Church mix-ups

The grown-ups (my parents) slept in the hotel last night and the kids (us young adults) slept in the fifth-wheel.  We got up and showered in the hotel before putting on church clothes and getting ready to experience a brand new church in North Dakota.  We headed out, following my dad's GPS, which was a bad move.  It took us all over Fargo on a wild goose chase for the elusive church.  Finally we tried out using Jonathan's phone, which got us to the right address, though once we were there we saw warehouses, a police station, and a residential area, but nothing resembling a church.  Finally we decided to go to another church in the area and the GPS got us to that one fine.  Just as we were walking up the stairs to go into the church, I noticed their signpost hanging beside the door: Church 9:30 a.m., Sabbath School (which I will hereafter refer to with the initials, SS) 11 a.m.  Yep, you guessed it.  This church had their services backwards.  So we went in, broke up a SS class, introduced ourselves, and settled into the class as best we could.

 The group was super friendly and it turned out that the SS leader for the class we were in was the father of a Southern graduate and another Southern student, Jessi and Krista.  Both Tyler and I knew Jessi from classes, and Bryn and I both knew Krista from SM class.  Wow, the Adventist world really is small.  When SS was done, many members talked to us and the SS teacher invited us all over to his house.  So we went back to our hotel, changed into comfier clothes, and drove out to their farm.  His wife made an amazing lunch and we got to know them better.  Their girls weren't back from Southern yet, since they stayed an extra few days to do some fun after-school activities.  They were planning to get home the next day.  After lunch, we talked a bit longer until we realized we had to continue our journey.  We took pictures of each other and then drove back into town.  Now we're just about to check out of our hotel room and leave.  Wonder how far we'll make it this afternoon and evening.

SJ&C church

I went to the Comm. church today at Elsie Holmes Park.  Every year the SJ&C puts on a church service to recognize the graduating seniors.  This was the first year I went and it was so nice that I wished I'd gone other years.  Ms. Chamberlain spoke and just told a whole bunch of memories she had from her time here and tried to include a lot of the current students and faculty and especially all the graduates.  After church, and some awards and cards for the seniors, we had haystacks and cake.  Halfway through eating, all the lights went out from a lightning strike nearby.  The thunderstorm was really neat to watch from the inside of the pavilion.

After lunch, we went back to campus, gathered a few more people, and took off for Fall Creek Falls.  I hadn't been there before and I'm really glad I got the chance to go before I left this area.  We walked around by the falls, getting soaking wet from the rain, but having a good time.

When I got home, I realized that this is my very last weekend here.  Well, the very last normal one because next weekend is going to be very different from all the other ones I've had here.  That's really sad, but I'm getting pretty excited to go home and be in the northwest again!

PS - In Ms. Chamberlain's talk, she mentioned the two times the SJ&C faculty have done farewell songs for professors who were leaving.  I was at the farewell for Ms. Chamberlain, but not the one two years ago for Ms. Caldwell, so tonight I went on YouTube and found that song.  It's pretty amazing, too.  If you want to see, click here and enjoy!

Music seminar

Instead of going to vespers, Jonathan and I listened to the last section of Dr. Ashton's seminars on music from a SEYC several years ago.  They are really great and really make you think about the kind of music that churches should include in their worship service.  Bryn (who is currently in Dr. Ashton's Music and the Christian Church class) and I want our church to listen to the talks this summer when we get home from school.  I think our church could really benefit from his ideas on this subject.  Thanks goes to Jonathan for telling us about the seminars on AudioVerse and convincing us to listen to them.

If you'd like to listen to the seminars, click here.

Stomach flu

He sat, head bent over his cello, and felt his stomach heave. Just ignore it, he thought. Just sit so still your stomach doesn't realize it's not feeling well. Just . . . Just nothing. He had to get to a bathroom. NOW! He paused for a millisecond, hoping his stomach would suddenly cooperate and settle down. Then he knew it wouldn't and he acted. He methodically leaned over and place his cello carefully on its side, gently setting his bow on its ribs. Once he was sure his cello was safe, he moved quickly. Rising from his chair at the front of the church, he wound his way past music stands and other chairs, recently abandoned by children who had gathered on the other side of the stage to listen to the children's story. He hoped the story continued for a few minutes. He needed to be back on stage by the time the children returned to their seats. He was part of the special music that would happen next.

