Lord of the Fellowship

May 07, 2014

Celebrating "Greenery Day", a National Holiday

Another chapter in the ~~neverending~~ ongoing saga of a wilderness pioneer (pastor) -

Had a meeting today with the owner of the Sign Company. That's how it works here (I imagine it's like sitting down with a wedding planner, or explaining to Donald Trump why someone like me needs someone

like him to back my harebrained scheme).

I'd emailed him first, sent PDFs and JPGs and PNGs (and W, X, and Y and Z), and passed along diagrams and contact information from our buildings maintenance department. He followed up with a personal introductory phone call, and I provided more detailed information through further emails... All of which resulted in our scheduled meeting today.

The good stuff
(or so I've heard)

Mr. A introduced himself as being Iranian (so of course we chatted briefly about caviar), and then we proceeded to go over every possible physical detail of our building and of the hoped-for signs (one outside, one for the vacant slot in the lobby directory, another for the slot in the elevator directory, and a small square one for over the elevator door, by our floor number). Mr. A was very thorough and very professional. Over the next several days he will be going over all the data, and he will let me know when the estimate is completed (sounds like it's gonna be real cheap, don't it?). Sigh.... I keep reminding myself we're in the center of the business capital of the world.

So, leaving behind the world of high finance, let's move right along to one of the more FUN aspects of wilderness pioneering ("there's a fun side?" you ask?).

♪Good evening Miss Mariaaaan♫

A baby church is like a actual baby, in the sense that there are developmental milestones in the life and growth of a new church. One of these early milestones is when the church meets together as a church, outside of the church. I'm talking about "fellowshipping" (and not just the "meet us at the park near the church, ♪and you can have your fill of all the food you bring yourself♫" pseudo-fellowship). I mean the first time that someone in the church invites everybody in the church to his or her house for dinner (or lunch or high tea or snack buffet)!

Americans and Filipinos and Koreans and Japanese, all at the same table!

On Sunday, a family in the church, the Sorias, invited everyone to their house for a veritable Filipino Feast! And what a feast! There was adobo, rice, pancit, potato salad, lumpia, chilled fruit salad (with nata de coco) and hot, sweet lemongrass tea! (I was glad I wore my loose-fitting island shirt!). While we there, enjoying the fantastic food and the riveting conversation, we got to meet John's niece and her Korean husband (who had stopped by to drop off a sofa and connect the internet). John wasted no time, and shared with his niece how much he enjoys going to a Christian church where you can be involved, and sing and pray and learn the Word of God (wow!).

John and Mitos, our gracious hosts

Time passed way too quickly, and before we knew it, we were saying our tearful goodbyes ("Goodbye, Lumpia! Goodbye, Pancit!").

As he dropped us off at the bus stop, John told me he was really going to try to get his niece and her husband to go to church on Sunday...

I'm just astounded at how MUCH the Holy Spirit does, all around us, all of the time, especially when we're feeling overwhelmed and not overly-confident!

Please continue to keep us in prayer, and continue to help us bless this nation with the good news of hope, a future, and eternal life!