May 23, 2008 by Stacy McDonald
Deep Thinkin’ and Sweet Fellowship
Well, it’s now been over a week since all the excitement around here began; and it’s been almost 24 hours since it all ended. Last week, our church hosted our denomination’s annual Presbytery Meeting. In the process, our family had the honor of hosting a few of the families attending: members of the Davis, Hector, Lovett, Sproul, and Kulikauskas families! Two of those families had only one person representing them, but as you can see, we still had a merry band of company!
Try fitting 37 people around one table – we didn’t! We had folks eating inside, outside, on the deck, on the front porch, and under the trees. We had folks sleeping upstairs, downstairs, in the basement, and outside in RVs. We had singing, laughing, working, playing, cooking, washing dishes, gardening, “theologizing,” debating, laughing…again, and, well, you get the picture.
There’s just something awesome about a group of CPC men “theologizing.” I just love deep thinkers! My husband is the cute one with his arms crossed. Later this same night, we lit candles all over the porch and everyone gathered together for sweet fellowship and lively conversation!
What’s so funny?
Boating in the backyard. 
Snugglin’ with Gabby (Heather’s youngest blessing)
If you knew them, you wouldn’t have to ask.
You just haven’t lived until you’ve been squeezed by a happy 3-year-old!
Lunch time during some of the Presbytery meetings.
In addition to giving the charge to the newly ordained elders of the CPC on Friday evening, Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr. blessed us with a powerful and convicting message on Sunday morning! Be sure to listen and be blessed!
Future…er…young thinkers listening during the presbytery meetings on Friday.
More meetings for the men: young and old alike
Friday was busy. We arrived at the church Friday morning prepared to feed over 50 men for lunch and over 200 men, women, and children that same evening. After the ordination service we had a big dinner and a grande ball, complete with a celtic band!
There was plenty of family dancing after the big dinner celebrating the CPC ordination service!
I was worried we wouldn’t have enough food, but we fed over 200 hungry people with tons of food leftover! Praise the Lord! Thank you to: The Creaths, The Riggenbachs, The Candlers, The Sanfords, Anna, Mrs. Bradshaw, my daughters, my husband, and all the young men from various families for all your help chopping, cooking, cleaning up, hauling, setting tables, and serving! I do believe God abundantly blessed your efforts! Please forgive me if I left anyone out – everyone truly pulled together and did so many different things during the week!
You sure can tell he’s a daddy! Sunday morning, while all the families finished getting ready for church, R.C. Sproul Jr. entertained the children with captivating stories! One of the little ones who was visiting our house asked his mother, “If that’s R.C. Sproul Jr., then who is C.S. Lewis?” And one of my children told me, “He’s almost as good as Jim Weiss!” Now that’s a compliment!
Saturday and Sunday were filled with singing, worship, and more feasting and fellowship!
The Davis family was kind enough to help us plant our garden! Did I mention that Nathan is an amazing young man? All of the Davis children are! Every time I turned around they were asking how they could help with something!
Actually, every one of the children who stayed with us this week were not only gracious guests, but they were diligent, cheerful, well-mannered, hard-working, and respectful! Their parents were pretty cool too.
After Sunday things wound down as all the elders and their families packed up to to head home Monday morning. The Davises stayed a bit longer to relax and visit a while. Nathan Davis and Ashton Bandy saved the day by helping with our “chicken coop raising.” Something that had been put on the back burner until “after presbytery.”
But then we remembered that God is sovereign and He’s doing a work through the CPC (and obviously many other denominations) all over the world, not just in one little pocket of the country. We NEED to be spread out. California needs the folks at Central Valley Presbyterian. Tennessee needs the saints at Heritage Presbyterian! And all the other elders and their families in all the other churches are needed right where God has them.
Praise God I’m not in charge – because I would selfishly place them all in our back yard – well not literally. Well, some of them did stay in our backyard, but that’s not what I meant. :-)
Others have posted pictures and commentary on our 2008 Presbytery Meeting here:
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12 Responses to “Deep Thinkin’ and Sweet Fellowship”
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Looks like a sweet time of fellowship. My husband and I pray for your denomination, though not a part of it at this time. :) May the Lord bless His people!
Heather
PS- I met Jim Weiss & his lovely wife recently at a homeschool conference. My kids ADORE listening to his recordings! They fell in love with my then 3 month old- gave us a cd for her. That reminds me, I need to go get a thank you in the mail. Ah- it will be almost 3 months late. Ugh.
Your time together looks absolutely wonderful! I long for a large fellowship and community like this.
Hi Heather – thanks for the prayers!
Stacy,
What a wonderful display of pictures. A couple of things…1) the Creation Museum carries Passionate Housewives. I was rather excited for you. 2) I take back the desolate comment…the Stouffers and Lovetts are in desolation! 3) We miss you already. ~Heather
I loved all the photo’s. Thanks for sharing with your blog readers.
Looks like a lot of fun! Some of the folks from my church had a lovely dinner together the other night. I love doing things with my church!
Gardens are lovely aren’t they?? I’m still learning about all of that gardening stuff though. I just got back from bible study and saw that my husband is out planting veg at the far end of one of our fields. I’m going to walk out and meet up with him in half an hour. He’s such a hard working man!! I just love him to bits! I love cooking and eating the veg he plants!
GOD BLESS!!
Stacy,
It is very evident that the blessings abounded, and I’m sure will linger for time to come.
I loved the celtic dancing!
It is also good to know that when I visit this blog in the future that I can be assured the “this woman can be trusted with the cilantro”!
What fun! You’ll be on a high from that for ages.
Stacy,
I enjoyed your comment about how difficult it is to say “good bye” to these preciouse friends from across the country. Recently, I was thinking about how I’d like to be able to get together more often with my Christian sisters & their families who live farther away than I would choose, and I realized that in heaven, I will be surrounded by them and many I haven’t met yet! Oh, the desire for heaven, in God’s timing, grows ever stronger and sweeter with time – thanks be to our precious Savior!
I’d like to clarify that my visit to the McDonalds and Providence Church happened to take place as the Presbytery meeting was ending but I was not actually there for the meeting. In fact, I’m not even Presbyterian. Nevertheless, I was able to share in some wonderful fellowship and worship with these brothers and sisters. This was a beautiful time for me of going beyond denominational barriers and experiencing unity in Christ.
Jayne Kulikauskas
Sproul Jr., huh? Well, I don’t usually care for what I know of his theology, but he has my personal thanks for his gorgeous book, “The Lightlings”. I’ve been collecting sophisticated Christian children’s books (particularly meaningful and beautifully written ones) for over a year and “Lightlings” is shining in my collection now :) What a bent for beauty.
Silly me, RC Sproul Sr. was the author of “Lightlings”. Makes me happy to give credit where it’s really due.