Blue & Beautiful Christmas

Alva, Florida, at 8 am Sunday morning should be the quietest, emptiest place in all South Florida. A tiny town, mostly modest homes, and some empty. Tall palms and wide live oaks older than the town itself separate the homes.

But at Alva UMC the crowd is already gathering for the 8:30am traditional service. And by service time, almost all 100 seats are filled. Pastor Ralph honors me with being able to offer the benediction, sending forth his flock into their mission field.

Then at 9:45, across the lawn from the 125 year old worship center is the 40 year old fellowship and Christian Ed building. Connected by a covered walk for times of rain, much of the crowd heads for the wonderful assortment of snacks and beverages laid out in Fellowship Hall before Sunday School.

  

We join Larry and Myrna’s class for a lesson on trusting God in tough times.  A good preparation for the Blue Christmas Service to come this evening.

At 11 am we head over to the worship center again for the contemporary service. Once again the seats are almost full, and once more Pastor Ralph blesses me.  This time by allowing me to offer the pastoral prayer after all joys and concerns have been shared.

  

This service is called the FAMILY FRIENDLY service, though there were some small children and teens here at 8:30. But its at this service that the children’s message is given, and the children’s choir sings as well as the Praise Team 

   and the Praise Choir.

After a morning in church we mosey across the lawn, over Pearl Street, and through the grassy parking area, now empty, back to the coach for lunch, a nap, a book, and for me, part of another movie.

Then we take a 30 minute walk to the drawbridge over the Caloosahatchee River, which is also the east-west branch of the Intra-coastal Waterway across all of Florida which connects the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic Ocean through Lake Okeechobee.

We knock on the door of the bridge tenders office and Ed lets us in to photograph his domain and the control center of the bridge. Ed tells us that over 200 ships have required the bridge to be raised this December so far.

A light supper at home follows and I am off to the 7 am first ever Blue Christmas Service at Alva UMC. I greet and hand out bulletins for Ralph at the door as the people start to come in 30 minutes ahead of the service and over 40 are seated by 7.

For the third time today Pastor Ralph blesses my heart and allows me to participate in the service by reading the Scripture from Eugene Petersen’s ‘The Message’. Ralph leads us in a time of reflection of the losses and grief’s each bear this evening.

Every bulletin has a blue card with a cross on it and all are encouraged to write down the losses of loved ones, jobs, whatever they are grieving on the back. Then each one brings up their card and places it on the tall church Christmas tree.

We close in joy mixed with tears and head over to fellowship Hall where Karen has spent the afternoon preparing what should be called a meal but was advertised as only snacks. Well, it was snacks, just TONS of them!

Jenny, Kay, Mona and I and some others hang out afterwards and help Karen clean up.  And Mona and I are sent home with a mandatory tin full of left over Christmas goodies.

Oh dear.  WILL I be able to avoid gaining weight this Christmas?

Martha, the director of the nearby UMC Church Camp has invited us to join her Christmas morning for worship.  She will pick us up at 10 am and we will head 10 miles south for Christ UMC in Lehigh Acres. 

Martha retires from her camp directorship after 15 years early in 2015 to head to a new home she is building near Knoxville, Tennessee.  It will be an off grid ECO-HOME built of straw bale insulation.  We told her of your off grid ghost town home, O’Rourkes.  She was fascinated!

Then she is taking us along to her friends home near her camp where a large group will gather for a 1 pm Pot Luck Christmas dinner.

I wonder what we will bring???

PS: She’s letting us dump and refill our tanks the day after Christmas at the camps RV park. Yes, church camps all over the west and south of the US have RV facilities.  But they are not free. And rent free living really makes our life on the road possible.

Merry  Christmas!

-Ken