At least it wasn’t Easter

So I messed up. There are two retirement communities/nursing homes in this part of Iowa. They are named Pleasantview and Parkview. Pleasantview is in Kalona and Parkview is in Wellman. I’ve been in Iowa for almost 2 months now and I most definitely know the difference between the two. When I came though, I most certainly did not know the difference. And that would be when I messed up.

Probably 6 or 7 weeks ago, the staff here at West Union were trying to figure out different things I could get involved with this summer. One thing mentioned was a Sunday morning service at Pleasantview. Each Sunday they have a short service for the residents and try to get local churches to take responsibility for them. I had never done anything like that before, but a 30 minute service on a Sunday morning didn’t sound so bad. So I was signed up for July 12th.

Probably around 4 or 5 weeks ago, I was talking with the chaplain at Parkview, who happens to attend West Union. He wondered if I might want to get involved and do a Sunday afternoon service at Parkview. It would just be 30 minutes and pretty low key. That sounded doable. So I was signed up for July 12th at Parkview.

That should have registered as a problem pretty quickly, but I didn’t write it down on my calendar right away. I turned my focus to Crooked Creek and Conference meetings and MYF Bible Studies and National Convention. In that time I got involved at Parkview several more times, just attending Bible studies and singing with the residents. Sunday afternoon, July 12th was constantly in my mind. I had a small group from West Union lined up to help me out and I was working on a short message to share.

So July 12th came. I went to West Union in the morning and Parkview in the afternoon. The service went fairly well and I was feeling pretty good until afterward when someone asked me how the service at Pleasantview went. What service at Pleasantview? Uh oh.

I’ve been keeping a very good calendar all summer! My first week I printed off the months I would be here and I’ve kept everything written down. Sure enough, there on July 12th was penciled in “Pleasantview service.” I wrote that about 7 weeks ago and hearing nothing about it since then, but plenty about Parkview, I assumed I had mixed the two places up from the start. I hadn’t even been to both places yet when I wrote it down. So I had assumed “Pleasantview” really meant “Parkview,” when really that was not the case. Bummer.

So I missed the service at Pleasantview Sunday morning. I’m not sure what they did that morning without me. Since then everything has been straightened out and apologized for. Dave reassured me that it wasn’t as bad as several years ago. Someone at West Union forgot once before, except that was Easter Sunday. Yeah, at least I didn’t forget on Easter Sunday!


I’m doing well here in Iowa. I’ve been to a Church Council meeting and a Worship Commission meeting. I had worship band practice and sang with the band on Sunday. I went to Men’s Luncheon and shared a devotional. I had two pastoral visits to older couples in the congregation with health issues. I spent some more time at Parkview and sat in with a meeting of all the Mennonite pastors in the area.

Recently I’ve been working on a sermon for Sunday. They’re finally going to get me up and preaching! It’ll be a part of the MYF’s sharing about their time at Convention, so it’ll be a low key service. For a practiced procrastinator, I’m pretty pleased with how far along I am with the sermon still three days before Sunday.

For the next few days I will be home alone. My hosts, Wilbur and Helen, are in Oklahoma for a few days at a wedding. Then they’ll be home for a little over a week before heading out for a family reunion. My last week in Iowa will therefore be spent in an empty house. It’ll be quiet and I won’t eat quite as well, but it won’t be the worst thing in the world.


If anyone previously cared about my computer golfing update, then you’ll also like to know that I golfed a tournament at -87. -87 through 72 holes seems pretty decent.