God Church Camera

Mike couldn't stand me not having a camera anymore so great guy that he is I got the new improved model of camera I used to have...so I'm back in business. I haven't been writing for the past few days because without photos to back you up it's just hard to read and hard to write.

Today I'm sitting on my living room bench seat a place that I love, looking into the backyard. The kids are still asleep. There are two things I've wanted to talk about lately one being God and Church and the other is being lonely. I'll start with the God and Church: God has consistently directed me and our family, I never had any doubts about what choice we made when we decided to come here, I had tons of fears and sadness but I knew that this is the place that we needed to be. God continues to be ever faithful and whenever those fearful feelings come he comforts or sends or speaks to me just the right thing. The last few weeks I've been thinking that I accidently got put in the wrong place. This land is full of Lutherans, and the thing about Lutherans is they come in many different Lutheran denominations and I'm not kidding about this; there are Lutheran churches about every half mile around here.

Some Lutherans are separatists and they feel like they are the ones who have the corner on the market of eternity and are not allowed to fellowship with others. They have their own church and school so the kids don't have to mingle. Nicest folks and very....o what is the word...let's just say they are 'packaged very nicely'. They don't seem to smile very often or laugh.

The last few weeks I've been around a lot of Lutherans so I was very happy to go to church this last Sunday with our church which is called San Damiano which MET downtown until last Sunday. The bar that we have been meeting in is in the process of changing ownership so we are going to meet in a BAPTIST WEDDING CHAPEL!!! That ought to be interesting!

If I were going to try to find a church like Capo Beach Calvary this would be the church that would be closest. The pastor is great, it's a young congregation (under 1 year old) and the people who attend run the gammut of musicians who perform in local bars to retired folks to a few families. The worship can change radically from one weekend to the next, once we came and it was bluegrass, the week before last it was some recordings from Johnny Cash a great song called 'Help Me', this week it was Gilllian Welch's song 'One More Dollar' to 'Breathe' to an old Hymn 'Be Thou My Vision'. I love the eclectic mix of worship they do. Some of the people seem strong and some weak in faith but willing to grow. I've attached some pictures of church, the guy with the beer, he kind of looks like the pastor. I guess we get to take that picture with us to the Baptist Chapel, but that could be a problem.

Ok, from going to a place where I had a ton of people to talk with and hang out with to coming here is a bit of a shock to my delicate gregarious extroverted personality. Please pray for all of us to meet people that are a little crazy! if you know what I mean. There is entirely to much common sense around here.

I better get going! As I sit here there are big bees and bugs flying into the window trying to escape the heat today! Go figure the hottest summer for a long time! Bye all!