Loss of my back up

Saturday I did my practice for tomorrow in the morning because we our annual barbecue dinner in the evening.  I don’t remember its being on a Saturday before.   I was curious as to whether it would be as effective as doing it in the evening, so close to when we had the service.  I watched the Purdue/IU basketball game.  Purdue surprised me by trouncing the Hoosiers.  Purdue is not very good nor consistent.  I got a call from Sharon Merryfield during the game.  She said things were not good at Trail’s End.  Several people are disenchanted with Wayne, my substitute preacher.  They threatened to attend somewhere else if he peaches again.  I had to go to his park model and tell him I didn’t want to have our worship group destroyed, so I had to remove him from his final scheduled Sunday.  He seemed to take the information quite well.  I respect his deep Christianity and will miss hearing him preach.  I will also miss having someone to replace me once in a while.   I am getting the point that God either wants me to stay here to preach or doesn’t want our worship to continue.  We rode with Ray and Irene Mintenko, the same couple we went with last year.  I had to curtail my beer consumption to not suffer from any adverse effects during tomorrow’s services.  The dinner was exactly the same as last year, served by the same catering service, and was just as good.  I had decided to eat less this year as well.  We were home early, and I was able to practice again.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  We were early so I could talk with the “elders” of our services about Wayne’s not returning again.  I tried to softly explain to the congregation about how dangerous it was, Spiritually, to rely on just the messenger bringing God’s word.  I delivered the message and Communion to Trail’s End and was thankful to God that it seemed to be successful.  I went on to Llano Grande, the other job I had today.  I am invited to preach there 2 times each season.  There was a good reception.  One couple asked about where they could have Holy Communion served, so I invited them to Trail’s End.  We went to Olive Garden for a soup and salad lunch before coming home.  We dozed while watching some more of the Olympics.  I also printed some prayers from Synod to use in our services and found a sermon I can use on the date Wayne would have preached.  We took a long walk in the afternoon and would have ridden our bikes if it hadn’t been so windy.  We were both ready to retire after the news.