The wife and I usually spend Easter with her parents. Usually we head down Saturday and spend the day playing cards, watching movies and walking the abnormally lovely park (for such a small town.) Sunday is greeted with church services and then her mother fixes an amazing array of deliciousness for lunch. Amy’s mom is a great cook under any circumstances but she tears it up for the holidays. I swear to you she can make a simple sandwich lunch into a seven course meal. And for Easter we usually get a big ham, home-grown vegetables and a variety of other sumptuous treats.
Alas, this year, her folks are out of town. Being in the visit other churches mindset we decided we would travel somewhere near and visit a congregation we have never attended before. There is a small town named Judah that resides about 30 miles to the south. There is a young lady, whom Amy knows from her parent’s congregation that now attends services in Judah due to her recent attendance at Indiana University. This is the place we chose to attend today. Or, I should say, this is the place we tried to attend services.
To find the congregation I first googled it, but for reasons I do not know, all I found was garbage. Either Judah is so small Google doesn’t recognize it, or nobody in the town is net savvy enough to make any sort of dent in the Goggle ratings. From there I went to church-of-Christ.org and looked it up. They had two congregations listed for Judah, but one of them only had a PO Box and a rural route number. Since I can’t find directions to a PO Box I chose the other congregation. Google mapped the address and we were set to go.
We left at 9:30 expecting to arrive a little before the 10 AM kick-off, I mean worship. The drive down was pleasant, though quite cold for a mid-April Sunday. Looking at the directions we were a little confused as it gave a Bedford city name, which is a town a bit south of Judah. But we had mileage directions so we figured it must be close enough to Bedford to be considered in the city limit.
Eighteen miles in we were supposed to turn left on Main Street. Twenty two miles in we found ourselves in Bedford proper with no sight of a Main Street. We made a left at the next light and wandered the streets looking for something to lead us properly. The directions had a turn on Fifth Street and being onSixteenth Street we made a left and slowly moved towards Fifth.
On Fifth we turned and hoped it was the right direction. The guide told us Fifth turned into First, but we were having none of that. Miles down the road I realized we were well outside the city, and the road had turned into State Road 50. Turning back Amy say another road listed on our directions. We doubled back and turned there. Well into the outskirts of town we saw Anderson road of which the church was supposed to be located.
This was a short, dead-end road with nothing but residential houses. The short road did contain the blockage we were looking for, but there was no way I was going to knock on somebody’s house and ask them if we could worship.
Racing back into town we hoped we could find the regular Bedford congregation, of which we attended a few months ago. No such luck. Though not a large city, Bedford has too many streets that look just alike to make any head-way. At 10:30 we gave up the search and headed to Wal-Mart.
Purchasing some crackers and juice we then made our way to Wendy’s. It was right at eleven at this point, and having had but a small breakfast we were both quite hungry. Bellies full we headed home. It was a nice drive as we sung devotional songs the entire way. Our home congregation is a bit old, and empty of young people so the songs we tend to sing are more traditional. I love the traditional, but sometimes my heart longs for more devotional oriented music.
Arriving home we sang some more and had communion.
It is the second Sunday of the month, which means pot-luck followed by a 1 o’clock service at the home congregation so we rested for a moment then headed for services.
All in all it wasn’t what I had expected out of my Easter Sunday, nor what I will ever dub my favorite, but it’s definitely something I’ll remember for years to come.
13 comments:
not the kind of easter day I would wish for, but somehow I was able to pull off a smile at the end of your blog. No doubt one you will remember for many years, and more likely than not, look back on and smile and remember it as a good time.
Ours was spent over a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of campbells soup. Nothing special. After eve services we went out to eat with the Sippers and Rachels folks to a resturant we had never been too before, and that was fun.
Church was church, and if I was paying attention to the sermon I am sure our preacher tossesd in a comment leaning towards why we don't celebrate easter (And I'm wondering why we have egg hunts on the church grounds if we "dont celebrate it")
BTW, nice having amy around.
He did the anti-easter comment while I was bringing Noah to the nursery, so I only heard half of it, but I think it was word-for-word the same as the bulletin article he wrote.
My guess at a reason for egg hunt: not everybody feels the same way about it and different people are in charge? But then he came and brought his kids, so I don't know...
I was just glad to actually be able to go to morning services for a change, since Kinko's was closed for the day. I think the last time I attended a morning service was around Christmas. I miss going. I always go to the evening services, but it's not the same, especially at a small congregation like ours.
Btw, we went ou to eat with my parents after church, then went home and took a nap until it was time to go to night church.
Night church... cool, like night court?
That sucks Stubbs, wasn't aware that you always missed Morning service. But, like you said, I bet you appreciate them now.
Nah, I don't know any free programs. Though I do have a crack....
Yeah, stubbs is commenting. Yea for the baby!
Our local preacher pretty much ignores all "religious holidays" and it's service as usual.
But when the Colts play the superbowl, we bump evening services up a couple hours.
Hmmm, our services were bumped up on Super Bowl Sunday too, allegedly for "Stewardship Sunday." It seemed awfully convenient to me, who could care less about football.
It was real strange here. Though it was in the bulletin for a few weeks they didn't anounce the change of super bowl services until Sunday morning. And this is a congregation that announces our second Sunday pot-luck three weeks in advance - even though we do it every single week and everybody knows about it.
I think they were embarassed they were changing services for football.
While I generally don't have a problem moving services up or down for holidays and things, it kind of ticks me off that the elders used their power in this way.
Had it been a team besides the Colts would they have changed the time? If they didn't change the time and I stayed home to watch would I be chastised? What about the World Series? Bowling championship? It seems a little wrong for the elders to be able to make these changes on their own whims
...and honestly, if you miss the first quarter, whats the big deal. I LOVE college football, and I love seeing a good tackle or a good play, but even if I see a game from start to finish, 4 days later I won't remember a lick of it and frankly, even if "my" team lost, I would be over it in 24 hours or less.
Hey! That sounds awesome! Well on Sunday I actually preached about Jesus and the death, burial and ressurection. We even talked about Easter a bit. You can check it out on my podcast - www.chrislockhart.podomatic.com - It's the latest podcast.
shameless plug lol. But well inserted (thats what she said)
Nice Jamison, really nice.
Brew I think you’ll remember that Easter for ever.
One of the only times I’ve ever gotten lost driving with Jules somewhere is still one of our constant jokes when we’re not sure where we’re going. We were beaten and ready to give up and start snapping at each other when suddenly the road in front of us just ends. Herman Miller road in Asheville, NC still makes me smile. We found our destination almost an hour later after I stopped for directions twice, totaling three times for the whole adventure.
What you missed in a typical Easter service you make up for in memories.
We did the whole family thing with scads of grandkids at moms place and loads of food and I think Sunday lunch and festivities are almost going to start topping Christmas as far as just a fun time together.
As for our service it was paved with gold but horribly disjointed and far from conclusive for visitors and the like.
When we came home the second time, I looked at Mat and said "so that was our Easter?" Unbelievable. Sounds like everyone else had a pleasant day.
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