Near Perfect Sunday

　　Whenever we go to church on Sunday we take the train.  First we walk down our hill which takes about 15 minutes, and then we take a train for about 10 minutes.  The church is just a minute or two from the station.  Even when we get a ride home with someone from church it always seems like such a long distance to go.  It never occurred to us to try biking to church.  Willem recently did the biking merit badge with the boy scouts, so we decided we would give biking to church a try. When we checked the map on the internet we discovered it was only about 7 or 8 miles.

　　We first tried the ride about a month ago and were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was.  We live near the Tama river, which has a paved path for joggers and bikers along it.  Probably 3/4 of the ride to church follows this path.

　　Yesterday was a beautiful spring morning, so we decided to make the ride again. One thing we like about riding is that it is much less stressful.  Often we are rushing in the morning to catch our train to get to church on time.  We know we have to leave earlier when we bike, so we are all prepared to get up and get going in the morning.  The boys also are a little more cooperative in the morning when they know they get to ride their bikes.
　　The first time we went, Xavier made it about 2/3 of the way before we needed to lock his bike up at a park and put him in the seat behind Terence.  This time, however, he made the whole trip on his own.  We were very proud of him.
　　At church we had Sunday school followed by our regular service.  During the prayer time one of the prayer requests was for Mr. H.  He is a man who has recently joined our church.  He has been sick and the last we had seen him was at the end of last year. We knew he would be gone for a few weeks, but everyone was getting worried.  One of the people in our church had been trying for several weeks to get a hold of him and finally managed to call him this week.  He reported that indeed, Mr. H. had been sick.  Getting in touch with him was an answer to prayer, but an even greater one happened a few minutes later when Mr. H. walked through the door and joined us for the service.  We all were very happy to see him again.
　　After church we stayed with some others from the church to stuff Easter eggs with candy and make other preparations for Easter. For lunch we ran to a Pizza Hut near the church to pick up a pizza.  We don't have a Pizza Hut near our apartment, and when we told Willem we were having Pizza Hut he was ecstatic.  I think that really made his day.
　　When we finished at the church we made our way back home at a leisurely pace, stopping here and there to get a drink or check out a new store along the way.  We ended up coming home later than we planned, but the time spent together as a family was well worth it.