Without Judgment

I am curious to know how many people attend a church service when they are on vacation? There is no right or wrong answer. I do not attend church when I am on vacation. Jim does, or he would if I didn't whine and pitch a fit like a shrew.

We have been fortunate enough to stay in a house on the Cape this week. Actually, Jim and Jared have been here all week, and I joined them on the weekend. The house with its traditional dormers and shingled sides is shaded by giant oak trees and surrounded by a split rail fence. It is just a quarter mile from the beach. It couldn't be more perfect.

The owners of this fine house are lovely folks who have befriended Jim and his ministry. They remember the old days of Fair Haven and Fair Haven Christian School.

In any event, they have generously shared this house with our family, and they stopped by the house Saturday morning to "check" on us bringing a Ziploc bag of freshly cleaned bluefish that they had caught that morning. I chatted with the Mrs. about the best way to cook it, and Jim chatted with the Mr. about how relaxing the week had been.

I adore both of them, by the way. He wears suspenders that are often askew. He has a warmth you can't fake. And, that he loves my husband is enough for me to like him forever. She is spunky in the way that only 60 somethings can be. Far from being finished with the adventures of life, she is busy making sure she does the things she has always wanted to do. Much of the bluefish they brought had been caught and cleaned by her that morning on her first EVER fishing trip.

We all chatted in that comfortable way people talk when they are enjoying the dog days of summer....and, then they mentioned that when we were deciding where to go to church the next morning, we could consider the church next door that had both a traditional and contemporary service. They thought Jim would like the contemporary music the most. (SURPRISE!)

The key phrase was "when" we decided where to go to church not IF. It startled me to realize that there are some folks who don't take vacation from church at all. It isn't even in their thinking.

Jim thanked them, and said he hadn't yet decided what he was going to do, but he was strongly being encouraged to play hookie. The crestfallen faces smote my heart. I tried not to feel bad, but I did just a little. I felt as though my vacation heathenism had somehow disappointed our benefactors. I didn't feel bad enough to go just to please them, but it made me consider the situation.

I was trying to remember why church had never been an issue when I went on vacation with my family growing up. Our vacations were usually in campgrounds. I do remember that we had our own little service around the campfire on Sunday morning. Sometimes we invited folks my parents had befriended to join us, but we never went to church anywhere else. Then I remembered: Kingdom people didn't go to church at other churches back then. They just didn't.

Later that day, we were driving to Mashpee, and we saw a little white church with a big banner across the front that read: CELEBRATE RECOVERY!

I thought that IF I was going to church on vacation, that is where I would like to go. Because we are all in recovery of some sort or another. Some may be recovering from the traditional vices such as drugs or alcohol. But, we might be recovering from the loss of faith. We might be recovering from betrayal. We might be recovering from a death so unfair that we haven't yet been able to reconcile our hearts with God. We might be recovering from things we have done to numb our pain--things that instead have bruised our souls. We might be recovering from the past. The present. The future.

Others, who have been fortunate enough to be spared the aforementioned losses, might simply need to recover from their sense of spiritual superiority. They might need to work on recovering from pride before they have to do the really hard work of recovering from the fall that certainly follows on the heels of such smugness.

The truth is: We all have something from which we need to recover. The hurts. The painful places. The losses. All turn to lessons and growth in recovery. And, recovery turns to discovery as we learn to live again.

As for me and my household we will serve the Lord. And, if we go to church on vacation, we will go where folks CELEBRATE RECOVERY! (with an exclamation point).

Music in the clearing

Pastor plans outdoor performance space in friend's memory
By Lauren Mears, GDT Correspondent

ESSEX - Now that the 50- to 60-foot pine trees are cleared from land behind Emmanuel Community Church, Pastor Jim Lafontaine is ready to move forward with plans for an outdoor performance space in memory of a friend who shared his vision.

"I want to make it usable for music and other community events," Lafontaine said. "I started to hold a type of open-house, open-mic event the last Saturday of each month, but I wanted the area to be larger and more usable."

Lafontaine was working as a drug counselor when he began thinking about the possibilities of such a space.

"After people go through such an ordeal of quitting a substance, it's hard to find things to do and places to go and meet people," Lafontaine said. "I wanted to create a place for people to come together, have some fun and listen to some good music."

The vision was shared by Joel Chase, a friend of Lafontaine and member of his church, who died in May 2006, in his early 40s.

"He was going to clear the area out himself, but he died unexpectedly of heart failure," Lafontaine said. "His mother told me that with his last paycheck he bought some saws to do the work."

After Chase's death, the work was postponed, but the vision lived on and a donation from the Chase family helped move it forward.

Lafontaine hired Mayer Tree Service of Essex to clear the overgrown land. "Dan Mayer (the owner) gave us a big discount that helped a lot," he said.

Lafontaine also received some cleanup help from Chris Thibodeau of the Ipswich Family YMCA's Camp CIT and her counselors in training, who made the work their summer community service project.

"I felt it would be an interesting project and a neat idea," Thibodeau said. "It is really something that will help the community and bring people together."

Lafontaine's ultimate dream is an amphitheater in the clearing behind the church, but will start more modestly, possibly with a gazebo, picnic tables and a horseshoe pit.

"We are taking it slow, one piece at a time and different people in the church are helping in different ways,"

Lafontaine said. "Being in recovery myself, I'm excited to offer a place for clean, sober events, getting together and really providing a good atmosphere for people in recovery."

Lafontaine will name the outdoor performance space for Chase.

"I want it to be a memorial to him because he was so excited about it," he said.

Come to the water...