REVIVAL

The big event near summer's end
was called the protracted meeting.
Folks came from all around
to hear good old time preaching.

It began on second Sunday
with dinner on the ground.
Early that morning we started
with our share of the cooking.
I mixed potato salad--Mamma fried chicken.
We packed hot food in pasteboard boxes
and put on our Sunday best.
Then with bibles in hands,
we piled into Daddy's blue pick-up truck
and off we drove to church.

We settled onto the seventh pew
and sang with the choir at least a dozen hymns.
Then the preacher preached sin and repentance,
and we tried real hard to listen
over the window fan's vibration.
Finally, after the benediction,
the organist played "Revive Us Again."
We shook hands and hugged old friends
on our way out the door to the feast.

Everyone congregated under oaks and pines.
The women spread their finest linen cloths
on makeshift tables nailed to trees.
Then they set out bowls of salad,
plates of meat, cakes, pies,
and plenty of iced tea and lemonade.

While we ate, we shared and mingled and talked
with visitors, the church folks, the kin.
We stuffed ourselves a little too much,
but it looked like we still had enough food
to start all over again.

After we packed away our leftovers for supper,
we freshened up, then hurried back inside
and tried to cool our faces with cardboard fans
before the afternoon sermon began.

The revival services went all week long--
morning and night.
The preacher gave the invitation
before closing each time,
and there were many who walked down the aisle.

We were strangers and kin and home folks--
all gathered as one.
And during those last days of summer,
we felt the divine presence of God
in that little white frame church.

~Written by Sue~
Copyright 1999

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