Hippietown Photography & Musings Upon Being a Pioneer

Friday about noon, J called to tell me that she & Pie would probably be able to come down after all. I was thrilled because it was the weekend of my installation (making my pastorship at my church official) & we'd thought she would have to work Saturday & not be able to come down. About 5, she called to say they'd arrive about 10 or 10:30, with Pie's girlfriend, Bubbles, too. I finished up my hospital visits & went back to my office to finish some paperwork for the weekend. I got back to my aunt's about 10:45 to find Pie & Bubbles playing video games, J asleep on the other couch & everyone else asleep in their bedrooms. My aunt usually lets us sleep in her double bed, but she has been so busy with work that I think she forgot J & the kids were coming. Since we get so little time together these days, we decided both to sleep in my twin bed. That was not a very restful way to sleep!

Saturday morning, we took the kids to a place called Young's Dairy that has a restaurant & goats & cows you can pet. It's just outside my hometown of Yellow Springs, a town the kids love (Pie has dubbed it Hippietown) & want to live in when they are grown & married. We had breakfast, then went out & fed & petted the goats for a long time. On the way back to town, we saw a huge sunflower field. People were stopped by the side of the road taking pictures, so we decided to stop, too. Pie had a photo project for his photography class & I've just been into taking pics lately. J snapped a really good one of me. Then, we went & poked around my hometown, taking photos, reading the paper (I was on the front page of the paper for being the first openly lesbian pastor to be installed in the area...I was informed that I'm a pioneer...I think that's such a small part of who I am, but it was a good article) & people-watching. There are a bunch of cool little stores there & we checked out the latest arrivals in them, too. The kids wanted to go to the playground at the elementary school, so we did that, then we took them to get vegan ice cream. We dropped them off with my aunt, changed clothes and headed out to a spaghetti dinner and to hear Phillip Gulley speak at the church where I did my first internship. It was really fun to see all the people we used to go to church with and Gulley was a terrific speaker (probably his most well-known book is "If Grace Is True"). The pastor there is a friend of mine & he made a big deal of the article in the paper, spending a good 5 minutes introducing me, too. It was kind of odd, but nice, too. I also connected with a friend who is running the youth program there & we are planning to do joint events with our youth groups. J & I slept in the twin bed again. Sigh. This is getting kind of old. I hope she gets a great job down here soon so we can be in our own place. I adore my auntie & have a lot of fun with her, but my own home would just be wonderful.

J slept in while I went to the early worship service. Our attendance was down because most of the early folks waited for the second service so they could be there for my installation. The second service was pretty full and very lively! Our choir director had selected all the choir's pieces based on my musical tastes. That was sweet. He & his partner gave me a lovely glass cross as an installation gift. The installation went smoothly, as did my commissioning of this year's church school teachers. Some friends of mine from the church I grew up in came for the celebration, which was a great surprise. We also got several visitors due to the article in the paper. There were a couple of men I assume are gay, who are church shopping right now, and a woman came & told me that she hadn't been to church in over 30 years & came Sunday because of the article. Good stuff. My parishioners were all very congratulatory & joked with me about my new celebrity status. After worship, we headed across the street to the house our church owns for the celebration picnic. We ate great food, talked with great people & dedicated our peace pole, fire pit & new electronic sign.

After the picnic, I went back to my aunt's with J to see her & the kids off. It's always hard to watch her go. Luckily, I get to go up there on Wednesday for a few days. After they drove off, I worked on youth group planning, then went & got doughnuts & met the Jr. High kids for the first youth group meeting. I'd been told I'd have no one at youth group until December or January, but I had 3 Jr. Highs & then 4 Sr. Highs for their later group! They even talked! Yippee! We talked about what we want from youth group, but also about the faith practice of hospitality. We did a little Bible study, some word association poetry, some talking about how people in other cultures show hospitality & some talking about how we can show hospitality. For their "homework," I assigned them to each write down 5 ideas for random acts of kindness they can do between now & the next meeting. They are supposed to do them & report back to the group on how it went. Great group of kids! I am truly blessed to be where I am!