December 16 – “Just Family”

Joy Day at church yesterday went pretty well.  That’s the emphasis on the third Sunday of Advent … Joy.  And that is pretty much my favorite one of the season.  That’s when I have an excuse for leaping and twirling in the air (the Hebrew equivalent of “joy”), greeting people with a strange foreign word (that would be “Chairo,” the Greek word for “joy”), and blowing bubbles at church (the Pastor Kelley equivalent of the word).  The teaching was one of the most “verbal” we have had of late.  Of course I’m always somewhat verbal at the teaching time.  This time, however, the folks in the congregation seemed especially ready to make comments and share stories and ask questions.  That’s always my favorite kind of Sunday sermon. 

To top it off, yesterday was the third Sunday of the month.  That meant dinner on the grounds as well.  We had several crockpots of soup and some pulled pork left over from Bethlehem Street Market, so we brought those out.  Several others brought in fresh food of different kinds, and we had a whole table full of desserts.  Lots of folks stayed for the meal, too.  So many that we had to set up an extra table to accommodate them all.  Pretty exciting stuff. 

One of our regulars, Ray, made an observation about the events of the past few days.  With Ed’s heart attack, and Lauren and Cathy, and I taking off from the market in a flash, and everyone who remained immediately stepping up to fill in the holes in serving and huddling up in prayer throughout the day … and with the stories of sending Bibles to the interior of Mexico and money to support the Humphries family in Alaska … and then hearing from Cathy that Lauren was reading the countless texts and emails aloud to Ed while tears streamed down his cheeks … the one word that kind of summed it all up to him was … family.  And then at lunch I was sitting next to him.  Chris, who hadn’t heard our earlier conversation, commented, “Well, this dinner on the grounds we are having a real family-eat-up-the-leftovers day.”  Yep, Ray … Just Family.

2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

Father, thank you for … well … family.  Amen.

December 15 – “Unfortunately … fortunately”

We were up and at ‘em early yesterday.  Really, really early.  Chris had to be at the church by about 6 a.m.  It was Bethlehem Street Market Day.  Cailyn spent the night with us, too, so we had three to get ready this time, one of whom is an almost-eleven- going-on-fifteen-year-old.  It was … challenging.

But we made it.  Second ones there, in fact.  Cathy (who was in charge of the kitchen) was already unloading her pot of soup.  And we had so much help with cleaning and decorating this year that we really didn’t have all that much setting up to do.  Cailyn and I put out all the parking signs and posters pointing out where vendors would be while Chris did … Chris stuff.  And as vendors began arriving Cailyn was an amazing helper.  She carried stuff, she helped set out product, she smiled a lot.  Very impressive.  And later on when Brennan arrived, he was just as productive.  We got almost as many comments from people on those two as we did on the fabulous soups.  Speaking of the soups … we must have had twelve different kinds to choose from.  I finally got to have a cup of the potato.  Good stuff.  The final report money-wise is still trickling in.  Looks like we made in the neighborhood of $1300 from The Bethlehem Café and Silent Auction.  Add to that around $1200 in vendor fees.  That comes to around $2500 for missions.  That’ll be a God thing, for sure.  Special kudos to Chris and Lauren and Cathy for spearheading this event

And speaking of God-things …

We did have a major scare in the Seaside Family yesterday.  Sometime in the morning as final touches were being implemented and maybe one or two early shoppers were beginning to arrive, Lauren got word that her husband Ed was having some problems over at the fire station.  Now Ed is a 37 year old owner of his own Maintenance/ Handyman business.  Strong as an ax … well, a smaller ox.  Lauren wondered at first what ladder he fell from or which finger he accidentally cut off.  Nothing so simple, unfortunately.  Without going into great detail, 37 year-old Ed had a heart attack.  Fortunately, a good friend (and fire chief), accompanied by the chief’s wife (and paramedic), were with him when he began to have the most trouble.  They worked out the transport details and got him to the hospital. Fortunately the hospital on the island is a Level One trauma facility.  They got him in and got to work on him quickly.  It was touch and go for some time, but fortunately they were able to stabilize him and get him to the cath lab.  Unfortunately, there they discovered that his “widowmaker” artery was 100% blocked.  Virtually a guaranteed death sentence … unless you are fortunate enough to be exactly where Ed was at exactly the time the final disruption occurred.  One stint was put into place and the blood flow was restored.  He will be in intensive care for a few days, and his entire lifestyle will be subject to a drastic change, but fortunately, he is alive and should have a strong recovery.

