Weekend Update

It's been a fine summer weekend--good food, good friends, (pretty) good weather, and some unique experiences.
Friday night wasn't unique. Evelyn and I mowed grass; she did more than half before I got here after 5:45. I finished the yard and then edged and blew grass off the sidewalks. After a quick shower (it's hot these days, and so humid), we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Raja India, for supper, before stopping at the grocery to pick up a couple of things on our way back home. We relaxed with Cold Justice and the evening news before heading to bed.
Saturday I was up early. The morning was pleasant, although humid, and I sat on the deck and read this week's chapter from The Story with my first cup of coffee. The rest of the morning was breakfast, our walk through the Park (I walk two miles; Evelyn walks three), Saturday Wall Street Journal, and a couple of hours of this-and-that in the yard. It's satisfying to have the time to tend to little details: chopping some branches off bushes and trees, watering and feeding the plants in pots, killing weeds, checking the gutters, doing a little grass trimming.
After lunch we went to Dave and Mary Lautzenheiser's for Dave's 60th birthday party. Mary had prepared a wonderful spread of food, and we really enjoyed visiting with friends from church as well as Dave and Mary. It rained some on our way to their house, but it cleared up in plenty of time for us to tour the beautiful flower beds he's planted all around his house. Dave, the master gardener, is an inspiration.
I came home and did some work for Christian Standard for a little while and then went to the grocery store. Evelyn and I had eaten so much at Lautzenheisers that we didn't really need supper. So Evelyn popped a huge bowl of popcorn that we enjoyed while we watched an old movie that I had picked up at Redbox while I was at the grocery store. The Sum of All Fears, starring Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman, had a plot with a few lapses in logic, but it was well-acted and engaging. I'm glad we saw it.
Sunday we were up early and on our walk before we got ready for church. (Believe it or not, we weren't the only ones out walking at 6:45 in the morning!)

Today was the first Sunday in the New Testament portion of The Story, and the church had planned "Christmas in June" to mark our study of the birth of Jesus. It was a creative service, full of blessings, especially the excellent sermon by Brad Wilson. The biggest takeaway for me: Think of all the incidents of obedience that made the Christmas story happen: Mary and Joseph, of course, in a succession of good decisions; but also the shepherds and the Magi.
We met Terry and Shirley Wuske at first service and adjourned to the Frisch's in Liberty Township where we left the Wuskes' car and embarked on Ponderama, an annual tour of homes that have installed inspiring water features created by one firm here in greater Cincinnati. We went to three homes, and the first two were truly magnificent.
The home on Crest Road in Colerain Township sits adjacent to two home lots the homeowners purchased and turned into a park of flower beds and water features plus a gazebo. I've really never seen anything quite like it in a private home.
The pictures below were taken in only one section of their landscaped back and side yards, and they only begin to convey what this place was like.

Evelyn really liked these bushes with the
feathery leaves (at the 2nd home we
visited), but the homeowner didn't know
their name.

Then we drove back to Liberty Township and visited two homes off of Kyles Station Road. The first is down a long, private lane in a secluded setting that is truly remarkable.
We decided the best way to end our "tour" was with a stop at The Cone. We sat and visited before taking the Wuskes back to their car before 2:00.
I did some emailing and other work for Christian Standard when we got home. We ran out for supper to El Rancho Grande (love those Val-Pak coupons) and stopped into Krogers to return the Redbox movie and pick up a couple items still needed after yesterday's grocery run.

Quite a Remedy

Pictures of the Day:
I was blessed to hear our choir sing and Brad Wilson preach in the 10:30 Classic service this morning.
The opening video set the stage for a message about God's creation, man's sin, and God's remedy. A powerful thought to realize that sin is behind all the grief and pain in the world, but God's story is the story of providing us the remedy. I've begun studying for our small group's study of Chapter One of The Story, and I'm even more looking forward to this study.

Quote of the Day: If we believe the remarkable truth stated in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the world," it's not hard to believe the rest of the Bible.
—Brad Wilson in this morning's sermon.

Weekend Update

A fine weekend, it was. Sunny, but cool. (Yesterday was chilly, but the temperature today got to the mid 60s.) Here's the line-up of our activities:

SATURDAY
Started slowly, as usual. Facebooking, bill paying, coffee drinking. Enjoyed some of Evelyn's
homemade raisin bread toasted and homemade granola with yogurt and fruit.
Ran the Corolla to Toyota for an 8:40 appointment to have some little recall repair done.
After we got home, I continued with some e-mailing etc., and we waited for Wendy to get home so she could Skype us. We had a nice time visiting with her. It was nice to see her smiling, and I entertained her by showing her my new camera and its handy-dandy flip-up LCD screen to make taking self-portraits easier.

While we were talking with Wendy, Toyota called to say the car was ready, and by now it was almost 11:30. Evelyn had a $5 gift certificate to McDonald's she had received as a thank-you for sponsoring a group at Community Service Day at CCU last week, so we used it for lunch on the way to pick up the car. (I can't remember the last time Evelyn and I ate at McDonald's.)

After we got home, I went to the grocery, and after that we talked with Jennifer. It was her birthday, and she had been out a lot of the day having a wonderful time alone, doing things she likes: shopping, browsing antique stores. Matt had baked her a cake, and the four of them were going out for dinner to celebrate.

