The Lord's Day (Proper 14)

Awoke in our O'Fallon hotel room and hit the road eastbound on I-64 a few minutes before 8am. This put in in Mt Carmel in plenty of time to visit with Fr Brant Hazlett, who was waiting for us, and get ready in a leisurely fashion for the regular 10:30 celebration of the Holy Eucharist. There were 34 in attendance, which is pretty good for St John the Baptist. And three of them were babies. What more encouraging sign can there be than to see babies in church?! Well ... one candidate might be adults publicly committing themselves to Christian discipleship, so we rejoice in the adult whom we confirmed as part of the celebration. We were on the road to Springfield just past 1, and pulling into our driveway at 4:45, having been delayed by a spur-of-the-moment decision to shop on a Mexican food market we noticed while driving through Effingham. Strangely, Springfield is devoid of such stores.

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