A Sunday's Reflections

Ahhh—A Sunday to rest, worship, reflect, and even have a long talk

with the Man of my Dreams—how refreshing!

I thought when I started my blog last fall that Sunday afternoon would be a good day to update, because it’s supposed to be slow and relaxing.  However, I find that those wonderful relaxing afternoons have been wonderfully full of fellowship with God’s people, and so you could say that my blog has suffered.  So here I am, writing a book, instead of a paragraph once again.

I do have a couple of old journal entries that I decided to put in today—just to help catch up a bit.  They are from New Year’s and the middle of January:

Belated Journal Entries:

Jan. 3, 2012:  The fun continued the week after Christmas for us here at the Swartzentruber house.  Monday (Dec. 26) I did some belated letter-sending and did some sewing for a dress for my work Christmas party.  Tues. we had fun re-arranging and thoroughly cleaning our living room to make room for my Christmas present—a new entertainment center with doors on it.  This was the first of several rooms I hope to clean from top to bottom this winter.  Wed. was our annual Christmas party at work.  It is always good to see all the workers’ spouses and boyfriends, and enjoy a time of just relaxing and visiting together at the boss’ house.  Oh, also this week, I enjoyed taking Katrina and Faith each to work one day—Wed. Katrina helped in the deli and wherever else she happened to flit around to, and Faith went to work with me yesterday (Jan. 2) and counted inventory with me all day long.  Last Thursday morning, we took off to enjoy a few days at Darryl and Rhoda’s in IL.  Ice skating, making donuts, just catching up—it was good to be there!

I am always amazed how God speaks to us just what we need to hear.  I was driving to work Monday morning, and caught a radio program I don’t usually get, due to the fact that I was later than usual and the reception was good even as I got farther north.  It was just the message to help me right where I was struggling—then my quiet time this morning just built on and reinforced those same thoughts.  How did that pastor know to record his message for me on that day?  How did the Bible study happen to just land on this passage today?  God’s sovereignty is so great! 

Jan. 16^th: A busy week with guests in our home about every other day!  An answer to prayer arrived last week in the form of a truck for Jim.  We’ve been looking for one ever since before Thanksgiving when his other truck bit the dust.  This one came from Darryl’s brother in IL, who buys and sells vehicles.  After the warm weather from last weekend (60’s one day!), we have a rude awakening this week with COLD days and wind!  Sunday we tried something new in place of an evening service—we went to the nursing home after their supper time and just visited the residents in their rooms.  Our family ended up singing for most of the people we visited with, and got drafted to sing in the cafeteria for a few stragglers there.  I think the residents really liked it, and requested that we all come back, again.  We plan to do it once a month, or so. 

Now for some more current notes—January 23^rd was a lovely day for the ladies from our church.  Anne Yoder had volunteered to host the ladies for a tea party at her house.  Sad to say, we all forgot our cameras!!!!!!!  It was beautiful, as usual, and was a time of fellowship and getting to know one another better.  Anne made her elegant mushroom soup, with scones and cream, and we each brought some kind of dainty food to go along with it. We had 9 or 10 ladies, I think, as a couple were absent.  After the tea party, we had a committee meeting with another set of ladies to plan our annual Ladies’ Luncheon, which is coming up on March 17.  Our speaker this year is Evelyn Miller from Hutchinson, KS.  She spoke at BMA convention several years ago, and some of us had heard her.  It was so neat to see how God worked out the details of her coming.  It’s always a major task to line up speakers, but this year God just seemed to direct our minds to Evelyn, and she was already preparing to speak at spring seminars—of course, God arranged the dates so that there was not a conflict!  Our theme is Daughters of the King—Discovering the Treasure of Biblical Womanhood.  We’d love to have you all show up!!! ☺

            Feb. 11^th, the youth hosted our annual Valentine’s Banquet.  We were treated to BBQ country-style ribs (delicious!), and the works, ending with homemade miniature apple pies, peach cobbler, and homemade ice cream.  The theme this year was country-style, so we ate by candlelight from candles in ball canning jars, drank out of jars with plaid fabric bows, had brown bags of peanuts on the table to munch on, along with all the other special touches they planned.  We had room to invite a few other couples from outside the church, so I invited my boss and his wife, and really enjoyed their company.  It was a real blessing, once again, to be there.

            Latest on the list of events (I’m sure I missed a few), was the girls’ tea party hosted by Yvonne and Cecilia Brown. It was the week of Valentine’s Day, so they had lots of pink and red drink, candy, favors, etc.  The girls felt pampered and special—they had been wanting to have their own party ever since the Ladies’ Tea. 

            Our first attendee at Elnora Bible School will be leaving for IN tonight—Chancy Brown.  He’s going without his twin brother—it will seem strange for him to not be here with the youth!  He will surely be missed! 

We have had a number of new people attending our church lately, and I am enjoying the new friendships that have resulted.  Please pray for us to have wisdom in knowing how to integrate the new families and youth into our group, and for us to have unity of heart and soul as we serve the Lord together.  Pray especially for the leadership team, as they make decisions and seek the Lord’s direction in how to meet the needs of the congregation.

Well, there’s my book for today.  This week I must do bookwork, so I can have it caught up before we go to OH next week for the Troyer Food show.  Looking forward to some time away with my hubby!