We only have two congregations that qualify as the NL portion of NT-NL, and I finally made it to both of them on one Sunday. The morning visit was an official one to attend worship and preach for the congregation of St. Stephen Lutheran. I love the season of Advent and getting to see how it is celebrated in different congregations. It’s just a beautiful liturgical season.

An added bonus for this visit was their annual Christmas lunch, hosted by SAWL Harold Christiansen and his wife Betsy. He’s retiring in May and Joel Hicks is already getting prepared to take his place.

Another bonus was finding out that the choir at Holy Trinity had their annual cantata scheduled that evening. So even though it was not an official visit, I also got to experience the Christmas season at Holy Trinity too. The performance was excellent and the talent was evident. They are blessed!