I wanted to write about the office repair and refurbishment process.  It’s looking great.  But I’m writing this column the Saturday afternoon of our District Assembly weekend and I’m so excited about the experience we are having that I feel like I need to talk about that, too.

District Assembly started Friday evening with a Long Beach “Beach” Party.  Eduarda Diaz-Schwarzbach led a team of UUCLB volunteers in creating beautiful sea-themed decorations and center-pieces for tables set up on the lawn.  Elmer Taylor strung white-colored rope lighting around the underside of the “structure” which looked amazing as the sun went down. Cheryl Kessler, our caterer, provided gourmet snacks that “everyone could eat” gluten-free, grain-free, allergan-free, and sugar-free.  They looked as beautiful as they tasted. 

Meanwhile, inside the hall, people danced and played with inflatable beach balls.  Roy and Tammy Lansdown and their band, “The Boat Missers” played the most fun set of live music, which we also broadcast out to the lawn for the people who were enjoying conversation and food in the gorgeous spring evening.

This morning (Saturday), the District Assembly program continued with a youth-led worship and a super-inspiring keynote presentation on creative, collaborative worship from the Director of Music at our congregation in Atlanta.  Francisco sat beside me and we heard several great ideas that we want to follow-up on.  Edie Mickey-Silveria provided the sound and video tech for the presentation as had Bob Moore for the party the night before.

But mostly my take-away is just how grateful I am to all of the incredible volunteers from our congregation as well as our paid staff that stepped up in so many ways to make the event happen and our guests feel welcome:  registration, home hospitality, on-site support, and more.  I am so proud of your generosity and impressed with your skills in making it happen.  The whole list of volunteers is too long to thank here, so just know how appreciated everyone of you is.  And thank you especially to Jeffrey Kessler along with Michael Sallwasser and Linda Savard for taking the lead on this work.

Yes, and, the office looks great.  After the water leak last June a team of UUCLB volunteers stepped up to do the rehab work, find storage space, negotiate with the insurance company, hire contractors, deal with city permits and inspectors.  We got our temporary office in the parking lot in January and at that point the actual remodeling happened fairly quickly.  The office needed a refreshing anyway and an upgrade, so maybe it was all for the good.  I and the rest of the staff are very much looking forward to having our offices and desks again, with file cabinets and shelves close by and space to meet with folks and do our work.  Thank you again, to a whole other team of volunteers for seeing this project through to completion.

Churches are about people coming together to do common work, joyfully and generously, each doing the something they can do, and together doing something more and different than any could do alone.  This DA and the re-opening of the church office, and all the months of work that led up to both of these successes, has really felt like church.  Church at its best.  It’s been a pleasure to experience this at your side.