Wednesday September 20 begins at 7:30 with a short conversation with one of the fifty or so construction workers using the north end of our parking lot while they work on Sheridan Road — “God bless” he says, “I pray for your church everyday as I come and go.” What an unexpected blessing!
Moving toward the building, I’m greeted by New Vision Covenant Church members who are finishing up their morning prayers together; they gathered about 6 a.m., and are leaving now by 8. I note the humble faithfulness and diligent prayers of God’s people.
8 a.m. Time to put the coffee on. Catching up on emails, and morning reading and prayer before meetings begin. Blogs arrive via email, as do prayers that give me words to pray for the heart. Now I am centered and ready for the day!
9:30 – worship planning and coordination! Working together with Jen, Lynnea, and Mary on plans for Sundays to come. Anticipations build for our gatherings soon to come. Old routines and new ideas. Inspiring!
10:00 – Staff meeting. It’s time to celebrate Jen’s birthday with coffee cake, apple spice donuts and cards. What a pleasure to work together through the years. We peruse the bulletin insert, church calendar, and Wednesday wire. We coordinate and correct schedules, problem solve and confirm new and changing plans. Then we check in and share how we are, and pray for one another. Relationships deepen and take strength in working together to serve.
11:15 – just a little time to call a couple friends and check in, and send off a card or two. Jen’s off excitedly to the airport to greet her folks who have arrived for her birthday.
11:45 – Bag Lunch with Lynnea in her office. We are talking about current tensions and challenges, and how we might best understand and respond. The door outside her office is busy with about fifty folks arriving for their noon recovery meeting. One of them has a dog who comes and greets us most days. Another makes a conscious effort to stop and thank the church for its healing hospitality. The locksmith is here to fix the door still ajar from a robbery some time ago. The mail arrives, and a couple of you come by to make sure we’re on track for our first REFUEL dinner, which is always a cookout. So much coming and going, wonderful energy!
1:30 – over to Wallgreens for the latest flu shot and COVID vaccine. the pharmacy is overwhelmed and understaffed. In the waiting I’m praying for those whose faces I see — an elderly man with two walking sticks, a young mom moving back and forth with the pram trying to keep the baby satisfied, the pharmacist being shouted at through the window, and a young couple sitting next to me making wedding plans. How grateful I am for medicine!
3:00 — Peter and I are setting up table and chairs outside, anticipating the joyful gathering. Finding plates and cups, napkins and utensils. Soon John the griller will be here! Misse and Kari are leaving after working around the church all day on plans for children and families. Now time to go pick them up! Getting my steps in.
3:30 — A little time for sermon work. God asks Jonah “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jesus shoots the same question at the scribes and pharisees, and tells a crazy story. “What does the Spirit have to say to the Church?” I wonder. Good thing it’s only Wednesday. Much to ponder about God’s generosity and our challenge with it.
4:30 — John Lindahl is here to grill! I will help and taste-test! Kurt comes too. The construction workers are coming back to their cars, and shooting longing looks our way as they smell the hamburgers. A group of women arrive excitedly for group spiritual direction with Judi Geake. Things are ramping up!
5:30 — It’s the invasion of the gnats! and so, all of a sudden, “let’s get everything back inside to the gym.” Many hands make light work. We are eating together, and it’s easy to notice how excited the kids are for Wednesday Nights again! Blessed fellowship and yummy food.
6:30 — The Band has arrived and all is ready to go in the upper room. We sing together “All God’s Critters got a Place in the Choir” “I am the resurrection (clap) and the life (clap clap clap clap) and “Lord Prepare me to be a sanctuary” and a new song about “loving our neighbors”, our theme for the year:
Good Neighbor by Evan Craft
We may not look the same ya might talk different too
got a long list of differences between me and you
different colors different stories even different politics
but He’s calling us now to lay it all down get back to the heart of it
and be a good, good, good, good, good neighbor,
learn to love each other with the love of the Savior
make room at the table, and share the hope that we got
and be a good, good, good neighbor, and show the world we got a good God.
7:00 — I’m sitting in the choir loft practicing with the choir for Sunday… “Let the words of the Lord Jesus Christ dwell in you…” Mary and Mary Beth guide us along. Outside the sanctuary doors, kids and their parents are building houses out of the huge cardboard boxes that our new round tables were delivered in. Working on being loving neighbors. be ready for a surprise in the narthex! Kids and parents having faith conversations that are also fun and full of creativity. Miss Mel is the bomb!
7:40 — Last task of the work day is no task at all, but gathering with a few other men to sing through a men’s chorus anthem for October 1. “Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah”. It’s last stanza is so fitting as a benediction to a blessed day: “When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside; bear me through the swelling current, land me safe on Canaan’s side: songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to thee, I will ever give to thee.” So grateful for the hymns of our faith.
8:00 — In the car on the way home. As I catch up on the cubs game, Ian Happ hits a grand slam! It will be all downhill from there, however. Arriving home, bear is jumping in the doorway, and we walk down the street together to catch up on the day.
9:30 Weary, but even more grateful, the day comes to a close. trying to catch an episode of a favorite Netflix show, my eyes can’t stay open, and I give in to blessed sleep. What a wonderful day!
Love from Here
Peter Hawkinson
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