0203 running in the rain

It was raining in the early morning, but let up around 10am. My father dropped me off in time for the 11am service at SBCC. With the assistance of Cynthia, I made my way inside and found a spot in the back.

Most of my SBCC friends were participating in the Redondo Beach Superbowl 10K/5K. Scott was registered for the Baby Buggy 10K, so he was taking Kendra along for the ride. But Mari is not a runner, so she was in the 5K Walk instead. So Liz joined Scott for the 10K. Mo and Sheri were in the 5K run, although we expected Mo to be in the 10K run, since that’s his event. Chris and Sunny were also in the 5K walk.

Eric, Jen and Wendi were going to join the walkers en route, but changed their minds because of the rain. I found out later that Mike and Dana were also registered, but wimped out because of the weather.

At one point, I was considering joining the walkers in my wheelchair, but I looked at the course map and decided against it. Heading east on Herondo from Harbor is uphill and I knew I couldn’t make it.

Pastor Gary opened the service with a trailer from “National Treasure” in order to kickoff his new series “National Treasure: God’s Book of Secrets”. He spoke about the Bible, and how it’s filled with God’s secrets, just waiting for someone to read it for the information that it contains.

He talked about how Wikipedia defines the formation of the Earth but also contains a disclaimer that it really doesn’t know the true age, which is based on speculation. The Bible, on the other hand, is based on human history and can be followed back to Adam and the creation of the world by God.

He spoke about the behemoth in Job 40, and the leviathan in Job 41. The descriptions matched those of dinosaurs and dragons, which co-existed with man, not pre-existed as some scientists would have you believe.

Pastor Gary closed with a challenge. The Design Ministry hid a message in the decorations on the walls of the sanctuary and lobby. A prize will be given away to whoever guesses the message.

I met with a friend after the service who told me that he figured out the hidden message during the service. I told him that he should be congratulated on his ingenuity, but did he get the lesson from Pastor Gary’s sermon today. He responded by giving me a blank look and saying, “Pastor Gary spoke today?”

I wheeled off to the Dugout for my meeting with Koinonia. It was my turn to moderate and I was pleasantly surprised that everyone made it. Sheri grabbed her seat early, stating that she needed to sit across from me so she can watch my face change colors when I laugh (see 01/13 blog). We started a bit late but dug quickly into the Lesson Fourteen discussion and we finished up a little after 2pm.

While the others left, I joined the Faith Lessons team (Mike and Carol, Judy, Kiyomi, John, Carlton) upstairs for a review of the materials for the five-week class beginning February 16th. Getting upstairs was easy, with some assistance by Mike; coming down afterwards was tough, even with assistance from John and Mike. Thanks also to Carlton, who carried my wheelchair up and down.

We went through the Powerpoint slides, the handouts, and the order of service for each of the five lessons. With a few minor changes, we’re ready.

Mike and Carol had me home by 5:30pm.

A YEAR AGO TODAY: It was the weekend, so no therapy was scheduled. My sister came by with my niece for a visit. My mother was there for most of the day.