12 hours of church
(Most of my readers will be here looking for news on the Moderator Candidate event last Friday. It went really well – and I want to give it more time than I have right now when I write it up. So today you get other news.)
Yesterday, I spent 12 hours doing church stuff.
First, I got to church a few minutes early so that I could return and put away the tablecloths from Friday’s event.
Then I got roped into preparations for Confirmation Sunday. I helped settle the confirmands and get them busy filling out surveys on the whole process, and then got sent on an errand to get an older youth or two to help sell hoagies that the Boy Scouts donated to us. Those sales benefit the summer’s mission trip and trip to Montreat.
The Confirmation portion of the worship service was wonderful. We received 11 9th graders as full members of the church. Each was invited to come forward with their mentor, and in pairs they were received through kneeling and laying on of hands by the pastors, their mentors and the youth director. Then the congregation read words of welcome as one, and we followed with the hymn “Here I Am, Lord” (one of my favorites from Camp Johnsonburg). It was all very moving.
After the service there was cake and such celebrating the confirmands. There was a little unpleasantness as an attendee (former member married to a still-member) behaved badly and scared some people, but after that the room turned brighter. Later the confirmands, parents, mentors, and a few others like me gathered to close out the process with recognition of the mentors and confirmands and prayer.
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Then back to the church for an hour or so of downtime. I changed into my evening clothes and had time for about an hour nap before it was time for the youth group activity.
Our Senior High youth group partnered with two other churches in the area through Presbyterian Youth Connection to clean up the path along the Delaware and Raritan canal in Lawrenceville. Confirmation hampered our numbers, but our church fielded 4 adults and 1 youth. Another church brought 2 adults and 2 youth, and the 3rd church fielded 3 or 4 adults and about 20 youth. We worked for about 30 minutes and cleared an area about 20 feet wide and 400 feet long. It was tough because the terrain was a steep bank from the road down to the path, and then another bank to the canal. We found a few interesting items among the 7-11 coffee cups, soda bottles and beer cans – one gay porn DVD, a “teach your child French, age newborn to 2” CD, and an entire purse that was stolen from the nearby mall 5 months ago. We hauled out about 8 or 9 full bags of trash and about 3 or 4 of recyclables.
After that we headed back to the Lawrenceville church and had pizza with the entire group. This was followed by a short discussion and devotional on Earth Day and stewardship of the earth.
Then I went home – arriving almost exactly 12 hours after I had left in the morning.
It was a good day.
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