A weekend wrapped in bacon...
Now THIS was the kind of weekend worth reporting about. Here are the relevant highlights:
FRIDAY - Met up with 'the crowd' at Jemison's around 7:30. It was our largest crowd yet: Stacey, me, Kailyn, Eric, Wendy, Scott, Derek, J-mo, John, Joe, and 3 other people I didn't get to know well. Honestly, it's a lot of fun hanging out there on Fridays. Very relaxed, very funny...good food and fellowship. Quote of the night came from Scott: "He lives with his parents? How old is he? Wait, I know I live with my dad, but that's different." (LOL)
SATURDAY - Packed 8 people (Kailyn, Stacey, Scott, Eric, Wendy, Derek, J-mo, and myself) into the Expedition and headed to Nashville for the day. First stop: Joe's Crab Shack. Note to self: Soft-shell crab fried IN the shell is very good. After lunch, we headed to Korner Music and Fork's Drum Closet. Eric and J-mo picked up a few things, but Scott and I resisted the temptation to spontaneously buy stuff on the spot. Then we headed downtown and wandered around various places. I don't know if it's funny or sad (actually, both)...but there was this homeless guy on 2nd ave. singing "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys and begging for donations. Ouch...my ears are still hurting, though I hurt for that guy's situation even more. Oh, great...now that I've blogged about it, I have that song running through my head... After having our fill of wandering in and out of various places and checking out the sights, we headed back to the metropolis of Decatur where we joined up with a BUNCH of church folks over at Dave's house for BBQ and a lot of time spent playing games and just doing a lot of talking.
SUNDAY - Church attendance hit a record high. At last count, there were 75 people there (which is very good if you're a new church plant, like us). We're running out of places for people to sit. Everything went pretty well. Afterwards, we headed to Applebee's, then BACK to the church to practice for Riverfest. Scott practiced with us, and he added some great guitar/vocal talent to the mix (and a fresh perspective on some directions to go with our music). It's amazing how the addition of one musician can totally revitalize the band experience. Anytime we've added an additional person with some talent (Scott, Steven, even Tania), the resulting energy is pretty cool. Anyway, raced to the grocery store after band practice to pick up "grillin' goods," then raced home to prep for small group (if you call 15 minutes of frantic cleaning "prepping"). Small group itself went very well, too. In addition to the regulars (Stacey, me, Eli, J-mo, Eric, Wendy, and Scott), we were also joined by the Spooners, which was very cool.
These are the kinds of weekends I like having...not just because they're fun, but because in the midst of it all I can tell God's doing some amazing things.
FRIDAY - Met up with 'the crowd' at Jemison's around 7:30. It was our largest crowd yet: Stacey, me, Kailyn, Eric, Wendy, Scott, Derek, J-mo, John, Joe, and 3 other people I didn't get to know well. Honestly, it's a lot of fun hanging out there on Fridays. Very relaxed, very funny...good food and fellowship. Quote of the night came from Scott: "He lives with his parents? How old is he? Wait, I know I live with my dad, but that's different." (LOL)
SATURDAY - Packed 8 people (Kailyn, Stacey, Scott, Eric, Wendy, Derek, J-mo, and myself) into the Expedition and headed to Nashville for the day. First stop: Joe's Crab Shack. Note to self: Soft-shell crab fried IN the shell is very good. After lunch, we headed to Korner Music and Fork's Drum Closet. Eric and J-mo picked up a few things, but Scott and I resisted the temptation to spontaneously buy stuff on the spot. Then we headed downtown and wandered around various places. I don't know if it's funny or sad (actually, both)...but there was this homeless guy on 2nd ave. singing "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys and begging for donations. Ouch...my ears are still hurting, though I hurt for that guy's situation even more. Oh, great...now that I've blogged about it, I have that song running through my head... After having our fill of wandering in and out of various places and checking out the sights, we headed back to the metropolis of Decatur where we joined up with a BUNCH of church folks over at Dave's house for BBQ and a lot of time spent playing games and just doing a lot of talking.
SUNDAY - Church attendance hit a record high. At last count, there were 75 people there (which is very good if you're a new church plant, like us). We're running out of places for people to sit. Everything went pretty well. Afterwards, we headed to Applebee's, then BACK to the church to practice for Riverfest. Scott practiced with us, and he added some great guitar/vocal talent to the mix (and a fresh perspective on some directions to go with our music). It's amazing how the addition of one musician can totally revitalize the band experience. Anytime we've added an additional person with some talent (Scott, Steven, even Tania), the resulting energy is pretty cool. Anyway, raced to the grocery store after band practice to pick up "grillin' goods," then raced home to prep for small group (if you call 15 minutes of frantic cleaning "prepping"). Small group itself went very well, too. In addition to the regulars (Stacey, me, Eli, J-mo, Eric, Wendy, and Scott), we were also joined by the Spooners, which was very cool.
These are the kinds of weekends I like having...not just because they're fun, but because in the midst of it all I can tell God's doing some amazing things.
- I can see a maturity of faith developing in a lot of us.
- I can see God doing that God-thing he does where a lot of conversations/events, etc. indicate that God has been planting the same ideas/thoughts into people's heads, though they've not shared that with each other...but when they do, it's obvious what's happening.
- The YOUTH - this fervor of youth ministry is becoming a reality very, very fast. Seeing 6-8 high school students show up at church yesterday (up from the usual 1-2) was an amazing thing. And they WANTED to be there. Chad, you want to move up here and help with youth ministry for free?? LOL! Anyway, a bunch of them got together last night for Mexican food. It's starting...
Anyway, that's the main points. Good stuff...
KEY PHRASES: "Ask me what 'wrap those boys in bacon' really means sometimes...let's just say it has to do more with grilling out than anything really vulgar...well, at least it used to." "Next time, open the box to make sure that LARGE amount of money you spent actually bought you what you paid for...hehe." "He doesn't even do his own laundry." "I smell a VOX in my future...soon..."
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