Oh to be YOUNG again!!

I have so much I want to say about this that I don't know where to begin. Maybe that is where I should begin - at the very beginning. Back in January, I was invited to go on our staff retreat - something I don't usually attend. I was invited because one of my co-workers was brand new - Karen - and she is doing a great job. My other co-worker, one of associate pastors, will be leaving in June. I've been doing my job six years so I was actually the one to be the bridge. During the retreat, we hashed out the things that need to change or be added in our church. We read survey results and so many people said so many nice things. One of the main areas we found lacking in our 3,000 member church is a young professionals ministry - especially for those that are unmarried, out of college - 23-29 years old. Since our twins fit into that age and stage of life, this voice came out of my mouth and it said, "I think I could work on that this spring. Maybe I could help get a core group of folks together so that when the new minister comes in June, there will be some folks ready to roll." (or something like that!) I said, "I can even feed them. We will have a get-together and see what they are interested in." I didn't bother to ask my sweet husband since we were an hour away at a retreat center and I had no cell or Internet service. We got home from the retreat and I planned the first evening and they all came - a lot of them - 26 or 27. We ate and then we asked them what are you interested in. They want friends and a place to belong a Bible study . . .and more meals like the one we served that night. So as you saw a few posts ago, we picked a study by John Ortberg and picked a date and sent out the invitations. I thought that it would be great if we could get a group of 10 together - that would be a wonderful start. For some unknown reason, I ordered 25 books from Cokesbury. Guess how many registered for the class? 24 - isn't God amazing? We've had two meetings and we've fed them some pretty good food. We cram them into our kitchen around our new lovely table (I posted about that recently too - and look at the new memories being made around our table - I just thought of that and it is going to make me cry!!!) When we were shopping for a house 17 years ago, my criteria that I was not willing to budge on was a large dining room for entertaining. Well, look at how many of them are crammed around that table eating a supper of homemade mac and cheese, green beans cooked all day, chicken fingers (from Walmart - what can I say? someones grandmother made them!!), rolls, salad and
scotcheroos for dessert.

After everyone eats, we cram into our family room by moving the sofa forward and making two rows of chairs behind the sofa and I think someone even sits on the piano bench. Once again, the new kitchen chairs which are tall like bar stools are so perfect. The back row can be taller. How did God know that I was going to need tall kitchen chairs?

As you can see from the picture, we had 20 on Tuesday night - 19 gorgeous, smart, funny, well-educated women and one wonderful guy.

One of the neatest things about all of this - remember I didn't tell Mark about it? He is so excited about this new ministry opportunity. He is loving it and calling it our ministry now - our group - our Bible study. Please pray for us as we continue on this new journey. We still have 4 sessions left. I'm cheating on the food this week - I've ordered Mexican food from the restaurant in the next neighborhood. I am making homemade guacamole (and I must brag - I make great guacamole because my sister-in-law, Alice taught me how!!) and I'm going to have shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes and homemade dessert.