Church Night

We've been having a mini-revival at the church, which is unique in that there is no children's services for kids, first grade and up. This gives the volunteers and workers in that ministry an opportunity to attend church, something we do a couple times a year.

Fortunately, there's childcare at the church for Madison. She was pretty nervous about childcare to begin with - I don't blame her! But tonight when Daddy dropped her off for daycare, she just ran off and into the room!

"Come back here and give Daddy a kiss!"

Madison turned around and ran to Daddy to give him a kiss on the cheek, and then ran off again! She enjoys playing with her friends and doing activities like the one she did tonight. Here she is to the right, showing off her craft just before bedtime. Doesn't she have the greatest smiles? This one is her "cheese" smile, where she knows a camera is being pointed at her.

In any event, she genuinely likes the childcare at the church. They've got these one-way windows where you can peek in, but they can't see you. Occasionally, Daddy will sneak over and take a peek to see how she's doing. She's usually in good spirits, running around and completely holding her own.

Madison you can tell is feeling better. Mommy was feeling somewhat run down today, so it was just Daddy and Madison at church tonight (while Mommy watched the service on a webcast).

Mommy will get a chance to go again and see the guest speaker this Wednesday, as he announced this evening that he'd be returning then to speak again. Meanwhile, Daddy will return to working with the children downstairs. Hundreds of them to watch over, and the "king's business takes haste."

Of course, in this case, "the king" would be Elvis, as we're still in the middle of our Graceland series. It has been one of my favorites, and the guy we've had with us doing the Elvis impersonation has been wonderful. He's going to do a pose with Madison soon - she really likes him. We just haven't dressed up Madison for it yet. But the two have hit it off pretty well. It's good to know we're teaching Madison the finer things in life, Elvis in particular. Here's our guy:

You can see there's a lot of energy in the place. About forty of the dancers rush down to the stage and wave their handkerchiefs, hoping that he'll wipe his forehead with them. He points at certain ones, and they scream and faint. It's really funny, actually. The older volunteers are laughing at it all, and the younger kids are starting to really get into it. Of course, you're probably wondering "Why Elvis?"

Why not? Seriously, there are a lot of fun things we've done so far with the Elvis theme - and a lot more to go. Just to give you an example, here's what I wrote for the first page of the Elvis devotional:

JAILHOUSE ROCK

A night spent in prison might be something to be down about. In the book of Acts, Paul and Silas were thrown into jail for spreading the gospel, but they didn’t act like sad sacks sitting on a block of stone, way over in a corner weeping all alone.

Instead, they threw a party in the county jail. You should’ve heard those knocked out jailbirds sing! Paul and Silas knew that this was no time to get the blues – no, this was time to do the Jailhouse Rock!

They praised God, singing hymns and praying. In fact, everybody in the whole cellblock was listening to the jailhouse rock!

Talk about a rocking tune: the entire prison started shaking until the foundation of that place came loose and the doors flew open. Everyone was free!

But it might not have happened without that first note of praise. Take a note or two from Paul and Silas: even when things look their worst, remember to praise the God who can deliver you from any situation. Even if He doesn’t start working immediately, it’s good to know that God is aware of what’s going on and has the situation under control.

So don’t you be no square! If you can’t find a partner, use a wooden chair! Just dance and sing praises to God. And just like Paul and Silas, dance the Jailhouse Rock!

Like I said, we'll get a good photo of Madison with the king before this month is out. Until then, I'm out of here - I think I'm going to go get me a jelly doughnut. Thank you very much.