Took a little time off from this blog to kind of reflect on my journey so far. Several wonderful things have been taking place. My daughter Tiffany is really embracing the Orthodox Christian faith and absolutely adores the church that we have been attending. Just this Sunday past, she attended her first Divine Liturgy. It is really awesome to have her sitting/standing next to me at church and the talks we have about Orthodoxy are just plain old wonderful. She now has created her own blog about Orthodoxy as well. It can be found at: http://1000questionstoorthodoxy.blogspot.com/ please be sure to check it out.
I have been making many new friends and I am just overwhelmed by how gracious my new church family is. I love the diversity of the ethnic cultures represented. I am starting to learn things about Russia and Greece and other countries that I never knew.
Spiritually I feel that I am on the right track. As I have stated before, I feel a total release from my former church and the Evangelical/Charismatic doctrines and style of worship. I feel very secure along with a sense of wonder (best phrase I could come up with besides "fullness", which I wrote about before) here in the Orthodox Church. This Sunday the church is having it's "Ethnic Fair and Gift Auction" and I will be working at some of the venues. This really makes me feel accepted and I pray that I will do well and not mess anything up!
Another wonderful thing that took place happened about 3 weeks ago. You all know my story about the
" Harley Girl " ( http://7daystillnow.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html ) well, on this particular Sunday morning I arrived at the church as usual on my motorcycle and there standing outside was my Harley Girl. She comes dashing across the parking lot waving her arms and shouting to me, " You can't go inside yet, You have to stay here, Billy (that's her Husband) told me not to let you go in!" "Oh, boy now what's up?" I said to myself. "Billy told me not to let you go inside the church until he gets here!" she said.
She then yells out "BILLY! HE"S HERE!!!"
Now I am not sure what the medical/anatomical connection is between a human being's ears and eyes, but the decibel level that came out of that girl's throat caused me not only some temporary hearing loss, but short term blindness as well!
So as I am squinting and looking at various colors of spots before my eyes I somehow pick up the image of a man with something clutched in his right hand, pointed directly at me. And, he is coming at full speed towards me. My "self-preservation mode" is just about to kick in, when, my eyes clear and my hearing returns and I see Billy "thrust" his right hand at me and says, " This is for you Harley Guy!"
As I rode home that day, after the Divine Liturgy and some wonderful conversation at the Agape Coffee Hour at the church, I had a "hank-er-ing" for another cup of coffee. So I pulled into a Wawa store (Wawa is a chain convenience store in our area here in N.J., you know the kind, a gas station and food shop). Now usually I hang around the store where my bike is parked and drink my coffee, as it is a bit difficult to ride a bike with one hand. But that day, it became a bit easier. As I left the Wawa, I must have been quite the sight, riding down the road, with a stupid smile on my face. I get that smile every time I look down at my chrome cup holder and see the awesome "Stainless Steel Harley Davidson Travel Coffee Mug" that Billy and the Harley Girl gave me that Sunday morning at church.
So, as I take a sip out my new mug, just let me say, "Billy and Linda (Harley Girl) this one's for you!"
Thanks and God Bless you both!!
P.S. When Billy gave me the mug he said, "I noticed you had a cup holder on your Harley, but I didn't see no cup, now you got one!
