Sunday, January 19th – Southbound Again.

We woke up early again this morning and ate a quick breakfast at the hotel. Last night, we decided to stop on our way back south to attend church. We drove an hour and stopped at Grace Lutheran Church in Winter Haven which is celebrating their 70^th year of ministry and has a weekly attendance of over 645 people.  You can read about this very active church at: http://glwh.org/home/

 

Like we have noticed in other churches in Florida, Grace Church has their contemporary service early and the traditional service later. They also have a Saturday afternoon service as well as a school for children from age 2 years of age to eighth grade.

We entered the sanctuary about a half a minute before the service began. There were over 120 quilts draped over the pews. The women of the church had made these quilts for the Lutheran World Relief which will distribute them all over the U.S. and the world to people who are in need due to war, disaster, poverty, disease and suffering. It was a beautiful sight. When the Pastor prayed for these quilts and the people who will be receiving them, he asked all of us to place our hands on the quilts draped the pew in front of us. I felt privileged to participate in such a moving experience.

When the service was concluded, we were greeted by the Senior Pastor and we were surprised to discover that he knows Pastor Paul at our home church very well.

We didn’t tarry there much longer as we wanted to be back at our condo the watch the NFL Championship Games. However, we did manage to take a couple of breaks to stretch our legs and oh yes—to find a couple of geocaches.