July 25 GIR Picnic

Saturday:  I picked Beverly up this afternoon and we drove over to the Oosterhouse's for the GIR picnic. I am very thankful for this group of "old" folk that meet together every 2nd and 4th/5th Sunday during first service over at Calvary. They also have regular outings and get-togethers throughout the year. This was one of those special times.

The Oosterhouse's live on Lake Bella Vista. They bought their house about 30 years ago. The house needed some work, and they renovated and decorated, and have lived there since--all their married life. They are super hospitable people, very welcoming, and really fun to be with. Bruce is a retired coach, who coached at Kenowa Hills for his entire career. I can't remember Mary's occupation before she retired. 

They have a pontoon boat that seats 10, so Bruce started our time together with a tour all around Lake Bella Vista. I had no idea it was as large as it is! There are very beautiful homes all around the lake--mostly owned by physicians, lawyers, and financial people; but Bruce said many of the smaller homes are owned by teachers, etc. Most people live here year-round--these are not considered "cottages."

Evidently this area used to be known as "Grass Lake" because it was mainly swamp. Developers bought the land and spend many years cleaning it up and making it into what is called a "man-made lake." I think turned about very nicely. Much better than a swamp.

This is the back of Bruce and Mary's house, which looks out on the lake. It has a nice flat yard with which to entertain older people like us who really don't do hills and uneven ground very well any more.

I've been in the GIR class now for over a year and have gotten better acquainted now with a lot of the people. 

My friend, Cheryl, is the one who urged me to join the class. See her? She is a 2nd grade teacher over in the Kentwood School District. She is so interesting to listen as she describes her highly diverse classroom of kids--many different languages and ethnicities. My friend, Beverly, is sitting kind of next to Cheryl. Bruce (coach) is in the blue shirt. Bruce teaches our class and is a very capable teacher too. His wife, Mary, almost always has an introduction to the lesson. They work very well together.

There's Beverly waving at me--can you see her? She has been a gift from God to me this year. I just love her so much.

We enjoyed a very nice four hours of fellowship and food (the two always seem to go together). Something "funny" happened on our way home to my house, though. Mary was giving away leftover pizza and dessert, packing it up for us in disposable containers. Beverly took a piece of pizza and 2-3 different desserts (they were yummy). I took a piece of pizza too. We had a lot of stuff in our hands to carry back to my car, and Beverly can't carry very much and walk carefully at the same time. So my hands were full. As I approached my car, I put Bev's container on the roof, opened the back door, loaded it with my chair, purse, jacket, container, etc. and then made sure we were all seat belted and safe to go. When I dropped Beverly off at her apartment, I opened the rear door to fetch Bev's leftovers ... and to my dismay, they were NOT there. I had left them ON TOP OF MY CAR. Bev saw the horrified look on my face and immediately started cracking up as I tried to tell her what had happened to them. She said it was the Lord's way of letting her know she really didn't need all of those desserts. !!! I was so sad this happened, but very relieved at Bev's ready sense of humor.

July 23 22-a-Day

Thursday:  Jesse is helping bring awareness of veteran suicide by assisting in the "22-a-Day" observance again this year in Kent County. For 30 straight days, 22 crosses are erected on property next to the 131 in Northwest Grand Rapids.  Each cross represents a service member who has ended his own life. Jesse told me that about 70% are elderly Vietnam Vets; but there are many younger service people represented as well. He also told me that 22 is just an estimate, taken from documented cases; he believes the number is closer to 50 per day. This is so, so sad.

People come to erect these crosses either because it represents a friend or family member who committed suicide. Some folk write the name of the fallen on the cross, along with other information.

I stole a few photos from Jesse's FB posts to show you what it looks like at night:

Good job on these pictures, Jesse. It's so tragic that these men and women didn't have anyone to rescue them from ending their lives. Surely, it must grieve the heart of the Lord as well.

July 22 All Church Picnic

Wednesday Evening:  I met Emma and Dakota for Calvary's all-church picnic tonight. There were tons of people there, some good bands, free barbecue chicken sandwiches and salads, and lots of fun for kids. I took absolutely NO pictures of Emma or Dakota--I wanted to, but every time I thought about it, I wondered if Dakota would think it "odd" of me, so I didn't. It's not that I'm worried about what he thinks of me, it's just that I don't want to be in his face or make him uncomfortable around me. 

