Jon was able to send me this little bit of news that can be shared.
"Well, I made it to church this morning, which is a good thing--I was tempted to sleep in a little, which has been reality on Sundays since they moved the service to 0815 (it used to be 0915). Actually, the last two weeks I've been a part of worship. The chaplains put a sign-up sheet on the table where the bulletins and hymn books are so they can be picked up prior to the service and returned following the service. This was the same way it was in 2006. Now, as back then, I signed up to help. However, last year, the sign up sheet was set up for specific Sundays, where you would sign up to read, help with the music, or help with communion. I helped with communion once last year, and read scripture on at least three separate occasions. This year the sign up sheet is just a generic volunteer list. Last Saturday I received an email from the chaplain with the Scripture (Old Testament, Psalm, New Testament) that would be a part of the service as part of a graphic slide (like a program slide in power point for San Clemente Presbyterian Church), but no instructions, and I thought, "Oh, a nice side benefit from signing up is that the Chaplain has my contact information and can send me advance information in preparation for worship." However, when I arrived last Sunday, the chaplain asked me if I had received his message, and I said, "Roger that, I appreciated the heads up," he started telling me when the scripture would need to be read. I realized that he was relying on me to read, so I went with it, though the only Bible I had to read from was a small print NIV from the bookshelf at the back of the chapel. This week, the other chaplain was running the service, and he actually sent me an email with the scripture printed in it, along with a request that I participate in leading worship. I was able to recommend replacing the version that was being printed in the bulletin with the NLT, which was much more readable, and though I couldn't change the bulletins, as they'd already been printed, the Chaplain approved the reading in the NLT (which I announced preparatory to the reading). Anyway, there are only three people signed up on the volunteer helper sheet, so I've a feeling that we may get called on a lot. The Marine who's been on the list from the beginning of the deployment has participated in worship almost every Sunday since we got here. Semper Fi, Jon"
Sheryl
Joshua and I had a wonderful time at The Ranch, what the France family calls the farm that is owned by my Uncle John, but was where my dad and his 8 siblings were raised in Porterville. It was a dairy farm way back when and now the farm is an organic fruit farm -- oranges, grapes, nectarines, walnuts (are they considered a fruit?) and more on other property. There aren't a lot of animals any more, but we enjoy the ones who do live there -- Fred the cat, Max the dog, Joe the donkey and three horses that recently came to live (Blue, Sancho and Rocky). Oh, yeah, and the Canadian geese who have been coming back to the pond year after year for a long time now. Here are few pictures of the animals we enjoyed visiting. Of course, that doesn't mean that we don't also enjoy John and Cindy. We had a great time celebrating John's birthday -- he's only about 7 years older than me, so I have often think of him as a big brother (not that my mother is old enough to be his mom). And Cindy is just a lot of fun to talk to. I've been enjoying conversations with her ever since she married into the crazy France clan right before I started college.
Parade in our own San Juan Capistrano and then spent that evening and Sunday with Steve, Sandi, Elena, Emma and Evan in Escondido. Joshua and his cousin Evan are 6 months apart and good friends.
