Aren't these just the sweetest little faces?

Our 99 cent, 100-year-old church building purchase included all the contents, so we've been going through cupboards and sorting things out. It's quite the adventure I tell you. Yesterday I even had a little lesson in how to use the commercial dishwasher. I'm SO looking forward to many happy dinners in our new-to-us building. There are not one, but two full sets of beautiful dishes--enough to feed dozens of people! And I'm thinking it's a splendid plan to teach some of the teens how to use the dishwasher.

I brought these sweet little ladies home. They are bell ornaments, about 3" tall, from National Pottery Company of Cleveland Ohio, made in Japan in 1956. Sadly, "little Miss E" was nowhere to be found. She must have met a sad fate somewhere over the years. I'll probably never know the story behind it! So the collection says NOL instead if NOEL. Oh well. I still love the sweet little faces, don't you?

Going through children's hymnals from 75 years ago, and a closet of children's costumes, and drawers filled with sheet music . . . I can't help but think of all the lives that have passed through this building over the years. There must be hundreds of them. I wonder where they are now and what they are doing. And then I wonder about the people that are still to come, and what their stories will be, and wonder who will meet the LORD in our building. And then I realize that I've been sitting with a box of ornaments in my lap for 10 minutes and I'd better stop thinking and start working again--there are lots of closets and shelves still calling my name!