A Sweet Day of Ministry

Today was a busy day (kind of hearkens back to SUMC days, but in a much better way). It started with showing up early to open the church windows and doors (because Mindy, who usually does it, was in prison -- ok, that deserves an explanation: she is serving on an Epiphany team -- that's a spiritual retreat weekend for encarcerated young people (like Kairos, but for young people, also like Emmaus or Chrysalis).

Then I was pressed into service for the Sunday School opening -- they forgot to plan someone to lead the music, so I came to the rescue with my guitar and Amazing Grace. During Sunday School, I joined the middle school class, where they were going over some material they learned last year in Confirmation. Good kids.

Then (of course) I led the service and preached (I thought the music went really well; we sang "Breathe" and went from that into Chris Tomlin's "Enough" and ended with Breathe again. I dunno how well the congregation liked it, but I really liked it.

Then after church, the youth group met for mini golf and ice cream. I hadn't played mini-golf since RIM when we played in the Wisconsin Dells. It was fun, though the course wasn't so exciting as the ones in the Dells! Jacob had some "creative" shots, and Nick, well, Nick almost scored a 0 on one hole because he hit the ball right through to the next hole. He could have made it, too, but someone stopped it.

After soccer (which was awesome -- we played on the small field 5v5, meaning lots of running and lots of touches -- I scored some pretty good goals, most notably a header on a cross from Ben that I headed first time from about 10 yards out), I had a Nominations Committee meeting. It went pretty well -- we filled most of the spots pretty quickly.

Then to the sweet part of the day: the UCC had an ice cream party -- they had a raingutter that they filled with a giant banana split. It was extremely yummy... but then it started flying. I knew it was going to happen, and it was hilarious. A bunch of kids from the soccer team were there, and they were all covered in ice cream and chocolate. I'm glad I wasn't driving any of them home!

And now it's time for bed...