Today was a day WAY BEYOND what I was capable of doing, and though I have made it to the end, I do have to say I am exhausted!
We began the day in Greenfield where we collected food for the Hancock County Food Pantry. It was hot, though not unbearable. But being out in the Wal-Mart parking lot in black pants, black shoes, and a black shirt can make it a lot hotter than it really is! The good news is that we collected a lot of food, people were very friendly, and we had a pretty good time. You know you can go places all over the state and see sports teams, or Red Hat ladies, or even motorcycle clubs, and not think a thing of it…..but seeing 5 clergy out in a Wal-Mart lot collecting food was truly a eye-catcher!
From Greenfield I drove back to Noblesville to get my family, and we then headed down to Nashville. We did some work on the new facility there before heading to our final service at the Brown County Vineyard Church. It was bittersweet to leave. Sure, we are excited about moving to a new facility, but the Vineyard Church has been very good to us and they are very dedicated and gracious Christians. We appreciate all they have done for us and for supporting us as we were growing our Church. We will certainly keep them in our prayers, and we hope you do too…..they are fine people, who do the Lord’s Work!
Father Sean was at everything today too! I hope we do not send him to an early grave, because he looked exhausted! We were following each other on the Interstate heading home from Nashville, and as we were passing Franklin, Amanda and I thought it would be helpful to see if Sean wanted to just stay at our home tonight rather than heading up to Muncie. He has to be back here in Noblesville at 8am anyway! He was happy for the invitation, and it will buy him a couple extra hours sleep! Since he is doing the sermon at all our missions this weekend, the extra rest will be very helpful!
We have been letting Fr. Sean do all the services with me assisting him as he learns our model these past few weeks, but tonight I celebrated the Eucharist in Nashville. It surprised me, in that I clearly can’t just hop into it like before. To me it seemed very awkward. I got through it, but could tell I have lost a lot, in terms of my ability. Things like that frustrate me too, and they even scare me a bit, but I rationalized that if I would do the service every week, I might not struggle. It is like what they teach in speech therapy….practice, practice, practice. You relearn and get around a stroke. But if you stop learning or practicing, it can bite you in the rear……at least it does (and did) with me! I hope to not forget that learning…..but I probably will! I forget everything!
Anyway, things seem to have settled down tonight and it is now just about 11pm! (I think these things post on Pacific Time) So I will call it a night and God Willing wake up to a new day full of new opportunities! As I said, I am exhausted, but I am thankful to make it through such a busy day. I do feel I am getting more stamina……..now if I can just muster up some brain cells and some memory!
Nite….and God bless.
Fr. Tom+