We’re in the middle of a busy, busy, weekend. So I’m going to rely on my tried and true, quick-and-easy, “four-photos” format for today’s post.

Friday morning Rebekah and I hit Wake Forest for mattress shopping and then lunch in historic downtown. I can’t say enough about how much I’m enjoying the town center here. It’s interesting, it’s walkable, and the epicenter is exactly one mile from our home.

We finally found the right mattress to put on the “Murphy Bed” my friend Fred and I built a couple of weeks ago. That makes one more significant piece of the move-in puzzle in place, but still a lengthy punch-list to go.

BEAUTIFUL! Meanwhile, back down in Florida, my parents were enjoying the rare opportunity to see all their great-grandchildren at one time. Naomi and Craig finished up their Disney week (a smash-hit, by the way, with our grandson, David) and headed to St. Petersburg Beach for a quiet weekend before heading back to Connecticut.

The beach provided the perfect opportunity for a day with my folks plus my niece, Hannah, and her beautiful family. The photograph you see here is a study in love, and a testimony to the faithful witness of my parents to faith and to family.

DINNER-PARTY: We spent the afternoon prepping for our first official dinner party at the new Maul Hall. We love our new house, but the problem with a separate dining room is the challenge of serving 12-people in one space. We pulled it off, but once people were seated they were there for the duration; no getting up and moving around!

The folk you see in the photograph were instrumental in bringing us to Wake Forest from Brandon. Not surprisingly, and like every great dinner party Rebekah and I have hosted, the guests themselves were the entertainment! Conversation was lively, and over four hours we laughed, cried, and everything in between.

The meal ended, more by natural progression than design, with conversation on an extremely deep level, and then prayer around the table. It’s inevitable, when we share our lives in this way, that the presence of Jesus is not limited to that of observer, but enters into the gathering as present and vital participant.

COMMUNITY: Rebekah didn’t accept this position at WFPC as a job, but as an invitation to become immersed in a transformational community, a church body composed of Jesus-followers committed to living into their faith, and responding with enthusiasm to the challenge to love and serve God in this place.

What a privilege!