He rushed through the door leading to the hallway and then through another that took him into a room with a washroom. He shoved the door shut and leaned in front of the toilet just in time. When he was done, he slumped in front of the toilet. The murmur of the storytelling voice had ended sometime in the middle of his expulsion. Now two girls were singing with a guitar. So they had changed around the order of the service? Well, that was better than the whole church body just sitting in their pews, waiting for him to reappear. He felt better now that the offending material in his stomach was gone. He walked to the sink and rinsed his mouth out with cold water before taking a small drink. Then he looked in the mirror. He didn't look like he'd just thrown up. Reaching up, he pulled a few stray curls back into place. He casually walked back to the stage and sat on the piano bench until the girls finished their song. Then he made his way back to his seat, picked his cello back up and came in on the downbeat. He made it through the song and then headed back to the bathroom for the rest of the church service. What bad timing for a flu, he thought as he tried to listen to the speaker through the bathroom door.

Pew-sitting

I feel like I sat in pews all day. I went to the Village Chapel church with Jonathan. He was in a men's quartet that was singing at a 4 p.m. benefit concert for Haiti so we decided to just go there for church and stay for potluck and whatever practicing he needed to do before the concert. The church service is always interesting at Village Chapel. The random spontaneity sometimes reminds me of my home church although it seems like all three times I've been to the VC the same sort of spontaneous things happen. This time Joel left his seat at the front of the church a little bit into the service and told Jonathan and John that the quartet had been asked to sing for the second of two special musics. Apparently the VC choir was supposed to sing but that had fallen through for some reason. So they left to practice, returning just before going up front to sing "Steal Away." It was awesome to hear the King Herald's-esque song. At home we sometimes play those CD's on Sabbath mornings.

After church and a humourous but still heartfelt sermon about marriage and how the church is like a marriage, we went to the fellowship hall for potluck, which was pretty good in my opinion. Then Jonathan and I worked on getting caught up in our Bible reading. The last half of Exodus and the first bit of Leviticus is really bogging us down, but we got a lot read while also soaking up the early-spring sunshine. Then the various music groups practiced and I listened and then sat back in the church pews for the concert, which I think went pretty well. The quartet sang "Good News Charriot's A Coming," which was nice to hear again too.

After that Jonathan and I went back to my apartment so I could change and grab something to tide me over for a few hours until we could have another meal. Then we went to Collegedale Church to hear Bryn play for her first Evensong. I thought she did great for playing in her first one ever and for only playing the organ for a year and a half or so. I went and congratulated her as soon as Evensong was done and then Jonathan and I rushed off to meet Tim and get a ride to the church plant in East Ridge where evangelistic meetings have been taking place. The quartet sang both songs, one at the start and one at the end of the meeting so we had to sit through the whole thing. The meeting itself was fine, but I was rather tired, by that time, of sitting on pews.

About halfway through the meeting I got a text from the Accent editor asking me if anyone was writing the story about BCU night. I freaked out. I had no idea BCU Night was today and felt terrible that I hadn't found someone to write the story. And I was stuck in East Ridge right about the time the event was starting. I furiously texted a bunch of people on the Accent staff asking them if they were on campus and could write the story but everyone was either off campus or already had plans. I moved on to people who I knew had taken News Reporting without any luck and finally I tried to get people that are currently in News Reporting. Finally, when the meeting was out I was able to talk to Josh on the phone and he agreed to cover the story for us.

Right about that time Tim had driven away to make it back for a banquet for the police and firefighters of Collegedale that his sister was in. In his haste to get back in time, he had left Jonathan and I in East Ridge. We tried pleading for a ride from a few people before Joel and John took pity on us and let us squish into the tiny back seat of Joel's truck. We were so happy to get a ride back to Collegedale that we didn't mind too much. They dropped us off at Jonathan's van and we went back to my place and hung out with Ty and Kim who were at mine and Bryn's apartment before leaving them to talk while we played some World of Goo to end the evening. Wow, now that I've written everything out it seems like a super packed day but it was fun and very different than recent Sabbaths.