All About Ben

By Ben Robinson

Easter Sunday our family had one of those once unusual days, just trying to get together to celebrate Easter.

Ben Robinson

It started with the Sunrise service, which our church — Nine Forks in Dacusville — celebrates every year with the church next door, which happens to been a predominantly black church, Shoals Creek. We’ve been doing this for years, with the service being held at Shoals Creek one year and Nine Forks the next. We may be mostly different races, but we’re all Baptist, so that means we have a meal after the service. When the service is held at Nine Forks, the Shoals Creek pastor — Rev. Charles Hendricks — preaches the sermon, and Nine Forks provides breakfast.

We were shown up in past years when our men’s class would simply send somebody through the drive-through at a restaurant in nearby Berea. The next year, when we were enjoying the deluxe breakfast provided by the members of Shoals Creek, our members decided we needed to do more for our part. The next year we had grits, bacon and ham. This year’s meal was delicious.

As usual, Rev. Hendricks’ message was well-received. There were a few more “Amens” and “tell it, Preacher” than we have on a usual Sunday morning, but by the end of the service, a few were coming from the Nine Forks members.

Rev. Hendricks remembered me, because I had taken his photo with the Nine Forks pastor in previous years.

“So you brought your camera again this year,” Rev. Hendricks asked me during the breakfast.

Later that day, we had several family members show up for the usual Nine Forks service. My nephew Kevin was there showing off his 10-month old son Karson. Kevin grew up in our church, so several people were anxious to see him again, along with his next generation.

Karson’s mother Kristen was there too, along with her parents. Apparently at some point my parents had dined with Kristen’s parents, and they paid for everything, so my mother was desperate to return the favor.

Unfortunately Kristen’s parents were unable to go with us to eat, so the payback will have to wait for another time. I’m sorry we had confusion on the matter, but I seem to be eating well through everything.

In addition, my niece Rebecca and her two children, Nicholas and Austin, came. Austin was saved several weeks ago. And I am looking forward to being able to take him to Kentucky with us in a few years. He was well-behaved in church and seemed a few years more mature than I remembered.

Nicholas is enjoying his final few months of being the family’s baby. Soon Karson will be assuming that role. Nicholas will have to adjust to just being a kid in the family. But at least he has been blessed with being cute, so that may give him more time as the baby in the family. But when Karson starts to talk, he will take over.

Our lunch was at Aunt Sue’s Country Kitchen, so you know it was good. We ate, then returned home to take a nap, making up for the fact that the Sunday night service had been canceled for Easter.