New Family at Peaceful Grace!

What an exciting week at Peaceful Grace Community Church! A new family, the Hodges, recently moved to Brooksville and visited our church last Sunday. They are so neat! Before the service, I volunteered to give them and their two daughters a friendly tour. I love showing off my church. I wear a conductor hat and say “all aboard the Cynthia train! Choo-choo!” People love it!

Our first stop was the newly built café center where you can enjoy a complimentary latte or a tasty pastry. The croissants are shipped straight from heaven! I told the Hodges that the café is where the ‘hip’ college crowd hangs out. Conversations here can range from designer jeans to which Christian rock band sounds the most like Coldplay. That stuff is way over my head! You never know what can happen at the café. I’ve seen kids pull out guitars and sing songs right then and there. Hey, are we in Greenwich Village?! That line always gets a laugh!

The next stop was the Sunday school classroom where we would drop off the kids. Arthur and Peggy Hodges have adorable twin daughters in the first grade named Pearl and Rita. Double cuteness! I like to tell people with twins they’ve been given a second helping of blessings (because it’s true). The girls looked like little angels in their pink outfits but why do parents always dress their twins the same? Do they not want us to know who is who? Luckily, I had a blue marker handy so I made a little ‘X’ on the right cheek of Pearl. Now I could tell them apart!

After dropping the girls off, I showed the Hodges the sanctuary. If there is time before the service, I like to have guests sit in 5 or 6 locations. I ask ‘what feels right to you?’ The Hodges thought they might try the back left, near the exit. That’s a safe place for visitors. I told them once they get established, they should probably move up. Glen and I sit in the third row!

The Hodges mentioned that they might visit Upper Hillside Community Church next week. I encouraged them to try other churches but warned Peggy that Upper Hillside has been known to enable back sliding. Their pastor has even shown clips of movies with a PG-13 rating (one below R) during the service to illustrate some point.

I really do hope the Hodges make Peaceful Grace Community their permanent home. I would be very upset if someone did or said something during their visit that turned them off.

God Bless,

Cynthia Stone

Cynthia Stone, a respected member of Peaceful Grace Community Church in Brooksville, is a regular contributor to LB. She writes about everyday occurrences that involve her efforts to make her church the best in town. Cynthia claims that Upper Hillside Community, the other church in Brooksville, has a lukewarm congregation where the women have been known to cheat at cribbage. LB does not share the opinions expressed in her articles. Cynthia can be reached at: cynthiastone52@yahoo.com.

Cynthia Stone is a character from Roo Creations. You can contact them at roo_creations@yahoo.com.

LADIES RETREAT!

What a fantastic time to be a woman at Peaceful Grace Community! All week long, the women of Peaceful Grace Community buzzed like honey bees to prepare for the Ladies Retreat. Yes, LADIES RETREAT!! It’s like Disneyland for Christian women over 45!  

Every year, more than two dozen giddy women from Peaceful Grace pile into minivans and head toward Camp Woodrow in the mountains. So rustic and quaint! It’s the perfect spot to share our feelings about faith, family and the other women who did not come. I love spending time in nature and living near God’s creation (excluding reptiles, bugs and rodents larger than a stick of butter). Just try to look at a baby raccoon and not want to take him home wrapped in a soft blue blanket. You can’t!

I do worry about leaving Glen all alone. When I’m gone, he tends to eat out a lot and watch every sport on the television. Sometimes he has his buddies over for a card game where they swap tall fishing stories. Men are so mischievous! Glen claims he likes when I go on these trips and says I should feel free to stay an extra day or two. He’s so supportive!

This year’s speaker at the retreat was Sharon McFarlan, author of 4 Lessons for a Spiritual You and 7 More Lessons for an Even More Spiritual You. (She plans to release all 11 lessons in one book called Maximum Spirituality – I can’t wait!) Sharon is such an inspiration! Afterward, I personally thanked her and told her it was nice to hear from someone who doesn’t use a lot of big words. I also told her it is so refreshing to have a speaker who hasn’t given into fashion peer pressure. “So what if your shoes don’t match your pants”, I said. “The Lord looks on the inside!” Unfortunately, Sharon had to leave and did not participate in the evening entertainment.     

After a yummy dinner of lasagna, pasta salad, egg salad, cheese bread, kidney bean salad and a 3-cheese quiche, we decided it was time for some fun! Janice Coleson came up with a great idea for a game. Using her Polaroid camera (they still make them!), we each took a picture of our bare feet and taped it to the wall. Then we went around and tried to guess whose feet belonged to whom. It was a hoot! Poor Connie Lipton was the only African-American on the trip so she was a dead give away! Sue Mannachek ended up winning but only because she knew that Karen Jones has a corn on her big toe. No fair! As a prize, Sue won a Thomas Kinkade calendar. So Jealous!

During the social coffee hour, we ate cheesecake, apple bars and peach cobbler while building life-long relationships. You learn so much about each other on these trips! For example, Barbara Knapp hates lime Jell-O and Donna Welsh has a tabby cat named Robert Redford! I love these women!

The only unfortunate part of the retreat was that we had to sleep in bunk beds. No one wants to sleep in the top bunk! It’s hard to get up there and usually requires a brave soul or two to hoist you up. The camp should provide pulleys and levers! (Maybe I’ll send a letter to the camp director) It can also be unsettling to sleep in the bottom bunk. I find it hard to relax under a sagging mattress held together by cheap chicken wire. It’s the reason I bring my blowup mattress! (My 30th anniversary present to Glen!)

I hear that Upper Hillside Community Church is having their ladies retreat at Mountain Spring Resort and Spa. How can they afford such a place?! I suppose some churches are loosey-goosey with their money towards women ministries. They could go to the Four Seasons in Hawaii for all I care. I doubt they will have as many laughs or as many cries (the good kind) as did the women of Peaceful Grace Community. I’ve learned you can’t buy true friendships, only comfort and really good food.

God Bless!
Cynthia Stone 

Cynthia Stone is a character from Roo Creations. You can contact them at roo_creations@yahoo.com.