Saturday, among other things, we ran up to Auburn. We snuck a peak at construction. Wow! Can really see the new shape now! Looks like there's a lot to do before August's ribbon cutting...
Then, we went for a walk on the Inter-urban Trail, with Mac making quite a journey on his tricycle. I irritated him by stopping frequently to take pics of bees and flowers with my new close-up lens. Not bad for a little Canon "PowerShot A85!" Here's a couple:
Yesterday we worshiped and had a good experience at Christ Lutheran, Lakewood WA. Before the service started, we really liked the large narthex/gathering space; easy to find everything like the nursery and library. People were gathered around tables, or standing in groups, but a few went out of there way to welcome us and introduce themselves. The coffee was slightly blocked by one group. Looks like they sometimes have trouble breaking up conversations in order to get worship started; when it was about time, a woman came out and walked through the crowd ringing a handbell. It did take people awhile to settle down even after worship started; I think they would have responded to a brief period of silent prayer before launching the confession and forgiveness.
They advertized it as their one "blended" summer service; they normally have traditional and contemporary during the program year. The liturgical order was fairly trad., but the music--except for the opening gospel tune, "Blessed Assurance"--was mostly '80's-'90's cont.-style. Some periods of "silence" were kept, esp. before prayers--though it always included a softly playing piano, which also played during the prayers. I usually like that, but would prefer some actual silence before the music comes in.
The Spirit was certainly present in the worship and message. The pastor is doing a series on Romans. They had just finished a week of VBS, so the Children's Message was some of the kids singing songs that they had learned, one of which was all about "choosing"... Choose Jesus, Choose to believe, Choose to obey/follow...etc. That was the VBS theme, apparently... ah well.
Mac loved the large nursery and attendants. He made sure to say goodbye to them and promised to return to play with them. When I signed Trevan in, they made sure to collect my info, including whether there was another adult who was allowed to pick him up. They collected my cell number and asked me to keep it on vibrate--and used it once when Trevan had a fit (apparently set off when a little girl started crying).
The library (with a volunteer attendant) is probably the best I've seen in a church of that size. The worship space is very attractive, in the round. The baptismal font is located at the entry, but was dry--Mac was disappointed as he wanted to dip his finger and wet his head. Worship is lead from the hexagonal Table which is central in the worship space.
Today, Pauline took Mac to MLC for his first week of VBS. Trevan and I are having fun playing instruments; (he's napping at the moment).
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