That is the nice thing about being in Arizona. Fresh berries are available all year round. I could not get my fill of fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.
The raspberries were the best. So plump and flavorful! They never looked and tasted that good back home.
After another one of Carolyn's typical belly-busting breakfasts, it was time to get ready for church.
Oh! I had such a big urge to play "hookie" from church. As much as spirituality is a big part of my life, I can still be a lazy bones.
But I could not play "hookie." In fact, the church was expecting me. And not only that, my church back home was expecting a report from me on the Arizona church.
You see, long before coming to Arizona, I went on-line to find out the location of an Episcopalian church in the Cave Creek area. And low and behold! I found one indeed. Not only that, it was a Good Shepherd church like my own.
I go to the Church of the Good Shepherd in Fairhaven, MA. And this church in Cave Creek is called Good Shepherd of the Hills.
Now what would be the chances of me finding another Good Shepherd church in the same town where I will be staying? Pretty slim, I think.
"Good Shepherd" is a popular church name. There are about 100 different Good Shepherd churches out of the thousands of Episcopalian parishes in the United States.
Now there are about 7 Good Shepherd churches in the rather small state of Massachusetts. Yet in the much larger state of Arizona, there are only 2 Good Shepherd churches.
So, the chances of me finding a church in Arizona bearing the same name as my own church on the opposite coast were pretty slim.
Excited that the church in Cave Creek was also a Good Shepherd church, I contacted that church about a month before I was due to leave for Arizona. Not wishing to be a passive church visitor, I took it upon myself to serve as my church's ambassador to Cave Creek's Good Shepherd of the Hills.
I had originally planned just to bring my church's welcoming packet. But then I decided upon a more ambitious project. And not only that, I was going to get my church involved in its creation.
I decided to present to Good Shepherd of the Hills something that would show what Good Shepherd in Fairhaven was all about.
Thus, I was going to create a mini-album that had photos of my church, its people, and important events. I was also going to include a history of the church, along with a copy of a newspaper article about our church's centennial celebration.
I got the whole church involved in a photo shoot 2 Sundays before I left for Arizona.
Between that Sunday and the next, I assembled the mini-album despite all the difficulties and set-backs that popped up.
The following Sunday, I brought the mini-album to church for all to see, and for people to sign their names and write their well wishes in the back of the book.
Everybody loved the book and wanted a copy for our church to have. Some even thought that such a book would make a great fund-raiser. (Looks like I'm going to have my work cut out for me!)
And now, that little hand-bound book was sitting on my bed wrapped in teal and chartreuse tissue paper and tucked into a bright magenta gift bag.
It was time to gather my humble gift and drive down to the church.
Parking my car I beheld Good Shepherd of the Hills. The beautiful adobe structure was not like the structures of the churches back home. 
I got out of my car and took my time, slowly walking up the driveway to the front of the church. A woman was preparing to get out of her car. And so I waited until she did before I went up to introduce myself and ask her where I need to go to find Nicole or Marilyn, the 2 women who responded to my emails. 
The older woman, whom I later found out was the organist, led me to the right of the main entrance through the gate 
and across the courtyard, into the church hall, and to the church office, where I was introduced to Nicole.
Nicole welcomed me and gave me 2 copies of The History of Good Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church for me to bring back home.
She also gave a bottle of cold water. Handing out bottles of water was one of the church's outreach efforts. On each bottle the label bore the image of the church, its address, and contact information. Pretty cool! (Our sextant back home went nuts over the bottled water outreach idea.)
Next Nicole brought me into the church itself to show me around. There were only a small handful of parishioners present because it was still a bit too early for service.
Nicole brought me to a pink sitting room that had the church's prized stained glass window of the Good Shepherd.
She then left me to find my pew. I already found the visitor information cards and name tags. I filled out the card and dutifully affixed the name tag to my top.
A few minutes later, Father Glenn B. Jenks came up to me to introduce himself and explain the procedure for visitor introductions, which take place at the end of the service.
I was to give the filled out visitor information card to the person next to me, and that person was supposed to introduce me. However, there was no one sitting next me ~ at least not yet. So Fr. Glenn kindly handed the card to a fellow sitting behind me and asked him to do the honors.
The church was filling up. This may be "the little church with the big heart," it was much bigger than my church. Perhaps Arizonans have a different concept of what's little, just like they seem to have a different concept of what's "just a little ways up the road."
Being the ever observant (i.e., nosy) one, I noticed that this crowd dressed rather well, not like my humble parish, which has a very casual, "come as you are" feel to it. I noted with wry amusement the only time you would see my flock dressing that nicely was when the bishop was coming for a visit.
Still, the nice style of dress did not diminish in the least the warm welcome the people in this church have shown me. Nor did it diminish the very strong presence of the Holy Spirit.
Now it was time for the service to start. I was anxious to note the similarities and differences between our 2 churches.
For starters, the Cave Creek church was about 3 times the size of the Fairhaven church, both in building space and attendance. When singing, the voice of that many people easily filled the walls of the church.
The organist wore a robe and was behind the rail, to the left of the altar.
There were 2 priests and one deacon celebrating the Eucharist. At my church, you would not see that many clergy officiating unless the bishop was visiting or there was a special occasion.
What surprised me was the small wireless headsets worn by the priests. You'd never need something like that back at the home church! (In fact, when it's my turn to read, people in the back row can hear me, even over the crying babies.)
In my church there are 3 people in the Gospel procession ~ the cross-bearer, the Gospel-bearer, and the priest. At this church, there were only 2 people ~ the deacon who served both as cross-bearer and Gospel-bearer by processing up the aisle holding the Gospel aloft followed, and the priest who followed.
Following the Good News, Fr. Glenn's sermon started off with an awakening punch.
He said that while he knew that Christ came to save the world, he often wondered from what was Christ trying to save us. And the provocative answer that he arrived at was "religion."
Christ came to save the world from religion. Thus started a very thoughtful sermon on good religion and bad religion. (How I wish I asked for a copy to share with my church!)
When the Eucharist was celebrated, I observed that the vessels were pottery ~ very fitting for this area of the country.
Unlike my church, which has its announcements just before the offertory, this church has them at the end of the service, which is also when visitor introductions are made.
At the end of the service, before introductions were made, a couple got up to speak of their most recent mission experiences at the Bullrushes Babies' Home in Kampala, Uganda.
The tales of babies being thrown out in the trash were heart-breaking. Bullrushes was one place that would rescue these cast-off and extremely sickly babies and nurse them back to health. It's tragic how the AIDS epidemic and civil unrest have affected the little babies.
(Fortunately, the Watoto Mission has stepped in to give these parentless babies and children a fighting chance by placing them with loving and nurturing families in the hopes of raising Uganda's next generation of leaders.)
The couple also had many photos of their mission to share with their fellow parishioners in the church hall during fellowship.
Next came the visitor introductions. There were just 2 of us ~ me and a fellow named Scott from Surprise, AZ.
After the service, most of the church exited through the side door in the right wing, and through the courtyard for fellowship.
The table way in the rear, on the right, displays the photos from Kampala.
What a big and nice looking church hall. And the fellowship munchies were pretty good ~ cheese, crackers, and HUGE juicy strawberries. (God! It would be worth it to move down to Arizona just for the fresh and juicy year-round berries!)
I loved this beautiful gold cross.
Anyhow, I still had my gift bag in hand and needed to find Fr. Glenn to ask him how I could best present my gift to the church.
Fr. Glenn took control of the matter and made an announcement about my gift.Just like my church back home loved the mini-album, it was a BIG hit at this church. Everybody was oohing and ahhing over it, saying how much it would be a great idea to have such books about their church for parishioners to bring with them when they travel.
(Do you think I could have started a new church trend with this humble gift?)
What also surprised me was that everyone went nuts over the welcoming packet from our church ~ the one the diocese puts out. I would have never thought that something like that would elicit such an enthusiastic response. Maybe it's because I see these packets every time I walk into church.
I had a pleasant chat with Fr. Glenn. He seemed intrigued with my camera, a Nikon D-80, which I am still learning how to use. Fr. Glenn had me follow him into his office where he gave me a separate business card. It appears that Fr. Glenn is also a photographer besides being a priest (and a lawyer).
After chatting with Fr. Glenn, I wanted to go back into the church so that I could take some pictures of the inside. Unfortunately, both the side and front doors were locked.
However, Nicole was more than happy to accommodate me.
Grabbing a key, we once more crossed the courtyard to the side door, which Nicole unlocked. Not only that, she was kind enough to put on the lights and let me have the run of the church. 
This is what visitors see when they first walk through the doors of Good Shepherd of the Hills. Off to the right is a wing that seats even more people.
Here's a closer shot of the altar.
From the altar, looking towards the rear of the church, you can see the choir loft. Nicole says that it's a favorite with the kids. I can see why. I know that in my parents' church the choir loft held a special attraction for me, perhaps even more so because it was verboten to anyone but those in the choir.
So, I definitely had to go and check out the choir loft.
I climbed the stairs and opened the door to what I thought was the entrance to the choir loft.
Wrong!
Those doors led me out onto a balcony instead.
OK, so how do I get to the choir loft?
Apparently I had to go through a set of double doors that I saw on the balcony. Those doors led to the choir loft. What an odd way to get to the choir loft.
Looking down from the choir loft, you can see the rest of the church, including part of the right wing.
On the ground floor, you have a better view of that wing. It goes a bit ways back.
As I was leaving the church, I noticed these candles with the Good Shepherd statue in the right wing. It was really nice seeing that for it reminded me of the things that I liked about my original Roman Catholic up-bringing.
Upon leaving the church through the right wing side door, I was once more in the courtyard.
Glancing up, I noticed a hill behind the church hall that had saguaro cacti growing on it. Of course I had to take a picture. It's funny how the foreshorthening in the picture makes it look as though there's a cactus garden growing on the roof of the church hall.
Taking all the pictures I was going to take, I went back into the church hall, which now had been considerably emptied of the many people that it held just minutes before.
I said my thanks and made my good-byes.
Now it was time to shift gears from the sublime to the ridiculous and go next door to the Horny Toad to purchase the bracelet I coveted the day before.
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