rollie's last sunday, part 1

so today . . . was the wildest sunday we have seen for a while. it was rollie's last sunday as a pastor.

on tuesday, rollie will start his new job as district superintendant of the anaheim district church of the nazarene. this means that he will no longer be responsible for a church--he will be responsible for about 60 churches! it is going to be interesting...

but today was about saying goodbye to the church we have been a part of for the last ten years. i knew it had the potential to be an emotional day, but i was hoping it wouldn't be too bad.

it did not get off to a good start. i was late. normally this isn't a huge deal, because i go an hour and a half early for band rehearsal. but i wasn't leading worship today, so i didn't have to be there until 10:15. and so of course i was late...

i walked in to sit next to diandra, who immediately said to me, "did you get my text?"

(this is never good. anytime anyone greets me that way, i know i am in for trouble. the problem is that when i turn the ringer off on my phone, i often forget to turn it back on. which means i miss phone calls and texts. important texts.)

"no," i said. "what did you need?" "i forgot my camera, and this is dad's last sunday!" she said.

ok, this was going to be a problem. i was going to need pictures of everything that happened today, and we didn't have a camera. after a short discussion, i got back in the car and headed home. (it's a good thing we only live a few miles away!) diandra had told me where her camera and flash were, so i zipped home, grabbed the equipment, and flew back. i made really good time! i went back into the church, sat down next to diandra, and handed her the camera. and they were still singing, so no one probably even noticed my absence. mission accomplished.

and then diandra said, "where is my shootsac?" what? her shootsac?? she didn't tell me to bring her shootsac. "yes i did," she said. well maybe she did. i heard her say shootsac, but she was whispering (we were in church, after all,) and she was whispering into my nearly deaf ear. i thought she said that is where her camera was.

i almost brought the shootsac. i had had a discussion with myself about it when i was home ("there's the shootsac. should i take it? she didn't specifically ask for it. but what if she needs something in it. but if she doesn't need it, then it is just one more thing to keep track of...") at which point i picked it up and thought, "it just has extra lenses in it. she probably isn't going to use any of those lenses." and so i had left it at home.

when will i learn to follow my instincts...

"do you need those lenses?" i asked. "no," she said, "but all my memory cards are in there. i can't shoot without a memory card." now i am thinking, "why don't you keep a memory card in your camera!" but as she later explained to me, she had just shot an everyday session on saturday, and so all of her cards were in the shootsac waiting to be dumped to her computer.

so now we had a camera, but no memory cards. "i guess i can just take pictures with my phone," she said. and off she went to the front of the church. she came back a few minutes later and said, "those are not going to be very good pictures..."

ok, houston, we had a problem. we needed a memory card. because cell phone pictures were just not going to cut it today. another short discussion ensued--the result being another mad dash, made by me, to the target down the street. yes, during church. i careened into the target parking lot, ran in and hurried to the electronics department. my plan was to grab a sales person and ask for help and get out quick. it was a great plan--except there was no one in the electronics department. no one. i went in search of a sales clerk, and when i found one, i dragged him back to the deserted department, snagged a memory card, paid for it, and headed for the exit. on the way out, it occurred to me that i might have some trouble getting the memory card out of it's secure packaging.

i veered off to the changing rooms and asked the attendant if she had scissors. she seemed a bit reluctant to answer me. i pulled the memory card out of the bag and said, "i need to get this out of the package, fast, and i don't have any scissors in the car." "oh-kaaayyy," she said, as she held out a potential weapon to a seemingly crazy woman. "it's ok," i said, "i just bought it. do you want to see the receipt?" "no," she said, but she was looking at me like she was trying to figure out how to call security without alarming me.

sadly, this would not be the first time security had been alerted about me...

i got the memory card out of it's package and zipped back to the church. i slid into the pew next to diandra and handed her the card. she snapped it into her camera and headed to the front of the church to take some photos. i settled back just in time to hear the end of rollie's sermon. yes, the end.

but it's ok. we record all his sermons, so i can go onto the website and watch it later. and it was important to get some pictures today. and i would post some of those pictures, except they are still on that memory card, which i am pretty sure is still in diandra's camera, which is around here somewhere...

but that is not the end of the story. oh no, there is more. church was followed by a farewell dinner. and since they say a picture is worth a thousand words, i am going to wait until tomorrow to blog about that. even though it happened today. because while i am pretty good with words, i am not sure i can adequately describe to you the scene that greeted me when i walked into the gym. you need to see pictures. and the pictures are in diandra's camera. somewhere...

but let's just say, the decor was a little like my own personal nightmare...

yeah, tune in tomorrow. for pictures.

:-)