July 18 – “Evidence”

I had my picture taken yesterday.  I know.  Sounds strange, right?  The newspaper is doing an article on fire department chaplains, so they wanted some fodder to support the story.  I met the chief at Station 5 and the guys on duty had to pose with me and pretend like we were having a conversation.  Have you ever tried to do that and look natural?  We had to do it in drama back in high school, but back then everybody was into pretending.  And the whole point was to be just a bit over the top so the audience could see your reactions.  Not so here.  I tried to think of things to talk about.  I tried, “So what really bad has happened so far today?”  Just so happened they had only had one call that shift and it was a minor traffic accident.  I did get a rise when I mentioned the union, but all the “exciting” stuff there is pretty much over.  Even their recent contract is already approved.  The good thing was, the photographer was able to get what she needed in just about a minute and a half.  The guys were released, with a noticeable sigh of relief, I might add, and I had to move to a different part of the truck and have a few more portraits done.  The whole thing lasted maybe five minutes, and it was for a positive story on the department, so the general feeling was a good one.  Now I have to wait for the reporter to email me and the chief his list of questions.  Story comes out on August 3^rd. 

VBS went especially well last night, but I am a little prejudiced with this one.  A group of Seaside college and high school students came in and helped lead.  Very impressive, if I do say so myself.  There was a bit of lag time at the beginning while everyone was getting on the same page, so I plugged in my phone and played the children’s music album I have on there.  All-time favorites like Father Abraham and I’m in the Lord’s Army.  And of course that meant I had to show them all the motions.  It turned into a rousing round of movement and laughter and fun.  Felt like I was a warm-up group for the main event.  And the main event was pretty well done.  Kelly, Lora, Sydney, Melissa, Travis, and Jimmy started with a name game that I wondered might be too much for the little ones to understand.  They didn’t really get it, but they sure had fun anyway.  Cailyn wants to play it again tonight.  The idea was to quickly call out someone else’s name with a person headed for you to tag you.  Lots of pressure, but made for some comical moments.  Like every time someone approached Macy she revealed another of her imaginary friends.  First time she called out “Bob.”  No Bob there.  Next time she tried “Jamie.”  Close to “James,” I guess, but she clearly meant Jamie.  And no Jamie there.  Her last imaginary friend was my personal favorite of the night.  As the tagger approached closer and closer she got more and more flustered.  Finally she cried out, “Chicken.”  Now that was revealing.  Her imaginary friend is named Jamie Bob Chicken.  Have to remember that one and ask about it tonight. 

As things got serious, the Seasiders acted out the story of Saul on the road to Damascus.  Lora in particular deserved an Oscar for her performance in the lead role (Yep.  She was Saul).  Kelly followed up with the plan of salvation and then asked if any of the kids knew how to become a Christian.  One of the Mineral Wells kids did a pretty fair job working through the ABC’s - Admit you’re a sinner, Believe Jesus died for your sins, Confess your faith in him.  That’s when our very own youngster, Will raised his hand.  He had a few things to add that would have made any theologian proud, not to mention one particular Mommy who needs to hear about this.  Will said, “If we’re bad a lot of times, God still loves us.  No matter what we say or what we do, God still loves us.”  Now he continued on and on, but the cool thing is, everything he said was theologically right on target.  Nice job, Will. 

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Father, sounds like Will is getting the message.  Sounds like those Seaside students got the message.  Thanks for that.  I sure needed the encouragement that comes from seeing the evidence - the results - of Seaside’s ministry.  Amen.