Year 2, Day 187: Extra Post

I was going to skip making a blog post, but a pretty notable thing happened today, as well as something fun and unexpected.  I don't have many pictures, but I'll do what I can.

Of course, everyone likes to put this basketball hoop on their head.

Spoiler alert: This weekend's services are going to be a bit different.  The text is the Lord's Prayer.  So, we sang a couple of songs after Dan explained the meaning of "hallowed" as in "holy, set apart, revered." Then for "your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven" Our main youth minister, Chad, interviewed a dear kid friend of mine, Alyssa, and what God has called her to do over the last couple of years as  Kingdom Worker.  I've known Alyssa since she was 3 years old and she's going to be a senior this year! Chad actually showed a blanket that has a picture of her and her Grandma's horse a few years ago and they both have their mouths wide open.  Anyway, Alyssa has worked with the Access Ministry (kids/adults with disabilities), gone on many mission trips to Zambia, Haiti, local things, and she works with the middle schoolers as a leader as well.  She's the middle child of 5 kids and is homeschooled.  Anyway, she's the sweetest kid I know and so grown up!  She has also caught the words "known, valued, and loved" that Gary has preached many, many times that we want everyone, but especially the youth to know that they are "known, valued and loved."  So, I took this picture to share with my friend, her mom, Dayla, because it's a proud Mom moment for me as well.  The "daily bread" portion of the prayer was communion.  And I'll leave the rest for you to find out.

Well, because Benaiah had to go early (see picture below), I spent the afternoon in Jared's office again, enjoying the absolute quiet and working on pictures and video uploads.  I also read some Flash comics and took a nap on the couch!  So, I left all my stuff in Jared's office when I went over to worship.  We walked back to the office afterwards, and there were a bunch of people there, obviously from India or the surrounding areas, getting ready to have a meal and then having a concert (more on that below).  Some didn't speak English, but I made sure to nod and smile anyway.  Abishai found the small stage and decided to run across it many times.  Yes, he is not afraid of the stage!  The whole world is this little guy's stage!

"My seat!" We had to share seats and Abishai didn't want to.  So, when Jared got up, Abishai took it over!

Spicy Indian food!  Edwin, who Jared knows, is evangelizing to his ethnic community and invited them to come to our church building to share in a meal and some moments of evangelism before they had a concert of their own talents.  And we were invited to join them!  The kids were brave and tried the spicy food and ate some of it.  I'm so proud of them for doing that!  Abishai ate granola bars out of his diaper bag.  I, of course, didn't eat any of it.  But, at least we've taught them to go ahead and try new things without hesitation!  And wow, how cool is it that we had our regular evening services, but in the background, this guy is spreading the gospel to this ethnic community right behind the scenes!  They were tucked away in the East Wing and 99% of the congregation had no clue they were there tonight or why.  I could tell some were Christians, but most were not.  Wow!  And how cool that my kids got to participate in it as well.  I think we had a parenting win tonight!

The Indian meal and concert were the impromptu fun part of the evening.  Now, for the proud Mommy moment that really prompted this blog post.  Benaiah was THE graphics guy on tech team tonight.  Think: PowerPoint button pusher.  He advanced the music slides and the slides on the TV screen on stage for the sermon.  The stage manager this evening came up to us and said that Benaiah said he was still shaking after the 4 pm service because it was so nerve wracking!  It didn't help that Grandpa made a big deal of him doing it either.  Grandpa was just trying to be encouraging though that, wow, our boy is growing up and has some big responsibilities.  Remember, we go to a megachurch with an average attendance of 4,000 people every week.   It IS a HUGE deal!  And he nailed it!  I was watching for mistakes, but except for the very first slide, I didn't notice any!  So proud of this big guy!

But big guys, still like to be little guys and they love their fruit snacks.  His caption reads, "I got fruit snak, I is so happy."

Oh, I noticed this at church in what used to be Banner Hall.  This is sort of the "missions" wall.  But I hadn't noticed the black metal skyline of Indianapolis above the TV screen before.  How cool!  I was trying to show the kids where some of the Indians might have come from, and probably pretty recently.  Neat!  I didn't check for PEI though, but I doubt it's there, lol.

Super crazy kids before bedtime!

Yeah!  One day free shipping on Prime from Amazon!  In this part of my purchase, I got my phone case (which is gorgeous!), SD cards for my camera, and something else for Jared for our anniversary. (But, it's really for me, too!)

There ya go, a whole room full of people from that part of the world.  They had to keep adding chairs!  How cool is it that our building could be used in such a way to spread the Gospel, right under our noses!  I had no idea that there were this many people from that part of the world in our community.  What a blessing!