I cried a bit through much of our church service today, and was tempted to cry through Adult Sunday school too, but I pulled it together. What is wrong, you ask? Nothing, really, but it was an emotional morning, and I wasn't the only one shedding tears. Pastors Patty and Patrick, a husband-wife team who had been with our church for the last decade, almost six years of which included me, received their sending blessing this morning as they make their way to a new church in
Saskatoon (
Canada). They will be very much missed. Both of them connected often with Joe*l and I to see how we were doing during the difficult pregnancy and after, and we were grateful for their prayerful support of us. The boys especially connected with Patrick, and they talked with me in earnest tones today about the fact that he is leaving.
"He is not going on a trip! he is going to a new house, and he will never, never come back!"We have competent interim leadership, but it will take a long time to see what fills the giant hole left in the wake of their absence. Of course, as a small church with a very committed base and a fairly hierarchy, it is really up to all of us to decide how to do that and put our heart and soul into it. I feel up to being a part of that challenge, even as we grieve this loss together as a church body.
Today was also our boys’ first day ever of Sunday School. Now, I know that may not seem like a huge milestone. It’s not kindergarten, or even preschool, after all. They were only apart from me an hour longer than usual. Still, though, it was a big deal for all of us, and I’ll tell you why. First of all – for me it just represents such a huge difference in how the church experience has been for me since the boys were born. In the first couple of months after they were born, we couldn’t really go to a germy, crowded place at all. Then, when they were a bit older, I needed a volunteer to help me get through the service, since Jo*el was across town, playing the piano at Bryn Maw*r Church. The volunteers were wonderful, but it just got harder and harder, as the boys started having stranger anxiety, getting louder, nap schedules interfered, and so on. The 2 parents: 1 baby formula in church is a pretty good one, I’d say. I often felt scattered and stressed during the service, and longed to be able to focus on what was happening. Then, the boys started walking, and were technically allowed in the nursery, but we didn’t have a paid nursery worker in the nursery yet, and No*ah wanted nothing to do with being left with a stranger for an hour. I spent the next 6 or 8 months in the nursery with them, but missed church myself almost every week. It got easier, slowly, and they’ve gone to the nursery just fine since last Spring. It’s been such a blessing to sit with other Christians in church almost every week this summer. We haven't missed a week unless someone's been ill or we were traveling. I had missed it very much, even though I’ve connected with church members through commission work and in other ways.
So now, dropping my boys off for nursery time during worship, taking them for a potty break and to go get a cookie, and then back to the nursery for Sunday School of their own, where they’ll learn their first bible stories and hymns, feels like a big deal. They are in very capable hands. The boys have a wonderful, warm teacher who adores them. Miss Andi brought them to me in the library as my own class was finishing up, and said they’d done really well. They sat nicely for story time, did a craft with the other 2-4 year olds, and sat on the steps in the sanctuary at the end for 15 minutes of singing with the combined elementary groups. They are the youngest 2 in their class, they did great, and they did it all without me. Hallelujah!
This is the boys right after we got back from church:
What's your sticker say, No*ah?
Oh, is that where I get that?
