A Week in the North Carolina Mountains

Larry and I enjoyed our week in the mountains, just sleeping until we woke up and reading, walking, and cooking for the fun of it. We attended St. Andrew's Lutheran Church where George Simmons is pastor. His daughter and our daughter were classmates at Lenior Rhyne.

We also worked on editing video from our visit to St. John's Atlanta for our DVD. From seven hours of conversation we have edited it to 30 minutes. We will be adding to it next weekend when we visit The Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal) in Morristown, NJ. We expect to have internet access from now on and so we can add to the blog more frequently.

Atlanta and Agape

Life is good. Sabbatical is good. Since the first blog many things have happened. Larry and I spent four days in Atlanta visiting St. John's Lutheran Church and learning what radical hospitality means to them. Each day we visited with folks who wanted to tell us their stories. St. John's describes its life using this mission statement, "A congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that invites freely, loves unconditionally, and serves with joy."

I went to Emory with Pastor Brad Schmeling who teaches classes on liturgy for divinity school students as addition to being St. John's pastor. Larry and I went to a first for us, a mandolin orchestra concert, sponsored by Lutherans Concerned. We ate breakfast with Team Lutheran, a gathering of Atlanta Lutherans from all the Lutheran Churches in the metro area. Much of my time was spent interviewing 14 people, while Larry videotaped the conversations. We will be editing our interviews to share with you.

After a very busy four days, we came back to Fayetteville to rest. Monday afternoon, I began my quiet week at Agape. The carrot dangling on the stick that kept me going during the busy seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Holy Week was these days apart and in quiet. IT WAS WONDERFUL! As much as I love people, I needed a chance to hear silence.

Now we are home for a few days preparing to go to the mountains for a week. Each day I look at the prayer weaving (in a photo when we are not here), I see who is praying for us and I give thanks to God for the people of St. James who have made this sabbatical possible. You are very dear to us. Thank you all.

What a great send-off!

It's finally April 1 and we are officially on sabbatical. Sunday we were sent off in worship with a Godspeed and Farewell Blessing and lots of hugs. At the luncheon after church we received the most amazing gift - a prayer weaving with 200 prayers from folks in the congregation, from tiny children in the nursery to respected elders and from former interns. In addition we were given a print copy of all the prayers so we don't have to take apart the weaving to read them.

I hope all of you know how much you are loved by the two of us and how special the day was for us.

On Thursday we will meet last year's intern, Matt O'Rear for lunch on our way to Atlanta where we will spend four days visiting with a radically hospitable church, St. John's Lutheran. We will be sharing what we learn as we go along.

I am learning how to blog, so stick with me.

Pastor Louise