Looking Back

Quote of the Day: Knowing we must make the best of every day, because we do not know when it will be our last, makes us all realize how valuable family and friends are!
—Jeremy Fine, in the Christmas 2013 edition of The Fine Times

Every year Eddie and Billye Joyce Fine put out a two-sided, two page Christmas letter, The Fine Times, with contributions from Eddie, Billye Joyce, and their son, Jeremy.  It was one of several I read today, with time after the Christmas rush to savor this season's Christmas letters.
I always have been the nostalgic type, a tendency that's only increasing as I get older. And I took a turn in that direction as I thought about the long-time friendships with wonderful people who sent us letters this year.
I became friends with Eddie and Billye Joyce many years ago when they were leading Teacher Leader Conferences for Standard Publishing and I had the privilege to travel with them for the seminars. Their commitment and hard work were an inspiration to me, and I reflected on their lifetime of service as I read the news about their 50th wedding anniversary celebration this year.
Glenn and Carolyn Kirby always send us a newsy letter; this year's included the fact that Glenn turned 65 this year. How is that possible? It seems like just a few years ago that he was youth minister at First Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado, while I served there as education minister. (Actually that was  1974-76, coming up on 40 years ago!)
Bob and Sue Willson and their kids were among our pals when we came to Mason Church of Christ and I served there for more than four years as part-time education minister. We joined the church the year Jennifer was in in first grade, 1983 if I'm counting right--30 years ago! Of course, we've been at the church ever since then, and the Willsons have been our friends, even after they moved to North Carolina several years ago. Their Christmas letter reported that they've moved into a continuing care retirement community. "Our goal was to prevent our children from a similar experience with us in the future," they wrote, alluding to the difficult transitions they had experienced with both of their mothers a few years ago. Not long after their move, Sue had a stroke, from which she's recovering nicely. How is it that our peers, just a few years older than us, are experiencing such things?
Other letters reported births (our daughter-in-law's sister, Shannon, and her husband have a beautiful new baby boy this year) and illnesses (a friend and mentor, Eleanor Daniel, has suffered major illnesses, including a series of problems that almost killed her while she was serving in India earlier this year) and weddings and accomplishments in building the church and serving the Lord.
The letters are an encouragement to me to keep on keeping on. There's great value in perseverance; some things don't change—the Lord's grace, the world's need, the pleasures and challenges of serving—even though our bodies and our health and our circumstances inevitably will. Yep, Jeremy, "we must make the most of every day."

Pictures of the Day: These pictures weren't taken by me, but by a new friend, John Cornett, who accompanied us with his wife on our "Paul's Fourth Missionary Journey" cruise this summer with Marshall and Judy Hayden. His Christmas card included a CD chock full of the masterful photographs he took on the trip, and I didn't take time to look at them till this afternoon. What a treasure! What a gift! I've been intending to make a Shutterfly book with pictures of our experience. I'm so glad I've put it off, because very few of my pictures are as beautiful and crisp as his.  It's going to be a much more impressive keepsake because of his generosity.

This is Wendy Wagoner and Roy Lawson atop Mars Hill in Athens

John caught Evelyn and Wendy and me in a pose in Malta.

And this sweeping panorama is looking down from an elevation on the Greek island of Santorini.

A Big Bang of a Reunion

The nicest thing about the weekend was the reunion with the people.
We drove to North Carolina Friday to participate in the Fourth Final Budfest hosted by Dean and Anna Hinson and Bob and Sue Willson. Bob and Sue have been friends since we first moved to West Chester almost 30 years ago. Anna is their daughter, and I performed her marriage to Dean several years ago. The Hinsons live in Seagrove, NC, on Bud Lane (hence the name "Budfest") not far from Asheboro, and the Willsons live in Pittsboro, NC, not too far from there.

Many autumns Bob and his fellow pyrotechnics (Bob is a licensed fireworks shooter) invite all their friends and neighbors to a giant potluck with a magnificent fireworks finale on the acreage the Hinsons own. It's a low-key, down-home event, complete with a wonderful bluegrass band. Bob has said several times that he was doing this for the final time this year (thus the "Fourth Final" label), so we decided we'd better go experience what we've heard so much about for years.
We enjoyed the weekend very much. The food was wonderful. The fresh air and crisp autumn evening were invigorating. Exploring an orchard outside of Asheboro and several of the potteries in Seagrove was enjoyable (and gave us some stuff to bring home), and the drives through scenic highways in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and the Appalachian Highway in Ohio were beautiful.

Rita and Wendell Dunn were two of the
Christ's Church at Mason friends who
trekked to Seagrove for Budfest.

But the best thing about the weekend was the people.
We arrived after 6:00 Friday night to find two or three carloads of friends from Christ's Church at Mason who were graciously waiting for us to arrive so we could go to dinner with them.
Most of them were there Saturday morning for breakfast at the Fairfield Inn where we all stayed. And with them, Ron and Linda Ford (former Christ's Church at Mason members, and I worked with Linda at Standard Publishing) and Allen and Sharon Lennon (also fellow church members before they moved away) as well as Bob and Sue. We ate and laughed and table hopped and enjoyed much of the morning together.
After doing some sightseeing in the area we got to Anna and Dean's house after 4:00 in time for the pot luck supper at 4:30. It was great to see Anna and Dean in their element and to give big hugs to Jim and Annie Willson--Jim and our Jen grew up together here. Jim and Annie had driven up from their home in Florida for the big event. And John and Heather Turner arrived in time to visit with so many of us who had worked together with them at the Mason church almost two decades ago.

Sharon and Allen, former fellow church
members in Mason, drove from
their home in Florida for the party.

After the fireworks (and these fireworks were as good as any you've ever seen--a 28-minute show beautifully coordinated with a wonderful sound track), we gathered around a camp fire. After awhile we retreated to the lobby of the Fairfield where a bunch of us sat and drank the hotel's decaf coffee and visited till almost 11:00.
I'm thinking there will be meals together in heaven, and a wonderful reunion with friends and family we've known in many circles in this life--laughter and talking and sharing memories. And maybe something as good as, or even better than, fireworks.

We drove through Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. The most beautiful trees were along one stretch of the Appalachian Highway in Ohio, but I was driving then and didn't get a picture! But many of the highways through the mountains offered beautiful vistas.

Home All Day

Did something today I haven't done in a long time: didn't leave the house all day. That is, I didn't get in the car and go anywhere. Evelyn had gone to the store last night for what we needed today, and I got the bills out before the mail came. It's nice once in awhile. Wrote checks and did some e-mail correspondence this morning. Evelyn went to a meeting at the Vineyard (she's going to start doing literacy tutoring at the Healing Center on Thursday nights), and we Skyped with Wendy Wagoner for almost two hours after lunch. After that I went outside and pulled weeds and watered flowers, picked tomatoes and flowers for the house.

Got my shower and then started helping with dinner.

Bob and Sue Willson and Anna are stopping in Cincinnati tonight on their way to a Fireworks show in northern Indiana, and they had asked if we were free for dinner. We invited them to just come here, and I cooked chicken and vegetables on the grill. Evelyn made biscuits and potato wedges and brownies, and we had a good meal as well as a fine visit. 

Now Evelyn and I are watching the Olympics while we check Facebook and relax into the end of a good day.

Enjoyed good things from our garden today . . . flowers for the tables and tomatoes for the grill.