Beelzefly

Today begins the sober season of Lent, but before embarking on this time of personal introspection and repentance for all the ways I fall short of what God intends my life to be, it's good to pause for just a moment to think back to last week and especially to last week's choir practice. We almost always have a lot of fun at choir practice, but last week's practice was over the top. Seemingly out of nowhere, a giant fly joined us shortly after practice started, alighting on the director's hair and refusing at first to budge. As efforts to shoo the fly away became more energetic, choir practice degenerated into a slapstick farce. Following the director as she flapped her arms alternately in time to the music followed by attempts to wave away the fly became a challenge. Some of the women on the front row began jumping up to help the director wave the fly away, making it even more difficult to stay in sync with the music. But when the fly landed on the piano keys, things really got out of hand! Responding to the cries urging her to swat the fly, the pianist swung gamely away, slipping backwards off her chair in the process. About this time, the pastor reappeared in the room with a can of insecticide and a large piece of cardboard and began chasing the fly around the room. Fumes filled the small space, but the fly finally began to slow in its gyrations. One of the tenors told us about a website where people can combine words to make new ones and of the new word "beelzebug" for an annoying insect that haunts a room. When the fly finally landed on the floor near the door, the woman next to me jumped up and, after several attempts, succeeded in squashing Beelzefly. In the midst of the cheers and hilarity that followed, the choir director was finally able to take us through the music for Sunday, which we sang with hearts made glad by holy laughter. If we are alert, we will often find God sprinkling our lives with joy, something like the fairy dust in the tales I loved as a child.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Out of Chaos, Hope

I'm not sure why I thought that life would slow down a bit in the New Year. For the moment, I'm grateful for a few minutes to write. After months of planning and frustration, the mission trip from our church to the Texas Gulf coast actually came off the weekend before last. We were the first group to stay in the new Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Volunteer Village at Texas City. As it turned out our arrival was an answer to the prayers of the brand new manager, Doug MacDonald, who, with Mike Kelly, had been working to ready the place for our arrival. There was no way the two of them could have accomplished all of the tasks that needed to be done in the time they had between their arrival and ours. The bunk and shower trailers pulled in from further east along the U.S. coast needed cleaning after coming out of storage, and also needed to be hooked up to sewer, water and electricity. The pots and pans and utensils also brought out of storage needed cleaning as did the kitchen at First Presbyterian Church in Texas City, which had agreed to allow the volunteer village to set up on their grounds and use their facilities. Somehow when God is involved in the planning things come together. So we showed up with folks who knew how to do plumbing and electrical work and construction as well as one man who was able to hook up a giant industrial gas stove in the kitchen. Add to that the magical cleaning genies (my name for the amazing women who spent their time cleaning anything that didn't move out of the way), and the amount of work that was accomplished from noon Friday through Saturday afternoon was nothing short of miraculous. Doug provided us with bright blue T-Shirts that said Presbyterian Disaster Assistance on the front and on the back--Out of Chaos, Hope. We managed to bring some hope in the chaos of the village so that other volunteers coming after us can bring hope in the chaos of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ike. It was an humbling experience to be thanked by strangers who saw our shirts in church and at dinner for offering hope for the future simply by our presence. We came home tired, but ready to make plans to return again for the important work of helping to rebuild peoples' lives in a disaster area. There is still much work to be done, and many more volunteers are needed. If you want to help, call Penny Noel in the PDA housing office at 1-866-732-6121 and make your reservation. Groups of five or more adults from any organization are welcome. You don't have to be Presbyterian to sign up. I promise you will be blessed as we were as you in turn bless others.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue