Does Ray LaFever Ring A Bell?

Answer - yes he does! Sorry, I'm being slightly silly this morning as I sit in Russells waiting for them to officially open - they are doing the baking right now and it smells great! But I digress.

Yesterday the Committee for the Celebration of the Bovina UP Church's 200th anniversary met to review plans for the celebrations to take place Columbus Day Weekend. The committee includes Pastor Judi Gage, Amy Burns, Colleen Heavey, Monica Gabriel Liddle and Hugh Lee, as well as yours truly.

Saturday October 10th will include the unveiling of a historical marker in front of the church at 11, followed by a service and picnic at the site of the original church at noon. There will be a hike after the picnic for those interested. During the afternoon, there will be historical displays in the church. There will be a history program at 7, where I will talk about Bovina pastors and Amy and Colleen will present a slide show on the history of the congregation. This program will be followed by a dessert reception. A DVD of the slide show as well as a brief history of the congregation that I have just about finished writing will be available for sale that weekend.

Sunday the 11th will include a communion service at 10 am, with a number of participants from area churches and some of Bovina's past pastors participating. A luncheon and a very brief history program will follow the service. I'll have more details on this as October gets closer.

But what does this all have to do with a bell? During our meeting yesterday, Colleen wanted the sound of a bell ringing to open the slide presentation. She wondered about recording the carillon, which does tunes and can do a tolling bell. Then we thought, why not try ringing the actual bell, which they do use occasionally. So I volunteered to give it a try. While I knew I might embarrass myself - the rope has to be a good 20 feet below the bell (and totally out of sight of it) and you really have to pull hard to get it pealing away - I just thought it would be totally cool! So Colleen went outside with her video camera and I merrily pulled away for about 2 minutes. People, including Bea here at Russells, wondered what the heck was going on! Unfortunately, my two minute session ringing the bell pointed out that I'm a bit out of shape - I was puffing for about five minutes after! We're going to ring that bell, and we hope the other two in town (the old fire house and the library, which was once a school house) at the opening of the sign unveiling on October 10.

Ok, it's still sunny out - nice after yesterday's rain - so I'm going to have some baked goodies and head out!