Not Much News II

Today began with rain but ended up as a beautiful sunny day. We went to Izzy's for lunch with Joyce's brother and his wife. Our worship time was good but some people out of town and others ill. We didn't have a quorum for the leadership meeting so we took no action on an item that needed action. We'll do it next week. Stay tuned.

Back and Forth and Up

We are in Grants Pass now. It's back and forth we go - to and fro. We drove down the coast Sunday and it was a beautiful day -- a little chilly but nice and sunny with just a hint of fog to make distant scenes look wispy. We go back to Newport Friday. The "up" is real nice, too. There were 27 in worship Sunday. Okay, that's less than the 42 on Easter but the great part is that ALL of these were local people. No out-of-town visitors. Isn't that great? The church is coming back from the precipice.

We had a leadership meeting after worship and they wrestled with some significant options centering around their property. A motion was made and then tabled (at my suggestions) to be acted on this next Sunday. This will give people time to think and pray on the decision. Stay tuned. I'll talk about the final decision in the next blog. All in all, I felt good about Sunday. I didn't even like the sermon going in! But it turned out to be a good, spirit-filled day and I guess the sermon was okay. Oh, let me tell you about "yellow Sunday." That's what we had and everyone wore yellow, or something yellow on what they wore. And we had some simple yellow artificial flowers to pin on anyone who didn't have yellow. There is no theological reason for this. It's just that I started it when we were in St. Helens so I could wear my yellow sport jacket and not feel out of place. Agate Beach is now the third church to "inherit this tradition." It is lots of fun and everyone enjoys it because yellow is such a bright color. The cover of the worship folder was a simple, line drawing of a church to be colored in like in a child's picture. Everyone also got a small box of color crayons. During the sermon I had them color in parts of the picture in response to the sermon. I though it was fun!!!!!

The picture is of our pianist and the fuzzy headed preacher! Her name is Joyce so we have to be careful people know which one we are referring to.

Well, hang in there with us. We love the church and the people at Agate Beach but one of these days this blog will be talking about something else. But for now, this is our life and we love it.

Holy Week!

Busy week getting ready for all the activities of Easter. First of all, we had a Good Friday evening service called Tenebrae or Service of Darkness. Those present thought it was a good reminder of what Jesus went through in paying the price for our sins. I thought it was effective but I was disappointed that more people were not there. Saturday we spent part of the day cleaning the church and doing some weeding outside. "Outside" meant working in a light mist and heavy wind. In fact, right now (Sunday evening) it is raining and wind is howling at the windows. Today was good. We began with a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, strawberry waffles, fruit, orange juice, coffee, etc. Then Joyce did a chalk drawing from about 10:40 to 11:00. People could sit in the worship area, listen to the music or visit, and watch a scene of the Garden Tomb unfold in front of them. Our worship was mainly centered on those who were witnesses of the resurrection. I think it was a good worship time and the people seemed to agree. We had quite a few visitors from the neighborhood at both the breakfast and the worship with a total of 42 at worship. That included about 5 or 6 children. Many of the extra folks were from the church neighborhood. So all in all, a good day. And I'm tired so this will be short. Keep remembering us.

A Little Different Day

This is a picture of some of the ladies in Joyce's Bible study group. This is the end of the hour when they get to play! They are painting some ceramics Joyce's sister, Sharon brought down.

Things went quite differently at church yesterday -- but still good. If you know me very well, you know that I like things to be all planned out, everything in order, and everything to go as planned. But I know it doesn't always happen that way. Sunday it didn't. We have our music and scripture for the sermon on PowerPoint and projected onto the wall (as a screen). Well, the thing wouldn't work! The guy operating it just couldn't get the projector to recognize the computer and project all the stuff onto the screen. A few minutes before 11:00 I asked him if he thought he could get it working, or should I start photocopying words to the choruses. I photocopied. Fortunately that didn't take too long for the choruses and the two hymns we were singing were in the hymnal. So we did it "the old fashioned way." That worked okay and nobody minded. We'll get the think fixed for next weekend.

