Confirmations, Midwives, Ballcocks, and Pork Roasts!

Sunday was fantastic. Between confirmations and Back-to-Church Sunday we had 115 people in church (that's more than last Easter)! Eric brought in a soloist and a trumpeter. Bishop Blackwell preached and presided. He is a retired bishop with a long connection to Messiah. He was baptized, married, and ordained deacon in our church. So was his wife (they met at Messiah)! He was very pleased with what he found. "It has energy," he said, "so many churches I visit now are just dead." Yep, that's how I feel!

The confirmations went off without a hitch. One of the candidates has special needs (Autism) and didn't feel comfortable coming up the rail to being confirmed with the other candidates. So the bishop I went down to him. One of the members of the congregation remarked that it was one of the most moving things he had ever seen in church. "I had tears in my eyes. It was like, 'If you can't come to God, God will come to you.'" Indeed. We gave all the confirmands crosses and many congratulations.

Younger kids we ecstatic when we set up the "Bouncy Castle" during coffee hour. This is a huge inflated room that the kids can jump around in. We rent one for the kids once or twice a year. Always a hit.

But the confirmation joy isn't over yet. On Thursday we are taking the kids to Holy Cross. it's going to be amazing! we aren't going to be back until Sunday evening! We have great plans...

Also, the kids want to have a nice dinner together (just the six of them). It just so happens that a VERY nice restaurant near the church owes the church a free meal. The owner often parks in our parking lot despite many warnings not to. He said he'd give us free meals to make up for it. So I think I'm going to cash in that chit. I sent the owner a note yesterday. I feel pretty good about being able to give our kids that gift! Being the neighbourhood priest is all about that kind of opportunity.

An amazing day a church. Tons of people and a lot of happiness! It will be interesting to find out how that affects this upcoming Sunday. I won't be there (with the confirmands at Holy Cross), but the Rev'd Marili Moore will. I hear she is going to be singing one of the most difficult eucharistic prayer settings in the missal. The Marili is a trained opera singer, so this setting won't be hard for her.

I feel as though all the cylinders are hitting at Church of The Messiah. The machine is just purring in perfect time! There is still a lot to do. There is plenty to improve upon, but still, I'm extremely pleased with how things are going!

Sunday afternoon I had to stay until around 3:30 waiting for the the guys to come pick up the bouncy castle. After that I came home and watched football until I started falling asleep. Went to bed early--ah... the Sunday afternoon nap!

This morning the day started with a trip to the Midwife. This visit was with the "back-up" midwife. The practice assigns you two midwives, a primary and back-up. That way, if one midwife is tied up with a birth, you always have a backup. But if neither are conflicted than you have both with you (in such a case the primary deals with mom, the secondary with baby). Our secondary midwife turns out to be connected with us in a tangential way. She sings for the Pax Christi Choir--and I did their website! I know the Artistic Director, Stephanie Martin, well from SMM days! She even remembers Betsy taking pictures of one of their concerts last year!

We did the usual check-up measures (sugar/protein in urine, blood pressure, fetal heart rate, baby size and position). Everything looks good. In fact, our boy is now head-down in the womb, which means he will likely stay that way for the rest of the pregnancy. We asked about whether we could travel for American Thanksgiving (a resounding, "no") and about breast pumps and such things. At the end of the meeting I asked whether the midwife would mind praying with us. She seemed happy with that, so I said a prayer.

After dropping Betsy off at school I picked up a pork roast for dinner. Got it going in the crockpot and then started fixing a broken toilet. I replaced a broken ballcock and seat. Now I'm just chilling out with a little football recorded from yesterday.

-t