a bunch of characters

Whew! Is this day over yet? It’s been a crazy one, to say the least!

My alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. And, sadly it wasn’t a surfing alarm. I gave my second sermon this morning at the 8:00 worship service. Dana Barker (my good friend who just had brain surgery and is doing well—thank you, God), met me at the door with a gift and a cute little card. It had a picture of naked babies sitting in flower pots. The inside of the card said, “8:00 folks aren’t so bad. Just picture them naked…in pots!” Thanks for the tip, Dana!

Honestly, I’m walking away from this one saying, “Well, eventually one is going to suck.” Despite the fact that I practiced it tons of times, it still just didn’t feel right. Of course, it didn’t help that the whole intro to the sermon was ruined because of a microphone glitch: we had just gotten done watching a video clip about the first planes to break the sound barrier, I hopped up to speak, and in and out it went. Lea came up to switch mics with me, and someone jokingly yelled out, “You broke the sound barrier!” Too funny. But unfortunately, I had a hard time getting back into the groove after the unexpected frazzle. There were times I looked out at the congregation—one dude was sleeping—and I thought, “God, are you sure you can use me in this ministry?” 8:00 is a tougher crowd, that’s for sure. I still heard gobs of praise after the service, but you know how it is when you’re not convinced it was all that great. This photo was taken I believe when I was saying, "Is it just me, or does this alb do nothing for my figure?" Not to mention the fact that I was sweating profusely by the end of the service! Albs = boo! One small victory: 8:00 worship got out ON TIME! I tried really hard to stick to the time chart, and did it! Baby steps!

I went back to my office in between services and found a HUGE cinnamon muffin sitting on my desk! Someone figured out my love language! GIFTS (of food!). I still don’t know who left it there…I’ll play detective tomorrow and see if the culprit comes forward to receive the thanks due to them! Kelly Luhmann brought over her cheerleading uniform from high school, so good news! I get to be a cheerleader for Halloween (just like Presley). The uniform even has Kelly’s name embroidered on it, so I’m thinking Kevin and I can go as Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski (from Saved by the Bell!) He’s probably dusting off his old letter jacket as we speak! I’m going to be home in exactly 3 days!

If any of you back home are concerned I’m turning into a different person while living in CA, rest assured, I’m not. Here’s proof of it. I said about 4 lines today that were off the wall inappropriate for worship. I said the while my mic was on, while standing in front of the congregation. Read on if you want a good laugh:

“Good Golly, I’m done. Stand up and let’s sing our praises to God.”
“If you’re a visitor today, we’re just so stinkin’ glad you’re here.”
“It’s actually ok that my microphone isn’t working, I don’t like Star Trek and didn’t have anything good to say about that clip anyway!”

I catch flak for all this jargon, but it’s reassuring to me, that I’m being exactly who God made me to be. If worship can’t make my speech better, I don’t know what will!

Kelly and I finished getting the backdrop set up for tonight, and practiced our "pretty faces" as we tested the light. Here are a few funny ones to share:

Finally, after months of preparation, the costume carnival was underway! Over 300 kids came to the festivities. I saw more spiderman, batman, and princess Jasmine costumes than I care to think about! Every character under the sun! I took hundreds of photos, acted like a complete fool, but got some incredible pictures because of it. Not surprisingly, the printers that we tried using to print the photos started freezing up and being slow. Luckily, folks were understanding and waited for them. This gave me a few minutes to pause and evangelize to these visitors. Better yet, for those who didn't want to wait around for their photo: this gives them an excuse to come on campus again to pick them up! Sneaky, right? :) The whole thing is put on by student ministries youth and staff. I loved seeing young people leading games, interacting with kids, and talking to strangers! What an incredible outreach event it has become.

At the end of the night, I had to run over to our 7:00 worship service and didn’t have time to change my outfit. So, Amber the pirate showed up to do the thematic intro. It got a few laughs, that’s for sure. Then, I ran back to the carnival and took a group photo of all the volunteers. Man, it’s been a great day. Thanks be to God for all the children and their families who stepped foot on our campus this day.