Since Sunday was both Palm Sunday and April Fool's Day, I began with a little thing about important events that had happened on April 1. All this was leading up to singing happy anniversary to a couple in our church who were married on this date. This was also Jana and Korak's anniversary. We had a good time and someone commented that the Lord was certainly present. In addition to Him, there were 28 there -- eight were visitors from out of the area. That includes our friends from Grants Pass, Ken and Ruth Curphey. After worship -- actually after our coffee and donuts after worship -- "we" distributed over 300 invitations to Good Friday and Easter. And another 200 are being passed out in the retirement community across the hiway. The "we" who did the distributing were actually ten! Isn't that great!

Speaking of Ken and Ruth, they came Saturday and got "roped" into accompanying Joyce and I to dinner and then to see the play, "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown." A couple in the church was supposed to go with us but the wife got sick and couldn't go. When you visit us, you never know what will happen!

Last week I had to mow the grass! By "had" I don't mean anyone made me, it was just that tall and the day was great. There isn't much lawn so it wasn't hard except that it was tall. We also took time a couple days last week to go see the whales pass by. We saw a few the second time we went out. There are 3 good view points close by.

Now this week is intense preparation for the Good Friday Tenebrae and the Easter worship. We are praying for lots of local visitors.

Ken ordered a club sandwich. Look at the size of that thing! I won't show you the picture of Ken trying to get his mouth around that! P.S. He did NOT eat it all.

What a beautiful day for whale watching. This is taken on Cape Foulweather looking south. The point of land behind the top bar of the fence is Otter Rock. The next one up is Devil's Punchbowl. The one way up at the top is Yaquina Head. We live just this side of that one.

Three Memorials and a Shopping Spree

I'm not sure what to say after a week like this. It's definitely more work to go home (GP) than it is to stay in Newport. Our week of memorials began last Sunday with the one here and ended Saturday with my brother-in-laws. But in between was a memorial for 3 little girls killed in a tragic fire during a sleep-over. Two of the girls were in our Kids Klub (one had graduated on to the middle school program after we left) when we were involved. It was an extremely sad situation. Their memorial was Friday. By the way, I wasn't involved in either of the the last two memorials. Joyce and I just attended.

While we were home we spent the better part of three days helping an elderly friend spend her money. Actually here is what happened: she is in an assisted living and is on medicaid which means she can only have so much money in her account. Well, she received a large back payment from the VA. This would kick her out of the program until the money was gone so we had permission from her case worker to "make it go away" before it triggered bureaucratic alarms. We helped her purchase a nice pre-burial plan, a new sewing machine, and some new furniture for her room. That took a lot of time but she is such a sweetheart that it is always a pleasure to help her.

We found things going well here at Agate Beach -- I think. We only had 14 people in church, but there were 9 regulars who were absent -- work, illness, visiting sick relatives, and other reasons unknown to me. So I have to keep reminding myself that my calling is to be faithful. If the people here want to have a strong church they will have to be the ones to step up and make it happen. I will help them all I can but I have to have warm bodies to help. Well, the next two weeks we will be gearing up for Easter. There's a lot to do. Remember us.

Whew! What a Week!

This was a great day. I even got a short Sunday afternoon nap. But on both sides of that were lots of good things. But I need to start earlier in the week. On Wednesday I got a phone call telling me that the husband of a lady who used to attend our church had died that morning. Some people from the church had good contact with her and I talked to her about 4 times on the phone. In this case, it didn't seem appropriate to go visit. The church people sent cards and took in food and tried to show her a lot of love. As a result she decided to have her entire family attend church with her (her kids, his kids, his mom, other relatives). During the service I mentioned his passing, that he was a baby Christian, and read part of Psalm 40 in his memory. Then the ladies gathered around her and we prayed for her and her family. I think they felt the love. About 4 weeks ago I invited a representative of the Gideons to be our speaker so they heard someone preach other than me. So we had 31 people present. Sure was nice. Too bad most of them live elsewhere.

