When the phone rang at 11:30 p.m. Sunday night, I knew who would be on the other end adn what the call would be about. "She's gone." It was the voice of a lady from our church. Her mother, whom she lived with, had been given only hours to live.
my heart really went out to her and her family. they are a tight bunch and will miss their mother.
Monday, cindie and I finished off our Christmas shopping list and visited the family who had lost their mother. I went back there a second time later that day to gather as much information on her life as possible.
Tuesday, I was busy with funeral prep and two visitation times. I'm not complaining about any of this. I actually love doing funerals. It's not a morbid thing. It's just that I want to be about meeting people's needs, and there is no more needed time than after the death of a loved one.
I arrived at the church Wednesday morning at 7 am. I had three baptisms scheduled for 9, but I had forgot to turn on the heater on the baptististry. The first thing I did when I got there was check on the water. While doing that, I dropped my Minister's Manual (book I use to plan weddings and funerals) in the baptistry. Knowing how badly I needed the book, I quickly went in after it, soaking my sockas and shoes.
Those being baptized were three generations of women from one family. A gal my age (mid-twenties), her mom, and grandmother. That was really cool. By the way, they started coming because of a funeral that was done at our church for the sister of the youngest. This is case in point why I love funerals.
To my surprise, they had invited family, who arrived in church clothes. And when I say church clothes, I mean the kind of thing I might wear if it were Christmas or Easter. I, conversely was wearing some sweats over my bathing suit, and was barefoot becasue my socks and shoes got soaked. I felt awkward, but other than that it was really cool. The whole church has been working with them for a long while.
After that I rushed home and showered and changed for the funeral. I have to say that it was one of the more tearful funerals that I have been to. She had a huge family (7 kids, 18 grandkids, 27 great-grandkids and one great-great-grandkid). And as I said earlier, they are tight bunch. I was glad to be there and really feel like God used me. with all of the functions it took from 11:00 am till about 6:00 pm, at which time I headed over to our Bible study. I mention this part only tosay, I was exhausted by the end of the day.
The next morning (this morning) Cindie, Hannah and I got up early to go the doctor's for an ultra-sound Cindie is 36 weeks pregnant (40 is full term). But our last child had to be induced early because she was getting so big. That is why we had this ultra-sound, to see if the same thing was happening. The baby is an estimated 8 lbs. right now, give or take a half pound. In the last four week babies grow on average two more pounds. That could put the bay at as heavy as 10.5 lbs. That's way too big for someone as petite as Cindie birth naturally. So it looks like the doctor is going to induce labor next Wednesday, 3 weeks early, and 3 days before Christmas You can imagine how paniced we are right now.
This has been a week of life and death. 3 baptisms, a funeral, an ultra-sound, and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Life himself. Big stuff. Today, after the doctor's visit, I finally got a chance to start my sermon for this Sunday. The theme that had already been chosen for this Sunday is "Making room for Christ's Peace." The text is Phil 4:4-7 which instructs us to anxious about nothing.
I guess I won't be short on illustrations.
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