Two mornings in a row malfunctions with the heart monitor yesterday and this morning a wardrobe malfunction occurred, thankfully before leaving the house and going to church. Two friends in our Sunday School class hosted a brunch yesterday. Everything was beautiful and the food delicious. I grabbed the phone monitor and it was going off...I needed to change the patch and weak skin connection. Never have seen the change the patch notification on the phone because the patch is loose before that can happen. So with little time the patch came off easily and thanks to the washable crayola markers, I can mark right where the patch needs to go each time. Whew! This morning I decided to wear a skirt to church...don't wear dresses or skirts too often anymore. I had noticed last night that the waist seemed to feel a little loose but it wasn't too bad...you know a nice problem to have until this morning when I stood up from the recliner, the bottom of the skirt got stuck in chair and all the kings horses and all the kings men could make that waist tight again. Good thing I noticed or would have taken a tumble with a skirt at my feet. At first I thought I could fix it but it was beyond repair. It was a favorite skirt from back in the day and remember all too fondly the day I found it at the Nord. Roy asked if it could be repaired...no not really...no not really at all. For a quick moment it looked like a tardy arrival for church but alas on time, present and accounted for.
***************
This morning after making my way downstairs and as Buddy followed me knowing our first stop is in the kitchen for the first of many morning treats. Started assembling breakfast items and the phone rang, it was Roy. He has a couple of people coming in this week for interviews and he wanted to go over the questions he was going to ask. Interview questions have certainly evolved since back in the day. You used to get the whole strength and weakness, what do you bring, what do you expect etc... Now there are questions thrown in that are curve balls or at least it would be for me. As we were talking about all of this, I saw her....Cali. It has been over three days since seeing her, which is not unusual in the patterns of life with the Feral Fam. Mama Cat was out there as well, but she has been coming around about once a day. As Roy and I finished our conversation, I was working my way outdoors and when I came into the backyard with a little milk to tide them over until food could be mixed for them, Cali came running down the incline of the yard meowing at me. She came close, not close enough to grab but she ran ahead meowing as she went. New twist in our encounters. Left some milk in a bowl and by that time Roy needed to get on with his day and I had told him about Cali, so he knew. Fixed up a mixture of a few flavor chicken bits with crab gravy mixed in dry food. Mama Cat threw her authority around and Cali wouldn't approach the bowl, so back to the garage and mixed up some salmon shreds with dry food. The other day in Publix it seemed the cashier was a tad suspicious of the wet cat food purchase and asked how many cats do you have? One indoor and four ferals with a couple of dead beat dad cats, who I don't feed, they steal...but I digress. My answer satisfied his curiosity of whether I was eating cat food. Fair enough, because many times the grocery cart looks as if Roy and I are in college by the kind of food we are purchasing...mainly in the snack variety.
Our pastor announced his resignation a little over a week ago and he is going to pastor a church much closer to their home. I know they will welcome a much shorter commute. His last Sunday is coming up. Already people and committees are getting lined up for this transitional time. I love how God's church can do this right. God's calling never changes on our lives, but circumstances do. We are thankful for his leadership these past six and a half years and yet we look expectantly to who will be called to be the next pastor. The church that Roy attends in Katy is in this same process. Roy's church in Katy is trying to find their identity once again. They hired a firm to help them with this thus a church wide survey was sent via email asking questions to find the desired answers and giving the congregation an opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings. It is kind of a sad happening yet it looks to be filled with such hope and change of direction. About ten years ago this was a thriving church making a mark on Katy especially in the kindness they showed and used every opportunity opened to them to be a giving church to needs. They opened their doors to Community Bible Study, to use their facilities twice a week during the school year for leadership meetings and for Thursday Bible study. They served a free meal on Wednesday nights, which is not unusual for Baptist Churches and they usually charge, but this church is an evangelical Episcopal church. They served meals at their location but also took them to the homeless that didn't want to leave their spot for fear of it being taken or their things, meager as they might be, stolen. They had festivities for the neighborhood and they did them, say like Fall Festival on Halloween night for many other churches, later in the week to have an opportunity for more people to take part and for those who had worked those festivals to have the chance to attend one without responsibility. They helped so many with funeral expenses or medical expenses....but somewhere along the line, most of that stopped. Somewhere along the line the church lost its vision. Maybe the staff attended too many conferences by "big church" leaders and pastors that didn't quite work with smaller churches because of the limitations of staff and infrastructure. Many of the life classes or home groups began to rely too much upon video series and lost a personal touch. The sermons many times were sermons found on the internet and kind of repurposed for their particular congregation. Giving was down and some had found membership in another church formed by a previous pastor. Then the pastor said he was taking a sabbatical after enduring a huge personal loss, which everyone agreed would be restorative for him but before even taking the sabbatical, the pastor announced he was leaving. The pastor serving in the interim is not just showing up on Sunday to preach but he is involved in helping the church find its way while the search committee does its job. Roy and I have had many conversations over the happenings of the last six months at his church and can be diagrammed on a time line when the passion and vision was lost with the leadership and when important things for young families and their student ministry was delayed or not acted upon. I am so thankful these are not issues here. Every church has problems and issues, but they are not impossible because when the Lord is in it, the right path is revealed.
Spring forward will soon be upon us and although I hate loosing the hour and it takes a little time to adjust, having longer evenings will be splendid. We got new lights to hang on the front porch and I got those up this afternoon. Last year we used solar but this year we are using electric ones. The birds in the backyard are happy today with fresh food and water. Lots and lots of cardinals along with juncos, chickadees, house wrens, and song sparrows. I've seen a few robins here and there but they don't come to a bird feeder. I have a call into a landscaping company to talk with them about some flower beds and doing something with the area by the driveway and maybe do something down toward the front part of the property.
Cali and Camo have been hanging out in the back and Mama Cat who is just plain grumpy these days has taken a swipe or two at them if they get too close or do not observe pecking order. They need to finish up their supper cause a stray will come and clean it out later tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment