Long Day

Today has been a long day.  When I finally got home 10 hours after leaving, I was exhausted.  It is a good exhausted, though.  This morning I had 5 people come to the class on contemplative prayer.  I started with none, and last week had 1, so this was wonderful.  They liked what we did a lot.  I told them to go out and recruit more people.  It was one of those days when everyone wanted a minute after the worship service.  It was an hour before I was able to leave.  I took Daughter to lunch, and then I dropped her off with one of the saints, who had offered to take her shopping and then home.  Daughter was excited, to say the least. 

Then it was back to the church to gather the information for the nominating committee. I trained them, and then headed out to visit with the family of the woman who died this week.  The meeting started with some tension.  They had planned out "the program," including 8 speakers, and it took a bit to convince them this was a worship service and we needed Scripture and prayer.  By the time I left, they had relaxed and decided to trust me to pull things together.  Trust within reason, of course, we're getting together again next Sunday afternoon.  Hopefully it won't be for an other 2 hours.  This memorial service is going to be quite an undertaking, and I'm grateful for 2 weeks to pull it together.  They have a trio that is going to provide live music, so we'll have to arrange things to provide space for keyboard, drums, and saxophone....  They are expecting a huge crowd.  The woman was well over 80, so normally I would be skeptical, but given what I know of this woman and her family, it's a definite possibility.  Last year I had 4 funerals all year. This will be the 6th one this year.  Given the age of this congregation, I'm sure that I will continue to do a number of funerals each year.  One of the women commented on how hard this must be, doing all these funerals.  I told her I consider it an honor.  I truly do.  It is truly a blessing to be able to walk with families through this difficult time.  It also has the potential to be exhausting, and it looks like this one will be one of those. 

This is a four night at the church week.  I told Administrative Assistant today that I have to get Friday off this week.  It's going to be important to get my time off.  Tomorrow morning is the meeting to evaluate how Daughter is doing at the workshop.  I anticipate developing a plan to increase her time at the workshop.  We'll see.