The Jacksonville Church of Christ is one of the few Churches of Christ that I've been to that actually owns its own building (I believe I mentioned that a couple posts ago); for me, that makes for an always interesting worship experience, since I'm so used to meeting in schools, hotels, houses, anything BUT your typical church building. Traditional church buildings remind me of my Trinity days, which invokes mixed feelings in me. Fortunately, when I stepped into the Jacksonville Church of Christ building this morning, I was overwhelmed by the love of the fellowship, and any mixed feelings I had about church buildings were quickly swept away.
The building itself was very nice...dark oak wood, colorful decorations and comfortable pews met our eyes as we walked into the sanctuary. The buzz of Christians talking to each other was in the air, and I spoke with various people...some that I knew, some that I didn't know. I introduced myself as "Danielle's boyfriend" and definitely got some warm welcomes. But Danielle was nowhere to be found. Service eventually started and she still wasn't there yet. I hoped nothing had happened to her, but during the singing, I got a text from her saying she was on her way, and I relaxed.
Chuck Lucas and his wife Anne(?) had been in town hosting a married's workshop that weekend, and he also gave the sermon that morning. It was a very basic, but powerful sermon about the necessity of preaching the gospel to all nations. At the end, he sang the song,"To Dream the Impossible Dream," which, he said, he had not sung in many years. Needless to say, the song garnered a standing ovation from the congregation, as he still had a very powerful and melodic voice. Guy Berndt, the lead evangelist in Jacksonville, thanked Chuck and was brought to tears by how much Chuck meant to him in his life. Danielle, who had arrived earlier and was sitting beside me, couldn't help but shed some tears herself. It was a beautiful sight.
After service, I met a lot more of Danielle's friends, some of whom she had told me about during our various phone conversations, and some I was meeting for the first time. They all congratulated us on dating and looked forward to spending time with us as a couple. I'm very grateful that Danielle told many people about us and that they were so willing to get to know us as a couple. The community of the church really is a very powerful thing; relationships are so critical, and I look forward to developing them down in Jacksonville.
After service, we headed out to a pizza place for some lunch. It was a great time, yet a bitter-sweet time, as we had to hit the road right after we finished. We took some final pictures before we left, and then we hit the road. We had a lot of driving to do, as we needed to make it back to Charlotte before the day was done. The rest of the day was spent driving, listening to music and reminiscing over our time in Jacksonville (ok, maybe Nick and Minh wern't thinking so much about Jacksonville, but I was!).
We got back to Charlotte around 8:45p-ish and we dropped off Nick at Caitlin's place so the two love birds could spend a few hours together. Minh and I went on a search for some dinner. Chipotle was a little too far away, so we found a Qdoba on the GPS and headed there. Unfortunately, we got there a little too late, for they were closed. We settled on some food from a sports bar instead, and headed back to Edwin's place. We spent the rest of the evening eating and watching basketball on TV. Our road trip was officially coming to an end; however, we wern't in a huge hurry to get back, so we could afford to sleep in the next morning.
It was a great vacation overall; we saw a lot, did a lot and met a lot of people. I'm extremely happy to be starting this new chapter of my life with Danielle as my girlfriend, and I look forward to what God has in store for us!
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