This place is full of memories for me. It’s where a huge portion of my spiritual foundation was laid. Even though I rejected that foundation for a few years, it remained. In my senior year of high school, I officially joined the Christian Church and publicly told everyone that I am depending on Jesus Christ to forgive my sins and make me a new person. 17 years later, I’ve been through a lot of joys and sorrows, and I’ve seen my need to grow a lot more clearly than I have wanted to. I’ve also seen how my life has been shaped through trying to follow Jesus. While I’m not yet the person I want to be (or rather that I should be), I’m also not the person I was. I think that somewhere in this "in-between" place is where I see the faithfullness of God in my life.

OK, that was a long aside for a guy that prefers to put more photos than text on his blog. Here are some interior photos of the building. Mom had a joke she liked to tell about Orthodox Presbyterians (hereafter referred to as OP’s). Question: "How many OP’s does it take to change a lightbulb?" Answer: "None. OP’s never change anything." At least in terms of the physical building of Emmanuel OPC, there is a lot of truth there. THey did paint the sanctuary, though.

In this room was one of the first places where I participated in Christian service. Twice each year, the louvers to the attic fan had to be opened/closed in that (then) un-airconditioned building.

A very tall step-ladder would be put up below a certain ceiling tile. I had to stand on the absolute top of the ladder (2 steps above the label that warned of the grave danger to all who venture to balance their weight that high) and move one of the ceiling tiles to the side . Then I had to grasp two rafters that were at least 2 feet higher than the ceiling tiles and pull myself up until I could rest my feet on the rafters. After that my job was a piece of cake — until I had to come back down. Sitting on those rafters, looking down through a hole to the very small top platform of a somewhat rickety step ladder about 5 feet below where I was sitting was not very comforting. Fortunately, a lot of men in the church were usually down there doing whatever work the men in the church did on church work days. I certainly wanted to be "one of the men" and so I didn’t hesitate too long before dropping down through the hole onto the top step of the ladder. I don’t think they every knew how my heart pounded when my arms hit their maximum extension about the same time my feet hit the top of that swaying ladder!

Here are the legendary louvers. Note that there are now air conditioning vents in the ceiling. Those appeared after 1989 when we left for Texas.

I don’t think that ANYTING in this kitchen has changed since my earliest memories. I wonder if Mrs. Warner is still around. One day she had put her Bible on one of those stoves. I didn’t notice this and I was playing with the burners. When we noticed a "just-branded cow" smell, I turned off all the burners and she picked up her very nice Bible. It had a nice spiral brand on it.

Here’s a room full of memories … Mom scratching my back while I fell asleep in the sermon … Pop singing the myrrh verse of "We Three Kings" every year … Vacation Bible School … rainbow suspenders … joining the church and first communion … Pastor Busch, Pastor Morrison, Pastor Letham, Pastor Davis … any many friends who turned out to be very important in my becoming who I am.

The baptismal "font."

The organ played by Mr. Charles Kapp.

The nursery …

… with the same toys that I played with as a 5-year-old. (The big wood train, not the dollhouse.)

How many times have my fingers been pinched by that see-saw thing?

Emmanuel Church is a much different church now. On this visit, I met the current pastor, Rev. Howard Curry. He told me that there are currently 30 people attending the church. Only four of them were there when I was a kid: Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Roger Sucy and Becky Busch. They really want to reach out to their neighborhood to meet people’s needs there. I pray that they will suceed.

When we got there, everyone was down at the Lula Lake Land Trust. We got there and sat at the top of a 60 foot waterfall and relaxed a bit.

We saw some of our friends heading down to the bottom of the falls.

I went down to see what was going on. Some people had already frolic’d in the water.

Some were getting close to the falls.

And, of course, John Alexander was all too happy to get under the downpour again!

It was basically a good relaxing time with lots of friendly faces.

On the way back to the car, we saw the people who didn’t descend to the bottom of the falls.

I jumped on the back of the 4-wheeler and Nathan hopped on the dirtbike and we zoomed past everyone…

Nathan showed us his biking prowess.

I even did some hijinks.

No bones were broken.

After our last talk, we enjoyed smores…

Bill Long rewrote the Hallelujah Chorus as the Al-We’ll-Miss-Ya Chorus. We got the key off his cellphone.

Al and Elaine were entertained.

We also watched a video starring that guy I met at Georgia Tech where Al is going to be a campus minister serving international students. At the end of the video, Associate Pastor Pete Jackson made an appearance "live via satellite."

Several people spoke with words of thanks and blessing to Al and Elaine.

The climax of the evening was the presentation of a beautiful painting by Suzy Shultz of flamenco dancer Rebecca Johnson.

At the end, applause and thanks rained down on our beloved LaCours after nine years of fruitful gospel ministry.

LaCours, we miss you!

Anyone recognize him?

How about a few categories? This one will be "cuties":

I bet you never thought this guy’d be in the cuties category …

the next category: "slightly wierd"

(nice shirttail…)

next: "sentimental"

So many people will miss the Williams’ and Wade’s ministry here.

Fortunately, we got to give Wade a proper sendoff, remembering some of his "interesting" qualities.

Wade and Jennifer got to say goodbye to us too. It was a time that again combined joy and grief as we know that our parting that feels like "pruning" will result in a greater joy as we see God work in our lives.

following the formal program, Janet Lombardo played the harp in the hall to make our next category: "beautiful"

just one category is left: "jane"

One of Wade’s gifts is bringing together all kinds of people to make a joyful noise together. We’ve got very mature and … immature people here.

Tenors, Altos,

Sopranos,

and Basses

will all be very sad to see Wade go.

You can just see the sound he is able to get from them all!

And what will Bill Long do without being able to air-guitar to Handel’s Messiah?

Wade you will be missed!