Then at 3:00 this lady had a "remembrance time" for her husband at a community clubhouse near their home. So I went to that. At 4:00 a missionary couple spoke at the church about missions. And we had a potluck dinner associated with that. About 17 people came. I thought that was a good group.

Saturday was the Annual Blessing of the Fleet and Memorial Service. Joyce and went down to the waterfront and found a place where we could watch the boats passing by the Coast Guard boat to be blessed by local clergy. The CG boat is the second one from the left in the picture. The memorial service was for fishermen who had died in the past year -- and to remember those who had died at sea in years past. A men's group sang, we all sang "Amazing Grace," we prayed and I gave a short meditation on God's comfort. I thought it was a privilege to be included. That evening Joyce and I went to the Seafood Cook-off. About 20 teams were vying to make the best seafood dish. Everyone made something different. I ate lots and lots of lots. It sure was good!

Now we are ready to go to Grants Pass. Yes, we are changing our routine a little. We are leaving tomorrow (Monday) and won't be back until Saturday. That will give us 2 weeks when we got back to prepare for Easter.

Oh, yes it's raining! But... Friday was beeeeeoootiful! Joyce and walked on the beach and explored the Nye Beach area. First time I've been outdoors without a coat since we got here!!! Spring is coming. Yes!

Yes, It's Good

Just wanted to let you know we are still smiling. This picture was taken by Jack Delamarter when they visited a week ago. I think we're having too much fun!!!!

It seems I say the same thing each week, but it's true -- we had a great day of worship. Present were 4 people who were not in attendance the end of November. The spirit is good and people are wanting to move forward. Even with the time change, only one person arrived just in time to hear the final prayer. This was a lady new to the church and she stayed for the fellowship afterward -- and for the leadership meeting. The leadership is united and determined for our church to make an impact in our community. We are talking about entering a float in a parade that will happen in May. More about this later as it develops but it holds promise to be a very positive, fun, and inspiring time (probably a lot of work, too!).

This coming Saturday (the 17) is the Annual Blessing of the Fleet and Seafood Festival. As part of this event there is a short memorial service for fishermen who have been lost at sea. I am going to be the speaker at the memorial -- apparently the newby gets this distinction each year. My part is supposed to be verrrrry short -- like 10 minutes. So I am practicing being concise!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the days they will air the Jeopardy shows that Jana and I went to. I'd be more excited about saying... "be sure to watch," except they are showing very few audience shots lately. Maybe they will change their minds and show a little when they realize what good looking people they have in the audience. Hummm... suppose? Jana and I are sitting in the front row next to a center aisle -- if they happen to show us.

Well, keep up the good work. You are doing a good job. We appreciate your encouragement.

Beautiful Days at the Coast

It has been a beautiful 2 days. In every way. We returned to Newport in the rain. Our week in Grants Pass was busy, busy, busy. Just not enough time in 4 days. But Saturday was gorgeous. Joyce and I went out in the afternoon and did a little of our survey. We met 8 neighbors and found 8 not at home. Our conversations were delightful -- except for one. The guy who lives right across the street from us was very nice, polite, and profane. I'm not sure if he was trying to impress the "church people" with his knowledge of the human body or if he has other problems. But all in all, the visiting was good.

Today was another beautiful day. And so was our worship. Jack and Verna Delamarter, my senior pastor in Newberg, and their daughter and son-in-law came to visit. It was so great to see them again. There were 3 other visitors who were staying in a condo in Lincoln City plus 2 other people who live locally. Also a couple who attended previously but have been snow-birding in Arizona were here. All totaled: 24! It sure made the singing and general atmosphere a lot fuller. It was just simply a good worship time, good fellowship, good sermon. (Well, I thought so anyway!)

And now we have a big week ahead of us. Some visiting to do. Some work on the parsonage to do.


Thought you might like to see this pic of our worship center. This was taken the night of the buffet. Joyce, Mike, and JoAnn are in the picture plus one of the visitors. It's a really nice and comfortable room. If we only had chairs instead of pews we could be more creative but, oh well. Imagine all those seats filled with people... Thank you. Now hold that thought.