Interesting last 24 hours. Drove to Kilmarnock for the visitation for Ralph Dameron, Hilda (Bronner), our organist's brother. It was pouring rain and COOLLD. After the visitation was done, I drove on down to White Stone to spend a few minutes with a couple of the guys there, then headed back home. Got back shortly before 10.

Watched a little TV, went to bed, and got a call at 2:20 from Jose and Patricia, who just had their son a week ago this past Saturday (C-section). She was having some awful pains in her abdomen. Met them in front of El Charrito, and they followed me to Riverside's ER. Pulled in at 3 AM sharp. She got a CT scan, and then had an ultrasound to confirm, but they found her to have gallstones. She didn't need to be operated immediately, but it IS somewhere in the relatively near future. Her potassium level was low, so they gave her 3 bags of it ... each took 2 hrs to drain ... we ended up leaving the hospital about 11:00 ... got home shortly before noon -- I stopped to visit Miss Annie at WHCC, she's had a rough week. But then, every week is a wonder, really, considering she is 104 years old.

Got home, threw together the Woo Stew with a TON of help (chopping) from Soozin, and then jumped in the shower and headed down to Ottoman to Corrotoman Baptist Church for Ralph's funeral. Then got home shortly before 4 and got to work cleaning up the study -- actually finished doing the last things i WAS going to do to it shortly AFTER start time for the open house, 6PM. The last folks just left about a half hour ago, maybe a little more. Had a wonderful evening, and the Woo Stew (otherwise known as the beef vegetable stew i made that got Leslie's attention -- hence, i WOOED her with the STEW) turned out pretty darn good, even if i DO say so myself.

the top picture is from the front end of the hall looking towards the back and right side, the second is from the back end looking forwards.

This past Sunday evening we celebrated Las Posadas with about 130 folks from our local hispanic community. The plan originally was to serve the meal here at the parsonage, but more practical minds prevailed and we hosted the gathering in the fellowship hall over at church. It made things a LOT easier, in terms of serving, seating, and cleanup, but it also gave people a chance to sit and visit and not be cramped into the space they were sitting in. Had SEVERAL folks there we've either never seen before or had only seen briefly in passing at other occassions or in other locations. At the end of the meal, I read the Nativity story from the Gospel of Luke, and led in prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of God's son, our Savior. It was a precious, precious evening.