Cross Community Rockville

Daniel

Back in February I posted a picture of Lacey and Daniel when Daniel was three weeks old. He is now almost eleven months and he’s still as cute as ever. I happened to check on the nursery this morning at church and he was the only child there, being held by Christine whose own son has moved up to the Sunday School class with the other youngsters. Daniel’s older brother, Tim, also moved up and that, actually, is what he’s crying about. As long as he has his brother with him, he’s willing to have his mother leave him in the nursery. But when Tim leaves, as well, that’s too much to bear. Seeing a somewhat scary looking old may with a big, black thing that makes bright flashes of light didn’t help. He kept staring at me as I moved around and took a few pictures. Of course, he quieted down and was fine shortly. It’s been delightful to see this little one grow this first year and I’m looking forward to the next. It’s also delightful to see all the toddlers move up into Sunday School. All too soon they’ll be heading off to college.

Ariana and Kyle

Kyle is a pastoral intern at our church’s mother church and he came to preach today, covering the fairly well known story of Daniel during the reign of Darius the Persian. Kyle’s message was good and it was also wonderful to meet his new bride, Ariana. After church, as we do the first Sunday of most months, we had a fellowship meal together. The weather was so wonderful we went outside and ate in the shade of the large trees around the Senior Center. After the long drive yesterday, this was a relatively relaxing way to spend the early afternoon. Certainly more relaxing than Daniel’s day with the lions (spoiler alert…that turned out alright, as well).

Christy (and Andy)

She hates to have her picture taken and I doubt she’ll like this one any more than others I’ve taken over the years but this young woman has been a real blessing to our family and it was really nice to see her this morning. She and a friend came to help with music and worship at church this morning and I took a few pictures (yes, during church, it happens). I wouldn’t necessarily go so far as to say that Dorothy wouldn’t do any singing without the influence of Christy but I do think that influence was real and important. She pushed Dorothy well out of her comfort zone and it’s really paid dividends since. Even without that, Christy is a lovely young woman, sweet and loving to everyone she meets (at least as far as I know and I’d appreciate it if no one shows me otherwise). She also has a really pretty voice. Just sayin’.

Olivia, Alyssa, Ellie, and Hope with Sugar

For a number of reasons, not least of which was a scheduling conflict at our normal location for church tomorrow and the fact that most people want to be with their families on Christmas day, we had a Christmas Eve service today instead. It was a fairly small, informal affair, with only about 20 people in all including more children than adults. After the service, I took this picture and if I have their names right, they are Olivia, Alyssa, and Ellie behind Hope and Sugar (the dog).

Lizzy and Josh

It’s December and that means all sorts of Christmas parties (or, if work-related, holiday parties, but that’s a post for another time). The first Christmas party of the season was with our church family. It was hosted by our pastor and his wife (and their kids, I suppose) and it was a full house. I honestly don’t know how many of us were there but it was a good crowd. Of course, being a pot luck, there was way more food than we could eat, although I guess some folks didn’t get to try things that ran our early. For me, the highlight was little smokies wrapped in bacon and then sprinkled with brown sugar and baked. Man, were those good (thanks, Joanna and Juan). There was an excellent cake, as well, made by Brigitte with candied cranberries on top. While the cake was excellent, to me the cranberries were the best part.

Naturally I took pictures and this is one I really like, a couple of wonderful young folk named Lizzy and Josh. I enjoyed sitting with them a while and chatting and I’m glad this pictures turned out so well.

David, Lily, Will, Vera, and Sarah

It’s a small and fledgling youth group, I admit, but this is at a small and fledgling church, so perhaps that’s appropriate. This is one of a bunch of pictures I took to promote our youth group. We cannot offer crowds and huge events. But we can offer something a little more individual. Our ministry goals are really the same as for Cross Community church: to share the gospel, love the city, and build community, all within the context of youth.

Will and Ethan

Will and Ethan have both been in pictures posted here, both separately and together. We were at their house this evening and I took a few of Ethan and then this one of the two brothers together, which I think is a good picture. I’m finding that on the days I don’t go out during the day at work, I’m having a harder time coming up with a post-worthy picture. Going to someone else’s house is helpful, of course, because there is always something new to photograph, even if it’s just their kids. Will asked me to send this to him, which I did, so if you’ve already seen this from him, you’ll now know where it came from.

Cathy On The Pond

We had originally planned an outing for folks from out church to the family property in Pennsylvania for August but a lot of folks couldn’t come that weekend so we moved it to today. The day we would have gone in August was sweltering and muggy. Today was cool but beautiful. The wind was a bit strong but we had a fire going the whole day and I think that those who went all had a good time. I know I did. Being outside all day, cooking over a fire, and of course being with friends (old and new) is a great way to spend a day. Cathy was the first to go out in the canoe, battling the wind. As you can see, the trees are starting to turn.

Farewell to Friends

Nooree and Jane moved out today, heading back to Philadelphia and the next stage of their epic journey. We are so blessed to have had the chance to get to know them and look forward to hearing about the next stage of their lives. We’re also going to miss them and their darling, wonderful, exuberant, and beautiful children. Cathy and I have been involved in countless moves through the years and now that we’re the other side of 50 we have less trouble saying that we’ll play with the kids or I’ll take pictures for posterity. We actually didn’t even show up until the truck was about 99% loaded. Nooree asked if I’d take a group picture for them and here it is. Note: I’m in this picture. That part was taken by Cathy. The rest is mine.

Adera and Alshadye

We had a bit of an unusual church service this week. Our pastor was out of town. He knew he would be leaving sometime but didn’t know when, for sure. This is all due to an adoption process that is very time consuming (not to mention costly) and fraught with all sorts of hurdles and hoops over and through which the adoptive parents must leap.

Instead of a regular sermon, we heard from six people from the church, four individuals and one couple. One of them was Alshadye, the young woman in this photograph. As we were preparing before the service, we were looking for pictures of the various speakers to put up on the screens. I had at least one of each of the others (and we also found some on Facebook) but I didn’t have any that were any good of Alshadye.

So, after the service I got out my camera (as I often do) and took some pictures, including this one of her with her son, Adera.

Not having a picture was pretty irrelevant, of course. What she shared with us was much more important and I’m so thankful to have her worshiping with us and involved in our community.

Will and Ben

It was a pretty eventful day, but more about that in a minute. We want to Ben and Erin’s house for our bi-weekly prayer meeting and Bible study. It was a good time, both for the actual prayer and Bible study and simple as a time with friends. As usual, I brought my camera. I don’t always get it out, but I typically have it with me anywhere I go. This is Will and Ben (or more precisely Ben and Ben, but the younger Ben goes by his middle name, which is William.

Self-portrait, by Will

Will took a bunch of pictures with my camera, as well, and I thought I’d share one of them with you. So, this is a self portrait that he took, not really realizing that the flash would totally overwhelm the rest of the picture. But I kind of like it. It’s a somewhat surreal self portrait and suited to his personality. He also took a really good picture of me making a weird face at the camera. I won’t be sharing that one.