Ward baby shower

Today the brethren covered Primary for the last hour.  That's been done on occasion, but this wasn't for the sake of a visiting teaching gathering, but for a baby shower.

I don't know of anyone at this moment who is expecting, and I guess that, in and of itself, is unusual.  This wasn't that kind of a shower.  It was not for any specific person, and we were asked not to wrap anything.  This was to create a ward 'stash' as a welfare effort.

I, for one, check through clearance racks from time to time and buy things to have on hand when someone IS having a baby and I might need a gift.  I took my smallest size sleepers and contributed them today.  We have a lot of turnover in ward membership, and we have people who show up because they have a child in the hospital, or are transported from outlying areas to the NICU at Tacoma General.   It and the local children's hospital, part of TG, are a block away. Its new outpatient building abuts the backside of our chuch building.  So you can guess which bishop gets the phone calls.   You don't have to live in our ward to show up in our meetings, or to need some help.

We had a special lesson on compassionate service and a show-off cake, and a side table with all the gifts displayed.  Some had crocheted blankets, someone had made a quilt.  There was a big box of diapers, and one of the sisters had found preemie clothes.  Lots of items, lots of love.

Once we had a kitchen shower for the building, which was fun, when we needed lots of stuff after moving out and moving back in again; that was fun and useful.  This was rather special.

Our closing hymn was "As Sisters in Zion," fitting, as we had talked about the errands of angels and all that we could do, whatever our limitations or circumstances.  All of us can offer help to the world.

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