Evelyn and I got ready and drove to Dan and Cindi Cooper's to pick them up for supper and the Cincinnati Pops. We saw Mandy Patinkin (he's much older than this picture). He is an amazing performer, with a remarkable vocal range. He sang everything from Irving Berlin tunes written in 1918 to Steven Sondheim Broadway hits. I'm really glad we got to see him (although I might not make an effort to see him again). We ate dinner at the Bistro in Josepth-Beth's on the way downtown, meeting a couple there. Cindi works with the woman and had arranged for us all to eat together.

SUNDAY:

I hosted at the 8:30 service, and Evelyn decided to just get up early with me and go with me, especially since the bell choir was playing for the service. Brad Wilson preached and had a fine message on "Greater Than My Sin." I really appreciated his transparency when he spoke about the brokenness we all experience  because of our sin. A quote I jotted down: "God can use our broken pieces when we give him all the pieces" (D.L. Moody).

The bell choir had a nice arrangement of "Holy, Holy, Holy" with "The Revelation Song" and accompanied some of the hymns.

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel (used up the remnant of an old gift card) and got home early. I did 

some e-mailing for work, and about 1:00 slipped on my jeans to play weekend warrior for the afternoon. I mowed a little grass (Evelyn finished it; that's number 4.5 for this year--she mowed the front Thursday and then gave up because the yard was so wet). While Evelyn was mowing, I  did the following:
1) planted a Knockout Rose I had bought at Costco this week.
2) dug up a big clump of daylilies growing beside the deck.
3) planted some of the daylilies behind the rosebush (this is the spot where our white pine was before it died).
4) gave the rest of the daylilies to two neighbors who were out working in their yards too.
5) edged all the sidewalks and driveway in the front of the house.
6) cleaned up the huge mess created by the edging and the mowing.
7) planted two pots of herbs from plants one of the neighbors gave me in exchange for the lilies.
Around 5:00 I came in, took a shower, and then flopped down in the armchair to check Facebook--and fell asleep, just for a few minutes.
We had a wonderful vegetarian Boboli pizza for supper while we watched "60 Minutes" (more Boston coverage).
A fine weekend, all-in-all.

Worship Vision Night

Last night was Worship Vision night at the church for all those who help in any way lead worship in what we have called our Blended or Contemporary services. It was a nice evening with wonderful cheesecake (provided by Mark Senseman--I had the Dutch apple--yum!).
After about 30 minutes of coffee and cheesecake, we enjoyed a wonderful set of worship songs, led by Micah Steele with nothing more than an acoustic guitar. (I'd like to see us do that for an all-church worship service. We could hear each other sing, and the guitar accompaniment was beautiful and varied, strong when it needed to be, but always gentle.)
Speaking of gentle, that's Benji Maurer; "gentle" is the best way to describe his demeanor and his approach. There's nothing of the "hot dog" about him, and I appreciate that. He led the rest of our evening together.
After sharing some thoughts from his experience and the Bible about worship, he walked us through upcoming changes that will take place with his use of worship teams starting April 7. Most of the information had already been shared in an email he sent inviting us to this meeting. But it was good of him to make sure we all heard it from him at one time, and his offer to speak with any of us individually was sincere and welcome.
He distributed sheets of paper each person could use to indicate whether he or she wants to keep serving or take a break from serving.
I said, "I'm in," but I doubt I can do all the things I have at least sometimes done in the past, especially with the new configuration of the worship services. So I'm going to write a note to Benji, Dave Lautzenheiser, and Brad Wilson and ask them to decide which jobs they want me to keep doing.
We finished by 9:00, and I had nice visits with a couple of folks before heading home.

A Good Sunday

Like so many others in America this evening, I'm watching the first episode of the new season of "Downton Abbey" tonight. I'll see if I can write something coherent while keeping up with the British soap opera clad in castles and aristocracy.
Today was Trevor DeVage's first Sunday as lead minister at Christ's Church at Mason, and it was a good morning. His sermon seemed more powerful and pointed to me, than his trial sermon. I'm looking forward to the next one!

I sat on the front row where I could snap
some pictures of Trevor preaching.

Mark Sullivan recruited me to be one of several filling a new role in the worship services. A "host" will welcome folks, do the communion meditation and offering prayer, make the announcement, and preside over the invitation. I'm pleased to be asked, and I think I'll enjoy this. Today I did the job in the 11:00 contemporary service--the first time I've ever attended it! It was a blessing to help lead.

These three guys were all smiles before church started at 9:30:
Mark Sullivan, Brad Wilson, and Dale Reeves.

We ate lunch at home, tapping some of the goodies we received in our Omaha Steaks package from Ken and Susan. I finished putting away the outside Christmas stuff and read some more in Rohr's book. Evelyn took a walk just a few minutes before the sky opened in a flash snowstorm and I ran out to rescue her. But by the time I found her, the snow had slacked off, and she decided to finish her walk. We had tomato bisque soup from Costco for supper and watched "Sixty Minutes" while we enjoyed it.
I received an e-mail from a friend at church who asked if it's too late to register for our trip in June. I had forgotten that we send him a brochure. I told him it's not too late!