Monday, September 19, 2011

IMPROVED APARTMENT AND CHURCH

It’s Monday night and the public speaking assignment is now only six days away. Nerves calmed down. No real reason. U guess I just kept busy. I know the passage and I kept going over it in my mind and adding related thoughts. I rarely write things down at this point. I just want to know where I am going so well I will not really need my notes. At least it used to be that way. Who knows now?

On Friday the Housing Authority had a big garage sale across the street. A couple months back they moved from two doors down to Bremerton, now several miles away. Considering what was being sold I guess they got all new furniture. There were desk, chairs, and file cabinets galore.

Since I moved here to a much smaller space than I had ever had before I created a make shift deck. I had a board stretched across two two-drawer filing cabinets. It would have been nice had the filing cabinets been the same height. Since they weren’t I had several loose boards on top of the short one to try and even them out. It wasn’t perfect, but it was workable. The biggest problem was the board was too wide and there was lots of wasted space.

So I went to the garage sale to see if there was anything cheap that would work and improve the looks of my apartment. I found a secretaries desk with a return, I didn’t want the return so I measured its height, went home and measured my filing cabinets and one was the exact height I needed. Since I only wanted half the desk, I got the oak secretaries desk for $15.00. I disliked a stool I had for my drawing table. It was too high and gave me a sore back. So I thought (good thinking) that an adjustable secretaries desk might do the trick. I felt like I won the lottery. Picked that up for $10.00. Amazing, my living room is beginning to look like a real apartment and now I feel like a real person.

Getting those things has motivated me to straighten the whole place up. It takes a lot to motivate me to do that. I am even getting rid of books. I have no idea why I continue to buy books. I am a block and a half away from the public library. Duh! What is it about book ownership that seems so important? Today I took a pile over to The Home’s library. My daughter will come and go through the rest this weekend and that will let me remove another small bookcase that is really in the way. I am still trying to go through boxes of silly things in storage. My yearbooks go next.

We have a Bible study at The Home tomorrow and the pastor will bring his camera and we will do some kind of interview as a lead in to the service. I got connected to this church through the Bible Study. I was attending a much larger church with my family, but this little one is only two blocks away. I was hesitant to get involved, as his church is the same denomination I attended as a child. Not good memories. I attended for a year with no one speaking to me before I decided to call it my church. Involved was to tell him I was attending that church. He is a good preached and the musical talent of the church is outstanding. I had never seen that in a small church before.

Anyway, so I’m there. I am a greeter at the first two services Sunday morning. That’s a fancier work than the job. I help seniors up out steep stairs or the ramp. I move chairs to make room for wheelchairs. I help seniors get coffee, if the like. I do give out bulletins and greet most people by name, finally. I ask about their week, their job, their family whatever need the indicated the week before. I take guests to a seat, get them coffee and a donut and introduce them to several people in their age group. I didn’t like how it was being done so I took over after my predecessor was sent to prison on drug charges. Don’t ask. That’s a whole other story I will get too.

I know most of the people now. I am a strange fit for the church as there are two main groups, maybe three. The first and largest group is recovering addicts. They have a great ministry to these people. The second is young adult musicians. The pastor’s whole family is very musical and his children are all married adults. His son had several bands through high school and most come and play at the church. He plays drums, guitars, bass and keyboard. Very gifted yet very talented. His two daughters play guitars and sing beautifully. The oldest is the music director. One of the son-in-laws is also musically gifted and all these people attract others and seem to connect with musicians immediately. A new musician can attend on one Sunday and be playing on the worship team the next. I love it.

Gone are the days that anyone in this church mush prove themselves and attend here five years before they are allowed to do anything. This strange little church has several people who just get up to take the offering when the need arises. There is no schedule. I thought it was weird, but it works. This is the most laid back church I have even attended. The band plays mostly barefoot. Call the elders, get the district leadership, and get the president. This must be stopped now. Do it and I leave!

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