From the Sunday bulletin

Most of our group in front of house #16; yours truly, in front on right.

It was a great trip. It being my third time down there I really don't have any more insights than the ones I have shared here in past years. Only that I really do need to live with less and focus more on the needs of others. And learn Spanish.

During our flight back from Mexico we put together our worship service. Parts had been assigned, i.e., reflections, prayers, Scripture readings, and we put our trust in the Holy Spirit. Jenn, our associate pastor, had already emailed certain worship details to the church secretary for the bulletin.

These are the lyrics from our communion hymn. The last line of the last stanza just about brought tears to my eyes, but getting to bed around 2:30 a.m. may have had something to do with that.

Children of God - words by John Greenleaf Whittier, alt.

Children of God, lift hearts to one another,

where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;

To worship rightly is to love each other,

each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.

For God whom Jesus loved has truly spoken:

the holier worship which Christ deigns to bless

Restores the lost, and binds the spirit broken,

and feeds the widow and the parentless.

Follow with reverent steps the great example

of Christ whose holy work was doing good;

So shall the wide earth seem a holy temple,

each loving life a psalm of gratitude.

Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangor

of wild war music o'er the earth shall cease;

Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger,

and in its ashes plant the tree of peace.

That's me adding some embellisment to one of the houses at the dump.