Friday, June 23rd, Claude finished his Kentucky League of Cities Board Meetings in the afternoon. He returned to Sadieville for a little break before taking me to Georgetown.
We had a nice dinner at Chick-fil-A. Tornado warning were out for later that evening. We missed them completely. Got a little rain but no tornado.
Then we went to the church to clean the building. We have had only one Ward (congregation) meeting in this building the entire time we have lived here (almost 13 years). The last four years the members have taken turns cleaning the building each weekend. Three to four families are assigned a weekend and one of the families is designated as the team leader to coordinate the effort. Claude and I were designated as team leaders. Our team is made up of the Alcorn family, the Buttars family and the Molpus family.
The first time we were to clean was the weekend of our anniversary. Claude and I took a trip to Key West for four days. We were to have been back to clean in time. As poor fortune would have it, we both got very ill, me while at the airport in Key West and Claude the next night. As further good fortune would have it, we had a huge snow storm in Kentucky and it shut down the Lexington Airport which we were to fly home to and where our Jeep was parked to take us home. We had to get ourselves to Atlanta, find a hotel and stay there until a flight opened with space for the two of us to make it on to Lexington. That meant two night in an Atlanta hotel. We would still be back in time to clean but we were both in no shape to clean. Claude went to the Marriott next to our hotel and bought all the medication he could find. Then he came back to our hotel and promptly got the same whatever I had. It was like a debilitating flu. Absolutely no strength or energy to even sit up. We were grateful for 24 hours to medicate and rest before struggling to get home. All this time I was texting Luella Alcorn and explaining our situation. Love her heart, she took right over and told us not to worry about the cleaning, the rest of the team would do it and we were to go home and get well. We did make it home.
With this type of division of cleaning responsibilities, it meant we only needed to clean three times each year. I really like this set up. So we have fulfilled our responsibility the entire time with once having to trade our time with another group because of travel.
Now we have another Ward meeting in our building. I am not sure how the scheduling will work now. Not sure if we will have the same team. But our team decided, even though there was this change, that we would clean one more time together as the two wards determine the best way to handle the cleaning schedule. The Bishop of each ward was very grateful for that help and not having to worry about the building being cleaned that week. It was so nice to share in the cleaning effort with these other families.
I always thought the saying "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness" was from scripture. My parents said it a lot. I often heard it at Church. Today I Googled it and found this explanation of the phrase: "Being clean is a sign of spiritual purity or goodness, as in Don't forget to wash your ears—cleanliness is next to godliness. This phrase was first recorded in a sermon by John Wesley in 1778, but the idea is ancient, found in Babylonian and Hebrew religious tracts."
It matters not to me where this truth came from. It is a truth to me and I hold it dear. And...I believe it holds true as well in how we reverence the buildings we call Church and the purpose for which they are built. I am grateful for the opportunity to help keep our Church Building clean.
No comments:
Post a Comment