R.T.'s Blurty

Steppin' out of the ol' routine
Had a nice visit to a different church yesterday. With twenty or more churches all around the immediate area, and at least 8 up and down this street alone, DZ and I traveled half an hour away, out of the city limits, into another county. And it was worth it.

It's the same church we've been going to every Halloween for their excellent, realistic walk-through Halloween alternative. (They've got a wonderful, SERIOUS drama department.) Every time we've gone, the people seemed . . . hmmm, more than friendly. Lots of churches have lots of friendly people, but that's not it. I guess . . . disciplined? Well, that sounds fussy, but I mean in a good way. They practice what they claim to believe.

Anyway, so DZ and I went and, whaddaya know, the pastor wasn't speaking that day. Here's how it went.
There was a very touching Memorial Day tribute, with a marching color guard with flags.
The singing part came next and DZ and I both noticed the lack of "I" songs. "I" songs are a peeve of mine from our regular church. There are an overabundance of supposed Worship songs going on and on about "I" - "I want to worship You" and "Loving God is the best thing I've ever done" and "I give you praise" - without singing one single praise-ful thing. BLEH. But this place sang about the many attributes of God and His power AND there was even one old-fashioned hymn! *gasp* It was very cool!

The the speaker came up and it was the head of the education ministry (actual title: Minister of Education but that sounded sort of governmental . . . ha ha).

He was a good speaker. The message was about Jesus and "storms" and "acts of God" in our lives. He told us about his mission trip to El Salvador where he went through a 7.2 earthquake. He looked out of the motel window and noticed a volcano ("uh oh") and how huge streams of dirt were running down the sides ("I thought to myself, That's not right!") and how the TV flung itself down and the tiles on the bathroom wall jumped off of the wall and how the floor was rolling like ocean waves ("and, by the way, we were on the 4th floor"), before it started to move straight up and down ("I looked over at my roommate and he was doing it, too").

So, yeah, he was entertaining and he actually got a lot of laughs from the crowd, which is good at 8:30 in the morning. But he had a good, practical and not preachy, message as well. DZ liked that a lot.
I think we'll make a return trip soon. And maybe hear the pastor speak!

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