Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I know it's not officially Christmas for another few hours, but I plan on going to bed here shortly. I'm tired. This morning, I got to be the assisting minister again, and it went well. I'm getting better at it, I think. Then tonight, at our annual candle light Christmas Eve worship, I got to be the lay leader again. It went well again tonight. I even got compliments. But, Christmas Eve worship is really awesome. I think that Pastor does a really good job of planning and executing the worship service.

Now, I'm finishing up my preparations for next Sunday. I printed up the bulletin, and now I have to go on Tuesday to copy it a whole bunch of times. It's my first time doing that part of preparing, but I gotta learn sometime.

Oh, yeah, and a funny little story... This morning in the sermon, Pastor spoke about how next Sunday is going to be the last time I lead worship before going off to study at Seminary. So then, after worship, we walked to the back while finishing the closing hymn so that we could shake hands. Actually, he had to leave to go to OC (other church) and I stayed to shake hands. But, two of the ushers said, "We're going to MISS you!" And I laughed because one is a mid-teenage boy, and I don't really know how old the other one is. He's probably a teenager too, but I don't know how old. And then they each gave me a hug and I laughed, because I figured they wouldn't care one way or the other. And the one whose age I don't know is fairly new to our congregation because he and his mom just moved here from Arizona or something. His grandparents are longtime members, though. So, it was just nice to hear that people don't hate when I help lead worship. :)

And, one last bit of news... Tonight, after the worship service, Pastor and I went back to the makeshift sacristy (the real one is really cold this time of year, so we use the storage room) to take our albs off. He asked me about a definite move date and I told him probably January 14th, after worship, if that's allowed. He said, "If you don't mind, I'd like to have that alb there cleaned up so that I can give it to you. It seems to fit you well." So, I thought that was SO nice. It was Pastor's first alb, and he has other ones now and doesn't need this one. I thought that was cool. Pastor's a cool guy and I'm sure glad that he is our pastor. If we had a minister who didn't care, I doubt I would be where I am today. Thanks be to God for raising up dedicated, encouraging, and faithful leaders for the Church!