Once a month, the elders meet with Pastor Tim at the Liberty Diner. There are only two elders–me, and Russ, who was a year behind me in college. We were both part of the core group that left Emmanuel Community Church in 1998 to restart what is now Anchor Community Church (and was then called Third Street Church). There were about 30 people in that original group. Some went back to Emmanuel (having fulfilled their short-term commitments), and some moved out of the area entirely. Only a few couples are left. Me and Pam, along with Russ and his family, always pretty much intended to stay.

The Liberty Diner is blessed with a waitress named Wendy who has a Master’s Degree in Sassiness. We’ve been meeting at Liberty for about four years now, and she’s been there the whole time. She’s 50-something, been divorced, has kids, and wields a very sharp wit. Lots and lots of fun. She never fails to make me laugh. I think she gets in trouble with the management for talking to us too much.

It’s been kind of fun watching her spiritual journey over that time. We’ve been a good influence on her. She’s told about getting back into church, always with amusing observations of church life. One time, she showed up at Anchor (having been prodded by us to do so for many months), and she enjoyed it. We always pray (of course!) before eating our breakfast. One time Wendy was standing there, and Tim asked her to pray for our meal. I’ll bet you’ve not seen that happen before–the waitress praying for the patrons’ meals. She offered a marvelous prayer.

I don’t know what all is going on in Wendy’s life, but I’m confident that we either awakened or reinforced a relationship with Christ that had gone dead or dry. It’s nice to know that, as the three of us talk about our church, we’re also invading a little piece of the world.