6 July 2014

Happy Sunday!

Keeping the streak alive, we had another sunny Sunday here in Maine. At this point, I’m not sure if we’ll know what to do if it rains during one of our services this summer. Probably panic I’d guess.

The Blackwoods service was intimate. Miles and his dogs made it again along with three out of the five members of a family. The night before while campground walking we reached their campsite right as they were doing the initial unloading of the minivan. They were very excited to talk to us and very excited about coming to a service. Because my audience consisted of only Christians, I changed my message/sermon/talk slightly. The main point was still the same, however: God doesn’t want us to associate heaven with a certain place, feeling, or experience. God wants us to associated heaven with being one with Jesus Christ.

After the service, the father of the family, Michael, and I had a really nice talk. I’ve concluded that the services are not so much about us as the ACMNP team ministering to and teaching others as the services are about us providing the opportunity, time, and space for the Holy Spirit to minister to each of us through fellowship with one another. 

No one made it to the Seawall service, so we checked out the tide pools instead.

During our goofing off time, Ally saw a pretty dog, so we went over to meet it. While there, we also met the lady the dog was walking. A few minutes into our conversation her husband joined in. Turns out they are both Christians and own the Seawall Motel just down the road. After they found out we were with ACMNP, the husband, Dave, offered us a job right on the spot for next summer. Not sure if any of us will take him up on that, however. They agreed to hang up an ACMNP worship service poster so their guests could learn about the Seawall service.

After our adventure in the tide pools we checked out the place next to the motel that had a “Popovers” sign in front of it. Luke and Sabrina had never tried a popover before. Ally and I wanted to compare Jordan Pond popovers with other kinds. We discovered the establishment is called “The Common Good.” In the summer they serve oatmeal and popovers every morning and ask for a free-will donation. In the off-season, they use the money they raise in the summer to fund community and food assistance programs. After enjoying a couple of popovers with cinnamon and also maple-walnut butter, we volunteered to help close up shop. They were very appreciative and we were very excited to have discovered our new brunch spot for after the morning services. They also agreed to hang up an ACMNP worship service poster.

We then drove around the “Quite Side” of Mount Desert Island to find other places to hang up our posters. The general store/pay shower spot near the campground agreed to. The ferry terminal for the Cranberry Isles agreed to. And the boat tour company in Bass Harbor agreed to. I’m expecting a big crowd next week at Seawall.

On the drive back to Bar Harbor I may or may not have taken a nap. It depends on who you ask. If you ask me, I’d tell you no. I was just resting my eyes. If you ask Ally, Sabrina, or Luke, they’d tell you I was out cold. I guess with such a discrepancy in stories we’ll never know for sure whether or not I am a car-napper.

For most of the afternoon we hung out at Sabrina’s apartment. Luke had to do laundry and Ally and I made phone calls. Sabrina led us in this week’s team devotional. She decided to have us listen to the first half of the book of Mark from the Bible. Hearing, and not just reading, the story of Jesus’s ministry was enlightening. I’ve read Mark several times through but never in one sitting. When hearing the life, words, teachings, and ministry of Jesus from beginning to end, it makes him seem less like a character or historical figure but more like a person that we have to respond to.

To save money, we headed over to the grocery store to buy food for dinner. We settled on turkey burgers with fixins’, pretzel buns, mac ‘n cheese, baked beans, and canned corn. Our bill for all that food was $15. There’s no way any of us could have bought a dinner at a Bar Harbor restaurant and walked out paying less than that after the bill, tax, and tips. Plus, the four of us make a great cooking team.

The Cadillac Mountain service was also an intimate affair. We had a family of four and two young ladies. One of the ladies served on the Acadia ACMNP team two years ago. The other was her college friend. The family was on a summer trip. The dad was really into singing and insisted at the end of the service that we keep on singing. We ended up doing three extra songs. The final one was “Lord I Lift Your Name on High” complete with the motions which the daughter, a summer camp counselor, led us in.

Back at the dorm and during our team meeting we were all exhausted. Everyone wanted to get done as soon as possible and head to bed. However, that’s not how things went down. Instead, one of the gals from the dorm came into the meeting to tell us about a phone call she had just had and vent about how disappointed and hurt she was by it. I won’t go into details of course, but I will say that her response was appropriate given what had happened, and we were all happy to change the course of our meeting to listen and respond to her.

After we had returned to and finished planning next week’s services, we went around for junk, joys, and Jesus when we discuss something lousy about the week, something positive, and something we felt God had taught us or shown us. Things started getting awfully deep and personal. Eventually we had to cut off the conversation because everyone was so tired, but it was one of the key moments in our group’s development in which we started breaking down walls.

The picture of the day is a shot of Bass Harbor. It’s a real working-man’s harbor. No yachts here. Enjoy!