Weekend, How I Love Thee

…Let me count the ways! You always go by so fast though. Sigh.

God was faithful to provide us with some much needed R & R, which I thought we would lose since we had to postpone our little getaway. I was really craving some uninterrupted alone time with Gregg because I hadn’t seen him for the majority of the week. Saturday, we basically did a whole lot of NOTHING. It was wonderful. We didn’t really have anywhere to be until 6 that night. We slept in until 8:30 and when I eventually got up, I made us French toast for breakfast. We ate outside on the screened in porch. Yep, it’s still hard to believe that we can eat outside in November. If we were in New Jersey, we’d be freezing inside. The heat in our apartment never worked right so we were always cold in the wintertime.

After breakfast, we basically just lounged around. The water in our house regenerated to make soft water again, so as it turns out we couldn’t get in the shower until 11:30. I was content to stay in my pajamas for the rest of the morning. I checked my email and whatnot before the shower was in use again.

We finally got out of the house sometime after 2, and went to Sam’s Club to pick up chips for the game night. On the way, we stopped at few garage sales and poked around but didn’t find anything worthwhile. When we got home I worked on my Crown Financial homework, while Gregg played around on his laptop. At Alan & Ashley’s house, they had set out an entire counter full of fillings and fixings so we could make our own fajitas. There was also a variety of yummy goodies for dessert people brought which we filled up on.

Afterwards, we broke up into two different groups to play board games. Gregg and I joined the group playing Trivial Pursuit, which we’d later live to regret. Three questions into it, I was feeling pretty stoopid. We only got one pie slice the whole game, and it was because we landed on the Arts & Entertainment square and I answered a question correctly about the Spice Girls! Seriously, now that’s embarrassing. And I was thisclose to earning us a yellow slice for history towards the end, but at the last second I changed my answer. Doh. It was a fun time anyway. The great thing about small group is that you don’t only get one couplefriend, you get five or six. It’s like, just add water and look! Instant couplefriend.

Sunday was a mixed bag. Jonathan preached an awesome sermon that morning about putting your hope in God. With everything going on, that’s exactly what we all needed: someone to point us towards Him. After church, Gregg and I came home, had lunch and he took a nap before we went back for the congregational meeting at 5. I’m not sure how to describe the meeting. Discouraging, maybe? Tense? Jonathan mediated, along with a couple of members from the presbytery. Before we actually voted, there were several people who wanted to say something so the mic was passed around. Some just asked general questions like what our vote meant and what happened if we voted not to accept the resignation. Others just came out of left field, saying that Pastor Dan had lost his mind and implying there was disharmony between him and the session, when they had been unanimously opposed to his original request to resign. Some asked for a postponement of the vote, if they could motion for Pastor to take a sabbatical, if there was any indication that Pastor had changed his mind since he announced his resignation. It seems there were certain members who were looking for any way to bring him back because they were not ready to let him go.

Finally, an older gentleman in the congregation stood up and said, “Look. Pastor Dan has asked us to support him by accepting his resignation. If we truly love him, like we’re all saying we do, we will honor his request.” After that, there was a time of prayer while the deacons tallied up the votes. When it was all said and done, roughly two thirds of the congregation voted to accept the resignation. And that was that. I’m really hoping people won’t make any more of this and allow the church to move on now, instead of causing divisions and spreading rumors. I feel like we still have many miles to go towards healing, but I know God is with us.

When we got home that night, I just threw some frozen chicken tenders in the oven for dinner and we ate in front of the tv. I was sad to see the weekend go and really did not want to get out of bed yesterday morning and drag myself to work. But it’s back to reality- the busy week with its housework, errands, activities, meetings, etc. At least tonight is small group, which I always look forward to. 