I want to start off today with a Happy Birthday wish to my daughter in law. It is actually a slightly belated birthday wish, as her birthday was yesterday. She loves Jesus, she loves my son, she loves my grandkids and she politely endures me. It was so wonderful to spend about 10 days with her and the family recently. Happy Birthday Nicki, sorry it is a few hours late, love you.

Yesterday was a day with some tremendous highs and several low moments as well. Here’s some musings …

-My wife and I cooked breakfast for the church yesterday. We, meaning my wife, went all out. There were special decorating touches on the serving table and there was a wide variety of food choices. There was 3 kinds of egg caseroles, there were sausage links, there was banana bread, there was also pancakes with 3 kinds of fruit toppings, with choices of syrup, peanut butter or chocolate chips as well. I helped her with some of the set up and I made and cooked pancakes for an hour.

-It was fun to let people know that this was our Christmas present to the church and a way of saying thank you for their help in getting us to, and supporting us on our trip to Kenya.

-Someone had messed with our sound system and it took more than 30 minutes to figure out what all had been done to the system before we could do sound checks and have a little practice time. The system was all set and working fine on Thursday evening. This was very frustrating.

-I also had to spend several minutes yesterday morning doing some cleaning and straightening up from someone coming in and allowing kids to mess up the nursery and toddler rooms. I have had to do something similar many times in my years of ministry but for some reason it really bothered me yesterday.

-It was encouraging to see our people sitting around talking, getting to know each other better and having real fellowship during the breakfast.

-We had several people not present due to illness and some family situations. As a result we were going to have the children stay in worship for the full hour. When the children heard that they were going to have listen to me instead of their regular children’s workers they begged to have their full children’s church time. I loved hearing that they love their workers and their ministry that much. I choose not to focus on the fact that they didn’t want to be with me. We have great children’s workers and the kids are loving the changes we made several weeks ago.

-On top of our sound system woes my headset microphone chose yesterday morning to not work. Don’t know if it was related to whoever messed up the system or if it was something else. Whatever it was I had to preach holding a mic. I can’t preach with a mic on a stand because I walk around too much.

-In spite of all the sound system stuff the worship service went well. People were engaged during the message and we had a good spirit throughout the service.

-I think the effects of the jet lag from the t Kenyan trip has finally ended. I am very grateful for that fact.

-Our attendance was way down. It appears that illness and some Christmas travel took its toll on the numbers.

-My wife and I enjoyed a great time with one of our Sunday School classes at their Christmas dinner and party yesterday. It was a great cap on the day.

Here’s hoping you are reflecting on the birth of the Savior today. Take time to remember the Christmas season is about life and hope. Smile at someone today who isn’t smiling.

Dennis