My car keys were cold in my pocket when I got into Air VW the Gray. I had put my keys on the Costco $49 set of excellent sandwiches the night before. I cannot leave without the sandwiches this way. We are having an after-church meeting with Gordon G, the missionary in Brazil, who is running our trip there in November. I am supplying the usual Costco sandwich selection.
I woke at 7-ish, reheated yesterday’s coffee, and had a banana and later a bowl of cereal, both also purchased in too large an amount from Costco. I wrote the blog, but I am time-boxed by church and the aforementioned meeting. I managed to finish without having to cut it short. A quick shower, all that, and selecting a silk tie I got in the 1980s that I loved but was only appropriate in the Washington, D.C. offices, as the Baltimore offices were conservative in dress, brought back memories of working there in the 1990s.
I arrived at the church and managed to get the sandwiches to the fridge at the church without loss. The top had popped off, and the tray was flexing a bit, but I managed to walk them around to the entrance and into the Fireside Room. The fridge, usually empty, was stuffed with items leftover from another event. I made room and told Bill S and Z about it; they are responsible for the morning coffee and such–the Hospitality Committee and morning crew.
I ushered, and Dondrea ran the service and even gave the sermon. Pastor Ken was out with a family issue. The service flowed, and I thought it was one of our best. Gordon G and Pastor Lowell (his brother and former pastor of our church, First United Methodist Church) were present. Gordon was introduced and gave a short talk about his work in Brazil. Dondrea gave the sermon that recalled our visit to Montgomery, Alabama, and the bombing of MLK’s home when he was 27 and starting out as an activist preacher. She referred to the scripture 1 John 4:18-21, which talks about fear and hate, and that perfect love has neither. Dondrea told us we must seek love, give up hate, and resist fear. The world is crazy with fear, and social media makes this worse; it is nearly inescapable. Dondrea told us we need to recognize what it is—manipulation—and try not to react, but instead focus on love and remain rational. Remember our faith and our faith in community and each other. Justice, my word.
After church, we moved to the Pastor’s Office and met with Gordon G; his brother, Mark, and his wife listened. He met all of us, and we shared expectations and talked about the trip. Gordon brought a calendar and went over how the trip would work. We decided not to visit the favelas on this trip. We would like to meet with the church pastors from the favelas, but for most of us, the risk seemed disproportionate to the gain of entering the favelas.
It was a good meeting, and we focused on a few items, and Gordon G. seemed pleased with the results. We broke up slowly. Gordon was saddened to learn that Joyce Hill had passed; she was his supervisor, and he praised her missionary work. I have Joyce’s book on Brazil, and he suggested that it is still a good prep to read (I ordered a copy from AbeBooks, as my copy seems to be borrowed and not returned).
I returned home, took off my tie, and watched an episode of For All Mankind, cut some roses, and did a few hours of Dungeons and Dragons accounting, where I updated my character to level 14 for the evening game with M@ and friends. Somehow, I have high saving throws for my character, Carter the Great, and I have to recheck those. I also missed switching out some spells, but I fixed them during the game. More fixes to follow.
With some roses and rosemary, I headed to M@ and arrived too soon. Traffic was low this time. The game included Jack again, since Mackers couldn’t make it. We found ourselves in combat-heavy situations; we are more hit-and-run and talk our way out of it, D&D characters. We have one person nearly killed. The dragon wasn’t happy we robbed it and had to use a lot of acid to explain to us that we should be more careful next time! More events happened that we didn’t handle well; again, more combat-centric, but still it was a fun evening.
With that done, I headed home after chatting with Scott for a while. I was soon in bed reading and soon fell asleep. I woke early with leg cramps again, and I am pretty sure I didn’t drink enough water yesterday, so I’ll be more careful about that.
Thanks for reading.
