Final Photos of First Day at Riverside

These are the final pictures I took of our first day at Riverside. Just give an overall impression of what it was like.

Tripp Nelson, son of Courtney and Cully Nelson
Chris and Ella Rose Hancock
Ellie on left. Arlen on Right.
The room for Bed Babies,obviously. Right now we have none, but 2 are due after Christmas.
Classroom space.

Looking out from the front windows.

The very front room. This will be used as classroom space, and Steve's Office/or Study.

Jamie and Lily Grace French, coming up the hall, from the worship center. I think that is Jason French behind them, and probably Gregory, their son is with them.

Steve, Mike Bratton, and Gerry Teal (left to right)

Charlie Rhodes. If anyone happens upon this post who doesn't know me at all - Charlie Rhodes is my husband. So, I'll refrain from writing paragraphs under this photo. This is Charlie Rhodes, my husband, the other parent of our four girls, the other grandparent to our 3 and almost 4 grandchildren.

Jeremy Woosley and Steve, still in the kitchen - and I'm trying to get candid shots.

Jeremy and Joannie Woosley, again. I have to say that we are all humbly grateful to their skills with audio technology, etc. Without them, well, I guess all announcements would have to be shouted. Funny, how in the old days, churches carried on without microphones. No video equipment, no overhead amps, whatever. These days, no way. We are very dependent on all of that. Joannie and Jeremy do it and tirelessly, seemingly without effort. He was also my hero when Ann and Steve married - making it possible for the reception to go off smoothly under the tent - adding electricity where it was needed for the lighting and for the sound and for the caterer. Yay.

Just a shot from where I was sitting - people listening to announcements, etc.

Chris Wells leading the singing. We are very proud of our pulldown screens which show the words to the songs, and which show scripture when Steve has us flipping pages. Very nice to have. I can tell that is Jamie French, Gregory and Jason French from the back.

This is Mike Bratton welcoming everyone and thanking everyone for all that they did to help get the building ready. He couldn't just stand up there and thank himself - but later Charlie did, when he did post service announcements. Mike is in building construction - actually - owner of Tennessee River Steel - His son, Ben, (prior picture of Ben and Esther) is graduated from Auburn U. in Building Science and now works with Mike. So, he saw this old run down building and had a vision for the possibilities. I never saw it in its worst condition. They say it looked impossible - but Mike knew what to do, so he led the way. Wow. I can't believe how it looks now. So comfortable and clean and pleasant. Thanks to Mike. Mary, in other pictures is his wife. We go so far back with Mike and Mary. and their two children, Ben and Beth. Again, it would take paragraphs upon paragraphs.

Donna Watwood, our pianist. Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, happy, always smiling, Donna Watwood. We've inherited a lot of musical talent in our new church - and eventually there should be lots of good music, glorifying God, coming from our building. We're in our babysteps stage right now.

Our first solo/duet, ever, since we started meeting as a church. In the temporary building and in this new building. That is Danielle Knox on the right. A student at U of AL. I didn't know the young man, but was told he is Barkley Smith - his dad used to be our vet before he went to full time missions. Carolyn Smith, Barkley's sister, was the age of my Laura Beth. They were gone so very long, and now the children are grown - so don't know them all. Anyway - the duet was really a blessing to me. I put the camera down quickly after this picture. Seemed inappropriate to be taking pictures. The moment was really worshipful, I thought. Danielle is the daughter of Sheila and Dan Knox. They are in our church.

People mingling after church. That's Charlie in the white shirt, standing. That's Steve talking with Jamie French. Looks like Jason French on the right, standing.

More mingling. It was much more conducive(too lazy to look up the spelling for that word) for that in our new location. People didn't seem to want to leave. I stayed and stayed. And I still had to leave for Auburn and would be gone a week.

People leaving. I just included all these photos which are so random and not great photography, because the overall idea is a sense of belonging and church body - and an "at home" feeling. Even going through that door leads to the fellowship hall - it was just fun to be there that day and hard for us to leave.

Ellie taunting Luke with her stick. She isn't hitting him. In fact, they might be laughing and playing. I don't think I would have been taking the picture if it was a fight. I think I would have been rescuing Luke from the stick. This is out front, so we had finally made it outside and trying to work our way to the cars.Ellie liked the stick she had found, so I took a picture of her with it. She wanted to take it home with her. Ann suggested she put it in a safe place for the next Sunday. Somewhere secret in the yard. She did.

That's all the pictures. All the post. For today. Can now get back to my diary entries, starting tomorrow. :-)