Ash Wednesday service went well. It was special to begin the season of lent together as a community. Earlier in the day I placed on the BBQ the palm branches from last years Palm Sunday service. Got enough ash for the service but learned that there is a store that sells ash from the palms by the bag. I will have to think about that for next year as it took about an hour to get just enough Ash from five or six branches. I don’t think I did right.

It was a neat experience to watch the branches burn and to begin thinking about the season of lent and what God has in store for the church and for God’s people. In the last church I served there were two other pastors. We usually did the imposing on one another when everyone else was imposed. As everyone was coming forward I forgot to ask someone to impose me. Sure enough a very cool elder in the church came to my aid. As I drove home I made a quick stop at the neighborhood starbucks for a hot chocalate for the wifey and as I walked up to the counter one of the baristas looks at me and than at my forehead and says, “Oh man, my mom’s going to kill me. I forgot Ash Wednesday service.”Another one says, “why didn’t you tell us?”

I smiled.

Because of where the church is located that I pastor we tend to get visitors who happen to be just passing through. Yesterday right after one of the services I had a guy say to me, “I have a word from the Lord for you. You know there are churches that would die for the kind of intimacy that you guys have here.” He was responding to a prayer during the prayer time we usually have and wanted me to know that what we had in being a small church was wonderful and that the bigger churches might never experience the kind of intimacy we get to experience.

pretty cool.

It was sometime in the 70’s when the Broadway Department Store was still around at Hollywood and Vine. There was a little department store called JJ Newberrys right next door. Mom would take us kids to JJ Newberrys to go shopping. I don’t remember why. I’m guessing it was for school stuff and clothes. Layaway was a big thing for mom. She could go in, drop some cash on the counter, and in a few weeks, be able to buy what we needed. Zodi’s was her other favorite store for layaway stuff. I remember the JJ Newberrys trip like it was yesterday. My two brothers and I sitting at the little old fashion coffee shop counter right in JJ Newberrys eating a scoop of ice cream in those little silver bowls. The lady behind the counter in that old traditional waitress outfit.

Remember Swensens Ice Cream? Another spot on the boulevard where father and mother would take us when cash was available. I think it was at Whitley and Hollywood Blvd. The pictures I received had some photos of my father carrying some ice cream sundaes to our table. As I look through the pictures and the memories from growing up in Hollywood, I find solace in knowing that both of my parents did their best in spite of their own issues. Although dad was a walking Budweiser can and mother had her issues, they both tried their best. I remember a conversation with dad later on before he died. We talked about the church in that he felt if we got connected to the church, somehow we’d be okay. When Mr. Young invited us, it was an opportunity for the church to intervene and they did. In dad’s view he couldn’t do what a father was supposed to do. He felt that if the church could do its work something might happen.

Well? It did.

Thank you dad.