Monday? Again?

WOW!!! What a fast weekend!!!! We've had a great one, though a little bittersweet! Last night we went to a BBQ/Aloha Show for our Pastor, Rick, and his wife Sue. They are retiring after 46 years in the ministry! What an amazing thing! Today we got to hear Pastor Rick's last sermon, and I have to say, it brought us to tears. For so many reasons....

I know that anytime we have to part ways with someone dear to us it is bound to hurt a little. Last night, after watching a slideshow of Pastor Rick and Sue's time here at Island Family Christian Church, we went up to hug them and tell them how much we would miss them. I thanked them for all they had done for our church, and Pastor Rick turned to me and said, "No, thank YOU for your family's willingness to serve in this church!". Doc and I love being involved in ministries, but I was overwhelmed with emotion when Pastor Rick said that. I wanted so badly (but for the sake of time, couldn't) to tell him that we wouldn't BE serving if it weren't for him! We wouldn't have grown as much as we have in the last 2 years if it weren't for him, and our lives wouldn't have been changed forever for Christ, if it weren't for Pastor Rick. I'm sure it will be hard to part with any Pastor that we have, but I'm not sure that I'll ever be as personally attatched to anyone as I am to Pastor Rick. After all, he did baptize both my husband and I, right here in the beautiful Pacific ocean, and He and his wife were big parts of our wedding here. His sermons taught, developed and encouraged me throughout both of Doc's deployment here, and did the same for Doc as well!! I was able to get a recording of every sermon during both deployments and send them to Doc in his care packages. Those sermons changed his life while he was 10,000 miles away. We're forever grateful to these two, and wish them nothing but the best!

And now it's back to Monday! Ugh. Grocery shopping. laundry, errands, all the fun stuff. Whoohoo! I'll update more early this week! Have a wonderful week peeps!