We ate our meal together and just visited for awhile. Pastor Jim came up and personally greeted us, and even remembered our names--which is impressive for being a pastor of so many hundreds of people. A few of my personal friends were able to meet Emma and Kota--so that part was nice too.

After Emma and Kota left, I wandered to the far side of the parking lot to view the antique cars. I took these pictures to show to Jesse, just in case he was interested in seeing them.

I'm pretty sure all of these classics are owned by people from various walks of life who attend Calvary. These cars were buffed to a shine and were very fun to look at. 

Thank you to Calvary Church for this nice evening of food and fellowship.

July 22 Ted & Bev

Wednesday:  The Lord has given me two GIFTS this year in the way of friendships: the first one is my next-door neighbor, Ted. He is 92 years old! He is a lover of Christ who is kind, gentlemanly, resourceful, encouraging, and he is very fun to be around. Ted moved in to the neighborhood about 3+ years ago after the death of his second wife. He had been married for 53 years to his wife, Barbara. She was called to heaven and then he met a nice widow, Julie. They were married for three years and then she too went to be with the Lord. THEN he met and befriended a woman by the name of Donna. They never married because of their ages but they were close friends for about two years. She came down with pneumonia this past January and graduated to heaven as well.

Ever since Ted moved next door to me, I always viewed him as kind of a father figure. We enjoyed talking to each other as I fed my birds or worked in the yard. We had really good fellowship together about what God was doing in our lives. There was one problem, however--Ted was super lonely. He was lonely for another girl friend.

Enter BEV! About six months ago, through my adult Bible class at Calvary Church, I became re-acquainted with Beverly. We had somewhat "known" each other through the years at Calvary, but never really entered into a friendship. She is 18 years my senior and just hung around with a different group of women than I did, so we didn't have occasion to get to know each other. Bev will be 91 in September. She had to stop driving last fall because she had too many car maintenance problems to afford fixing. I had been asking the Lord to help me find a place of service at Calvary Church, and it worked out that I have become Bev's chauffeur whenever she needs a ride to church or the grocery store or the dentist, etc. She has become really special to me, and I love her.

SO ... seeing that Ted was very lonely and Beverly was "available", I began talking to each of them about the other, and pretty soon Ted asked if he could have Bev's number--she said "yes", and tada! They have become very good friends and phone each other every day. I have been deemed their chaperone on Wednesday afternoons when all three of us eat out (treated by Ted) for lunch. It's been a really fun and rewarding thing to be able to further their friendship, and to be with them on a weekly basis.

Here they are! We ate at Russ' for lunch this week. I had their most delicious fried chicken! Ted had the fried clam dinner. Bev had the fried perch. We sat and talked for more than an hour. It was so good.

Don't they look nice together? I love their smiles. Thank you, Lord, for Ted and Bev!

July 21 Games

Tuesday:  I was relieved that today was much cooler than last week at this time. Plus, the smoke from the wildfires (in Canada and Minnesota) that had wandered down to W. Michigan last Wednesday were finally gone. It was much more comfortable to have the kiddos over to spend time in my house this week. We played a LOT of games today.

After breakfast, we played a game of PICTIONARY (Jr.). There are quite a few different ways to play this game. We played it with two teams. I had gotten this game from Terry and Ruthanne during their move last year to Georgia--they were getting rid of things they no longer wanted. These guys did very well with this game--all of them are good artists!

I also got out my large white board for the kiddos to draw on ...

Aidan folded a few airplanes. This is one plane that he attached ribbons to the ends, and then taped it to my bedroom fan to see if he could make it "fly" ... it was fun to see all the different attempts Aidan made and various tapings to try to get the best flight. He finally admitted that none of his experiment worked the way he had hoped; but he sure tried!

Brendan was designing the upstairs of the house where Calvin and Hobbes live ... I think he was doing Calvin's bedroom.

I got out the "Go Fish" card game, but instead of playing "Go Fish", we played MEMORY with these cards instead. It was very fun!

I did not win a single game, no matter how hard I tried.

Cal taking a little reading break over on my couch ...

