2. My gala-planning friends. So very thankful for Penny'sand Brenda's enthusiasm, expertise and experience at planning gala-fundraising banquets. (We have three big events in the works ... In Vancouver on Friday Oct 21 with Mark Buchanan as our speaker, in Toronto on Saturday Nov 5 with George Barna as our speaker and in Los Angeles on Saturday Nov 12 with Lon Allison as our speaker.) Going to be AMAZING evenings. So thankful for our l-o-n-g luncheon meeting on Wednesday when we accomplished soooo much. While we were enjoying complimentary desserts, Oprah was saying goodbye and I missed it. I'm thankful for youtube.
3. My kids' friends. So very thankful that Halee is back in town... and that I could spend some time with her and Max on Wednesday night. There are days when I can't say enough good things about the friends (both old and new) in my kids' lives. So thankful for the way God brings people into our lives at exactly the perfect time.
4. I am thankful for my friends' parents, even though sometimes I meet them for the first time at their funerals. I am inspired and humbled by the life Donna Stelting led before she recently passed away:
- she was a self-taught musician who could play any song on just about any instrument. "And even though she wasn't necessarily a fan of, say, Delirious's music, she would pound their songs out on the church's organ because if this was the music that would bring young people to Jesus, that was good enough for her."
- she and her husband, along with 4 other couples, took out personal loans to pay for the land for a church plant.
- twice a week, at 7 am, she and her husband would meet with the pastor to pray for an hour. They prayed about everything, including all her children and grandchildren. When the pastor met most of them for the first time at the funeral, he knew who they all were. "I've been praying for you for years."
- On the new pastor's first Sunday at church, she invited him over for lunch. "Let's pray about some big dreams for God in this community."
- She was famous for weekly social gatherings in their home that centered around music and food.
- When she and her husband officially retired, they formed a singing group that traveled extensively, entertaining and encouraging seniors and shut ins everywhere.
- She was known, in the nursing home where she's lived since her stroke three years ago, as "giggles". Instead of being frustrated by her inability to communicate or move, she'd laugh at herself. It was infectious.
I am thankful that I could attend her funeral and be the designated 'cry-er' for a clan that's not big on tears.
5. I am thankful for my mom's friends who love me. It's become an annual tradition for Hildegarde to invite my mom and me to join her (and her daughters) at her very elegant table at South Delta Baptist's Springtime extravaganza - "The Strawberry Tea". I bring a new(ish) friend along to meet and mingle with my old(ish) friends from wayyyy back. Typically we are the last to leave the building. So much catching up to do. So many laughs to be had. So many declarations that we need to get together more often. I am thankful that we at least have this. This encouraging, tasteful, oasis of friendship in a frantic world of meetings and appointments.
6. And I'm thankful for the weekend.
Shalom,
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