Blessed With Visitors

After our week apart, Phil and I spent hours catching up on Saturday morning. Then he went out to do a few hours of mowing and then I had a close friend from high school and her husband come and visit. She's a tenure track professor at a small liberal arts college only about 75 minutes away, and Phil and I both enjoyed their visit very much. They stayed five and a half hours, and when they left, we felt a little like, "Oh, we've just scratched the surface!"

Joe had been utterly wiped out on Saturday, and spent the day sleeping. Sunday morning, he was still down for the count and Isaiah was feeling off, too, so Phil stayed home from church. That was actually pretty good, because we had two parties planned for the afternoon, and he needed to do some maintenance on the grill, and generally get the exterior picked up a little more.

I was so gratified to write a poem or two, make two loaves of bread, make a triple recipe pot of soup, and get two sheet cakes baked before three of the boys and I left for church.

And I was even more gratified to read one of my poems, "Scorn," during worship. In our church's progress through the book of Luke, we have reached the Last Supper, and the songs were mostly about the crucifixion, so the poem fit well. And I had no microphone trouble, so that was a relief. (On the way to church, I had to pray through that, though. I had two bad microphone experiences as a child, and the idea of having it squawk at me, or not turn on, made me feel a bit anxious. No need, though!)

After service, we headed home. I made some more bread, expanded the pot of soup, and then welcomed the guests for the first party of the day. Because Charlottesville has a very transient community, we said goodbye to one of our friends in the law school. We had soup and salad and thirteen adults fit around our table and had a time of prayer and thankfulness. It was exactly what we wanted for her.

As we finished praying, we had three more guests arrive as a transitional party, and then more guests trickled in. A few years ago, Phil led a community group at this family's house, and Phil has done Bible study with the man for a year or two now. After five years in Charlottesville, the army is making them move on, and the church family will miss them. We had a blow out picnic, with just short of 80 people coming down (including lots and lots of children and babies). Pot luck, hot dogs, an extended time of prayer ... it was beautiful. It was exactly what we wanted for them.

And so we had nine hours more of most excellent fellowship and blessing. There were children in the sand pile, children in the playroom, children on the trampoline, children hiking to the creek, children nursing in the living room.

One sweet girl who had been in my Sunday school class almost two years ago now came to me and said, "The inside of your house is very nice. The outside isn't quite as finished, but I still like it." Me, too, Lily. Me, too.