Year 2, Day 294: Celebration Day 2

Here, there and everywhere, that's where everyone was today.  The families that were there at services last night were asked to go to the Shelby St. campus of Indian Creek today for their services so that they would feel included in the festivities.  Again, some of us in our family went earlier than others.  Even the J6 was scattered with Benaiah and Justin both serving at Franklin Rd. and Jared going to the first service at Shelby St., and I, with Keturah, Nora (since she spent the night at our house) and Abishai joining him later.  I'm not sure when Aaron, Shauna, and Everly arrived at Shelby.  It was my first time at that location, so I did a lot of "scoping it out."  Similar verbage and color schemes and what not, but at the same time, it was different.  It actually felt kind of weird because the Shelby St. campus already has 400 people in attendance which is a decent sized church!  We have lighter numbers at the Franklin Rd. campus because of the Shelby St. campus, so most of those attenders are just transfers, and so we are still averaging the same overall.  We did see a few people we don't normally get to see, though, which was fun.  But to think it is still part of the Creek is crazy!  I know it's pretty normal now, but after being in church's that are that size period, it just makes me think.  I just find it interesting.

Sleeping princesses.  They can both still fit on a twin bed together.

Socks and Abishai, the best alarm clocks in the world! I know Ethan and Bryce also think that way when they stay over.

3 little monkeys snuggling in the bed!

There's always a book nearby to read.

See, the tomato is getting red!

Baby peppers.

The fall foliage is at its peak and we are too busy to fully enjoy it, ah!

The foyer at Shelby St.  Kidustrial Park is there, although the rooms are combined.  All the walkers up through those who haven't potty trained are in the same room.  All the 4th and 5th graders are always together in the same room as well.  AND, I guess the programs' databases on linked for printing kid tags because our names weren't on the list!  We just used visitor tags to save time this time.  But, they had the same balloons and banners, plus, they had doughnuts!  Franklin Rd didn't have doughnuts, lol.

I recognize these chairs!  They are from the "box" when it was used for the other worship area at church before they turned it into Kidustrial Park. 

I can understand why Benaiah feels a bit claustrophobic in here.  The ceilings are much shorter.  But there is an intimate feel that you miss when you are in the big sanctury at Franklin Road.  I recognized about half of the band and singers, two of which also play and sing at Franklin Rd. for sure.

Weirdest moment for me was when we heard the exact same sermon in the exact same way because guess what?  Shelby St. usually plays the recorded sermon from the 5:30 pm Saturday service at Franklin Rd.  AND, it was Benaiah on camera this weekend, so it's all his handiwork, too.  That's pretty cool!  We did get up and do the "we were sent" moment and they had others praying for the "past, present, future" moment, so the services were nearly identical.  They also sing the same worship songs, but not always in the same way.  One song that started out slow and with a vocalist and maybe guitar at Franklin Rd, started out full on with everyone here at Shelby St.  It just depends on who is leading either place.

Special guests at Sunday dinner, Seokin and Esther Payne and one of their 5 (I think there is 5) children.  The Paynes go way back in the Johnson history to when Gary preached in Waynesville, Illinois.  They spend 7 months of the year (typically winter time for us) in their home country of Liberia teaching ministry leaders.  This particular son now lives only 15 minute from Gary and Leah.  For a time, the family actually lived in my neck of the woods in Rhode Island.  I'm sure it's been neat to see the boys grow up, have families, go into ministry, etc.

Last weekend for good blooms on the flowering plants!  It's supposed to be cold and rainy next week.

The fab 5 enjoying their turkey dinner.  Truth be told, we actually haven't had Sunday dinner at Gary and Leah's house in two months.  Why?  Because it's the busy season for Gary and if he's not gone, someone else is.

There's always time for uncles and nephews.

We have 3 birthdays to celebrate in late October and into November, Nora, Shauna and Leah's, but instead of birthday cake, we had pie, both apple and pumpkin! We had a turkey dinner because Aaron and Shauna won't be up for Thanksgiving.  They usually stay in NOLA anyways.  We sang happy birthday, Nora blew out the candles, and then Abishai wanted the candles relit so he could blow them out.  And of course, Grandpa obliged.

Abishai was showing Aunt Shauna how to ride the rocking horse.  I think she's a bit big, don't you think?

Everly takes after her tall parents.  She'll be taller than me soon!

It's not a jack in the box, it's an Abishai in the box!  Or footstool in this case.  He did try every which way to fit fully in there, but he's too big.

Knowing that the weather was going to turn on us this week and that Everly and Nora don't have as many pretty cool fall days with all the fall foliage and such, I made them all go outside, even the big one, who wanted to stay inside at the adult table.

Gorgeous sky!  And Benaiah is about to climb the tree.  Full driveway, too!

Oooo, lots of solar flare, or a dirty lens.  I love how Justin, like the rest of my family, doesn't care about fashion.  Check out those BB8 knee socks with shorts!

Multi colored leaf!

See! Being outside is fun!  You've been climbing this tree every since it and you were toddlers!

Canada. Always.

3 big monkeys climbing in the tree!  Kind of reminds me of when the kids used to climb the tree at the Cornwall Christian Church in their good Sunday clothes.