We left my house at a little after 3pm to drive back to their place. As I was driving down Petits going 50 mph, I suddenly came upon a rather large tree limb that had fallen and was laying down right ON THE ROAD. Petits had been recently resurfaced; so I just didn't see the downed limb in time to avoid it and head it straight on at 50 mph, which splintered the big branch with fragments striking the front of my pretty car ...

AND a smaller branch getting stuck beneath my car. I pulled into the next driveway and tried to pull the branch out, but it was tangled underneath my car. Sigh. I finally gave up and called Jesse, who once again came to our rescue. He was able to dislodge the branch. Notice that my Honda CRV no longer as the Honda "H" symbol on the front. Sigh again. 

Thankfully, other than a few scratches and the Honda symbol now being gone, there is no other damage--and none of us were hurt. I am so thankful this didn't happen in the dark! Thank you, Lord, for keeping us safe, with no physical injuries.

July 18 Stephen & Kendra

Saturday:  I was glad to be invited to Nigel and Angela's son's wedding--not that I know Stephen all that well AND I'd never met Kendra before ever; but Nigel and Angela are very special to me. For almost a dozen years, Nigel taught our LOGOS class at Calvary Church. The folk in the class all went their separate ways, for many different reasons, about five years ago now. And just in the last year, Nigel and Angela felt God leading them to be part of a new church forming in Ada (which is where they live). I don't see them on Sundays anymore and I miss them. 

 I only knew a handful of people attending the wedding--I would estimate there were maybe 150 guests--the ones I recognized and "kind of" knew were all from Calvary. Pastor Tom did the wedding ceremony.

The above picture is the wedding program. The front was the order of the wedding ceremony, and the reverse side listed all who stood up with Stephen and Kendra. I thought it was very interesting that both mom's names are ANGELA. I found Kendra's folks to be very welcoming. Somehow they already knew my name, and I had never met them before--Kendra, too--she called me by name in the greeting line after the ceremony. 

The wedding took place outdoors at the ALASKA HAUS venue, a little beyond Caledonia. It was very HOT, but not as hot as it had been earlier in the week.

The Ceremony:

The wedding began promptly at 4pm. Kendra had a matron of honor (her only sister), a maid of honor (her best friend), and two others. Two of the girls wore a deep purple/wine colored gown, and the other two wore lilac. The dresses were really pretty.

Kendra and her father have now appeared and are walking towards Stephen and Pastor Tom ...

I thought Kendra's dress was super pretty. The sleeves were detachable (which she removed at the reception). Her dad was a very enjoyable person to listen to and to meet.

They wrote their own vows and repeated them to each other.

Pastor Tom gave the "wedding address", and a few other things were performed, and then Stephen and Kendra were pronounced husband and wife.

The Reception:

There was about a 30-minute wait after the ceremony before the reception began--probably because photographers (they had THREE) were taking pictures of the wedding party.

I found my "place" (there was a note card with each guest's name printed), and I was seated right next to Angela and Nigel! We had such a wonderful time catching up during the reception. I love these two so much--it was so refreshing to be with them. Nigel's brother, Alistair, flew over from Edinburg, Scotland, for this occasion. He and Nigel look so much alike!

Here is Ben (Stephen's older brother) giving a tribute to Stephen ...

Ben could barely get through his written "speech" without tears ...

Here is the bride and groom with the first dance ... I did NOT get any good pictures of him spinning her around, etc. I just wasn't situated in a very good place to get a decent photo, and I certainly did not want to be in the way of the photographers.

Here is Stephen and his mom dancing ...

And then everyone joined in the celebration with crazy dancing, a disc jockey, funny light-up glasses, etc.

The Venue:

I took a few pictures of Alaska Haus prior to the wedding. I thought this was just the right size room. Three rows of tables, two aisles nicely spaced, and decorated beautifully.

This is the wedding party table ...

This is outside where the wedding ceremony was held.

Just a few more inside the venue ...

I read on their website that this building used to be a church. These stained-glass windows are original to the building.

Can you see the upstairs where the glass wall is? That's where the bride and groom had the first dance.

A very pretty place! I was honored to be invited, and so happy to be able to talk to Nigel and Angela for such a long time. I also got better acquainted with our Mission's pastor wife--Nancy--she was just down a few seats from where I was sitting.

The next upcoming wedding is Christopher and Ella!