The Pelikan Brief: Sunday Satisfaction

Week three and we already have a new family attending, as well as an inquirer! Sunday Divine Liturgy was so much more fulfilling having people there to participate with us. The couple that came was just so happy and truly blessed that God had answered their prayers to have a place where they, as Orthodox Christians, could feel involved as part of the military community, instead of muddling along in an Italian speaking Orthodox church, barely understanding what's being said and only going a few times a year, most likely, because of it, they said. Their 16 year old son is in the high school band and was away this weekend, but his parents said he would be glad to be an altar server in the future with Papa. That is such an answer to prayer for Papa, as well, because having to keep the sensor going, to prep the water and the zeon for communion, then not being able to process the incense makes it extremely challenging for one person to do - especially in the tiny, cramped little space we're using. In sharing with them a bit after the service, one of the most touching moments was the realization that God had not only answered their prayers to provide them with a priest, but that God had answered our prayers as well because He knew that we needed people in order to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. It was a bit of an emotional moment for all of us - and a genuine blessing! An interesting irony in all of this is that this couple actually knows Fr. Nicholas, and have been blessed by his ministry in the past, when he was a visiting priest at a mission church in Virginia where they were attending back in the mid '90's.

After church we went out for a light breakfast and then went back to our room and picked up Sherman, another small load of some clothes and miscellaneous stuff, and then took car ride out to the new house. As I mentioned yesterday, we are trying to take a little there each day, so that we'll be done by Thursday.

Sherman on the rooftop

It was fun to show Sherman his new home for the first time! He "met" two cats (from a distance, of course), and the cats laid their eyes on him as well. I wish I had the camera in my hand so that I could've captured our neighbor's cat frozen in her perfect Halloween pose for at least 1 or 2 minutes! Sherman was sitting like a gentleman next to me, however, eyes locked on the target but behaving like he was being told to and sitting still - not exactly relaxed, however! We let him loose in the house and he sniffed his way through every nook and cranny! It was an adventure to rival even Blues Clues . . . in Sherman's world anyway - I'm sure of it. He was busy for a very long time. Lots of new and interesting things to see and smell for the Sherminator.

Little breezy today

The old Roman road leading up to our house

While Sherman went exploring, Papa and Mimi planned where all the furniture needs to go. When the movers bring everything we need to tell them exactly where to set it down and unwrap it. Then the movers have to take all the wrapping materials away with them that day! Ugg!

Can you believe this is two lanes?

So . . . onto the next stop!
There's a beautiful facility owned by the Navy called Carney Park. A sprawling, peaceful, multifaceted recreation area inside an extinct volcano. I'll write more details about it later, but for today what we were looking for was the little dog park, inside Carney Park - hoping no other dogs would be there! Sure enough, not a single dog was there and Sherman was able to run and catch the ball for the first time since we left North Carolina.

Very ancient looking

Now, we are sitting on the couch watching "In Harms Way" and Sherman is dead the world! He's so tired that he's hard to even get him to move of the couch in our pet apartment. On the way back in the car, he actually slept as we cruised down the hwy in our sporty little Alpha Romeo (albeit '2001 - it's not like it's new or anything), going 120 km per hour. (not that fast really, 75 mph . . . it just seems like it over here). But Sherman was racked out!

All-in-all, it was a very nice day!

Now . . . Mom! This is mostly for you:

I took a few more pictures today of the outside and inside of the house and the road leading up to our house . . . stuff like that. You (all) keep asking for more pictures, so I'm just going to post some extra pictures for fun after this post. So, enjoy!!

Ciao, Bella! Mimi