We witnessed an incredible day of cooperation
yesterday. The big event scheduled at
Seaside was our Fall Festival, a fun day of games and a bounce house for the
neighborhood kids, and chili and hotdogs and caramel apples and candy (sensing a theme here?) for
everyone. Totally free, but it has kind
of become a tradition that people bring along a canned good or two to be given
to families in need. Lauren was once
again in charge, so preparations had been made well in advance. More than twenty Seasiders were out in a
volunteer force to make the event happen.
Others made chili or dropped off candy for games prizes.
Now
here’s the thing. There was a group in
the retreat center here for a Lutheran confirmation class retreat. Those kids helped us bring chairs
downstairs. We were hosting early voting
in the worship center, so we had to dedicate half of our small parking lot to
voter parking – no small feat since we generally fill up the whole thing with festival
stuff. The voting judges were more than
understanding when we had to walk behind them to get to the office or a closet
or even to the bathroom. We invited them
to join us for the lunch we ordered from Mario’s for the people helping set up,
and they did rotate out so each one could get some pizza. I noticed that they also grabbed a bowl of
chili later in the day. Seasiders in
blue shorts were flitting about everywhere setting up and running games and
serving chili and chatting with our neighbors.
Jim and Corey and Doug figured out a way to get electricity to the band
and the bounce house, and then regaled us with some great live music.
And
then when it came time to break it all down, a team of Seasiders and neighbors
joined in to help. We were getting it
down, albeit slowly, when all of a sudden a rush of further volunteers exploded
forth from the worship center. The AA
group that meets in our building every Saturday night had been arriving, and
when they realized what we were doing, they jumped up to help out. The pace quickened to such an extent that we
were finished in a fraction of the time.
I gotta say, I was greatly impressed by the teamwork and pleasant spirit
of cooperation. The Seaside home
group. A group here for a retreat. Four election judges. An AA group here for a meeting. And some wonderful Jamaica Beach
neighbors. That makes five different
entities working together toward a common goal.
Impressive, isn’t it?
In
the meantime, I was able to connect with several people. A paramedic who wanted to talk about my role
as fire chaplain. A young family who
just moved to Jamaica Beach. A young man
who volunteers with the Jamaica Beach fire department. A couple with a boxer puppy (Introduced them to April who had their new
boxer pup with her). Our new
Christian and just-baptized Jeff and his family. Cory and Sarah, our cop family. All four of the election judges. The adult sponsors of the Lutheran
group. I guess the list could go on and
on.
It
was a truly good day. I am proud of our Seaside
team (especially their fearless leader,
Lauren). God was glorified.
Psalms
108:1 says, “My heart is steadfast, O
God; I will sing and make music with all my soul.”
Father,
may you continue to be glorified in everything we do. Amen.
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