Faithful attendance at church meetings brings blessing you can receive in no other way. ~Ezra Taft Benson
I enjoy being at church with my church family every Sunday. Our congregation is small in number but we would love to welcome more people into our Christian family. Today we had Homecoming Day to celebrate our church being an organized body of believers for 2011 years. When 29 people first gathered for a church service in January of 1812 and called that church Goshen, Kentucky had been a state for a mere 20 years. Some years later the church where we still worship each Sunday was built and dedicated in 1889.
I’ve been going to Goshen for almost 60 years and every year (except that Covid year of 2020) we have had a Homecoming Day in October. In the early days we truly had an all day meeting with dinner on the grounds. We had preaching, with often a former pastor bringing the message, then dinner sometimes on wagons farmers pulled up into the yard or that was spread out on a counter in the basement of the Sunday school rooms added in the 1940’s. If it wasn’t raining, plenty of people would carry their plates of food outside to find a place to eat while visiting with the others around them. After we ate, everybody went back into the church for a time of memory and gospel singing.
Now we have the gospel singing in the morning before the meal. Everybody has fun catching up on the news and getting to see former members come back to do that remembering. We built a fellowship hall in 2007 and now we can eat and compare memories in air-conditioned comfort. But the spirit of those old church homecomings still hangs in the air. I was blessed by the friendship and love of so many of the older memories when I started going there as a young bride of 17. I fell in love with the people at that little church. Now I am one of those older members with all the memories of years of worshiping in this little country church.
We had a fun day today with almost all our church pews filled, the biggest crowd we’ve had since we celebrated our 200 years in 2012. Whenever I look back at the pictures of those other homecoming days, I always see so many who are celebrating the big homecoming in heaven. All three of these men enjoying dinner outside and the woman in the middle and her brother behind her in the top picture have moved on up to heaven. My memories of each of them are happy ones. I hope and pray that someday people will continue to worship in that little church and when they think of me that they will smile and remember something nice.
Caption Game
I enjoy turning my giveaways here on my blog into games that can be fun for you as well as give you a chance to win some books. The caption game is one that’s easy to play and I have about a zillion pictures I can look through to find a good one. Since I wanted to talk about Homecoming and start the caption game tonight, I picked a couple of pictures from Homecoming Days The one up at the top is from 11 years ago. I think it might be best for the Caption Game, but if you have a perfect caption for the other picture, that’s okay too. Just tell me if you are doing the men at dinner photo instead of the ladies and one fellow up top.
I’ll pick 3 winners, and the prizes will be the winners’ choices of one of my books. If you can’t think up a caption, any comment will do to get you an entry into the giveaway and a chance to win. I sent out a newsletter last week with a book giveaway too. If you’ve entered that, thank you. If you didn’t get the newsletter, let me know and I’ll send you one. But I promise you will have much better odds of winning here, but somebody will win that newsletter giveaway and this blog giveaway too.
The deadline to enter here is October 14, 2023 at midnight EST. That will give you four times to come up with a great caption for whatever picture I pick out of those zillion or two photos I have. Each time you come up with a caption (or a comment) on a new post, you get another entry into the givewaway drawing. You must be at least 18 to enter, but I’m great with you getting your kids or grandkids or dogs or cats or whoever to help you come up with great captions. So here goes.
What is the caption you would select for the top picture?
Comments 28
Four minds are definitely better than one, right?
Author
Definitely, Patty. Always.
Author
You all are coming up with the best captions for this picture. Thank you so much for playing my Caption Game.
Connie, that certainly can happen with pictures snapped at church events. In 211 years a lot of people have come and gone. We should always make a note of who they are.
Wilma, I love this one becasue if there is one thing true about church people they can have differing opinions about how things should be at the church house.
Lisa, this one is probably the most likely as friends who get together after not seeing each other for a while are always ready to share those grandchildren pictures.
Author
Nora, I like the reader slant you put in your caption. A list of new releases is always something to give a second look.
Bonnie, I think you nailed the caption with a very realistic possiblity. We do love showing pictures of our grandkids.
Hope, LOL. That’s a lot of salt in a pie and yes, it could be extra sweet tea might be needed at that church dinner.
Lucy, your caption is cute for the guys eating outside. I’m sure all three of them did only have root beer. 🙂
Judy, I’m sure plenty of people do inwardly groan sometimes at yet another picture of a vacation or grandkid. But at church, it’s good to be patient and keep admiring those photos.
Pamela, you do want to make sure you’ve got the numbers straight before you holler bingo. And sometimes you need a little help.
Author
More great comments and captions.
Dana, that’s a great caption and shows some imagination. A bass is always good. At least my husband thinks so since he loves singing bass.
Jolynn, sounds as if you’re going to get a fight going for this guy claiming some cook’s potato salad is better than his wife’s. Maybe she was inside where she couldn’t hear him and who knows? She might have been saying that one of the other deacons was better at taking up the offering than her guy. LOL
Pam, glad Jolynn’s caption made you laugh.
Lee, your caption is another that might be spot on. There are always people we aren’t sure we remember in those church pictures that we look through.
Lana, not only the dresses! Look at those hairstyles.
Shelia, glad you enjoyed the post. I’m guessing you’ve been to a few homecomings too. The guy might have been wondering if they ladies were talking about him.
Author
Thanks for all the great captions. You all make these blog games the best.
Paula, your caption made me laugh. Not sure which of the women are going into shock on knowing she’s going to have to make enough desserts for 50. LOL.
Jeanie, I’m guessing you sing in church. One of these ladies has sung specials in church too and another one has played piano in church and very well. So you could be right. 🙂
Deborah, Love is always the best ingredient in any dish.
Ann, your caption is very likely right on the money. That’s what happens often when we start looking through old pictures and realize a lot of time has gone by.
Michelle, I’m hoping it’s the last name we spelled wrong and not George. But names can get some wrong spellings. People even misspell mine now and again since they love attaching an “e.”