Wow!!!

What an Easter this has been...we were up before 5:30 this morning to prepare for the Sunrise Service at 7:00am and the Easter Breakfast that followed. In our first service this morning we had a group of 70 assembled, which was pretty good considering our average Sunday attendance for the past year has been about 75...it has been rising lately. It was a real nice service with a trumpet player accompanying the organ for the songs, and I didn't mess anything up too badly. The crowd swelled to about 100 for breakfast. We had 84 seats at tables, and the overflow sat in chairs hastily set out along the walls. There was plenty of food for all, and most importantly, plenty of coffee. In a Lutheran church if you run out of coffee it is "grounds" for running the preacher out of town. I might take that personally. Our second service was set to begin at 10:00am, and the people started pouring through the door at 9:30. The flood continued until we were just about sold out, in both seats and parking. The count for the Festival Service was 186! That makes the total for the two 256. Granted there were a few who stayed from the first service through the second...they must have wanted to hear me talk about football...but still, that is more than 3 times what we would see on a "regular" Sunday. There were many faces that I recognized in the throng of folks, but a whole lot more that I hope I can remember. Oh...I almost forgot...I got to do my first baptism in the 10:00am service. WooHoo! The baptizee was a 1 1/2 year old boy named Braeden. He was the cutest little guy, all dressed in a white suit. Actually, he wasn't all that little...a solid guy of about 38 pounds. That put a little strain on the ol' back when I had to hoist him up, but he was still really cute.

We left the church a little after noon, once everything was cleaned up...first to arrive and last to leave...that's the way it goes. I came home, changed into the yard work attire, and headed to Ace Hardware to procure some fertilizer and weed killer. Have you bought fertilizer and weed killer lately? We could probably refinance the national debt on what they make on fertilizer and weed killer these days! Anyway, with fertilizer and weed killer in hand I returned home to power rake, mow, fertilize and hack out the old dead growth from the bushes, shrubs, herbs and the dog's coat. The latter was probably the most difficult. I have now completed the tasks of the day, and am happy to be done, but I wouldn't trade a one of them! It has been a great day...I am planning for a great evening as well.