd rented for the event, so I stepped up to do them. Steve gave me the instructions; they were easy to follow and I whipped up the song sheets in about 15 minutes. Hardy was impressed that I did them so quickly. I don't think it is right that only a handful of people know how to do this stuff and I don't think it's right that Steve had to do everything. So I offered to be an additional resource for doing the song sheets, now that I know how.

Wasn't sure if Hardy had already found someone to do the song sheets for today and I wasn't sure how early I could call their house in the morning, so I did my Mile first. Did an easy Mile. What with doing two laps jogging yesterday plus the laps I did swimming, I decided to go easy, give my body some regeneration time. I walked one lap, jogged one lap, walked a third lap. When I got home it was eight - I figured that was a reasonable time at which to call Hardy. He was relieved to hear from me.

I downloaded the song lyrics from the CCLI web site and pasted them into a Word file. Took about half an hour to do, sent the file to Hardy so he could print copies, and got on with getting myself showered and dressed.

What a feeling of team, what a feeling of community, what a feeling of family. I arrive at Hardy and Cindy's house for home church - there is a pile of song sheets all printed out. I pick one up for myself, taking pride in my work.

A few weeks ago I was in this house for a home church service. I was exhausted that day. Burned out, and nodding off. Not today. This morning I am energized. Like I just did my Mile.

1:53pm Just got home from home church. We had a congregational meeting to talk about some proposals for where we are going to meet going forward. The church offerings have not kept up with the expenses and we cannot continue to operate in this mode. The proposals are for not renting the big room, the cafetorium, at the school where we hold our services throughout the year, but to rent the smaller classrooms either once a month, twice a month, or three times a month.

I jotted down some phrases I heard from various members of the congregation. These are phrases that I heard that spoke to me about what is our congregational vision for what a church is:
- studying the word,
- praying together,
- breaking bread together (like we did at Vern and Angie's wedding anniversary; more than just a bread crumb at communion)
- worship,
- intimate time together learning about each other's lives

Some concerns I heard come up:
- wheel chair accessibility,
- consistency - when we invite someone to come as a guest, where do we tell them we meet? "Well, that depends on which weekend you come".

I talked with J about what her ideal church experience is. What does she need that would get her to come more often? (I'm thinking like a leader here, thinking "how can I create a church experience that Josephine will want to be a part of"). Some of the things she wants - a place where she can go for solitude, a place where she can go to talk to God.

She asks me what keeps me going back to JCC. Being on the worship team. A sense of community, a sense of family. Being in service. Feeling like I am a valued and contributing member.

9:40pm We got the laptop. J came with me to Best Buy to pick it up. The plan was we go to Best Buy, get the laptop, then go get our groceries and come home. After we got the laptop J says, I'm not comfortable leaving it in the car while we do our groceries; let's take it home first. Sounds like she can't wait to get her hands on it. When we get home I ask, We're just dropping off the laptop and going back out for groceries, right? Quick in and out? Yeah, she says. Then takes it out of the box, powers it up, starts checking out all the features. Yeah, this is not going to be a quick in and out operation. Usually she's the one dragging me out to go for groceries and I'm the one who wants to play with the new toy. Got a little role reversal thing happening today!

Eventually we get our groceries and come home for dinner. I put groceries away in the basement and do some work on my computer (the one we don't need to fight over any more). When I come up, dinner is ready - and the laptop is in the kitchen, J and her mom are using it to watch a DVD. A Filipino rock band video.

It's like having a television in the kitchen, J says. Thank you! she says, unprompted, a big smile on her face.

Accentuate the positive - that smile, the smile that lights up her whole face, her eyes crinkle a bit around the corners, that's her When you smile the whole world smiles with you smile. That's one of the best things I've seen in this relationship in the last two or three weeks.

We watch a few Filipino music videos, J, her mom, and I. When was the last time the three of us did something together like this? Spend quality time. I feel some anxiety, thinking I've got some homework to do and I'm not doing it. But I remind myself that this is family time that we're sharing; that this time counts as being productive and on purpose.