Sunday, October 09, 2011

May 25, 2004--Mom and Dad's church

Sunday morning we went first to our old church in Delphi to say "hi" to a few people before we went to my parents church. We had planned on going to Mom and Dad's church in the morning and then going to our old church in the evening, but then my in-laws planned a birthday party for all those with birthdays in May and the whole family was coming--grandparents, Daniel and his wife and their baby (who I still hadn't met since they hadn't brought her to the wedding) and we just couldn't miss that. It was so nice seeing all the people we used to worship with.

Mom and Dad had a pretty nice turn-out. I think they had close to two dozen people. I didn't get to hear my husband preach, because I needed to be downstairs with the Sunday School group which consisted of my kids and my brothers and sisters. Mom was teaching Sunday School, but she's lately been suffering from swollen feet for some unknown reason and it's making it painful for her to get around. So I helped her downstairs and Erick preached, and then they had Mom come up and annointed her with oil and prayed for her. We left then and went to my in-law's house where we spent the rest of the day.

It stormed heavily while we were there. There were tornado watches out, but eventually it calmed down and things seemed okay. They still managed somehow to grill the hamburgers and hot dogs.
When we got back it was late and everyone but Dad was in bed. He told us that a lot had happened while we were away. Earlier that week, a local high school girl had been shot by her boyfriend and was in critical condition. This was a friend of some of the kids who attend The Well. There had been a party at her house, and these kids were all there. She had been argueing with her boyfriend, and the others all left. Then he shot her. That Sunday afternoon, after we left, she died. There was supposed to have been a concert at the high school, but they cancelled it. A lot of the teenagers came back to The Well to cry and grieve, and my parents were still there, cleaning up. They felt guilty for leaving the party, thinking maybe they could have stopped it. Mom and Dad were there all day praying and talking with the kids as they worked through their grief.

News of her death really rocked the small city. People were still talking about it at the doctor's office when Mom went in to get blood tests to find out what was causing the swelling. Our pastor at our church was called into the school the next day to be there with the kids if they needed someone to talk to. It's like the whole town stopped to grieve.

We left Monday at about 11:00 and went home. The rest of the trip was uneventful.

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