Happy Valentine's Day

Yes indeed, it was a fun evening. Last night was the youth sponsored Valentine’s Banquet as a fundraiser. They did a tremendous job setting up and serving. A man in the church brought his homemade barbecue and did some delicious chicken. I hear he has a reputation in the area for his barbecued chicken. You should have seen the baked potatoes! They were huge! In fact, so huge they cut a lot of them in half – and the half was still big. The kids dressed up, served us, and did a great job. I’ve been to a lot of these youth sponsored events, but this was by far the best one (sorry Galen, but this one topped yours).

Lloyd and Laverne showed up. That was a hoot. Lloyd and Laverne go back quite a few years to a time when Joyce and I decided to use our middle names, dress up like back hills people, and make fools of ourselves. We (they) have appeared at various events a few times over the years. So we felt this church needed a little L&L. Last Sunday Lloyd interrupted the announcement in church looking for Laverne – and of course promoted the dinner in his comments. Last night we didn’t do a “special something.” We were just there dressed like… well like the stereotype back hills people (my apologies to anyone who lives back in the hills. No offence intended). But, on the other hand, we did play the “Newly Wed” game with Trevor and Shanette. So it was like the Newly-Oldly Wed game. We gave some weird answers to the questions and had a lot of fun. I think everyone else did to. Oh, Trevor and Shanette won. Even if we had been serious, the game was weighted to those with fewer years and experiences to remember. Trevor and Shanette only had 1 ½ years to reflect on, we had 43 ½ years to remember.

Enjoy the pictures:

Lloyd and Laverne had a formal picture taken.

Harold, the barbecue, and the chicken.

The dessert table. Yum.

Tuesday, we invited Eric and Marilee over for dinner. They live in Woodburn (about 40 miles away) and he was a pastor in our Conference. He still is one of our ministers but has been serving in another denomination for several years. Because of that, we haven’t seen each other for a long time, and haven’t socialized for a long, long, long time. It was a great evening. Lots of laughs. If you know Eric, you know what I mean about laughs. He is a funny guy.

There is a bit of sickness going around. Family Night and KidZone were down in attendance because of illness. So was worship today. This morning Shanette and I preached – sort of a tag team arrangement. Since it is Valentine’s Day, I took the topic of God loving us; Shanette took it from there and emphasized our love for God and for others. The ensemble from the East Linn Christian School in Lebanon sang and led us in singing. They are high school students and very talented. After worship, I took Joyce to brunch at the Lebanon Coffee House. Two friends from the church joined us. All in all, it was a good day.

Happy day of love to you. Enjoy.