Not A Moment Too Soon

You know, when we left town for our two-weeks vacation, I told everybody, “Don’t call me, don’t call me, don’t call me. I’m really taking a vacation. I’m not checking email. I’m not blogging. I’m getting away. Don’t call me unless it’s an emergency.”

Of course, secretly, I suppose I’m hoping deep down they all HAVE to call me. I’m too important. This place will fall apart if I’m gone for more than a week. I know they’re going to call me. My phone will be ringing off the hook. I’ll have 50 emails a day. How in the world are they going to run that church without me?!?

And nobody called. Nobody. Not once. Not a single time. No emails. No text messages.

We made it back from Florida just in time to walk in the doors here at Legacy at 7:00 Wednesday night. And, sure enough, my worst fears had been realized. We encountered utter chaos. No order. Everything and everybody out of control. It was as if every member of the Legacy church had completely taken leave of his senses.

I walked into the worship center only to discover they’d brought in a new worship leader. I thought it was Lance, at first, because of the way he was holding his microphone. But it wasn’t Lance. I’m not sure who it was.

Next thing I know, one of our distinguished elders began dancing down the center aisle! At least, I think he was dancing. I’d never experienced anything like it.

I thought maybe I’d better check on the kids upstairs. They had a group of 40 3rd graders up there. And I was horrified to see that they were arming these children with swords and shields and ordering them to go kill five other people. And then they turned out all the lights! Oh, the humanity!

It was so crazy, it was all so disorienting, poor old Gary Giles put his Rogaine on the wrong side of his head.

Everywhere I went, all of our deacons were wearing dresses. Short dresses.

Al Grant has seen it all in his life. And even he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Thinking I must have entered the wrong building, or a bizarro Legacy, maybe, I made an attempt to run back out to the parking lot to check the signs. And the sky. And I see that these crazy people had torn down one of the main walls in the concourse. Don’t they know this building’s not paid for yet?!?

It was loud. It was crowded. It was chaotic. It was upside down.

It was 275 of our children learning together about Joshua. It was our kids being taught about God’s promises of protection and provision for his people. It was our entire church family coming together, like they always do, to pass on the Christian faith to those following behind us. It was a record-breaking Vacation Bible School. It was cookies and songs and crafts and exhibits and dramas and paint and Bibles and horns and prayers and bread and tools and teenagers and Prime Timers and costumes. And a gracious and loving heavenly Father who blesses it all to his eternal honor and glory!

To everyone who organized and coordinated, everyone who taught a class or manned a booth in the Jericho marketplace, who baked a cookie or held a hand, everyone who painted a set, wrote a song, or cut out little altar stones: Thank You. Well done. As always.

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Magic KingdomI’m not going to bore you with our Disney pictures. I’ll give you this one. That’s it. For now.

We had a blast. It was non-stop all day, every day. We left nothing undone in Florida. We rode every ride from the older classics (It’s a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Tom Sawyer’s Island) to the newer thrillers (Aerosmith’s Rockin’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Expedition to Everest, Dinosaur). We got hooked on the Mickey Mouse Cookies-N-Cream Ice Cream Sandwiches. We got rained on nearly every afternoon. We got burned at Cocoa Beach. We threw and caught rolls at Lambert’s Cafe in Gulf Shores. And we put 2,509 miles on the mini-van with no DVD players, no headphones, and no video games. Lots of singing and lots of talking. And laughing. Some sleeping. Mostly talking and laughing.

It was great to get away. It’s even better to get home.

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Faith BuildersI’m in the office extra early today getting ready for day one of Faith Builders Day Camp. Lance and I take 35-40 of our 5th, 6th, and 7th graders and we share our stories, discuss the problems of sin and the solution presented to us by God in Christ, and talk together about baptism and discipleship and the Church. And we also throw in a lot of fun. We work hard together in the Scriptures from 9:00am – 12:00noon. And then after lunch, we play hard together until 4:00.

The kicker is the mandatory homework page we assign nightly. The kids are required to sit down with their parents for 30-45 minutes each night to answer questions and discuss the things we’ve covered that day in camp. It’s a beautiful avenue for our moms and dads to study the Scriptures and have these critical faith discussions with their children.

I’m looking forward to it. I believe, as I reflect more on this as we move through the week, that Faith Builders is the highlight of my year.

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Red Ribbon ReviewThe Pro Football Hall of Fame staged their kickoff classic last night between the Bills and Titans, each sporting their old 1960 AFL uniforms. Love that Oilers Blue! That means we’re getting closer and closer to the Cowboys kicking off their historic 50th NFL season against the Bucs in Tampa Bay on September 13. In fact, there are 34 days left until that first Cowboys game. And we continue our Red Ribbon Review countdown today with the second-best player in Cowboys history to ever wear #34. (You’re on your own to come up with #s 50-35. Sorry.)

Herschel WalkerRunning back Herschel Walker is today’s honoree. The national champion and Heisman Trophy winning star from Georgia left school early to join the USFL in 1984. But when the Cowboys saw that the renegade league was about to fold, they drafted Walker with the 114th pick in the ’85 draft. And what a bargain it was.

When Herschel joined Dallas before the ’86 season, he was considered the greatest running back in the game. It didn’t sit real well with Tony Dorsett. But the Cowboys had set their hopes on a dream backfield that, frankly, never quite worked out. Walker was elected to back-to-back Pro Bowls in ’87 and ’88. But those were on some bad, bad, bad Cowboys football teams.

New Cowboys owner Jerry Wayne traded the only good player he had to the Minnesota Vikings five games into the ’89 campaign for five players (Jesse Solomon, Issiac Holt, Darrin Nelson, David Howard, and Alex Stewart) and draft choices that led directly to Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland, Kevin Smith, and Darren Woodson. “The Herschel Walker Trade,” forever reviled in Minnesota and eternally praised in Dallas, formed the cornerstone of the Cowboys’ three Super Bowl champion teams of the ’90s.

Walker went on to play forgettable football in Philadelphia and with the Giants before finishing his career in Dallas in ’96 and ’97, carrying the ball a total of just 16 times in those last two years.

Peace,

Allan

4 Comments

  1. Taylor

    I laughed out loud at that picture of Lance. Wow. Just wow. I think that’s all I’ve got.

  2. jason reeves

    Were you gone???

  3. Jenn

    It was a GREAT VBS!! We loved it…thanks for this with the pictues…didn’t realize just how short Ron’s dress was until now!! 🙂

  4. Allan

    The look on Ron’s face only makes it worse. Much, much, much worse.

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