I miss you.  I miss my church family.  I miss Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, cleaning the bathrooms, and even the rowdy UMYF.  I miss you.

The Reverend Dr. Gary Brock died last Saturday.  It came as no surprise to us, his parishioners at Hickory Bend. For two years, we had watched as our strong, forceful minister used to giving his energy to meeting our spiritual needs turn some of that life force toward trying to heal his own wounded body. And as that effort became harder and harder, it evolved into showing his church how to live in the valley of the shadow of death without fear. more…

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This is well worth your time.

Eveyone is invited to our council meeting.  Please join us Sunday, April 12, immediately after the worship service.

One of the stations in our sacred space invited our visitors to step out onto the kitchen porch, gaze at the stars, and thank God for the beauty of the earth.  Our visitors stood in the cold, on our back porch, and searched at the sky. Looking for a star.  The star. Most evenings, the sky was quite overcast.  It was hard to find any star, much less, follow one.

As the youth were setting up this station, three deer were grazing in the playground. The kids were thrilled to see these graceful creatures, always reminders that even in our highly developed city, peaceful, beautiful, wild animals might appear, always reminders that God is the Creator.  But it was hard to see the stars.  So it was not clear what we should do.

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There were cobwebs on the fellowship hall door the other week.  I’m sure there are cobwebs all the time.  I’ve just never seen them before, because someone usually removes them before I walk through the door.  Who usually does this?  Julia arrived, and made coffee.  I had never even wondered who made coffee.  I guess I believed that elves arrived early and made coffee. Julia Witt does it now.  Bob Mitchell made coffee for years, but now, Julia makes the coffee.  more…