A memory lane of sorts.

So I went on vacation last week. You may be saying to yourself "Ten weeks in and shes already going on vacation?" Well to my defense, I was advised to do so and it turned out to be the perfect week to get out of town and see people, celebrate life and of course see my Momma.

So I would call my week a mini memory lane. It began with a Baptism at Meyers Park UMC in Charlotte and ended in celebrating the life of Ira Andrews who exuded a life bathed in Christ. Here's the recap and a few photos of the lovely people I met up with along the way.

I left for Charlotte Saturday morning at 6 am to avoid the insanity that is D.C. traffic and wouldn't you know that 66 was a ghost town. That was fine with me- more time to belt out some songs and dance in the car without stank-eye stares.

6 1/2 hours later I was in front of the RevErind's house in Charlotte- and she wasn't there so, while waiting for her I just waved to people as they drove by and took in the peaceful neighborhood. After the intial freak out of not seeing Erin for 3 months, we got to catch up and talk Pastor talk for a bit. And I can't leave out that I was reunited with Margot [you pronounce the "T"] her cat. She was acting like she wasn't excited to see me, but please I could see straight through her whole act.

Later on we went to a Church in SC where some people I had met at a conference attended. After getting lost and pulling up to someone's house we finally made it. On the way home we grabbed some cookout, watched Soul Surfer and called it a night because, well Erin is a Pastor and had to be up for her J.O.B.

Meyers Park UMC is right in front of a Presbyterian church that has the same stone. After parking near the Presbyterian church and almost going in I realized that I needed to go to the other side [a minor blooper]. I went to the "contemporary" service and a "traditional" service and it was weird to sit in a service and not have any responsibilities. Well besides worshipping.

After church I said farewell to the RevErind and headed to the BULL CITYYYY. Durham, 919, Dirty D, Go Duke...etc. etc. I won't go into the details of my Durham visit but will list some activities:
Bulls Game [with RLD] vs. Norfolk tides [peeps from 757 we lost hah]
Walk around Downtown, walk around Duke Gardens
Trip to Div. school where I ran into EVERYONE
Elmos [duh]
Peony's sushi [duh]
Hung out with B-rad
Saw my Wesley peeps, internxpress was reunited and saw my fav seniors [shh...] and Courtney who will always be a freshmen to me.






With much sadness I left Durham and headed to see Brenda in Newport News. When I finally got there I realized I had left my house key in Fiarfax so I went to Mom's school got the key and crashed. My oldest bro was in town so we got to catch up and just rag on Mom/make her laugh which was good times. I beached it up with Kyla Miller for a bit and can't wait for her and Emerson to come see me:)  Momma and I went to Cheesburger yummmm. Then again with much sadness I had to go.

Saturday morning I joined many alum, Duncan UMC church members, current R-MC students and faculty to celebrate the life of Ira Lee Andrews III. Ira was a teacher, dean, and ordained Elder in the UMC. I took New Testament with him the last semester he was teaching and I thought I knew all there was to know...come to find out by mid semester I was failing but Ira took the time to sit down with me and get my grade up. He sparked my decision to take more Religious studies courses and I would later travel to Brazil simply because he was teaching the course.

It was great to see friends, sing [which Ira loved to do] and hear about his accomplishments, his spirit and his hope for the church as well as the college.

On the drive home I was so thankful for a week that covered a wide range of emotions but ultimately was a time of being with friends and family from all parts of my life.

Until the next post, peace.

 Pastor LB