Rich in Every Way

Some days are just brimming over with the richness of God's presence. Take our Sunday for example. Aside from the simple fact that we had beautiful warm sunshine all. day. long. it was a day spent in quality connections.

Baptism Sunday. After a great message from our Pastor Steve, we gathered in the back parking lot of the church for baptisms. The baptismal pool is a portable, heated device and it was set up outside for a perfect weather wise day. 5 people were baptized. Here are a couple of cool stories:

* Brian and Mary R. attended our Alpha course earlier this year. Neat, neat couple. Brian asked Bruce if he would stand with him as he got baptized and Mary asked me to stand with her. What an honor! We have watched this couple grow in their relationship with God and it's been awesome to witness!

* A surprise baptism of a young man who was visiting that Sunday has an extra special background story. Amber, one of our regular attendees shared with me that the night before she had been crying out to God earnestly desiring to see His presence. She was feeling discouraged and alone and needed a sign from God that He was actively involved in her life. Comes Sunday morning and as we gathered in the parking lot, she noticed this young man standing on the fringes watching it all. Amber said she heard a voice inside her saying 'go over and talk to that young man.' She hesitated, not sure but the urge to go and speak to him was strong so she walked over and started quietly chatting with him. He was visiting that morning and as they talked he suddenly said "I want to be baptized." Wow. So Amber led him up to the front and got Pastor Steve's attention. Steve asked him a couple of questions and confirmed that this was the right thing to do. So we all cheered as this young man named Steven G. shared that he had accepted Jesus about a month ago and now desired to be baptized in obedience to Christ. And in the midst of that, Amber's faith was strengthened as she saw clearly that God was most definitely involved with the details of her life! Isn't that cool??

* After church Bruce and I headed to see my brother. Brian and I needed to sort out what kinds of power of attorney stuff we should set in place concerning Mom. That was a fairly quick discussion which then gave Brian time to talk to Bruce about his upcoming marriage to Becky. They want Bruce to consider doing the wedding ceremony. Brian and Bruce had a great discussion about lots of things pertaining to marriage and relationships and Faith. it was an encouraging talk and I was blessed just by sitting in and listening (OK and adding my two cents worth here and there)

* We spent longer then we had allowed for at Brian's and realized we would be late to small group and I still had not gotten over to see Mom for the day. Yesterday would have been my Dad's 92 birthday. I couldn't NOT see Mom. Yet we hated to let down our small group by not making an appearance. We compromised. I would drop Bruce off at our friends home, staying long enough to say hello, then I would go visit my mom and then come back for Bruce. But once we arrived at Lee and Laura's house and I shared my intentions Laura suggested we all go with to see my mother! So after a light supper (yummy yummy thank you Laura!!) we all piled in our cars and drove the short couple of blocks to the rest home. I went in first and greeted Mom and then watched her face light up as one by one each person trickled in and surprised her!

~circle of love~

We soon took the party to one of the group gathering rooms and sat in a circle and shared stories about how each person first met Mom and what their impressions of her were. Mom then told her first memory of meeting them. We talked about lots of other things too and had some good laughs and happy memories. It was a really great evening and it made Mom's whole day!

It was late by the time Bruce and I got home but we were satisfied with a day well spent. This morning we were up bright and early and took our coffee out to the front porch to sit and sip and watch the sun to come up. As we did we reflected on how rich yesterday had been. ~~Relationships really are what life is all about.~~