12/16/2008

Mom Jones requested more information about our church. Here goes:

We are members of The Fellowship of San Antonio (we call it FOSA). It takes us about 25 minutes to get to church. The church is located north of us in an area that looks very much like hill country. It is a newer church, almost six years old. The actual building was put up three years ago (or so). It is absolutely beautiful...I showed you pictures of the outside in my last post, but the inside is even more gorgeous.

I would say that on a Sunday morning 250-300 people attend. The majority of the members are older folks. We are definitely among the youngest. Lottie is the darling of the entire church! We have only had a chance to attend the young couples Sunday School class once, but there were maybe five couples...and we were the youngest of these! On the other hand, there is a decent group of middle school and high school kids--parents within ten years of my folks are where the majority population begins.

Our church is pretty conservative. Although nobody would frown on you for wearing jeans, it is real common to see men in complete suits. We have a choir, not a praise team. We sing mostly hymns. There is special music each Sunday, and this tends to be a bit more contemporary.

Our church exudes friendliness! If you visit this, you'll notice it immediately. It is striking and so welcoming. It might even be a bit overwhelming if you were shy!

Some of the people we have met at church:

Nancy- Nancy was actually the first person we met at church...she greeted us at the door. And, let me tell you, she is a blessing! She teaches fifth grade at a public school, has three adult children, two grand children, and dresses Chico's-cute. She has helped introduce us to people, make us feel like part of the family, etc.

Brad and Alana- We are going out to dinner tonight with Brad and Alana! This is a couple that is really close to our age. They don't have kids yet, but they like kids and have volunteered to be occasional babysitters. Woo-hoo! Alana and I hit it off right away, which is rare, and we completely enjoy chatting before and after church.

Ron Hill- Our senior pastor. Also a fabulous tenor! He particularly liked Lottie because she had the same name as missionary Lottie Moon. He has single-handedly made our Lottie famous. People come up and ask for Lottie's name. When we answer the response is almost always, "Oh! This is Lottie! Ron told us we had a Lottie in our midst!" These people are just thrilled that we have other little ones that will be joining us soon.

There are so many others. And plenty of them I recognize but don't yet know by name! On Wednesday we are going to the church wide dinner. We hadn't planned to attend (it costs 25/plate). BUT, Nancy invited us to come as guests of the church...even though we are members! We're pretty excited! Thanks for asking about our church, Mom. We really love it!