Now I have mentioned a lot of “unfortunately’s” and “fortunately’s” in this post. Actually, the most important “fortunately” of all was the fact that from the moment Lauren left the church (and Seasiders picked up the slack admirably, I might add.  Cathy left, too, meaning two-thirds of the coordinating staff of the market was gone.  I went to the hospital as well, but the real heart of the market was in those three ladies), prayers were being lifted to the Father.  He heard.

James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

Father, thank you for walking with Ed through a horrendously scary and eye-opening event.  Please continue with him in healing and rehabbing.  And be with Lauren and Ed’s Mom as well as they walk with him.  And thank you as well for Kyle and Joanne being there for him.  Amen.

December 14 – “Divide and conquer … Home Depot”

We divided and conquered again yesterday.  Chris headed to the church.  I went to … Home Depot.  She was there to meet the delivery guy from … Home Depot.  Sensing there is a Home Depot in our future.  Well, actually it’s in our past now.  At least those two connections are.

I got there with the light bulbs that we bought that turned out to be the wrong ones.  Just as I walked into the store Josh called with his usual Friday morning check-in.  We chatted for a while, mainly about his new-found career as volunteer basketball coach for Zakary’s team.  Once I got inside the guy at the returns desk couldn’t figure out how to scan the barcode to make the return.  Well, he knew how to scan, and he scanned every barcode in sight at least twice.  It was actually on attempt number three of Barcode: Side of Box that he was finally successful. 

Next I had to find the proper bulbs that would fit our lights at church.  For this task I took pictures of individual light bulbs that had burned out just to make sure.  But that just made it more difficult.  None of the numbers matched exactly.  And that meant … finding someone to help me.  Up and down the aisles I went.  Twice.  Finally I found someone in an orange shirt who didn’t run the other direction or suddenly get a mysterious phone call when they saw me.  Yes, that really did happen.  That person asked another person who was the one who was supposed to be in lighting.  He got a name, then directed me to an aisle and said, “She is helping another customer, but she is on that aisle.”  Dutifully I turned the corner to the aisle he indicated.  There was no one there who would have answered to “She.”  I did get the attention of an orange shirt who was stocking some stuff.  Amazingly enough, he was the one.  He followed me to the bulb aisle and assured me of which bulbs would be the proper fit.  Whew.

As I walked to pay for the bulbs I got the phone call that the Home Depot delivery would take place within the next 20 minutes.  Great.  I called Chris to let her know, and went ahead with my stop at the bank.  As luck would have it, the delivery truck was backing into our parking lot as I drove up.  Only 10 or 15 minutes late.  Not bad.  They were scheduled to haul away the old fridge and stove.  The stove was no problem.  But the fridge was hooked up to water so the ice maker would work.  Except it didn’t work.  As the plumbing goes, unhooking the line meant that the water to the sink would have to be turned off.  That was a bit of a crisis since the big craft fair is … TODAY.  Fortunately our resident master handyman Ed came to our rescue.  Took him about 5 minutes to fix it.  And his assistant changed out the burned out light bulbs. 

OK.  I think we are ready now.  Cailyn spent the night with us last night, so we have an extra helper for at least part of the day.  Alarms went off at 5 a.m. so we are off …

See you at Seaside 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  BETHLEHEM STREET MARKET CRAFT FAIR.

Deuteronomy 10:21 says, “He is your Praise and he is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.”

Father, be with everyone involved in the market today in whatever capacity, whether vendor or helper or shopper.  Amen

December 13 – “Two reasons …”

Hmm.  Friday the Thirteenth.  I haven’t noticed one of those in a while.  Here’s oping it will me a lucky day.  Why?  Two reasons.  One … Home Depot is scheduled to deliver the stove and refrigerator that we bought to the church this morning.  Typical “four hour window that cannot be changed.”  Yep.  The recorded voice on the telephone actually said that when it called yesterday.  “Cannot be changed.”  Frighteningly abrupt, don’t you think?  Chris has already planned to be at the church this morning to run through her last minute checklist for the big Bethlehem Street Market Craft Fair tomorrow.  That’s my cue to publicize.  Be there between 10 and 4 to buy all the Christmas gifts you have yet to nab.  And come hungry.  The church will be providing lunch for a donation to missions.  Homemade soups, pulled pork sandwiches, baked goods.  Without question, a treat for the holidays and for your palate. 

Oh, the second reason … also involves Home Depot.  I get to take back the light bulbs we bought the other day that turned out to be too big for our system.  Well, for both of our systems.  They are different in the two buildings.  I took a picture of the bulbs and the specs this time.  We’ll see if I can accomplish bringing out the proper sizes this time.  So, here’s a shout-out to the customer service division of Home Depot Galveston … I am coming …

1 John 4:19 says, “We loved because he first loved us.”

Father, could you please grease the wheels over at Home Depot to get those appliances delivered and to make this return go smoothly?  Amen.

