July 16 – “A genius of an idea”

I didn’t really take stock of where everyone came from to get to church at Seaside this past Sunday, so I don’t know if we had an international connection or not.  I think I did hear mention of a Kansas, though.  Does that count?

The folks staying in the retreat center joined us for worship.  It was a pretty big family that has held a reunion of sorts here for the last two years.  We also hosted a group from The Reflection Center House of Prayer here in Galveston.  They wanted to worship with us to see how they could better pray for us as a church.  Looks like this Wednesday they will be praying specifically for Seaside.  Pretty exciting news to hear.

Only three of our usual six dogs were there.  70 humans, though.  We ended up having not one but two different kids’ classes going on at the same time as worship.  Cathy took the younger kids into the nursery room.  Chris and Janell took the older ones into the office area.  They just turned a fan on (which provided the perfect separation of sound from the worship center) and started up with a Bible story and a craft.  Every so often one of the kids would run into the worship center to show Mom and Dad the cool sailboats they were making (Any guesses what the Bible story was?). 

It is so great to have a family atmosphere at Seaside where kids feel comfortable racing back and forth to connect with parents about their excitement at learning about Jesus.  And to have folks who aren’t afraid to talk during the teaching time.  What better way to learn than to interact with each other?  Not to mention the fellowship aspect of a building full of people sharing a meal together after worshipping together.  Kind of touches on part of the genius of this whole Church idea.  Nice thinking, God.

Psalms 84:4 says, “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”

Father, thank you for the joy and wonder that is a little kid sharing something new with his parents.  Priceless.  Amen.