In Praise of Spiritual Friends

--Yesterday, a woman from my old church sent me a Facebook Friend request.  I'm always happy when someone I know wants to be my Facebook Friend, but yesterday's request made me very happy.  This woman was one of my favorite people at my old church:  she was a quilter, and she is the only person I know who seems to have recovered completely from a broken hip, a hip broken when she fell from a ladder changing the banners.  When I decided to change churches, I wrote her a card to explain why.  But I haven't heard from her or seen her since.  So, it was neat to get that request.

--Yesterday I sorted through our backpacking equipment.  It's time to admit that I won't be doing this again.  But what to do with all this equipment which is still in fairly good shape (3 mess kits, 2 interlocking utensil sets, 5 canteens, a plastic poncho)?  I thought of a different woman from my old church, one who does a lot of work with both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts.  I decided that I'd be very happy if I could donate this equipment.  I wrote to her to ask if she knew of anyone who could use the equipment.  She wrote back to say yes.  Hurrah!

--Tomorrow begins 5 nights of Vacation Bible School, an experience which makes me keenly aware of how many spiritual friends I have, and how we're all rooting for each other.  Until I was an integral part of VBS, I wouldn't have thought that it would be such an enriching experience for the adults involved.

--Last week, at our Worship Together service, our small group talked about our joys and challenges of the past week.  I talked about my anxieties and how I was having trouble quelling them.  One of the group members said, "You should have called me.  You have my number."  Two of the other group members nodded.  I was touched, although reaching out in that way isn't natural to me.  I don't want to admit that I'm less than perfect.  It's tough for me to admit that I'm still struggling with anxiety, even after all these attempts to deal with my anxiety by praying and meditating on letting go of worries.

--Those small group members who said I should call them are also part of the VBS team.  There are so many elements of a church which ideally should bring us together.  For me, VBS has been one of the most important ones.