OK! Sorry, it's VBS week and EVERYTHING has to be over the top, energetic! So I may use more than my fair share to exclamation points in this post!!!!!! (stand up, sit down, clap clap clap, SCREEEEAAAAMMMM!!!!)
OK, I think it's out of my system...! Whoops, one managed to sneak in there.
Alright, so I had God hit me upside the head with a Godx4 yesterday. Let me tell you what was going down on my wild and crazy Wednesday.
Like I said earlier, it's VBS week...which means that I get to come to work an hour and a half early each day, be uber-energetic, and still have to work the rest of the day...which translates into sleepy Kyle. AND on top of all that, yesterday was the first day of our new Youth endeavour which is an attempt to bring all the youth ministries in Worthington together, once a month, for a time of worship, learning, and community building. There are about 10 different youth groups in town, but only one has the personnel and capabilities to have AWESOME worship. Not saying that worship is only singing, but I want my kids to experience the awesome times of worship that I have in the past through music, and we just don't got the peeps to do it here. SOOOO, all that to say, four months of planning and long discussions lead up to last night. We honestly didn't know how many kids were going to show up, it's the beginning of summer, the youth are out doing their summer thing, so we all got a lot of hummin' and hawin' about maybe possibly thinking about coming, etc. PLUS there were four other churches that had evening VBS, so they wouldn't be able to be there...SOOO, we knew it was going to be small, but we were hoping that there'd be enough to at least get the word out to their friends.
The turmoil started Tuesday night when I got a phone call from our bass player for the worship band. We had already been kind of behind on practices for the music, but when he called he said he was sick...but was going to try and come the next day (he lives 2.5 hours away). OK, no problem, let me know asap as to what you're thinking so we can plan ahead. Crisis #1.
So the next morning I get to work and almost immediately get a text from aforementioned bass player that what was kicking him yesterday is now hitting him with a baseball bat today...crap. No bass player... Modified Crisis #1, we'll call it #1a. Because now we have to find a bass player...AND teach him/her all the music (which is #1b).
OK, so I get the other band mates working on the bass player problem, because I have to go lead the opening of VBS...it's 8:30 am.
OK, so I get back to my office, 8:55am, and see that I have an email. The person that was getting the permission to use the cafetorium in the High School says that she turned all the information in to the school but never heard back from them...ok, so I put another youth pastor, who doesn't have VBS this week, on figuring out if we even have the go-ahead to be in there...Crisis #2.
So right now I'm starting to get a little nervous as to whether things are going to pan out...but I keep my calm...I mean, I have VBS to run, I can't let everything fall apart now. So I look through my VBS curriculum for the closing, just a quick run through to make sure there's no curve balls...guess what...curve ball (Crisis #3). It wanted me to do something that I was in no way prepared to do. So I brainstormed what I could do for an object lesson...it was going to be kind of shaky and thrown together, but it was going to involve talking about the police and how they are there to protect us...just like God is there to protect us...no what visual can I use? And just when I was going to give in...guess which member of our church walks in? The police chief himself! In full police regalia...awesome...and he loves giving children's sermons!!! Double plus...God you are crafty sometimes! So Crisis #3...averted.
In the meantime, the other YP that was dealing with the cafetorium situation called me and told me that everything was ok to use at the HS, we just had to go over early and let them know what's going down in the evening...awesome! Crisis #2...averted.
So, we're still looking for a bass player...or trying to figure out how we can rework out members to make it sound good...when a name comes up that we hadn't really thought about yet. He calls him, he's in...AND he's played lots o' worship tunes, so he knows all the songs! Crises #1a and #1b...averted!
SO, it's now 8:30 pm...I've led and closed VBS, loaded and unloaded my drum set AND the sound system, played the delegation game all day, dealt with scheduling confusion, missing paperwork, and 3 frustrated but overly gracious and understanding ISD 518 employees...and now it's time to start The WAY (Worthington Area Youth). Everything's working, looks good, we sound good, we're waiting for people to show up.
Now here's where the real lesson came to me...right before we were going to start worship, the guitar player asked me, "How many people do you think are going to show up?" I told him, "If 50 show, I'll be happy...well no, if 30 show I'll be happy...well, ACTUALLY if 15 show, I'll be happy..." We played, a few showed up, worship was awesome. We got done and went to do the lesson, more conversational style because there just weren't the people there to have Maggie professing God's love from the cafetorium stage to just a few. So we're all sitting down talking through the message...when I start looking around, with that number 15 still hanging in my head. So I start counting, don't know why, I just do...and guess how many people were there...exactly 15. Immediately this phrase starts running through my head, "But Lord, if there is only one, will you spare the city?" HA! God, you are one funny, ironic, and clever chap...lesson...learned!
In the end, EVERYTHING worked out for the good. We didn't have to rethink, re plan, rework ANY detail that we had in place. God is faithful...of this I'm sure...what I'm not sure of is why I continue to stress/question/doubt him when he ALWAYS comes through for me...silly me...silly me...
HAVE A GREAT THURSDAY!
-kage
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