Isn't it amazing how quickly the weeks roll by? Here we are in April already. Did any of you get caught on April Fool jokes? My five-year-old granddaughter tried to pull one on me by saying it was going to snow 3 feet. When I looked at her with a bit of disbelief, she quickly changed it to 3 inches. I guess she realized she wasn't going to "snow" Grammy with such a whopper of a story. So I played along on the 3 inches. Getting to say "April's Fools" is half the fun.
April is shaping up to be an extra busy month around here. Our church just built a new fellowship hall which is pretty close to miraculous for our little church of about 50 active members. But we've gotten a lot of help and support from former members and friends in the area. And the building is fantastic. I feel blessed anew every time I go in the door. We'd been having all our "eatin' meetings" down in our small and often damp basement under our Sunday School rooms that were built back in the forties. The sanctuary part of the church was actually built in 1875. So it's old. And no, I wasn't a member then. So this new building is a gift to our church. It's light and warm and on ground level with lots of space for everybody to sit down and eat together. We don't have to worry about what we'll do if it rains on Homecoming Day now. We'll just stay inside and enjoy. So we're celebrating with a Fred L. Knickerbocker Fellowship Hall dedication day the last Sunday of the month. We named the building after Br. Fred who has been our minister now for about 25 years. He was a vocational school teacher for many years besides being a pastor and all his students called him Mr. K. So we're calling the new fellowship hall K Hall. And of course, at our church any time we celebrate we have to eat, so we're having a big dinner with everybody invited. Come on over if you're close enough to know where Goshen is. The way my church in the Hollyhill books looks was based on Goshen, but only the dedicated, loving members at Mt. Pleasant in Holly County are like the people who were going to Goshen when I started attending there at the age of 17. And yes, that was a long time ago, too.
But that's not all that's going on in April. First I'm having my big event at my local library here in Anderson County on April 13. That's next Sunday. We're going to have a big time talking about my Hollyhill books and how much Hollyhill looks like my hometown, Lawrenceburg or really, any small town. I'm hoping to have some fun with '60s trivia and give out some doorprizes. I went shopping for them last night. Got to give away some Elvis, you know. If you've read
Summer of Joy, you'll know why. I'm doing a repeat performance on May 8th at the Paul Sawyier Library in Frankfort. That's a Thursday night at 6 p.m.
On the in between Sunday, April 20, our church is helping a very special couple in our church celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. Now that's an accomplishment. Loretta and Earl are the sweetest couple in the world and they're still able to live at home. Not only that, but Loretta still cooks a mean meal and is an artist with her sewing needle. You should see some of the dolls she has made. Plus she remembers all my grandkids' names when she's got a dozen or two grands and great grands and even a couple of great great grands. Both Loretta and Earl believe in Bible study and have read through the Bible a number of times. They love to ask Br. Fred Bible study questions. Earl is having some health problems. After all, he is 95. So say a prayer for him that he'll be able to enjoy his big day. The whole family is supposed to show up to help them celebrate and someone sent in the information to the Today Show. So if you're watching and hear them talking about Loretta and Earl on April 23rd, you'll know that they are two of my favorite church people. At Goshen, I have had so many wonderful church people who loved me without reservation.
I'm also going to be on a panel at the Southern Kentucky Book Festival on Saturday, April 19 plus a couple of speaking dates in the next few weeks. I know you'll pray for me. Thank you. I want to be an encourager to the people I meet and especially to those I talk to. I came across a quote while I was doing the bulletin for church this week. I don't remember exactly how it went, but it was something like this -- Sometimes we cheat ourselves when we just ask for our own prayers to be answered because the Lord may have so much more in mind for us.
Thanks for dropping by. Remember if you want to be in the drawing for an early copy of
The Outsider, you need to go to my website
http://www.annhgabhart.com/ and e-mail me. Enjoy your week.
We've been married forever. Well maybe not forever in the sense of history forever, but nearly forever in our own history. The battered and well worn picture above was taken the first year we started dating. We were at an amusement park with a church group and ducked into one of those little booths they used to have where you put in your coins and the machine spit out a strip of photos. Probably the very first picture of us together. We were both so young. And here's a recent picture. A lot of water under the bridge between the two photos. A lot of good times, a few hard times. 
