Arborlawn United Methodist Church

Sunday we worshipped in the new sanctuary of our church.  The story of two congregations in southwest Fort Worth merging together to form a larger church to serve the community is just part of the big story: the love of Jesus Christ.  James said it best in his email to our sons:

All,

I wish all of you could have been with us at Arborlawn this morning to see the initial worship service in the new facility. There were over 1,300 folks attending including 110 in the choir. There were a few minor glitches, but it was just short of spectacular. Becky and Dan joined the congregation in a moment of irony that a few of us were quick to recognize. The “grand opening” will be on the 11^th, the sixth anniversary of the first service together as a joined community. Our friend Earl Wood reminded me this morning of the phone call he made to me in 2003 that initiated the negotiation to reunite the Overton Park and Westcliff congregations, something for which I had been praying for the previous 25 years. Quite a fulfillment, eh?

My prayer for you all is that you at least once feel that same sense of being “used” as I have had the privilege of feeling so many times. It is the abundant life that Christ described as the reason for his coming.

On a much lighter note, I had to play a solitary round tonight. It was really a nice practice, completing 18 in 2 hours flat from garage to garage! I was unconscious, an 81 from the blues. A bird on #14 really helped. But take a look at the attached photo. I’ve started taking photos of my stymies, as they are too magnificent to go unrecorded.

I finished so early that mom and I took our Mas fina up the hill to the 7 tee to watch the sun slip behind a cloud bank out west on the horizon. The deer were grazing below us on five, six and seven. It was a relatively cool, quiet evening and with all we have going on in our lives right now it reminded me of The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi by which I serenaded you all to sleep. It begins with a common lament, “When the world goes wrong, as it’s bound to do, and you’ve broken Dan Cupid’s bow.” But it ends with a remember of the good times, “The blue of her eyes and the gold of her hair are a blend of the western skies, and the moonlight beams on the girl of my dreams, she’s the sweetheart of Sigma Chi.”

Even these are the good times,

Dad