This past Wednesday evening, the youth from St. Johns Mayfair came to St. Michael’s for a service project. I really didn’t know what kind of project I wanted them to complete: cleaning, painting, devotions…etc. And so, I went out Tuesday afternoon and walked out graveyard. It is a very historical site…soldiers from the Revolutionary War…

So, I decided to take them on a tour of the church with a history of our congregation, which dates back 276 years.

For instance, this is a picture of where 4 soldiers from the Revolutionary War are interred. They originally found them buried a few miles from the church where they had stopped for a moment, before being ambushed. St. Michaels offered to have them interred on our grounds back in 1926, I believe, with a lot of pomp and circumstance.

See that grave that looks like a table? This is where “The General’s Baker” is buried. He was a baker by trade, and eventually became the baker for General George Washington. He also left behind some money to begin a school for the poor persons in this community.

After talking with them for a little bit, it came time for me to lead them to what I wanted them to do…and that was to give some dignity to a few of our cemetery occupants…

As I stood in the cemetery on Tuesday, I found myself at this gravesite, and it just tugged at my heart. It is a little grave…amidst a bunch of branches that have been felled by lightening. And the tombstone reads: “Sleeping”. Upon further investigation, I could vaguely read that her name was Anna K….daughter of Wm and Kate C. Roop. She was born Sept 26, 1886, and died August 25, 1887. The tombstone is by itself. I could not find any family buried nearby. I did wonder how she died so young. Perhaps cholera? Or maybe even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (wasn’t named that back then)…I don’t know…but she tugged at my heart.

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Today, we had our Fun Flea Market. It was a fundraiser for The Emlen School here in Philadelphia. Our congregation has reaffirmed it’s old partnership with them. One that began back in 2004, before I arrived. It was determined by the church council to re-connect and partner in some way, and so when we were bequeathed some money, we gave them $500.00, and now had this fundraiser for them. We raised over $500.00 in cash, which will be matched by Thrivent Funds…a cool total of about $1000.00 for the school. In addition, we will continue to collect books and school supplies for the coming school year.

I sat with the principal a few weeks ago to find out how we may be of service to them, to which he replied “mentorship”…and so, we will move forward in that endeavor.

Posting to my blog from word 2007. As I opened up a new document in Word, I noticed that there is also a blank blog page, and so I set up my wordpress acct in the Word program…and am able to blog a post directly from word….along with a myriad of capabilities…makes it easier than posting through my wordpress dashboard.

Had a wonderful day yesterday J Got up kinda early, and being as we haven’t seen the son’s grandma on his father’s side in almost a year, I decided it was time to take a trip to Red Hook Brooklyn. She was so happy to see us both. We talk on the phone periodically, and I send her all my sermons, and she encourages me greatly. It was nice to sit with her. Found out that she celebrated her 94^th birthday last week. Isn’t that amazing? And the son was able to talk with her about his summer reading book: The Color of Water (search “ingram”)…better yet, get the book!:-) It was nice to hear that after all these years, James McBride still remembers “mother”, and came to visit her on her birthday last week, bringing loads of groceries and a few dollars. She said to me “you should always be nice to people”.. And then we sat and knitted together.. That was so special for me!

From Red Hook, we got in the car and zoomed over to Queens and spent a few hours with my mom and sister (who was celebrating her 50^th). They didn’t know that we were coming, so it was a pleasant surprise). Had a few laughs and while there, found out that the son of my childhood girlfriend was in town…and I went over to say hello…and found out that he has two kids!!!! Amazing! Made me want to be a grandma (not really, but would be nice at some point). Met my daughter’s (the middle girl) “boyfriend” and put him through the wringer…(felt sorry for him for a hot minute…but he proved to be innocent enough…was just baptized recently, so that was a good thing in his favor)!

On the way back to Philly, stopped at Nathans on the turnpike and had two chili-dogs and by the time I got home, I was really sick. Other than that, I had a great day!

Hope you all had a safe holiday.

About 17 years ago (during that time, cause my husband was still alive) I took a business course, and sat next to this young man. I believe he was from Equador…and his name was Javier Arias. Spoke broken english, and as we sat in class, we developed a friendship. He had long wild hair, curly…We became good friends, and the teacher ended up separating us because we were always giggling. As we began to learn about each other, I learned that he was gay…and that was okay…because we were friends…never anything more…loved laughing with one another. We were on the telephone ALL the time, as I learned stuff about the guy he was living with who was horrible to him. And about his mother who practically disowned him because of his lifestyle.

Our conversations and sharing stories about one another is very important - because, well…you’ll see in a moment.

My husband didn’t feel threatened by Javier, used to laugh at us cause we used to sit on the couch like silly school girls…and I would just run my fingers through Javier’s hair…and all we really did was laugh…at life, at his mother, at his horrible living situation with this guy who was really treating him like ish, but he had nowhere else to go…ergo, the business school so he could make a better living for himself.
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