December 12 – “Lauren and Chris and Big Dolly”

Yesterday my plan was to work here on the trusty computer all day while Chris spent the day at the church helping decorate for Bethlehem Street Market coming up Saturday.  After all we spent a lot of time up there already this week cleaning and arranging stuff.  And I do have a sermon to teach come Sunday.  Well, that was working well for a little while.  Right up until Chris called and said they really needed ceiling tiles and light bulbs.  And the only place on the Island that had them was … yep.  Home Depot.  And so the battle continues …

I had the truck, so I closed up shop and headed out.  Found the tiles right away.  I had a photo on my phone of the package they were supposed to come in.  So I dragged two of those onto my cart and headed over to the light bulbs.  This one was kind of an unknown.  All I knew about these was that the ones we use are made by Phillips.  Ah, but Phillips is apparently the pre-eminent maker of institutional light bulbs … of all sizes.  I made a best guess and grabbed a few boxes of them. 

With the help of Lauren and Chris and Big Dolly, we managed to get the stuff up the ramp.  As luck would have it, the tiles fit perfectly.  We even had a guy there who was waiting to install them.  The bulbs, however, were a different story.  They were not even close to the same size.  Ours were miniscule compared to the wide body on the ones we got.  OK.  The ones I got.  So you know what that means, don’t you?  Another trip to Home Depot.  Can’t wait.

We worked for another hour or two there at the church.  Chris and Lauren assigned all the booths to vendors who have turned in applications.  We placed tables and chairs in the spaces for those who requested them.  The ladies who came up to decorate trees did a bang-up job.  There are now Christmas trees all over the two buildings.  For the ones still around at lunch time we ran over to Way West Grill and got everybody a sample of their daily special … Frito Pie.  Good stuff.  Jim was even around by that time, working on the outside lights.  He joined us for lunch.

We finally started home, and the plan was to drop off Chris’ car and return the errant light bulbs to Home Depot.  We pulled up at the house and I made a discovery.  I didn’t have the receipt.  Apparently force of habit led me to drop it off in the bin at church when I got there.  So sad.  No return trip to Home Depot.  The “encounter” will have to wait another day.

Revelation 7:9 says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”

Father, please bless the efforts of those folks who worked at the church yesterday.  And be with us in this event on Saturday.  We want it to honor you.  Amen.

December 11 – “Home Depot Wars”

Before we headed out to the church on Monday to sweep and mop all the floors in the worship center, vacuum all the carpet in the retreat center, and clean bathrooms and kitchens in both, we accepted two responsibilities:

1. Delivering the toys Seaside collected to G.U.M.  The lady who met us at the door was very excited to receive the donations.  Apparently donations were down from last year.  She was especially excited to receive the monetary gift.  Oh, and she knew Kel.  She was an A&M graduate who remembered him from some of the work he did there. 

2. Going to Home Depot and ordering a replacement stove and refrigerator for the retreat center kitchen.  Not a difficult task, by any means.  All we had to do was pick one out and arrange for delivery. Right?  Right …

Chris is the consummate researcher when it comes to spending money.  So we had to make sure the prices were in line with what she was finding online.  Check.

Selecting the actual range was easy. We found the exact same one we were replacing.  Check.

The fridge was a bit more complicated.  The one we were looking for wasn’t available, so we had to choose between three other similar models.  Texts were flying back and forth between Chris and Lauren, our events coordinator, and Cathy, our financial secretary.  We finally settled on one they were all happy about.

Next came finding a salesperson.  Not too difficult, actually.  We showed her which ones we wanted, and she took us to the sales computer.  She entered in some basic information to answer our first question.  Yes, they could be on the delivery truck for Friday – the day before Bethlehem Street Market.  Great. 

And then … I discovered that I had left the church’s Home Depot credit card at home.  There was no way to call up the church’s account without the card or a responsible person’s social security number.  And mine wasn’t responsible enough.  Well, it just wasn’t the right one.  My personal account was fine.  She just couldn’t access the church’s.  She assured us that the Friday delivery would still be available as long as we came back that day.  OK.  Back to the house.

After some lunch we grabbed the card and made a return trip.  Chris was getting kind of antsy by this time.  She really wanted to get to the church and get started on all that cleaning I mentioned.  The plan was to make the purchase and head straight to the church.  Plan?  Umm …

All the info was re-entered into the computer.  Several times.  I wasn’t sure what the problem was, and she wasn’t into sharing.  She did finally get it to go through and locked in the Friday delivery date.  But then …

She forgot that it was a tax exempt purchase.  That meant she had to dive back into the murky waters she had just been trying to navigate.  And guess what?  The computer locked up.  She assured us that it would clear in just a minute, but “just a minute” stretched into two and three and fifteen.  Chris walked away once to check out traffic cones as a possible solution for our unmarked driveways at church.  When she returned, I walked over to see them as well.  Finally, after 25 minutes, I suggested that we take the paperwork she had and see if customer service would have any more luck than she was having.  And so we were off …

Now at customer service we explained our dilemma, and as luck would have it, the person who could fix our issue had just left for a bathroom break.  “She’ll be right back.”  And so we wait … again.  Customer Service Answer Tech returned, but although she knew what function was required, she couldn’t do that particular function.  Ah, but she knew who could.  On to the Pro Desk …

Finally we hit upon someone who knew how to operate all the functions.  She typed in all the necessary data to take off the tax.  But then I realized that the computer had not taken off the in-store sale discounts as advertised.  Back in she went and found the appropriate button to push to make the deduction.  Finally?  Well …

That’s when we noticed that although the figure seemed correct (I actually pulled out my phone calculator and added everything up), none of the numbers on the bill of sale matched the prices of the items as advertised on the floor.  Now, we have to answer to a keen-minded financial secretary, so we asked for an explanation.  Get comfortable …

She did her best, but she couldn’t figure it out either.  She finally had to call over her supervisor to give it a try.  I think he was even more confused than she was, although he managed to maintain his, “I know everything” persona.  He obviously didn’t.  But while he blustered his way through trying to assure us the bottom line was correct, the young lady finally figured out a way to make the computer show exactly what it was doing.  Many kudos to her. 

So it seems that the Home Depot corporate office sends the sales notices out to the stores.  Their ad campaign reflects a made-up manufacturer’s suggested price placed next to the sales price.  In the case of our example purchase. That showed a 24% decrease.  However … in actuality – in the real world – there is another “regular” price involved, somewhere between the manufacturer’s and the sale.  That price is the one off of which the computer deducts 10% to reach the sale price.  Once I figured it out, we were actually ten cents to the good in the transaction.  Please don’t ask me to explain it again …

So finally we were ready to pay.  She assured us the delivery date was still good for Friday.  She entered all the data she needed to.  I inserted the credit card.  She ran the transaction.  All was good.  But wait.  Suddenly I realized that I had inserted my own personal Home Depot account card.  Nooooo …

To her immense credit, she was very calm.  She simply voided the transaction and started again.  This time Chris took our personal card away from me so there would be no mistake.  And I entered the church card.  And it was declined.  We ran it a second time to make sure.  Declined.  Apparently they instituted a policy where you have to renew the card every year.  I had one of the old cards.  Of course I did.  So now what?

We finally decided to put the whole thing back on our personal card and sort it out later.  By Chris’ accounting we had already lost at least an hour of good church cleaning time fighting the Home Depot Wars.  I guess we’ll find out on Friday if we really won …

John 8:12 says, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

Father, thank you for those Home Depot folks who did their best to work with us.  Please give them an array of easier customers on their next shift.  Amen.

December 10 – “Through, though, and thoroughly”

Sunday afternoon Chris and I joined a horde of other worshippers in Galveston’s Advent Pilgrimage.  In fact, fully a third of our average attendance on Sunday morning was at the pilgrimage. That would be over 20 people with some connection to Seaside.

The event began at the First Lutheran Church with a Christmas carol and welcome from their pastor, followed by a Scripture reading.  That was pretty much the case at each place we went, as the whole bunch of us – there had to be over a hundred, but I’m pretty bad at estimating crowd numbers – walked from one downtown historic church to the next.  Five churches in all were included in the Pilgrimage.  Along with First Lutheran, we visited First Baptist, Trinity Episcopal, First Presbyterian, and St. Mary’s basilica, all among the oldest congregations in Galveston.  Two of them will be celebrating their 180^th year in 2020.  Another is considered the “mother church” of Texas.  Fascinating bits of history, and beautiful edifices, for sure.  After the walk we were treated to refreshments by the Knights of Columbus. 

We enjoyed connecting with several different groups of people.  Of course it was great to see the Seasiders and the folks they had invited.  We also saw several folks we knew from First Baptist Church.  Two of our neighbors were there.  We even saw the couple who led the dance class we took a while back. 

I think event organizers might have underestimated the sheer numbers of worshippers this year.  They had to make a quick trip to the store to get some more refreshments, and I know some people at the end of the line finally just gave up and went home.  We made our way through, though, and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with one of our Jamaica Beach paramedics and her brother.  Great getting to know them.

Galatians 6:10 says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Father, thank you for the effort all those folks were making to discover just a bit of the unity among believers that you love so much.  Amen.