This afternoon we broke ground on a new worship center. It was a symbolic thing with hardhats and a golden shovel and all that good stuff. I had Rachel grab a small gardening shovel on our way out the door and was glad to see when we got there that she wasn't the only child whose parents had brought them along with a shovel. Granted, the children didn't really understand what was going on.
There were a number of speakers. The mayor came and gave an awkward but generic speech about a church being the people and not the building. The pastor of the Korean church that meets at our church in the afternoon came up and read a speech he had written out in advance (he doesn't normally speak English). It was pretty cool. My second favorite speech. At the end he also presented our pastor with a check, they had taken a special offering. There was also a speech by someone (pastor?) representing a church plant in N.E. Tacoma that had been started eight years ago by people from our church. And a speech from someone representing the larger regional Baptist conference came and spoke, and then lastly, a chaplain who works with the fire department who's been financially supported for years by the church ended the speeches with a pretty rousing pep talk. That was my favorite speech.
But, the guy from the the regional Baptist organization talked about something cool - thin places. An Irish concept of a place where you're pretty sure the distance between Earth and Heaven is less. A place where you can sense that you're in the presence of God. I really liked the idea.
The Irish have some really cool stuff. I wish there was some way that I could learn a lot more sayings and concepts of the Irish. I wonder if there's some podcasts from Irish for Irish that would be accessible to me and make sense to me. Of course, I'm behind on all of the podcasts I'm already listening to (Saddleback, TV Barn, TED) and have well over 1,000 unread in Google Reader and so many magazines waiting to read. I used to have a podcast on learning to speak Italian but I didn't have time to listen to. And that's before thinking of all of the work that needs to be done around the house. I'm only able to console myself with the thought that barring any unforseen unpleasantness, things will slow down, I will have plenty of time, especially many years from now when I retire.
The weekend has been really nice. Got a lot done. Got stuff done inside. got stuff done outside. The downstairs had become a dumping ground for stuff as we cleaned elsewhere. I had some empty bins, so I set-up a sorting station. A big flat workspace and five bins, one for each of us and one for unknown. Now, we can consolidate stuff to clean up, start sorting, and start putting stuff away from our respective bins. I think we're making headway.
The coming week will be challenging but good. We'll bring on a new employee, I'll start work on bringing on another employee on. Then there's finishing up the staff goals for the year (we got a late start due to the re-org) and mid-year reviews. In one respect, I ought to feel stressed and overwhelmed, but I don't. And the fact that I ought to be but don't is an awesome feeling in its own regard.
We're watching The Amazing Race. It so makes me want to travel. Of course, they don't really show things like 14 hour plane rides. But they're showing some stuff in Malaysia and Singapore and the aerial shots are amazing. I guess I talk about that often, I now remember that we were researching Seychelles last week.
I cannot believe I still have 100 words left. I cannot believe my life is so boring. Maybe I should make something up.
"Excuse me, sir. Sir! Sir!" The woman rose from the desk and strode purposefully after the stooped over man who had shuffled past her quickly, appearing completely oblivious to her presence.
Finally, catching up with him, she placed her hand on his shoulder and he whirled around quickly, glaring at her.
"What?" He asked in a gruff voice, knowing full well what she was about to say.
"You can't go in there, sir." He glanced at the room where people were milling about, getting cups of water and coffee and starting to find their seats.
"Well why not?" He growled.
"Sir, I'm sorry, but there've been complaints. This is supposed to be a friendly forum, but you've been argumentative, unwilling to accept other people's opinions, and well, frankly, you've been called a bully."
"But, but..." he stammered suddenly looking lost.
"Yeah, and you smell bad," said a young boy in his teens walking by the door munching on a granola bar and adjusting the cap he was wearing backwards on his head.
"Hey, uncool. Not helpful at all," his girlfriend punching him in the shoulder, but still laughing.
"Sir, please leave quietly." The woman said quietly.
The man hunched even a little further and shuffled away.