29 Sunday 2014

Happy Sunday!

For the past three weeks, I have missed the 7:15 meeting time for departure to the Blackwoods worship service. To fix this problem, I woke up at 6:30 instead of my usual 6:45. Today, I was one minute early to the rendezvous. Tune in next week for the next installment of “Will Adam Be Ready on Time?!”

The Blackwoods service at 8:00 went well. We had three parties for a total of 13 folks so we did a normal worship service. Ally did a nice job with her sermon. She talked about the joy of freedom we have under God's grace. 

At 10:00 over at Seawall campground, we had only one older couple in attendance. We choose to nix the normal plan and flip through the worship song book with them until we found a mutually agreeable song. We sang some classics. After that, I did my devotional that we were planning to do as a team later on in the day. The content was simply the Gospel message. I had a discipler in college named Ivan who turned me on to the idea that the Gospel message is as relevant to “saved” Christians as it is to “non-believers.” There’s a really great article on this idea. Check it out: http://crupressgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Recovering_Pharisee2.pdf

For lunch we headed back to the mainland to a picnic at a local church. Miles, the man with the dogs who comes to the Blackwoods service each week, invited us. Luke and I both agreed that between hot dogs, hamburgers, salads, and dessert, we had our biggest meal of the month at the church. We were all very appreciative of Miles for inviting us, and he seemed similarly appreciative that we came. It was a win-win.

We made it back to Bar Harbor in time to check in at Aquaterra Kayak Adventures to see our buddy Mark. For the past three weeks we have been trying to tag along with a sea kayak tour. This week it finally worked out! We went on a two-hour tour and checked out the harbor and two of the islands in Frenchman Bay. The water was quite chilly, however, the air temperature was well into the 80s so being on the water caused us to be in the ultimate temperature zone. The sea looks a lot different when you are only 18 inches above it.

The sunset service had a lower attendance that last week, but equally cool stories from people who attended. The highlight of the service, besides the gorgeous sunset, was when we started singing “America the Beautiful.” The dull roar of side conversations at the overlook momentarily ceased. When we sang “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing” later on the result was not the same. 

Today's picture of the day is the harbor at Bar Harbor. For our kayaking tour we went out to the island in the middle of the shot (Bar Island) and then kayaked around Sheep Porcupine Island on the right side of the shot. Enjoy!