A lovely weekend was experienced by yours truly. Friday, Husband got home early thanks to the school's pep rally. I always love when he comes home to me. We spent a few hours chilling and then got ready to meet his family at Ruby Tuesday in honor of my early birthday celebration. YUM. I had never been a big Ruby's fan, but that was mostly because it was always too overpriced for my family and me. I still don't like to spend money on a dinner out when I could prepare it myself, but for special occasions it's a great middle of the road selection. Kevin and I went to RT a couple weeks back to cash in on his free birthday burger coupon and that was when my love of their salad bar blossomed. It is THE BEST salad bar I've ever seen (aside from Sweet Tomatoes down south--which is MY kind of restaurant--a salad buffet!!) When Kevin's dad asked me for my restaurant choice all I could think about was that salad bar.
(If you've ever been around me at a meal, you know I consider myself a salad aficionado and I'm not easily impressed by salads. In other words, I'm a salad snob.)
We met everyone at the restaurant and I handed my free burger coupon over to Kevin so that I might thoroughly enjoy my salad bar. We all had a great evening of talking, laughing, sharing stories and just being together. Every time we're with my family or his, I wish they lived 15 minutes away. I would love to spend more frequent time with everyone. Ahhh, growing up. You're not all that awesome sometimes.
Brian spent the night with us--the brothers need their bonding time, you know. They're quite the pair. The three of us loaded up on Saturday morning along with 9 others to head to our second Bible quiz. It was wonderful to be able to sleep in on a quiz morning. We didn't have to leave until 8am!! (Rather than the usual 6am.) The quizzers made us proud, everyone was in good spirits, and we all had a blast together. To top off the quizzing goodness, it was such a small quiz turnout, we got home at 3:30 instead of 5:30.
Saturday night was our young adult small group which is always a good time. Before heading to bed, we had to venture over to the dark and creepy-at-night church at 10pm to check on the baptismal. The water level and heat were problematic. But it was all worth it given the upcoming church service.
I like to say God smacked me across the face during the Sunday service. I had a bad attitude about a few things Saturday night and as soon as my teens arrived for Sunday school things started turning around. It was a fantastic time of studying John with a room full of teens. Then, we were blessed with a full sanctuary to witness 13 people (including 7 youth) coming into membership and 7 individuals publicly committing their lives to Jesus in baptism (including 5 youth). The worship was Spirit filled. (Even better because I got to play the new old grand and despite the bloody nose I got midway through playing.) Chris--the pastor's son and one of our great students--preached his first sermon. Kevin and I had the privilege of baptizing our teens. We prayed over our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes we had packed with love. And after all of that, we spent time laughing and celebrating over an awesome potluck lunch.
I've only gotten to baptize one of my students so far, but I have to admit, it's an awesome feeling know that God is using me to reach out to people.
ReplyDeleteTo baptize five in one service is, quite frankly, amazing.