The highlight of last week was showing Lawrence the available property to gather his opinions and to solicit his approval. Lawrence and I are in this together, and I value his input on all levels, but especially on big decisions. Lawrence is very conservative and risk averse, so if he gives the go ahead I am assured that we are moving in the right direction. Lawrence is very good about bringing all of our concerns before our prayer/bible study group at church, which is also reassuring. Of course we pray individually about everything as well.

Lawrence thought the property was suitable and he enjoyed meeting and getting to know the owner. Before we knew it, two hours had passed Saturday morning as we talked. I felt as if we could have talked for two more. However, we will not know until tomorrow if the property is available because the owner said he had an interested buyer. I appreciated his transparency and his willingness to consider our business as a tenant. If the owner decides he would rather sell than lease to us, then we will know that it is not meant to be, that we are to keep looking. I learned a long time ago that I have no idea what is best…many times what I thought was best turned out badly and vice versa.

But I find myself mentally placing furniture and activities in the building and thinking about the process of opening. I am glad I don’t have to wait longer than tomorrow.

And because of anticipation of getting the business open, I focused on boring business stuff most of the week, prompting me to skip a couple of my usual meetings. I did make it to the Bluegrass Elder Abuse Prevention Committee meeting, where we brainstormed about the best way to raise money to get elder abuse on everybody’s radar screen so elder abuse can be detected and reported. By the way, if you would like to donate without it costing you anything, please log onto Kroger’s Community Rewards website: https://www.kroger.com/communityrewards and register. Look for

• Organization Name:Bluegrass Aging Consortium/EAPC
• Organization Number:84555

when you are signing up to give to the Bluegrass Elder Abuse Prevention Committee. We need money to pay for posters and mailings, a website for information sharing and events to raise awareness.

I am still not finished reconciling the Quick Books online accounting system, and I purchased an online check writing account. The first time I used it was to write a check to our church.

Our church is considering a new kind of program for welcoming visitors and helping members. I call it the Steward Program, but it does not have an official name yet. Our church is huge, and since joining twenty years ago I have seen people who just come to the worship service fall through the cracks. There is no tracking or accounting for people in the worship service, only in Sunday School classes. As a former school teacher, I thought how simple it would be to divide the sanctuary up into “classes” with a seating chart. People tend to sit in the same seats week after week, but even if they didn’t, the Steward Program would still work. A person–a steward–would be assigned to each “class” of seats. Then on Sunday morning as people take their seats, the steward would greet each one and introduce him/herself in a very natural and low pressure way, being sensitive to their words and body language, with a heart for helping if there was a need. The steward would enter notes into his seating chart and get to know people more and more, week by week, to better serve them. Lawrence and I would like to see a paid volunteer coordinator lead the volunteers because it will be a big responsibility and will take a huge amount of effort and focus to get off the ground. I was told we can’t give funds for a specific purpose, to which I responded: God’s will be done. If He wants it to happen, it will happen.

Other highlights of the week were a visit from my 82 year old father and finding a babysitter that is available on the weekend. I haven’t asked her if she is up for a repeat yet, but she certainly was a lifesaver on Saturday while we looked at the property and took care of other business. Jack cried when we picked him up from the babysitter’s house because he didn’t want to leave!

I hope you had a lovely week Oct. 13-19 and may you be blessed this coming week. Looking forward to an update on the 27th!