TAC Tuesday evening Memorial Service

Jesus overcame the sting of death to rise and open up the Kingdom of Heaven

This Worship Service focused on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The names of the members who passed away this year were read aloud. Beautiful orchestra music  accompanied the sermon and remembrance.

Monday, Tuesday Worship at TAC

Here are some images from the Worship Services so far at the Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. The focus is remembering the "Seasons of the Church".  Business meetings were held today and the first 2 presentations by our guest speaker were enjoyed. Tonight is the Memorial Service and Eucharist.

                                                           Christ the King is born

                                                                       Praise Music

                                             The crowd participates by singing along

                                               The Season of Advent is celebrated

                                             Our Bishop gives the opening address

                                                                    Palm Sunday

                                       Dramatic presentation of the Passion of Jesus Christ

                                              Solemn remembrance of the Crucifixion

Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, Monday

For the next fews days, I will be blogging from Galveston, Texas. Mike and I are attending the Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. We had a very easy, 3 hour trip into Galveston. We are staying at the beautiful San Luis Resort on the Seawall. Lunch was at the Cafe here in the hotel and we both had delicious Baja Fish Tacos. Our room is on the 7th floor with a spectacular view of the Gulf of Mexico. Tonight, we will attend the opening Worship Ceremony and the Conference will begin tomorrow morning. Check back for more pictures and details!

Coming into Galveston

                                                         Here we are at the Seawall.

                                             The view from the "hallway" at our hotel.

                                                       The view from our balcony.

Scenes of Serenity

The listening vessels

These amazing concrete structures are called listening vessels. They are made in such a way that Mike and I sat 100 feet apart and could converse quietly with each other. We also sat quietly and listened to the sounds of the park, magnified by these vessels. It is an amazing addition to this beautiful park located in the busy downtown area of Houston.

Hello Houston!

Mike and I spent a good part of last week at the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. This year, it was held in downtown Houston. I am a country girl and enjoy living in my tiny community, 30 miles from any large city. At home, I'm so isolated that I can shower outside! I have a serene "bubble" of woods and pasture land to live in.

There are just a few more people here:

 Was it silly for us to pull our chairs up to the large window in our hotel room and just sit there, looking at the bustling city?

 Or,  were we obvious "country bumpkins" when we had our morning coffee at the same window. I'm serious, we did not watch TV until the last night-when the basketball playoffs were on (go Dallas!).

The hotel was beautiful and the park was a welcome green area in the middle of all the tall buildings. The conference was awesome and it was a good experience for us. But, I'm very happy to be back in the quiet, calm of my country home.

Art Bra Update

Does anyone want to make an art bra and mail it to me for the fundraiser? If you do, then e-mail me kgsoutherncomfort@gmail.com and I'll give you the guidelines.All the bras received get to be in the calendar and the auction. It would be special to have some bras from across the country, signed by the designer to display. I'll take photographs for you and tell about the event, I'm sure I'll even blog about it. Let me know!

Art Bras

A group of church women met last night to listen to guest speaker, Carolyn Jackson, informing us about her experience with breast cancer. She described her journey through treatment and recovery, then we all made art bras to auction off at her Breast Cancer Research Fundraiser. This is being done all over the country and it is so fun to do as a group. I recommend looking into this project in your area and participating. Just look up art bras on the internet and you'll see some fabulous designs. My daughter made the bra above and donated it last night. I think it is beautiful. I brought mine home to finish and I'll put up a picture after it's done.

It just takes a little imagination, some glue, trim and thread to make a huge donation to this worthy cause.

Bible School:A very good day!

We enjoyed worshiping, praising, and learning together. It was a good day of:

CRAFTS

SPACE SNACKS AND LUNCH

SINGING PRAISES

HOMEMADE VANILLA ICE CREAM

JOYFULLY PLAYING WITH FRIENDS

First Sunday

It is the first Sunday of the new year. I'm ready for church. I have a new dress and a new coat. Old shoes....8 years old. Old church....130 years. New/Old Pastor.......served us for 7 years, now back as interim Pastor for 5 months. Welcome back! New year, Old friends. Old timeless comfort and faith, new excitement!

My take on the movie "Julie and Julia"

(The real Julia Child and Julie Powell are on the right)


My daughter and I recently saw the movie "Julie and Julia". It is based on two real women, Julia Child, and Julie Powell. The premise is that Julie Powell wrote a very popular blog about the year in which she cooks her way through each recipe in Julia Child's famous cookbook. It is about her triumphs and her disasters-in cooking and in life itself. Intertwined in Julie's story, is Julia Child's account of her early life in Paris. The movie depicts Julia Child's beginnings as a chef, and it gives us an intimate look into her personal life. We really enjoyed the movie. We loved the humor and thought that Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julie Child was masterful. And by the way, it made us want to buy Julia Child's book and try some of her recipes ourselves.

I do need to say that I know nothing about the real Julie Powell or her blog. I have never read anything from her blog but I am now aware that there is some controversy about it. I am, however, a knowledgeable fan of Julia Child, having grown up watching her television show, and I think I love her even more now. I don't really care about the controversy. I did like the movie and hope that the real Julie Powell has as much respect for Julia Child as her movie counterpart.

The only thing that disappointed me was that there were several strong curse words (including the F-word) that will now keep me from taking some older church friends to see the movie. It is rated PG 13, and I had hoped that it would be a movie I could take my women's group to. I guess I could overlook those words and still enjoy the movie, but it certainly won't do as a church activity. Oh, well...


What we did watch as a church group was "Lilies of the Field". That was so appropriate and meaningful, not to mention enjoyable. But....that is another review.

UMYF extended family

Youth from two different towns met for the first time. They are going on a mission trip to another state so this gathering at a friend's lake provided a casual, fun time for them to meet and interact. We kayaked, ate, swam, and talked...

My husband and I took a canoe out by ourselves. We went under this bridge and my husband picked some of the wild grapes that hung over us.

As we came to the spot where the creek empties into the lake, this dead tree caught our eye because it was lit by the last strong rays of the sun before dark.

Our twin nephews dived backwards together and someone told me that this dive was pretty, but not as synchronized as the one they did before.

A couple of the older boys barbequed this chicken and made kebabs from summer vegetables.

We found out that the youth had many similar interests, chores, and hobbies. They even involved the adults in the discussion of favorite books, movies, and careers. I ask God to bless them and go with them on their mission trip-acting in his Word.

Beach Party Bible School

Its the last day of vacation Bible school and its the first opportunity I've had to take a picture. Our classes were smaller in number this year, so we combined them into 2 classes. That was great until we shortened each class period into 20 minute increments. It was tricky to use real acrylic paints, sand, glue and permanent markers with 4 year olds up to 5th graders in that amount of time. The sweetest part to me was when our youth helpers gathered quietly together in another room and sat down to paint surfboards (you know, for "surfing" through the Scriptures). These girls probably had attended Bible school each year since they were old enough. I remember some of them as babies. They were now too old to attend but not too old to love Bible school. I know they were supposed to be helping us-the teachers, but it was too sweet to see them painting and talking together and we didn't interrupt them. They also don't know that I lined up their artwork this morning and my daughter took this picture. I'll just call this my special momento.