While the other adults talked, I, with Jared's help, got these silly kids to pose.  Actually, they are pretty good at posing themselves.

Yeah, we now have an updated version of this picture and it includes Abishai!  I'm sure I took one maybe in August or perhaps last Christmas, but nonetheless, I made sure it happened again.  I unearthed a picture of Gary and Leah with the 5 grandchildren when Nora was just a baby, so it was on my mind.

Trying to squeeze in a round of a board game before we all scampered off again to different places.

Oh no! These kids discovered funny cat videos on YouTube!  Like the one that is 10 years old where the cat is on the ceiling fan, and the person turns the fan on sending the cat flying across the room accidentally.  Yes, that one.  They even shared it with Gary, and he laughed.  Then they watched other cat videos that were NOT accidents.  I had to put a stop to that because it's just plain mean.

Birthday presents for Nora.  Sorry, Shauna, this is the only picture I got.  It was funny though that the gift wrapping was all polka dots.  She got a stuffed animal, clothes, the board game of Life, and a coloring book from Grandma and Grandpa, and a journal to write verses in, or book quotes, or keep lists of books read and Bible verses memorized.  And I gave one to each of the other two girls.  They were told it is not just a random book to draw something in and tear it out, etc.  And if they use it, great, if they don't, then we planted the seed.  Keturah started writing things and verses she has memorized in her book already.

Sharing some temporary tattoo love.

Keturah had bought them at the dollar store with her own money.  I'm so glad she thought to share with the girls!

And the girls and their parents were off to visit with one of Shauna's sisters.  The rest of us were all going to church again for the worship night put on by Crave, the middle and high school groups.  Oh, and the Paynes had left mid afternoon after lunch, I believe for Illinois.

He's getting so big!  He was so excited to take a nap at Grandma's house again!  Seriously, he wanted to!  He hadn't had a nap there in quite a long time.  I had to wake him up and thankfully, after just a little snuggle, he was on board to go back to church again.

The youth group had strung up more banners in the sanctuary and on each pennant was a word or a few words representing the stories of different people in different groups and how the church has impacted their stories. Words like "transformed" or "consistent."  They also showed a video of a few people explaining them.  Then, one of the worship elements was for us to write down something as well.  The worship time is always louder and crazier and what some would consider more fun when the youth band plays.  Although, we did have both main worship ministers up there, too.  Benaiah was doing his thing as video switcher behind the scenes again.  He loves it, but I wish he could have a chance to be out in the audience sometimes, too.

A little live background music while people wrote things down on their pennants.

Justin found his usually buddies (or girls in this case) to sit next, too.  Kylie and Lydia.

The pennants were then clipped to some cording and then lifted up to match the other ones.  It was kind of neat to see the big red cord come down out of the ceiling so the other cords could be attached to it and then pulled back up.  The idea came from the phrase, "lift your banners high."  They also had these cards for people to fill out about how "a church prayer for what's to come (the founding members of Indian Creek) and then...." and we were supposed to fill out what we dreamed of happening next, or what our next steps were, etc.  Then we were to clip those to some doors scattered across the room.  And as Jared was doing that, I was journaling away on my own because it's the only time I can think without being interrupted, Abishai got down from the bench, slipped through my fingers, slipped through a friend of mine's fingers and ran up front to Jared through the large crowd with no fear at all.  Keturah had gone to her children's choir rehearsal at this point.  Oh, and  did miss a video in the beginning of the service because it's hard getting the kids in and settled on time.

Dan and Gary closed out the service.

They had these banners up last night and today, but I think they might have added more for tonight.  Not sure.

The teenaged toddlers at it again, running around the church like they owned the place, and their bigness bumping into stuff.  Benaiah at some point event poked Ethan in the eye!  I hope these two end up rooming together at college and get married on the same day and have kids about the same time and all that sappy stuff because they can be inseparable.  And tons of trouble.  Poor Justin gets to play the middle man between these two giants.

Phew!  That was a long, long day!  It's a good thing tomorrow is a completely at home day.  I'm not excited to start school, but at the same time, we must.  On with it!

P.S. I will also note here that while it was great weekend in some ways, I also had a very hard time with it all.  While I know e2 is a ministry position, I feel like us being "sent" to Canada was why we were up on stage in the first place.  And I have many personal feelings on that one topic alone.  Their were many other families there that were "sent" to be a minister at Indian Creek or a local organization, too.  But I really struggle with some of this stuff and it affects everyone around me.  And I'm sorry it does.  The healing still needs to take place and time can only do so much for it.  So while the rest of them celebrated, I had a hard time fully participating emotionally.  It is what it is, but it is also part of my, and our, journey.  The great, the good, and the ugly.  If you take me out of the equation, it was a beautifully put together perfect celebration.  Much thought and prep was done for it, from getting the banners sent out and gathered from many different small groups, to sending out invites around the world to bring together the people that have been sent out from the Creek, to what was shared and how it was presented, to everything not being too overdone either.  Thank you, Staff and families, for all your hard work and pulling this off.  It's refreshing when you don't have to be part of the party planning and prep work and you get to just show up and partake.  Thank you!