mes se je n'ai vostre aie,
Friday, November 3, 2006
That morning the toast ended up being shaped as Australia, again, unintentionally.
Rose came in as a whirlwind to the office at nine o’clock, scrubbing sinks, constructing paper shelves, reorganizing the supply closet, and drinking hot chocolate.
“This place is such a mess,” she had said for the past three weeks, every time she had taken it upon herself to clean it again.
It had been a full eight hours of work that day, and thankfully for both Collette and Rose, Mom had brought Frances and Linnea with her to fold the bulletin before Linnea’s piano lesson that afternoon.
Late in the day, a 23 year-old girl and her mom stopped by to see the church, as the girl was hoping to use it for her wedding the following autumn. Collette gave them a brief tour while the mother chatted on and on about how they loved the setting of the church, and about how wonderful their own Assemblies of God pastor was out in Lake St. Louis and how he was always preaching in the Spirit and giving them shivers… Collette knew she was talking about Mr. Sing before the woman even said his name.
“Oh, you know him?” The mother asked. “Well, we want him to do the ceremony, so you just be sure you tell your pastor that you know him real well and that he is just a wonderful man of God and that he is just wonderful.”
“He certainly has a passion for God’s work,” Collette said, thinking about the many times he had dressed up as Moses or some other Biblical character and put on dramatic skits, bellowing and singing.
“He has such a lovely voice,” the Mother went on. “I hope your pastor wouldn’t mind if he would sing here.”
Collette kind of chuckled, “Yes, he actually sang at my sister-in-law’s wedding.”
“And he just preaches in the Spirit – have you ever had that anointing burning feeling of the Spirit upon you?”
“Well, no, I haven’t had quite that experience before,” Collette followed the mother back up the stairs of the church office.
Collette assured the mother that she would let Pastor Sinai know that they would like to have the wedding at the church and that Mr. Sing was just a wonderful man of God. She did word her note to him a little differently; she wasn’t always certain just how to react to fellow brothers and sisters in the charismatic thread, but they certainly couldn’t be blamed for lack of enthusiasm.
Later that evening, OLeif, Collette, and Rose decided to pass on the Friday Nights at the Institute lecture at the coffee house in Kirkwood, and joined the rest of the family (except for Carrie who was at work) at Cracker Barrel, where Collette ordered a lemonade and her usual French toast.
This was after they spent a chaotic twenty minutes in the store, looking over all the obnoxious toys and a frog box with an enormous belly that Rose seemed to like in particular. They tried on all the hats, and were finally seated and served by a great blond young man with an accent.
After Mom had asked him where he was from, he grinned broadly and said, “Argentina,” and went on to describe his experience at Lindenwood University punctuating every other sentence with “you know?”
And Carrie had completed her final class at AMU, minus two more CLEPS to take that month. Her professor had thought so highly of her last paper (speech), that she requested Carrie’s permission to share it with her department. A good way to end a degree.