Chapter 21

I'm jumping ahead mostly because it's been quiet. It's been fifteen years since I met a "poor" grad student at a fitness center. Officially, I'm forty-nine and Lisa is forty. We barely look thirty! We never did have a third child though we stay in practice in case we ever change our minds!

The school is more popular than ever. We have limited enrollment but brothers and sisters continue to come along. At church, Pastor Jim and Barbara stayed in the area and have helped the new senior pastor and associate fit in. After four years, both were offered an upward move in the conference and made the move. We have a husband and wife joint pastorate now. They wanted to try it and, with Paul as the chair of the Staff-Parish Relations Committee, it passed. Two weeks later, we met them at Paul and Linda's house for Sunday lunch. Lisa and I have tried to stay in the background though I have been at-large on the Finance Committee for many years. The Nominating Committee has tried to get me to chair things for a number of years. We still teach a Sunday school class with Pam and Frank. Each of our older children will be in our class next year!

Our joint pastors, Evelyn and Wes Brown, are a great young-ish couple in their late thirties making it natural for us to be invited. Our two children begged off to be with their couple's families for the day. Linda and Paul were a little disappointed but went along with their agreement that they would be at our house next Saturday when grandparents would be special.

After handing our children off to Pam and Frank and to Irene and Stan immediately after church, we followed Paul's car to their home. I remarked to Lisa that I followed them this way once before. She said, "That time worked out well, didn't it?" We smiled together.

Once inside, Paul and I doffed our coats and ties. We convinced Wes to do the same. We told them that we weren't have grilled preacher! Lisa and Evelyn joined us almost immediately with Linda only a minute later. Evelyn was the most conservatively dressed female in the house. She was average height with low heels. Lisa towered over her with five more inches in height and higher heels. With her long legs and the heels, Lisa's legs seem to go on forever and it's rare that any person can resist looking at them. I don't even try to resist looking! Wes was in the love seat and I was in the big easy chair. She looked at me and said, "Scrunch over, dear. I'm sitting with you." I scrunched.

Lisa looked over at Evelyn and said, "I guess you've noticed that I like mini skirts. The guys at CME call me, 'Legs Lisa, ' and are disappointed if I go back to look things over in detail wearing my coveralls." She grinned. "It's fun for me and even more now that I'm about to have a teen-aged daughter who might get to be taller than I am!

"I am aware that it may not be the most regulation outfit for a Sunday school teacher but we've shepherded two classes through to graduation and will start a third next year with Frankie and Laura's class. It keeps the teen-aged boys attention to start. As they get to know Pam and me, they learn from watching our husbands that genteel treatment of females is not only smart but also pays dividends. Two couples from that first class are taking on Bert and Hannah's age group in a couple of years with the same plan.

"It shows that age group a number of things as boys and girls notice the difference in each other more obviously. Over the first year, they learn that Pam and I own our own businesses, are college grads, and can still be pretty good-looking for a couple of old broads. Frank and Al are in there to give the girls someone to look at. That first group met Al just after we became engaged. Those girls voted him 'dreamy' unanimously." She laughed happily.

Wes said, "We noticed that the area where you all sit on Sundays has a big group of younger people who seem to be happy and who listen to the message."

I said, "Some of them have paired up over the years. Some brought friends who have become part of the group. We try to give them a rallying point of consistent, Christian teaching with a lot of clean fun. Our place is busy many Saturdays with parties and get togethers."

Evelyn said, "How do you afford that?"

Lisa said, "Cubic money helps. Al and I have been blessed and have worked hard. The hardest thing for Al has been to back away from Chambers and Chambers and go to work for my father. Dad really wants to retire and, with me running CME, Al became the logical choice."

Paul said, "He's going to make me so much money before I truly quit that I will have to work to figure out how to spend it.

"I think Jack Baker is chairing Finance this year. He will tell you that when you need money for a special project, you can always call on Al and Lisa."

I blushed a little and said, "We just try to follow the example you and Linda set."

That made Paul blush a little. Linda heard a buzzer. "Lunch is ready. Let's retire to the kitchen and eat. Paul carried the standing rib roast to the table and cut it up serving each plate. Lisa and I helped her mother carry vegetables and set them on the table.

Paul said grace and we dug in. Everyone agreed that it was excellent. During the meal, Paul said, "Wes, Evelyn, I was a little surprised and am curious about your academics and the team pastoring that you are doing. How did that come about?"

Wes said, "We had met in seminary but didn't really know each other until we were probationary elders. We were in the same district and met together frequently during the year. We wound up dating, engaged, and married in about six months. Both sets of parents were a little surprised but happy. Evelyn's dad is an elder and my dad has been active in conference affairs as a layman. Before Conference, we had gone to our District Superintendent to ask for appointments closer together. We were lucky. We got smaller churches that were close together. Many in the families at each church had relatives who went to the other. The churches had been a two-point charge many years ago until becoming station churches. We began to switch off just on a whim. At Christmas, it started to come together. The churches had always celebrated together on major holidays. We prepared and delivered our first joint sermon. Our church members by then had come to know us both and liked what we did. From that point, we prepared all holiday sermons together. The churches took turns switching as hosts. Both were growing and they and we felt it was working. There was one fly in the ointment.