Thanks to God for Samuel Jackson
We left Basingstoke at a reasonable time, 8am, and stopped just outside Birmingham for coffee to time our arrival at the church, Grace Church on the outskirts of Birmingham. Jenny and Graham are part of the leadership team there.
We arrived just after 10:45, in time to get seats together. The relatively small chapel was packed to overflowing. Just before 11am, I was delighted to see my dad and sister arrive. We hoped they would make it but were not sure.
The service was informal and delightful. Sammy had not been well and hadn't slept a great deal for several days. Nevertheless, he was beautifully behaved as Jenny and Graham, then his Godparents and then the whole congregation pledged to support his upbringing in a Christian environment. Grace Church is a free evangelical church and this was not a traditional Church of England Christening.
This was a great family get together. Unfortunately, our son John was working and unable to get time off. Chris came with us and Cathy travelled from Norwich. Graham's family from the Worthing area were there in force, the first time we had met them since the Thanksgiving for Sammy's older brother Ben.
After the service, most of us went to a local pub for lunch (unfortunately, my sister had to get back home because her husband Jim was not well, so that meant that my dad couldn't join us either). Service was dreadful, but that didn't really matter because everyone was happy to relax and talk.
We left around 4:30pm. I had been sitting in the wrong position for too long. My hip ached and I had problems with abdominal cramps in the car going home. However, this was transient and passed almost as soon as we got home, so was a small price to pay for a wonderful day. However it did remind me that I do still have to be careful about what I do,