The Quarterly Gathering

Last year I wrote a post about Resurrection Sunday and I called it a "Mountain Top Day." Here is a story of an other such day.

The last Sunday of April was the Quarterly Gathering for the Southern California Association of Reformed Baptist Churches. The church I have been attending hosted the gathering. They have been talking about it and looking forward to it ever since I first got out here. I really looked forward to it. There were about 10 churches involved. All the churches get together quarterly (hence the name) and have a Sunday evening service together.

The day before several member of the church got together and helped prepare. The ladies prepared food and did various other things. Pastor Curley worked non-stop (as always) getting all kinds of other stuff prepared. That kind of thing is always fun. It provides a wonderful time to visit with friends while getting something accomplished. We laughed and carried on and had a good ol' time. 

Sunday morning we had service as normal.  After lunch there was more work to be done. One of the ladies in the church, Christina, (who I think is an absolute doll!) and I filled the salt and pepper shakers. Christina got to laughing so hard that she had tears running down her face. Here we are working with black pepper, and making a mess of things, and it isn't bothering us at all. While across the kitchen the pastors sister can't stop sneezing. It was a riot!

I went home to fix Dorothy her lunch and take a quick nap in the middle of the afternoon. Rob and Chrissy were coming up for the gathering and so we were going to go out before the service started. They didn't get to come as early as they wanted to but we were very thankful for the time that they did get to spend.

I guess I am getting a little ahead of my story...

When I went back to the church I helped the ladies make sandwiches until Rob and Chrissy got there. I went with them and we drove up the road a little ways to a Cold Stone. I don't think I had ever been to one before. They had pistachio ice cream! I LOVE pistachio! It was fabulous. I had pecans mixed in.

We all got our ice cream and went and sat on a park bench and ate and chatted. In all the time I have been out here this was only the second time we have gotten together. Life is just too busy.

The meeting started at 5. It was fabulous. Pastor Curley said he thinks there were about 300 people there. It was wonderful to sing with that many voices. One of the hymns we sang was And Can It Be. That is one of my all time favorite hymns.

A pastor named Robert Elliott preached. His sermon was from Isaiah 40: 28-31. It was a FABULOUS sermon about our weakness and our great and powerful God.

After the service there was a HUGE dinner. I don't think I have ever seen so much food in one place! It was a nice time to get to meet people and visit with those you know. I didn't hardly know anyone. I only knew the people from my church here and Rob and Chrissy. I talked to several people though. As everyone knows I am not very shy.

All in all it was a fabulous day.