Field Notes #5: Old Cars, Old Folks

After some lovely quiet time out on the fishing pier I first visited last night (a spider had spun a web over the end of the pier, where I had been sitting--I left it alone), I drove over to the church and was greeted by this sight in the parking lot. This is Frank's 1950 Chevy Deluxe. Apparently he has a 1930-something...something. (I don't know much about cars. OK, I don't know anything about cars.)

Val hosted a coffee break for the "older" men this morning at the church--coffee, OJ, strawberries with marshmallow/cream cheese dip and sugar-free apple crisp. Yum. And one of the men, a former pastor at HCUMC, told me he knew my grandfather and that he told him this joke (say it out loud for it to make sense):

Q: What does a lemon pie and the third finger on my left hand have in common?
A: They've got meringue on them.

To put this in perspective, one time when my grandfather was moving to a new church, the congregation he was leaving gave him a gift: a book entitled "Jokes We Hope Tom Will Tell Again." It was full of blank pages.

After the coffee break, we joined a bigger group of the seniors at Lakeshore BBQ for lunch. I lowered the average age drastically. These folks are so nice. I really enjoyed hanging out with them.

We also picked out music today for this coming Sunday's worship service. Since we're moving to one "blended" service for the summer, we tried to get a variety of styles. We're going to start out with 3 praise tunes: "Forever," "Blessed Be Your Name" and "Sanctuary." Later in the service, we'll sing two hymns: "My Hope Is Built" and "It Is Well." I'm also going to do a solo--"Held" by Natalie Grant. The passage from Romans, on which Val will be preaching, is all about suffering producing endurance, but her approach will turn it on its head a bit. More about that on Sunday. Sadly, Art, who plays drums, will be out of town this weekend. Bummer.

Val put me to work researching ideas for activities for the senior adults in the church. Like the Explorations in Antiquity Center in LaGrange, GA, or the new Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. Apparently the seniors have been clamoring for things to do, so we're looking into some field trips and activities for them.

We also finalized a sponsorship of a Haitian child named Genese through World of God, an organization started by a Myers Park UMC (Charlotte, NC) church member to help children in Haiti (mostly in Bayonnais, one of the poorest regions of the country) and in Liberia. I have a sponsored child through World of God as well. It's sort of a localized version of Compassion International, another great organization.

In a bit, I'm gonna go home, go for a nice, long bike ride, shower, then come back to church for music/choir practice at 6:30. Looking forward to it! :)