SunDog

I awoke around 5:00 pm and started my conversation with God praying about the day when it hit me I wasn't sure exactly what day it was. When I realized it was Sunday a smile started all the way down in my chest growing quickly until it reached my mouth. It didn't even matter that the weather outside was frightfully cold, temperatures hovering right at 3 degrees with a stiff wind.
We needed to leave at 7:45 am to arrive by 8:15 am to help David and Stephanie with church lunch but didn't think about the state of the snow covered roads until we were actually ON the snow covered roads driving very slow. We noticed  what we thought was the sun shining through a cloud but was just too far south and different colored until we got on 116 and then were amazed at the sundog.

This is actually the first time I had ever seen this phenomenon caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere. These were very clear and bright. Thanks Rhonda for posting this picture. About this time I realized we were not going to be arriving on time and sent Stephanie a text that we were coming just going to be late. She responded with "we are ALL going to be late." Just as we arrived I remembered that I was suppose to bring the carrots, celery and spinach which were all still sitting in the fridge. Joan was called and agreed to bring them as she was coming early to prepare for her Sunday School class. We had a good group helping and all was finished in plenty of time to get in to hear the service. Tim Roecker had the morning service which was a bit shortened as the annual business meeting was held after it. It really is amazing to hear of all the ministries our beloved church is heavily involved in and the financials were downright humbling. I don't consider Peoria a big congregation and yet the amount of monies donated each year to the Handicapped Home, the Skyline Home, the Leo Children's home, the charity fund, Berean, World relief, Midwest Food Bank was shocking and I'm not even listing them all.
Lunch went great, plenty of food for all and plenty of helpers. Mike Rieker had another Spirit filled afternoon service. What a blessing it was to be there today.  After church I needed to make a pan of brownies for the hymn sing. Ruth, mom, Mark and I drove together. After congregational singing Kindred Spirit blessed us with beautiful songs, beautiful harmony and touching words. It was hard to leave such wonderful fellowship between like minded loving people.