weekend bits
On Friday I spent the evening with Clay. We split a pizetti and salad for dinner, then shopped around for gifts, and watched Felicity. Something we ate didn’t sit well so we battled our bodies the rest of the evening together. Oh frailty.
On Saturday we delivered a couch and mattress to Lilian’s family. If you remember, Lilian is a woman we met while delivering a “Boxes of Love” box to her family. She didn’t have any furniture so we asked around, and some folks from Clay’s church had items to give. We went to Eugene’s then Esther’s to pick up three pieces of furniture. Stephen and Drew graciously helped us with their man strength and truck. It was no small feat as Lilan’s family had moved into the room of a friend’s third-floor apartment. The boys huffed and puffed and brought up the furniture three flights of stairs. Then, one of the couches wouldn’t fit through the bedroom door. Disaster! But what troopers, they then brought up the second couch which fit and two of Lilian’s girls immediately sat down swinging their legs. It was a pretty unremarkable exchange. The boys were sweating, I was along for the ride, and we talked briefly with Lilian afterwards. She thanked us and we ate tacos from a little Mexican place down the street called Mariscos Guillen. We have one more mattress to deliver.
In the evening I attended an Ugly Sweater pot-luck. It was a blast. We had way too much food—Porto’s potato balls and meat pies, Grace’s home-made mac n cheese, fried mac n cheese, Kristal’s thai curry and lettuce wraps, not to mention the appetizers and drinks and dessert. We played “guess the name of the person taped to your back” and “Loaded Questions” which was especially hilarious thanks to Vicky’s cheesiness which came out like it does on Korean stationary. Then in a fun turn of events we joined Mike birthday celebration with the church guys for cosmic bowling at Jewel City. Also was a lot of fun. Loud music, beer, glowing things, bowling, can’t go wrong!
On Sunday morning I met Clay for brunch at the Nickel Diner then went to the Renegade Craft fair and browsed around. We went to LFC to chat, then went to PCC’s Christmas service downtown. Clay and I got to witness Jia get baptized (who was the international student that joined my family for Thanksgiving) which we did not expect to occur, but felt so privileged to witness. The gospel was preached clearly and struck me in my deep heart’s core. Eyes welled and I fought back tears after the sermon as we sang “Joy to the World” and “Hark! The Herald Angel Sing”.
“Let every heart prepare Him room” — I heard that for the first time yesterday in the way that it is meant to be heard. I prepared Him room as I made choices to be set free by the power of the gospel and loose the chains of sin and secrecy. It is so hard for this wretch to accept love so perfect, so divine.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found
Night ended with a 3-hour dinner at Spires with the International group and conversation on 8th Street with Clay. Crazy good weekend.
