I stayed at the party too long, because there were so many people I wanted to talk to. So I was late getting to the mountains to see my Dad. Since I was only there for an hour and a half, I decided to go to church with him and his wife. He has never been a particularly religious guy, but he loves this church and its pastor.
I don't usually go to church, but I found this service very moving and everyone was thrilled to see my father there. It was quite an effort to get him there and people were touched that he'd made the effort to come there. Everyone in the church seemed to know him...it was a small church in the woods, packed to the gills. Everyone crowded around him and expressed their love for him. The pastor was extremely casual and made quite a few jokes. But his very brief sermon was about peace and extremely anti-war. This church does a lot of outreach for Habitat for Humanity, they send groups up to KY every year to help out coal miners' families, they do a tremendous amount for such a small church, and they didn't even take up a collection.
I don't go to church, as I said, but if they weren't so far away I would consider joining.