Groggy does
not even begin to describe my state this morning despite a good night’s
sleep. My morning brew quickly became
two, yet I knew that I needed an additional kick-start to my day. (Aren’t you glad I dispensed with the
rhyme?) So I decided to make an
unplanned trip to Oak Harbor. As I drove,
I asked God, as usual, to be in charge of my day.
First stop
was the church office, which is aptly named the Blue House since it is blue. I needed to spiffy up my Sunday School room,
so I headed on up the stairs. At the top
I ran into someone I had never met, Marjie Winters, who teaches the adult
Sunday School class. We had a delightful
conversation. As Christian education
elder, I’m pretty sure that I am supposed to know everybody involved with
Sunday School, though I don’t yet. (To
be honest, what I don’t know about what I’m supposed to do would fill a book.)
Kelly, our
summer intern, was at her desk in the alcove.
She and I had a nice conversation, too, and she helped me by taking some
empty cardboard boxes down to the recycling bin. (I didn’t know where it was—inside a small
fenced-off area--despite the fact that I’ve walked right past it almost every
Sunday for four years.) It didn’t take long for me to straighten things up in
the room and check on supplies. I noted
that the only Bibles in the 7th-12th grade room were
children’s Bibles. Having a hazy memory
of being a teen myself, I was pretty sure that Bible covers geared to preteens
were NOT going to be a smash hit with my group.
After more
conversation, this time with our youth pastor, Bethany, I headed out just
before lunchtime to my next destination:
the RV and manufactured homes business on the north side of town. No, I am not in the market for either, but I
really like wandering through them and I’ve been promising myself for a long,
long time (four years) that someday I would go take a look just for the fun of
it.
On the way,
though, was the WAIF Thrift Store, which I haven’t been to in at least a month,
so I decided to stop there and look around.
The sign at the front door was promising: 50% off books and 25% off everything else in
the store today. I decided to look for
Bibles. To my surprise, I found four NIV’s
in almost-new condition: two with
camouflage covers and two with hot pink covers.
Never one to hurry through a thrift store, I meandered my way through
and found a book by Henrietta Mears (she was THE Sunday School expert of the
twentieth century), a wicker magazine holder, a battery-operated wall clock, a
pretty mirror, and a great 16-ounce coffee mug. (Just
think: now two cups of coffee will mean
32 ounces!) Total spent: $15.55.
I was
feeling really good as I headed on to look at RVs and manufactured homes. That was fun, but it wasn’t long before my
stomach started screaming for food, so I headed to Whidbey Coffee. Iced coffee and a Greek yogurt parfait made a
perfect, reasonably guilt-free lunch.
Since
Walmart is close by, I decided to make a stop there and ended up getting a mere
eight or nine items. Ready to head on
home, I thought to first check my cell phone just in case the Sunday School
curriculum order was in. Nope, nothing
from the local Christian bookstore, but there was a message from the church
office. I decided to check at the
bookstore anyway.
Voila! When I got to the bookstore, the order had
come in only minutes before, so I brought it on over to the Blue House along
with my thrift store Bibles. To make things
even better, our new 4th-6th grade teacher was there in
her Sunday School room. We commiserated over
the state of the storage cupboards in her room, which she was bravely trying to
clean out. Old Sunday School materials
from the 1990s were no surprise, but we did wonder about the chemistry sets,
goggles, and fishing pole. I delivered
to her the children’s Bibles from my room.
I just had
to show off my thrift store Bibles to our summer intern. Then I saw our youth pastor, who shared some
helpful ideas, and I found myself back in the main office getting more stuff
done and delegated.
As I drove
the twenty miles home, I just kept smiling, happy over how the day had
gone. It is really nice not to be in
charge.
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