Hope, Peace and Joy

This time last night I was freaking out just a bit. I was getting ready to go to the Women's Ministry Christmas Banquet, Dine by Design event. Of course I had waited till the last minute to see if the pants I had picked out matched my jacket and top. First round, uh no... Finally, I got the right combination together, waited for Roy since he was one of the servers and we headed out the door just a little late. Good thing we live near church.


It was a great evening! The food was awesome, the worship so beautiful, and the tables were so festive. Our Women's Director had asked me several months ago if I would speak on peace. I love that peace is between hope and joy. Only Wanda Jean who was to speak on hope could not make it to the dinner. She has a horrible cold and sinus infection. So, we were left without hope. Well, we are never without hope, we didn't have a hope speaker. Kelly Matte, our pastor's wife spoke on joy. She brought it full on, the Gospel, The Good News, Emmanuel has come, and therein is our joy found. Joy is lived out because Jesus Saves! After the program was over I was able to visit with so many friends and believe I made some new friends as well. Several have asked for me to post my notes and I will do that over the next several days.

Church hallway advertising the event. At the Well was our women's retreat with Donna Gaines and it was awesome.

A closer view. If you look carefully at the turkey you will see our faces. No not really.

If you look through the Charlie Brown Christmas tree you'll see my friend Dena. Hi Dena!

Here is a view across the Fellowship Center.

The beautiful blond lady is Kay and she an her husband started C.H.A.R.M Ministries. They minister to the men and women in prison. And the beautiful brunette to the left is Paige. She is the wife of my former boss Jason. She is one of the kindest and most caring people you will ever meet.

I ended my talk with this clip from the movie Foul Play.

Another cross view of the Fellowship Center. Beautiful decorations and lovely ladies.

Carolyn, Women's Ministry Director extraordinaire! She loves her job and you can tell by the thought and good work that shines through all she does.

This is Becky and Carolyn. Becky organized and was in charge of this event. Becky used to work at First Baptist just like me. She was the Preschool Admin and then became the Fitness and Recreation Ministry Associate. The girl rocks with great marketing ideas and she is an awesome Bible teacher and now a brand new mom. Which do you think she enjoys the most now?

This is Carolyn with Paul. He is the Director of Culinary Services at church. The dude can create! Ice sculptures, food, presentation...is the the chef and chief of it all.

This is yours truly. Stevie at Emmanuel Salon in the Land of Sugar did a rocking job with my hair. She introduced me to Velcro rollers. And they are actually as easy to use as she said they would be. She is still working on my round brush skills, which means I don't have round brush skills but I don't do too bad with a flat brush.

Now the lovely jacket I have on...I bought it from Lisa P at Jo Ann's in Rice Village. Love it because it is reversible. I wore my glasses that are for close up so that the audience would be a blur and I wouldn't get too distracted.

This is Kasi from Tomball. She did the music and it was beautiful. She has such a clear and pristine voice.

This is Kelly Matte, preacher of the Word! She spoke on joy and she brought it! Thank you Kelly. It was an honor to be on the same program with you.

Here's another take. Loved her story about her grandmother's good dishes.

Relief, the evening is over. There's my friend Peggy, aka Gertrude. She and I have a Mildred and Gertrude deal to do on Thursday for our Bible study group. We are just doing the second part of our program. Whew, don't think I have enough brain cells right now to memorize a script and to memorize all our choir Christmas music.

Look at that sneaky Carolyn...we did not know she was behind us. :)

I think this is my new favorite picture of Peggy.

Sorry for all the pictures and believe me I could have posted more. After serving the dinner and waiting on the tables, Roy became my personal paparazzi and took a million pictures during the event.