SS CLASS JAVA PARTY

Yesterday due to the ice on the walk going to the garage, Nancy and I almost decided to cancel the party, but I used ashes from the fireplace mixed with salt and found that I could hammer the ice and it would flake off the walk. After about 30 minutes we decided we could walk on it. We moved the food to the van, got to the church by 11 and Nancy started cooking the chicken. She was up at 5 in the morning processing the veggies. We decorated by putting up table cloths and the ocean scenes. I put up the palm trees on the walls to create the Java ambiance for the Java dinner.

I went to Kiwanis to hear a great talk by Dale Bishop's son Wayne who reviewed his more than 30 year career with 3M in Brownwood. That plant specializes in reflective paint systems like license plates and highway signs. He told about the continued invention to develop new reflective systems. He mentioned that 3M makes adhesives used in aircraft and I commented that I designed wing panels for the B-58 where the outer skin was only attached by adhesives.

Back at the church we decorated all afternoon. Finally sat down for 30 minutes. Started the party on time at 6 p.m. with a prayer by the pastor. We could have called it a Lord's supper. Good thing our SS class is named the Disciples class. We had one table with 12 persons eating together. 27 had originally signed up. Three had told us they wouldn't be there so there was more than enough food.

Nancy had created a contest for four weeks of questions about the Methodist presence in Java and missionaries. Two of our members had called the Central Texas Conference office to bug them for the answers and now they know about Cross Plains and Java missionaries. The pastor and I had the job to judge the entries and pick a winner. We came up with a tie and had a drawing to pick Diana Miller as the winner. Susan Hunter was disappointed but I am not sure she would have appreciated the prize monkey that has a fit when you take the banana out of his mouth. We had bought it from Debi Bennett at Dollar General and she was delighted that we took it because it was driving her nuts every day. It was a great party and different from any before.

The temperature never got above freezing and we had problems with the van doors frozen shut but we managed. Slept late the next morning.

SNOWY DECEMBER 5

This morning at 1 a.m. I saw one flash of lightning and heard one roll of thunder. Then at 1:40 a.m. the power went off. I got up and opened the fireplace to the living room. I called in the report of of the power outage. When we got up at 7 we set an old coffee pot with water by the fire and it got hot enough for tea with our cereal breakfast. As we started reading our devotionals the power came back on. Here are some photos.