Angels on the Back Verandah



Yesterday was fat.

It started at midnight when I was still writing my sermon for the morning. It was a hard one to write. It only really started to feel good at 11pm after a conversation with my family. I was writing till 3am.

After 3 hours sleep, I got up, showered, got dressed, drove to work. I was there by 7:20. It was rather early. I added an illustration to the sermon then printed it out. I ran through the hard parts then headed over to the church. I was feeling pretty shot. It's a bad way to start the working day.

I preached at 8am. It felt ok. My tiredness got me a few times, I almost lost my voice, and in an illustration I said "when I was in year sex" instead of six. No one laughed at then, which was sad. I got good feed back though. The 8am congregation are very encouraging. I like them all.

10am was a rushed service, but I preached better. I'd warmed up, and I knew the sermon a bit better.

I think people liked the sermon. I only heard good comments. Lots of people came up to me and said they appreciated my honesty, and my bravery with sharing my stories, but I didn't think they were particularly hard to share.

After that service it was Back to Bethlehem all the way. Back to Bethlehem is our church's annual Carols by Candlelight equivalent. We set up our church property to look like Bethlehem (sort of) and run a market place were people can do craft and enjoy the atmosphere, then we do a nativity play. Last year I was Joseph. This year I borrowed a sheet from the Buckley's, wrapped it around me like a toga and called my self Hotus Guyus Maximus.

Back to Bethlehem was good. The market place was fun. I got to do lots of craft, and meet people. And the play was well done. Probably one of the best nativity plays I've done. They used the whole property, stables in the park, the Inn under a slippery dip, Joseph's house in the car park, Angels on the back verandah. It was fun.

After the Back to Bethlehem there was a lot of packing up and carrying to do. Finally Jon, Helen, Stephen and I retired to Big Fish Little Fish in Chatswood at around 11pm for dinner. That was very exciting. I do love dinner.