DAY SIX

Day six, and what a week it has been! We had Liturgy this morning with our new friends in Marquette! Paisius chanted along with Fr. Mark from Lansing while our own Father Gregory served the Liturgy. We were greeted by the congregation with hugs and hand shakes and comments…..lots of comments. “All of these windows have not been opened for 20 years! There was one on each side that we could kind of open”. “The blue is so beautiful, it’s so bright and cheery now”….etc. It was a humbling experience for us to serve this community. We are truly spoiled with all that we have; and I think that we forget that. Fr. Gregory introduced all of us to the congregation and said a bit about what we bring to the team, which made us a bit more appreciative of our strengths. After service we all had a pot luck lunch together and all of the food was amazing. We brought the dessert! One of the Parish members owns a bakery called “The Cookie Jar” and when you walk in you are greeted by the bright sunny blue and white of a Greek Village and cases of the good stuff. We brought a tray of baklava and an enormous pan of Rice Pudding. You would all love the women we spent our time with! Sophia, the Head of the Parish Council. Lynn, set up the lunch train and came to see us just about every day. Helen of course owns the Cookie Jar. This was truly an act of love on our part. Their church only has service once a month and their income is quite a bit less than ours. The big surprise was that this year they will be celebrating their 75th year Anniversary with a visit from the Metropolitan. We didn’t know that before we got there and were truly blessed to be of service to them all. May we always remember that it’s not what you have but how you treat it.

Thank you to all of the team that traveled 12 hours each way to perform this labor of love. You are all amazing.

Paula Koneda