Highlight # 5: Water, Water Everywhere! As I mentioned in my previous blog, we finished off the month of September with baptisms. The normal excitement that goes with baptisms was also accompanied by a sense of panic about half way through our first round of baptisms. As the pastor in the hot tub (we don't have a built in baptism tank) I get rather wrapped up in what I'm doing, so the fact that the people in the front row were starting to lift their feet because of the water seeping out escaped me. I knew it was bad though when I got to the final person I was baptizing and I sensed the water was a little lower than normal. I just wrote it off to us splashing around. But... when that final song hit and I saw those helping me starting donning the life jackets, I knew it wasn't good. The highlight though revolves around the great people of Grace. How cool it was to watch so many of our people roll up their sleeves and help mop up the water, empty the tank with a bucket brigade and help us punt to option B which is my next highlight of the weekend. The church family is awesome here at Grace!!!
Highlight # 6: Outdoor Baptisms! We have half an hour between our two services on a Sunday morning. With six individuals slated to be baptized during our second hour, we decided that the dunking must go on. So once again, the great volunteers of Grace rolled that hot tub outside onto a large grassy area, dried up the auditorium floor and filled the hot tub with water (warm water no less) and had us up and ready to go before the second service got rolling into full swing. It was wonderful to have these six individuals share their testimony in the auditorium and then move outside to be baptized (in a hot tub that was still leaking like a sieve) to the cheers and applause of hundreds of people who came out to watch. I'm not opposed to doing baptisms indoors (especially during the winter months) but there is something really special about doing them outdoors.
Final Highlight: Club 56 Event! Last evening finished off with a Club 56 Purity event that my son was a part of. Club 56 is our pre-teen program for fifth and sixth graders at Grace. Last evening was a night when fathers and sons were invited to an evening of sports in our gym, followed by pizza and a talk on purity. (Mothers and daughters were at the opposite end of the building) The highlight for me was to spend an evening with a bunch of other guys and their sons playing sports. I have never really seen any of these guys in a setting other than a Sunday morning, so it was really cool to hang out together as guys and get competitive for a few hours with our boys. I must confess that I still feel like I got it when it comes to staying competitive with sports... but I must also confess that my failing to stretch and warm up is costing me dearly today. The moans and groans as I sit into my sofa are a little louder than normal as the evening wears on. All in all, it was a great night with my boy on so many levels.
Final, Final Highlight: PENN STATE WON ON SATURDAY NIGHT!!!
As I have sought to show, it was a very busy weekend, but one full of great highlights.
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