Virginia Trip Part 2

Today was the second day of my trip to Virginia. It was Sunday so I wanted to goto church. I had done some checking last night in order to find a church, but the guest book at our hotel was pretty unhelpful. They had a list of Churches, but no service times, so I took my search to the Internet. I guess I could have called around, since I had all the numbers, but I was scared one of the numbers would be a direct line to some pastor that I’d wake up in the middle of the night. That probably wasn’t the case, but I always worry myself. :) Anyways, I found several churches, but again no service times. I was trying to find a BGC (Baptist General Conference) church, since there’s all sorts of different churches these days, and I wanted to make sure I went to a Church with solid teaching. The BGC didn’t have a church in Staunton listed on their website, so I checked the Nazarene website. I found the Staunton First Church of the Nazarene, so I decided to go there. A quick call to the church let me know that they were still having their 6 o’clock services. No help there. So I opted to just go in the morning, and hope I showed up in time.

Fast forward to this morning. I woke up pretty tired. I didn’t sleep very well, but maybe that’s because my surroundings were different, not sure. Anyways, I woke up, got ready, and headed out to church. My plan was to make it to church by 10, figuring that was a good random time to show up. If church had been earlier I’d go somewhere quiet and do my devotions. If it was later I’d sit and wait for it. Seemed like a logical plan to me. :) I left at 9:45, and immediately got lost. By about 10:15 I was hopelessly lost, though I did find a baptist church whose services started at 11, so my new plan was to go there. I opted to get some breakfast at the local 7-11, and then just sit in the parking lot until 11. Once in the parking lot I checked a map on my phone and realized where I had gone wrong. So I decided to try to find my original choice, with the idea that if I still couldn’t find it I’d retrace my steps and head back to the church I had found. By 10:45 I had found First Church and services started at 10:50. Perfect timing.

Church was good. It was nice to not have to deal with any logistics of running a service and just enjoy worshiping God on my own terms. The sermon was all about being still before God and just listening. It really spoke to me because when I spend time with God I’m always talking about my problems, and what I want to say and I don’t do a lot of listening. What am I missing out on I wonder? I’m going to make a concerted effort to do more listening. I think God has some stuff to tell me. :)

After church, I came back to the hotel, met up with my mom and sister, had some lunch and then we headed to the funeral home. We arrived early so we could have a private viewing of my grandmother. That was pretty hard. I hadn’t seen my grandmother in a very long time. She’s had Alzheimer’s for the last 6 or 7 years, and for a long time she hasn’t remembered anyone. Her mind deteriorated rather quickly and when it did Grandma was never the same. She really didn’t remember anyone, so we kind of lost her a long time ago. This time it was her body that failed. I have lots of memories of her from when I was younger, and a lot of those came rushing back. It was cool, but sad at the same time. I also was able to see a lot of relatives that I haven’t seen in a long time. That was pretty interesting, mostly because a lot of people knew my mom, and I was “Shirley’s son” for the whole visitation.

After the visitation we headed to my Uncle Ray’s house and had dinner with most of my extended family. That included two uncles, one aunt, 3 cousins and various wives, 1 toddler, and various other people related via blood or marriage. It was a good time. Homemade fried chicken is the best! It was so good. I’m going to have to find the recipe for that. It was probably the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. After visiting for a little while, we came back to the hotel, and then I composed this post. And now I’m going to bed. :)

Tags: personal, travel