Due to the generousity of our "Well Endowed Aunt Lilly" (Lilly Clergy Renewal Grant), over fifty of the Florence flock spent Friday through Sunday of Labor Day weekend at Amigo Centre. This Mennonite camp offered us comfortable rooms with private baths, generous meals, the beauty of woods and lake, and many places to sit, talk, walk, canoe and play.
Our typical fall weekend away is tent camping across the lake at Amigo Park. So this more simple retreat felt like a true breather.
Saturday night entertainment was Karaoke, led by Dallie and Gary Nichols.
Sunday morning worship included the lakeside baptism of Nora followed by communion.
I enjoyed my "Lucy Booth." Under my beach umbrella I invited folks to come and tell me their passions for life. And I gave THEM five cents! For four hours on Saturday afternoon there was one person after another. I heard passions for family, fabric, teaching, local food, mending old wounds, and opening opportunities for Native Americans. One person asked me, "And Nina, what is your passion?" That was a gift.
My passion for conversations such as these hopefully gives me the chance to listen deeply for God's invitations in and through the Florence Friends. Despite protest -- ENOUGH PASSION, ALREADY -- I consider the Passion Booth and the weekend a fabulous success.
There are already new projects bubbling up out of these passions. Then we meet Frederick Buechner's vision for our part in God's mission:
THE PLACE GOD CALLS YOU
IS WHERE YOUR DEEP GLADNESS
(or passion)
AND THE WORLD'S HUNGER
MEET.
