“Exhausting Weekend, More to Come”

This weekend our ecclesia hosted a "study weekend", sort of a mini-bible-school.

Friday Night

It started Friday evening with a class for the teens, which included about 15 visitors from other New England ecclesias. The adults just did some Bible reading and discussion. Afterwards, there were refreshments (more like a small meal), and a birthday cake for Jed (who turned 30 a second time, since we missed it last year).

Saturday

Saturday morning there were two more classes, followed by lunch, with a third class in the early afternoon. Then we all went our separate ways for a few hours before meeting back at the hall for pizza (except Corinne, who had to attend a "bank-uet" for work). After pizza we did the readings, again.

Uh, hold it right there a sec. Usually, when we read together, we do it round-robin style, everybody reading five verses apiece. This time, three of us were asked if we'd each read a chapter. Our yearly reading schedule listed Nehemiah 7 as our first reading for the day, which I read from the podium.

I've read from the podium at least a hundred times, no big deal. I've presided and exhorted at least fifty times (each). I'm quite comfortable up there.

Nehemiah 7, though! This is not a chapter that's meant to be read out loud for an audience. In fact, I can't think of a less reader-friendly chapter in the entire Bible. Two-thirds of the way through I had a strong flashback to my childhood: I was standing on the stage at the Boston ecclesia, struggling mightily to recite some memory verses, wishing I could sit down and praying for it to end.

When I was finally done -- with only a couple of minor flubs, to my great surprise -- I let out a big sigh of relief before leaving the podium. Most everyone smiled or laughed, and Ken Willis said, "Seth! You're my hero!"

After the readings we watched a slideshow of Darren and Angi Drake's trip to Nepal. They're adopting two Nepalese children (siblings, a boy and a girl), and just returned from their first visit. The kids are adorable: the girl is a "girlie girl," the boy is a "little stinker" but has an infectious laugh (they had some movies with sound in the slideshow), the roads and driving are totally insane, and most of the Nepalese are poor to a degree we rarely see in the U.S.

Sunday

Sunday after meeting and Sunday School we had Yet Another Meal. By this point I was honestly tired of eating. Me. Tired of food. Can you believe it? Corinne went home early, she was too tired to stick around and was sleeping by the time I got home.

Thanksgiving: Feeding the Hungry

You'd think that she could use this week to recover... but of course this is Thanksgiving week. This year, instead of feeding the Norwich police like last year, she's feeding the homeless and hungry at the Westerly Warm Shelter... so she has to prepare meals this week for sixty to eighty people.

She's not actually cooking it all, but she is doing most of it. One or two of the turkeys are being 'farmed out' to others in the ecclesia who were willing to help, and some of the ladies at the bank are providing pies. Corinne's doing most everything else... and on top of all that, we're serving both lunch and dinner!

If there's anything left of her at the end of the day, I'll take her home, put her to bed, and hope she doesn't wake up again until Saturday morning.