Sunday, September 24

I love when a TFC ministry activity takes us to the Lansdale area and we get to stay at Sam Rittenhouse’s house for a night. He is an accomplished orchard keeper and gardener.

This is one of the first things I saw as I stepped out of his kitchen door.

The end of September is the close of the season, but there are still many beautiful scenes on his property – like these containers of apples and pears which he and some of his family members had picked in the past few days.

I noticed this row of onions on a shelf above the apples and pears in his greenhouse.

It was a beautiful morning to walk through the garden, which he and his sister Betty care for throughout the growing season.

It was obvious that the growing season was coming to an end.

The bean stalks were still green.

I even found a few that may mature if given enough warm days.

It was difficult to pull myself away from the flowers that were soaking up the morning sun.

After reluctantly leaving the garden, I walked through the orchard that had recently been relieved of its bountiful fruits.

Sam said it had been a very good harvest because of our many, timely rains during the spring and summer months.

I hoped that there would still be some figs – and wasn’t disappointed.

There were even a few late-growing – hanging – strawberries.

A pretty leaf in the grape arbor

Oh, bummer! I just heard Cerwin calling my name, saying that breakfast was ready.

I would have rather stayed in the orchard a bit longer – but we needed to eat and get ready for the service at Family Worship Center where TFC’s chapel was a feature of the morning service.

Opening worship is a special feature of the early and late service. We attended the late service so we could be on the chapel when people were leaving the first service and arriving for the next one.

It was great to be with our friends at this church family and meet new people who had many questions about TFC’s  ministry to truck drivers.

Because the chapel had been in the Lansdale area for two weeks, I followed Cerwin for the one-and-a-half-hour drive – mostly on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. We separated at a certain point when Cerwin headed to the TFC office near Marietta and I went home.

It was a great weekend!