Saturday. Just a Saturday.

Saturday. I didn’t do much today. I cut the lawn for the first time this year. I turned the vegetable garden over and dug some compost into it. Pulled a few weeds. I did battle with a huge patch of Creeping Charlie. Pulled it, raked it, cursed it. My back yard is a mess and I don’t know where to start to make it nice.

At noon I went to the church. I had planned to meet with Rev. Linda. She won’t be at our church tomorrow, as she’s participating in a pulpit exchange. She’ll preach at another church, while their minister comes to preach to us.

“You’ll be leading the service, Dale. Can you handle it?” she asked me recently.

I told her yes, no worries.

She was late arriving at the church because of traffic snarls and road closures. She’d delivered the service at a funeral and then gone to the interment. I chatted with C, our student minister, for two hours until Linda arrived. C is packing her things and getting ready to move back to her home near Ottawa in a few days. She's been with us for eight months. Now her internship is ended. She'll return to university and resume her studies in the fall. She'll be a FABULOUS minister one day soon. We'll sure miss her.

“I’m starving,” Linda said. “You guys want to go out for lunch? My treat.”

We all went to Swiss Chalet. I felt so honoured to be there with two preachers! We laughed and shared stories over a delicious chicken lunch.

“I’m having a beer,” said Linda when the waitress arrived. “Have one with me, Dale. I just feel like having a beer.”

And so we did. It was good, Ms J. It was really good. Preachers are people too, aren’t they?

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