March 25 – “Old friends in new places”

The Seaside-as-a-food-vendor day at the Jamaica Beach Community Craft Fair has to be considered a rousing success.  The ten or so Seasiders who came out to work did a fabulous job preparing the food and an even better one representing Seaside and the Lord in their dealings with the community.  Special thanks, of course, to our events coordinator, Lauren, for all of her hard work in getting everything set up.  The initial count shows we made over a thousand dollars.  Looks like we might be getting those door locks fixed and a new set of doors upstairs sooner rather than later. 

I met a lady at the craft fair.  She approached me with one of these, “You don’t recognize me, do you?” greetings that I sometimes get at church.  This one was a no-go, however.  I had absolutely no idea who she was.  She added another clue.  “Langwood Baptist Church?”  Now that was the very first church I worked at as a youth pastor … when I was 19 years old.  That would be, what? 46 years of sleeps?  Not helpful.  I finally had to ask her outright who she was.  The name did ring a bell, though.  We reminisced about some of the kids who lived in that Houston neighborhood, and we lamented that the church had been sold.  Lots of good memories.  Oh, and come to find out, her son is the young volunteer fire fighter who broke his back.  Small world.

One last thing before I start working on the teaching for today.  I saw a TV news crew at the old “Tin Can House” on the way to the park.  Looks like someone is trying to do something with it.  They at least had the door pulled open and were peering inside.  If I had more time I could develop a whole mystery short story about that one.  You are so lucky it’s Sunday.

Psalms 40:5 says, “Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done.  The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.”

Father, thank you for old friends in new places.  Amen.