Coffee Time

Almost done. Lots of good video to share.

"We're OK!!"

Lots if video and pictures for later too.

Homer Is Our Co-Pilot

On our way to Galena

Sunday Was ALL About The Message

Made my annual trip to the Northwoods mall this year on Sunday. Not for shopping though. It was too cold to go outside for our final week of EE at church, so a couple of groups chose the warm indoors at the mall to mosey around and ask people questions from our religious questionnaires. Holly, Noah and I were on our way out and decided to stop at one more rest area before we left. 20 minutes later, Holly was praying with a senior in high school to receive Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Definitely the note Holly wanted to end on after a long semester and without any help from her trainer (just the Holy Spirit :-). Pretty sure she did way better than any presentation I gave my first semester, and Noah scored higher on his tests than I did too.

Some friends and I went to support the kids at Riverside Community church later that night. A few kids from school invited me to see their Christmas program which turned out to be a play/musical. I'm so used to the purely musical performances (choir/orchestra) that it was a surprise to me. I've seen college plays with tons of work put into them, but not a church. It was very well done and entertaining and was glad to hear a (different but) solid message presented afterward. I should have a program with all the important performer's autographs by the end of the week. :-)

Gingerbread Maddness

Time for the annual Sunday School Christmas party. It's a great tradition that gets mixed up every couple of years. We got another shot at gingerbread houses this year and definitely saw improvement, or the teams were more creatively dispersed. But FIRST, the cool "silver"ware.
Hard work, some really good ideas...

...and some silliness...

...lead team Uno to complete the glorious S.S. Graham, and beach party.




Wes was very happy with his team's creation and wanted alot of options for his new Facebook profile picture.




Yikes!

NOAH!!

Open Hood

Micaiah and Erin are a couple of Hoodies that I don't see much because of their status (married) and involvement in a ministry that I don't see much (college). But I got invited to an open house at their place which is just down the street and got to enjoy some new hood faces. They went door to door inviting the neighbors. It's funny how each street has a different demographic. Believe it or not, they are mostly retired folks or young couples with kids who DON'T break in to our houses.

Erin made lots of goodies and I got to meet the Godfather, Bob. This retired fellow from Naples who has lived in the hood for fifty years kept us in conversation for an hour. It was so great for Micaiah and Erin to try to go out of their comfort zone and it has benefited them with better relationships with their neighbors which will keep reaping over time.

I'm A Snowman!

Miss Gray's 4th grade class took the liberty of sculpting my likeness in this frosty form during a special snow outing today. It was pretty cool. But my ego got an equally large boost when McDonalds (yes, we're going to have a talk later) delivered lunch to the wrong campus and I had to rush it over to the correct one. The sound of 200 kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade kids cheering me on was priceless. Miss Wiele told me not to let it get to my head...but I did.

Game Days

Finally, concert day had arrived!! Lots of fun went on behind the scenes Friday and Saturday for Bethany. The teen choir warmed up with some river dance.

Huerta warmed up with some craziness. Note the ornament earring.

Fred warmed up to his grandchild baby Jesus. It just now occurred to me that baby Jesus was a girl during the 6pm show...

Ryan warmed up with some smooches for the camera.

Kari warmed up with a 100% genuine smile.

I personally loved the show. It'll be great to take a look at the video eventually to see if it was as fun from the seats as it was on stage. Due to technical difficulties, Fred, the choir and orchestra didn't even get a chance to have a complete run through and chance to tweak everything. So it was thanks to Fred's attentiveness, all the musicians' talent and God's graciousness that everything went so smoothly Saturday. It was a blast.

And then there's the break down at the after party. We just ignore it.


On to Sunday. Eastview Christian Church in Normal had their game day this weekend and Sunday I got to be an audience member to cheer on a friend. Very enjoyable. Eastview is huge. It's like having church at the Peoria Civic Center. Very well decorated.

Great variety of music and talent. That teacher can SANG!!

Two Days

A little too close for those of us with a few songs left to memorize. But still exciting. It's crazy to think four hours with the Christmas choir on stage is fun when Wednesday night for two hours at church seems long, but it is. Something about Christmas choir!

Ryan's pumped about his front row seat...I can tell

Four Days And Counting

That was true when I tried to post this last night. It's time to eat, breathe and sleep Christmas Choir again. The rest of the week is dedicated to practice and enjoyment of the celebration of our Lord and Savior's birth with Bethany's musical talent. Day one for me was helping to get all the platforms which the choirs will stand on over to the place we're using them. Here Fred lays out the plan while Ben singlehandedly saves Christmas with his engineering skills...twice.