Sunday, August 19, 2007

Things Hoped For; Things to Come


















I thought I'd share some photos of the chapel at the park district-owned Kemper Center in Kenosha, where our baby church plant meets. We usually rent a small conference room in what used to be the library of this former Episocopalian girls' school. But once we outgrow it, we'll be meeting here on Sunday mornings. Isn't it beautiful? It's mainly used for weddings now.


Once in a while, another group wants the conference room on a Sunday morning, and then they let us have the chapel.

Our group is small enough that we can all fit in the choir.




The rood screen separates the altar area, or chancel, from the nave, or main seating area.





The altarpiece...









...and a detail from the altar.


Don't all these images point straight to Christ?


















This is my favorite window. There's something about it...Christ holding out the cup, inviting me to drink...that speaks to me. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it."























This is the view from the altar looking toward the back of the church.

Don't you love the order and precision of the traditional lines? It's like the architectural equivalent of baroque music.


I ought to post a few shots of our normal meeting space, which is also quite lovely, so you can picture us there on Sunday mornings. We have 4 families, a single, and two couples meeting regularly together now, for a total of 13 adults and 15 children (to become 16 this week, as one family will be welcoming a new baby on Wednesday).

We haven't officially "launched" yet: no sign out front, no listing anywhere, no advertising. We had hoped to begin the planning process for a launch after we were moved, but we're going to begin despite our geographical distance. The team is ready, and it just feels like time. So Papa Rooster is going to drive up there after work, one night a week, to meet with the core team for prayer and planning.

On the home selling front, we've dropped our price as far as we realistically can, and we haven't had a showing in weeks. I don't know when the Lord is going to get us up there, but the timing is completely in His hands. In the meantime, it seems that He is asking us to stretch for awhile, to live in the hard place of waiting...of driving...of continual cleaning...of not knowing.

Your prayers are always appreciated.

4 comments:

Donna Boucher said...

What a gorgeous church!

I will keep praying for your house sale...and that God brings you a lovely faithful church family.

Carrie said...

I just finished browsing through your blog a bit and I love it! I've seen you "around" a few times through Semicolon and Snapshot. It was enjoyable "getting to know you" a bit better by a more indepth reading.

LOVE the church building, btw! That's awesome.

Islandsparrow said...

I've enjoyed catching up with you Jeanne - and want you to know I'm keeping you in prayer.

Amy said...

What a beautiful church! We worship in a church similar to this one when we live in WI. It was built in the 1860s.