Settling In

How is it the 21st of May already? It's been over 4 weeks now since we left Japan, and so much has happened between then and now:

I will start by telling you that Chaps (a.k.a. Fr Phil/PJ/Dad/Papa) started his new job at Camp Lejuene two full weeks ago now, and decided to drive home (over 100 miles each way) only twice a week. We drove to Charleston, SC, Thursday before last, to pick up our jeep that's been in storage for the past 4 years, and now we have both cars. Heleaves very early Monday mornings, comes home on Wednesday, leaves again Thursday morning, and then drives home on Friday morning for the weekend - it's working out well! With all that driving, however, one of the last things he wants to do is drive (again) on Sunday to the closest CEC church to us, which is in Willmington (just as far as Camp Lejeune, but more south) So... we had an idea!

We set up for church this weekend in John and Rondi's backyard. Dad repaired made some adjustments to the backyard gate he made last week, to make it easier to get the things we needed from one yard to the next.

It worked out wonderfully ... the main thing missing, of course, was the rest of the family - Johnny, Brad, Jesse, Elina & Misha!

We started at 11:00 with using some of the songs from Jesse & Elina's CD. (So they were definitely with us in spirit) We had most of what we needed to do a simple "field service" like chaplains do out in the field - very "grass roots" literally! (hee hee ... get it?)

Stephanie and her two boys, Rondi and Karis, and two other young women with their children came to our "church in the yard" yesterday.

(Brad ... in case you're wondering, I have baby Michael in my arms at this point.)


Dad even made up bulletins for everyone, seen here held in place by a rock from the yard.









Yesterday was Ascension Sunday, and we literally experienced the great blessing of living out Holy Scripture when Jesus said to His disciples on the mountainside, " ...let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." One of our neighbors said to us later in the day that her teenage daughters asked her, "When we go back to church, can we go to their backyard church?

"Through His gift of love we are ALL reconciled to Him. "Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:17-21