Another Unexpected Invitation

We attended the worship service here at Hope House again this morning. This time we felt a little less like newcomers and knew a few of the names of the others in attendance.

Interesting juxtaposition:  There are several adult special-needs people here, a few of them with Downs.  They worship enthusiastically and noisily. Their hands shoot high in the air during prayer request time.  The other grouping is teenagers that come from failed adoptions.  It’s a little difficult to get some of them to crack a smile, and that entire back row is a lot quieter.  But they are here and the Lord is being proclaimed and praised.

We introduced ourselves to the woman sitting in front of us and had a brief conversation before the service started.  Lyla suddenly asked us if we like horses.  It was a question that came out of left field and we found ourselves a little speechless. She then asked if we liked jazz music.  After we both told her we did, she invited us to a gala called Equus and Overture: Horses and All That Jazz, which describes itself as a one-of-a-kind event featuring a gourmet dinner served arena-side as top horse and rider teams from various disciplines perform to live music by the “High Street Band.”  She went onto explain that, during the year of their 50th anniversary, they are doing 50 things that they may not normally do and inviting others that they don’t know to come along.  That would explain the out-of-the-blue invitation.  So we as complete strangers are part of their 50th anniversary celebration.  Kind of a cool idea.  So next Friday we will be going along to something that we would have otherwise never even known existed.  Sounds like fun.

After church we went out with Steve and Sharon for brunch to the Egg Factory, a restaurant in Nampa.  They had never been there before, just looked up on the internet places that were not a chain and appeared to be popular with the locals. This one checked all the boxes.  And it was good, too.  Large portions, reasonable prices, we did not leave hungry.  It’s going to be hard to maintain my girlish figure around here.  From going out to eat rather often to being fed lunch every work day, we are being well provided for.

We used the remainder of the day to catch up on the Bible Studies that we are involved in and to watch the church service back home.  We were challenged from Romans 2 about our faith: is it real?  Does our faith result in action?  What would change in my life if I loved God more than anything else?  How often do I confess my sin, and ask for forgiveness?  And the question to anyone who reads this: Would you believe that I love Jesus genuinely?   So ... Do I?

The pleasantness of the day allowed us to have dinner outside and some flowers that Cheryl gave us yesterday added ambience to our little dining table.