Shadow Troopers, Jawas, and Thermal Detonators

The Star Wars fun continued today with our third part of the series, "The Spirit Awakens."  You can see us celebrating afterwards, for what appears to be now a tradition for this series.  The members of the 501st that came wanted to do a group shot, so we joined them on our Hoth set once more.  You can see some of the new t-shirts in this picture above - we'll show them again in a bit.  But above you can see Madison out of her Jawa costume, along with Mommy, Pastor Lance, Mary Shannon and several others from KidPak.  It was another great morning!

Here are our newest visitors from the 501st.  They've really made this series what it is, a constant parade of new characters.  Strangely, Daddy was most excited about the Imperial Gunner there to the right, mainly because that was something new, and somewhat obscure.  These were incredibly kind members of the 501st, enthusiastic and just wonderful people.  We had a Shadow Trooper, and Imperial officer, and of course the Imperial Gunner there.  Don't they look great?

Madison is a jawa in our series, a member of a team of scavengers that got a tip about the Battle of Hoth that just happened.  Furthermore, one of the team members has instructions to pick up something important that was left behind.  We haven't found that item yet, but along the way we've run into a stormtrooper that is trying to infiltrate the group.  She's been called a traitor by the kids, but after today, there's a bit of doubt about her character:  she heard the jawa's story, about how the Empire did something remarkably bad.  Madison - or "Jinky," as her character is named - is off to one side in the picture above, because she's been reminded of the pain of loss.  The stormtrooper character you see above, the spy, is affected by the story, and is now suddenly in a position similar to Finn from "The Force Awakens," where her heart is telling her one thing, but orders are saying another.

Here's some of the crew outside in the lobby afterwards.  There was a massive, massive line for kids and grown-ups to come and take pictures with these characters.  We were there for an hour between services, and almost an hour after the second service.  The line didn't stop!  Madison came by to pose again, but afterwards she was busy with her weekly ritual of distributing chocolate to all of the teachers and staff members - and Mommy.  The kids earn "KidPak money" for memorizing scriptures and filling out their books, and Madison promptly spends that on chocolate at our concession stand (it  is called the Pak Shack, and we have candy and chocolate there as incentive for kids to memorize things and fill out their books).  Anyway, she doesn't keep the chocolate for herself:  she hands it out to all the teachers and staff members.

Here's Josh holding a thermal detonator.  This was a funny segment, a game we played on stage with the kids, something like "hot potato," where kids passed along this thermal detonator until it "exploded," which means we had one less kid.  Eventually that number of kids was whittled down to our winner - it was a loud game, with lots of cheering and frantic passing.

The message today was about the bounty being paid.  Here's a letter I wrote to the volunteers afterwards, that pretty much sums up the message and our gratitude.  I send these out each week, and this one illustrates what Madison learned this morning:

Hey there!

      Thank you so much for an amazing morning at KidPak!  I asked Madison what she learned yesterday on the way home in the car, and she walked me through the message points: “All of us are scoundrels” (Romans 3:23), “we all have a death mark” (Romans 6:23), and best of all, "Jesus paid the price when he died for us” (Romans 3:24).  This was all off the top of her head - she was paying attention to what Pastor Lance was saying (and the bottom line and videos helped reinforce that).

     I know for an absolute certainty that lives were changed forever yesterday.  The altar service alone is proof of that.  But beyond that, I know these kids learned the most important thing you can learn from the Bible.  That’s a huge moment.

    You played a part in that, literally.  It’s a big deal, isn’t it?  All of us who are parents know there is nothing more important than delivering this crucial message to our children.  So thank you once again, from a grateful dad.  It was a remarkable day, and I’m so glad myself to be a part of this amazing team with you!

Oh, and the new t-shirts - you can see them here.  Madison has one, as do Mommy and Daddy.  We even got the 501st members new t-shirts.  In fact, they completely sold out in one morning!  We sold all the child size t-shirts and all the adult ones too.  It was a sudden rush - these t-shirts were super popular!

Of course, KidPak isn't the only thing that happened today.  It's a big part of the day though.  We got home, and did a bit of piano practice, and we read part two of "The X-Cutioner's Song," which is the first "X-Factor" book that Madison has read, meeting characters like Guido, and one of her all-time favorites, Quicksilver.  

Madison also spent some time with Minecraft on this story mode, which Daddy is enjoying with her.  It's a one-player game, but as Daddy was doing church-related work, he was watching her try to solve a murder mystery on the game.

We took a break and went to the pool after this, going down there while it was still open for the season.  The hours are counting down for that, but the weather was nice and the water temperature was okay - it was a bit cool, but you got used to it.  Madison and Daddy were playing games like "Yes and No," or throwing a sponge ball back and forth, or "Marco Polo."  Which reminds me:  there's a kid in my 3rd grade class now, and his name is Marco.  It must be frustrating for him to go to the pool, right?

We got back, and pretty much got ready for bed after this.  We saw another few episodes of "Star Wars Rebels," and read another chapter from "The Slippery Slope."  We've met Quigley now, and suddenly, we're only a few chapters away from finishing this book.  Three more to go after this, and the girls are certainly very much into it.

We said our prayers, and zerberts were made, and accusations of who made the stinky noises were leveled at one another.  The nightly rituals keep going on, from hiding from Daddy each night in a different place to reading the devotional and sweet goodnights.  It's been a good day!