Pastor George has only been gone a few days and already I miss him. In fact I appreciate all he does for our church family even more right now. Before he left he sent many emails (with attachments), left two bags of materials, and set everything in place so I thought I would just have to add a few details to the bulletin insert and then print them up. Then I read the last e-mail more carefully and realized I was supposed to fill this space in the bulletin insert. Yikes!

So I asked John (husband) for advice and he had two ideas.

 Make the font really big so I would have to write less (seems like a middle school tactic)
 Make the font so small no one can read it (people with bifocals can relate to this prob-lem)

Well, John did mean well and he has lots of avoidance strategies, but that wasn’t really what I was hoping for. Granted Pastor did say I could find some commentary online or some inspiring pictures. That will probably happen in the next couple of weeks since I will be looking for things all week long. But it is Saturday afternoon and I thought, maybe, just maybe I could do it myself this week.

Looking at all the prep work Pastor did before he left made me realize how much we, the congregation, don’t see all the behind the scenes work that comes before the service. And now that I’m thinking about it I know there are lots of things he does during the week (visitations, meetings, teaching, and the like) that take up much more of his time. I’m sure I’m not the only who notices his emails sent at 2 AM!

Reflecting on this I realized that he is only modeling what God does for us. As I’m going through the very, very busy first week of school, running to events, trying to cook for Bible Study, and all the other things I put into my life God is right beside me. I may not have time – change that to take the time – to always talk to Him and say “Thanks,” but He is always there. Just like Pastor George works behind the scenes to support our Ascension Family, so does God work behind the scenes to support us.

So thanks Pastor George for all the work you do for Ascension. We all hope you have a wonderful trip. And don’t worry about us because God is beside us and supporting us on Sunday service and throughout the week.

God’s Blessings to all—Jo