Busy week, eh??

Hey Guys!

Sorry that it's been about a week since I've updated, but boy was this past week a doozy!
Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent at Lenoir-Ryhne University, which was hosting the North Carolina Synod Assembly. Having been my first time going, I was kind of overwhelmed. I believe the last number I heard put the total people gathered around 600... Pastors, rostered leaders, lay voting members, and just plain old visitors, such as me.

But it was a lot of fun. At opening worship, during offering, a woman painted. At first, what she was painting was hard to figure out. I thought it might have been a candle, or maybe an angel. Looking back and forth, however, from the screen to the actual picture, I figured it out, but waited to say anything until she revealed it. When she was done, she flipped the painting over and "AHH's" could be heard from almost everyone. She had painted a portrait of Jesus, upsidedown, so that it was really hard to see it until you flipped it.

Later that night, I sat in on two forums that I thought would be cool. There was one on how to try and help get more youth into a congregation, and one on the 2012 NYG, being held in New Orleans again. While I was there, I ran into an old friend, Sarah Embry, so it was good getting to see her again. The next day, I had a fun job. Before the Assembly, PR made a white stole for Bishop Bolick, on which we were going to ask all the participants to leave a thumbprint. So, Friday was the day of painting. Since I knew what was suppose to happen, PR left me with the stole while she went and taught her forums. By lunchtime, we had the stole full of prints, and we were letting it dry. All this had happened without Bishop Bolick knowing, which was a feat in and of itself.

During the afternoon session,  PR, Tammy Jones West and I presented the stole to Bishop Bolick, and I think he was really surprised, and really liked it. He almost ruined it by walking backstage while we were getting ready with it, but PR and I distracted him by talking about Project Connect. Plus, he was too busy with other things to really notice his surroundings too much :)

Saturday morning came around, and we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Living Waters church in Cherokee. It was really cool, because the Pastor there, Jack Russell, led our closing worship. I have now experienced smudging, singing in the Cherokee language, and their directional prayers. It was really cool to see how they have been able to incorporate their traditions in with our Lutheran teachings.

We came back Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning, I got to help with communion for the first time at Shepherd of the Hills. That was a really good experience for me. I also got to sing the Kyrie again, which I love to do!

This week has  been a week of catching up on things around the Church itself. I got to have youth time again, with our one sole youth. He is such an adorable 2 1/2 month old!!

Tomorrow, I might be going tubing with one of the besties, as long as it doesn't storm! It's been thundering all day here, and two days ago, we had a horrible hail storm! The weather is kinda wacky here in the mountains... But the views are beautiful. We visited with some of the parishoners yesterday, and they have the most gorgeous view, westward facing the mountains. They said that when the sun sets, the whole sky turns the most beautiful shades of reds, pinks, and oranges.

Thank you, God for the BEAUTIFUL mountains!