#236 Inside Info

I've been working on getting to know the members of Calvin CRC as I settle into my new job. I've been on quite a few visits and have been doing my best to catch different people and learn more about them after our Sunday worship services. As you'd expect, I've picked up quite a few things about the people I've had conversations with. But when I talk to church members I sometimes also end up learning things about other church members.

Before anybody gets the wrong idea, I wouldn't say my church members are gossiping about each other to me. I'm not getting comments like, "Did you hear what X did?" Nobody's airing somebody else's dirty laundry. But sometimes these conversations touch on topics that make one church member think about somebody else. So I learn things like "Oh, X has a daughter that lives there" or "X used to do that kind of work" or "X has this talent, but X is too modest to bring it up." I think it's a pretty fascinating way to get to know a community. I learn the things I ask about. I learn the things that each person wants to tell me about himself or herself. And I also learn the things that everybody else thinks of when think of a particular person. I certainly don't know everything yet, but little by little everybody's become a little more real and a little more three-dimensional in my mind.

Grace and peace,

BMH

P.S. I've got a few more pics of Lanie with ice cream cone sculptures: