When we arrived, the church was filling up fast! Thankfully we got a pew right up front. It was so fun to see everyone in the family again, as well as some old classmates of my dad's and a cousin of his I had never met! In the row behind us were some old classmates and fellow Mt Calvary members from back in the day. They took one look at Noah and said, "If you want to know what your dad looked like as a little boy, just look at your son.". :-) Thought that was really sweet!
My Aunt Judi played piano during the service - and did a marvelous job, I might add! You'll notice an open part in the back there with pews and chairs on the left side of that picture. I've never seen those doors open before. Usually thick red curtains hang in front of the double doors there, but they had to open it up to allow more space for all the people. What a blessing!!
This is the cousin I mentioned above with my Aunt Judi. Her name is Joanie and she's the daughter of my great-uncle Joe Sbaraglia. I never had the priveledge of meeting him, but have heard great stories about what a wonderful man he was. I might have shown you all pictures of him before. He was QUITE handsome!! Anyway, she came down for the service, so we all got to meet her. At first she thought I was Uncle Carl's daughter, but she said, "Wow. You look so much like Markie!". I told her I was his oldest and she put those pieces together and laughed. Makes sense for me to look like him. :-) By the way, to those who don't know, my dad went by Mark until he went to college where he started going by his first name, John. So, anytime we go back to NJ or his family visits, he's known by Mark.
Livie and Pete were doing stickers as we got ready for the service to begin.
This is their pastor. He was a really funny, nice man and his wife did SO much to get this reunion/celebration going. I cannot say enough about the people of Mt. Calvary. They went above and beyond to make it possible for all of us Drexlers to be there and really made the event special. :-)
This was during the first song. We sang lots of beautiful old hymns. Got really sad during "Great is Thy Faithfulness" when it all hit me that we were there, celebrating a church that my grandpa spent over half of his life pastoring. Made me really miss him a lot. Not seeing up him front or walking down the aisle. Oh how I wish he could've been there to enjoy that with us.
Micah sang special music and did a great job! I didn't recognize the song, which made it better somehow. Really enjoyed it.
Dad gave the message and really did a fantastic job. The Drexlers were involved in so many areas of the celebration as well as old members and current members. Pastor Cook's son was there. He's the pastor that took over after Grandpa left. I only met him twice, but both times were especially sad ones and he was so sweet. He actually flew down to NC for my grandpa's funeral and said some really beautiful things about him and his legacy at the church. Was glad that his son was able to be there.
Miss Kendalyn didn't quite make it. Papa put her to sleep with his preaching. ;-)
Here's "Markie" with cousin Joan, holding a DELICIOUS cake she made for the carry-in. She also made a plateful of chocolate-covered pretzels that I think Micah and I ate half of!!
The church service lasted almost 2 hours! It went by quickly though. It was full of reminscing and laughter and tears and joy. But, gotta say, there was only one thing on my mind when that service was over and that was getting to the nearest hoagie place before it closed. Aunt Judi scoped out the places beforehand and told me that Bridges Deli had great ones, so we headed over there right after church. I was almost giddy with excitement when I ordered 4 italian hoagies with the works. Told them I was from IL and hadn't had a hoagie in probably 20 yrs! Think they put a little extra love in them for me. :-)
I cannot tell you how delicious they were. I can almost still taste them! I got 1 hoagie for me, but Madie tried a bite and was hooked. She ate half of the half I ate!! Can't blame her. It was awesome! I saved the other half and another whole one for later, but tragedy struck when the bag they were in developed a small leak and water from the cooler soaked them to ruin. Tears were shed. Emergency recesitation attempted, but all was lost. It was a crushing blow, but at least, for a minute, we had the pure pleasure of ingesting the heavenly flavor of NJ hoagies once more.
After a couple hours at the hotel, we headed over to the carry-in. I was stuffed from the hoagie, but still managed to eat a lot!
Looks like nearly everyone from church made their way over to the senior center for the luncheon. The food that people brought was fantastic!! This wasn't an ordinary carry-in, but a full buffet! So, so good.
Why my dad can't take a normal picture, I'll never know, but here are my parents, enjoying the dinner. :-)
We all sat in the back, so we could keep an eye on our rambuctious kids, who after a short while were bored and felt the need to wrestle and generally cause mayham.
Everyone except little Keni, who just laid on the ground and enjoyed herself.
Just as felt it was time to go, because the kids were getting so restless, Pastor Cook's son (sorry, I can't remember his name) and his wife broke out the balloon animals! Hooray! They saved the day and we were able to hang out for another hour while they entertained the kids. It was terrific! So, on Sunday, we had yet another day of great food and even greater conversation and fun, ending the night in our hotel room with Em, Jeff, and Phil while we had a LOST party. What a great day!!
1 comment:
Great commentary.
Post a Comment