What Do You Want?

Today my friend Pat was asking me what I wanted for Pastor's Appreciation (in October).

I feel like the church takes of me very well, both salary-wise and in the small ways. But at the same time, I'd never have the gall to ask for something huge like a new car. Something like that would be too embarrassing for me to accept (the cost of a new car could hire a part-time office administrator or could be a radical investment in a new missionary).

But I did come up with something. It's doable (but not by me by myself) and relatively inexpensive. There's a small, egg-shaped granite boulder at the place I grew up in Winchester. My dad dug it out of the field there and moved it up to the house where I jumped off it a thousand times growing up. I've already asked the current owner for it, but he said he would want it replaced with a nice park bench.

The trick is moving it. It's not large but I bet it weighs 1000 pounds or more. I don't have the means to lift it or transport it. But I'd love to have it at my current house, alongside the "Altic" stone that came from the property where my dad grew up. Then someday, one of my sons (Brennan, probably?) would inherit the "Altic" stone and my little granite boulder to have at his house. Those rocks hold a lot of sentimental value to me.

Help with a project like this is far more valuable to me then some huge gift in the same way that the help we received remodeling our house has endeared those people's time and effort to a place deep in my heart. Likewise, someday I'll save up the money to pave my driveway and put in a basketball goal. I don't need it given to me, but the help with the project will mean the world to me.

Gifts like these are the best Pastor's Appreciation ever.