Christian Artists

It has been a privilege to hang out at church these past couple of days and watch the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia Youth Evangelism Conference.  The SBCV put together a crew of college kids to organize and man the event.  Worship artist Phil Wickham and his band was here, David Nasser spoke and SuperChick is loading in now.

The A/V end of things is really interesting and an incredible amount of work.  There is the unloading of the tractor trailer, assembly of the equipment and instruments, the raising of a lighting truss, huge speakers to hang and miles and miles of cabling.  There are sound checks, lighting adjustments, tuning, practicing and dozens of people working.  It is hard work and noisy. 

But what has struck me the most this afternoon is not the noise or the music, but the cooperative and respectful attitudes that I can hear from the stage below.  "Hey, thanks"  "Sorry about that buddy" "No problem".  I've never been to a secular concert as it was being set up before.  But I would be really suprised if the banter sounds like it does here today.

Who we work for affects how we do our work.  So when the truck is loaded back up and our stage is reassembled for church tomorrow, and we are exhausted, it will be God that was honored.

It was a great conference, but the way it was conducted was a testimony too.  Geoff was welcomed in and put to work, especially by the lighting designer.  After spending three days here with the crew, I am grateful that Geoff has seen Christianity hard at work.

Did I mention it is really loud?

The Fruit Birthday

You know how the 25th Anniversary is the Silver Anniversary, and the 50th is Gold?  Well I think the symbol of my 40th birthday is fruit.  Maybe it is frozen fruit.

My parents sent a cheese and cracker basket, which was actually a huge fruit basket with a box of Triskets and a chuck of cheese.  Which is really, really nice.  Then my sweet hubby brought home a wonderful "Edible Arrangement" - my favorite kind of bouquet.  It is such a luxury to have someone cut up fruit for me to eat!  Then, because of a damaged pineapple, a whole new giant fruit basket arrived today, complete with a box of Triskets and another chunk of cheese.

Now the only glitch in this perfectly fruity story is that my fridge picked last week to rev into overdrive and start chilling everything until it is frozen solid.  And it is still not fixed.  So the problem becomes - what to do with 4 grapefruit, 8 kiwi, 10 navel oranges, a dozen red and green apples, a beautiful fruit bouquet, etc., etc.

I made one apple crisp, and several banana splits, but I think that the giant pile of fruit is too big to conquer with recipies.  I think I am going to surrender and treat the folks at work to a big basket of fruit.  Happy Birthday to all!

Snowy World

Snowy Guy

We traveled to PA the week after Christmas.  Much to the delight of my kids, who are used to snowy forecasts that never come true, a prediction of one inch became 4 inches overnight.  Not just snow, but shoveling, snowballing, snowman building, snowblowing, sticking-around-for-days snow.