Then the event itself was remarkably successful --- 38 people, a delicious brunch (scrambled eggs, sausages, croissants, a couple of types of iced coffee cake, fruit salad, donuts, and hot drinks), a stimulating group discussion of Dr. Mark Christian's book The Apostate which tells of his exodus from Islam, and finishing with Dr. Christian himself talking about his life and new ministries in Christ.
It went extremely well and we are deeply grateful for the special help from Allen Nelson, Mark & Benita Fichter, and Keith & Carol Moran in setting up and cleaning up. You guys are super friends!
And then this evening's highlight? That huge rain, hail, and wind storm! One of the very large branches of one of our front yard silver maples broke off and was blown over onto our neighbor's driveway hitting his car. Yipes. The damage wasn't really bad but enough to get our insurance guy on the job. We started cleaning up and another neighbor from across the street came over with his chainsaw which made the task of moving the branch back over to our driveway MUCH easier.
Then a little more cleanup with another neighbor whose trees had also lost some big branches. And then finally, we got back inside to dry off and get ready for my sermons at tomorrow's church services at Wellspring Lutheran and Aksarben Village Senior Living. Like I said, it was an eventful Saturday, indeed.
