Funerals

The funeral on Sunday went well.
There were some tremendous moments of God's inpouring throughout the day.
We did a baptismal remembrance service during the morning and that was very special. We had a nice insert in the bulletin about the gentleman that passed away, and included his date of baptism. The great thing about that was that it was also the same day that he joined the church. Very cool. The really cool moment of the baptism remembrance was that several people splashed the water out of the bowl onto the sides of the stand as they dipped their hands in and placed the water upon themselves. I used it to wrap the sermon (the service was inserted in the sermon) with the recognition that ourbaptism should be splashed about and get other people wet. I had several comments on that.
The first of the services for Richard Ernest Weisner was a graveside. That was a tough one as he usually would have been taking flowers graveside for his deceased wife from the Christmas Poinsettias. We took some as a reminder of that gift he shared with her, and used reflections of what he might have told her should he have been sitting graveside with her this year, as so many before.
The second service was the memorial at the church. I have to say the best thing about that was the postlude, and recessional. We sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" while the family walked out to the reception, complete with hamburgers and hotdogs. Can't beat that kind of fellowship.
The evening was capped off with a great rendition of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" put on by the children of the church. Del Rosa is truly blessed in the music department, as our choir director and lay leader/substitute organist managed to sing their way through the church service, play and solo for the memorial, and then play and direct the play last night. The encore performance by the children was done with incredible work, with only a single run-through since Christmas Eve (just before the play last night).
All in all a very busy day, but filled with many blessings, and some great people.
Blessings to you,