R2-D2 Jokes

R2-D2 was back with us today, and in a pretty good humor as you can see above.  Evidently, he's told Madison some jokes.  I think I could translate one of them:

R2:               "Knock-knock."
MADISON: "Who's there?"
R2:               "Art."
MADISON: "Art who?"
R2:               "Artoo-Detoo!"

I didn't say they were great jokes.  Don't tell him I said that though.  Anyway, today we had another great service, another trip to the Hoth system, in a galaxy far, far away.  We had our races this morning, Josh animated a race through space with an A-wing, a B-wing and a Y-wing.  We had characters out greeting before and after the services, including R2-D2 of course, and a few others:

You can see Madison here with a few of the extra characters, including a visit from Princess Leia herself.  She was a last minute visitor, and a welcome one.  Ashley, the young lady in the stormtrooper costume there, is a member of the 501st, and has been getting us various visitors, including Princess Leia today, who R2-D2 was happy to meet.

But that wasn't the only visitor at KidPak today.  Here below is a first time visitor that made quite an impression!

Darth Vader was here with us today!  To quote Moff Jerjerrod, "Lord Vader, this is an unexpected pleasure."  And yes indeed, it was.

Here's another group shot, although R2 and a few others were greeting upstairs at this time.  Madison was there though, right in front as her Jawa character, who is officially named "Jinky" now.   Daddy got her a little souvenir for her, as a way to thank her for helping out on stage.

She loves it, and she did great on stage today.  She doesn't have any lines to memorize - Daddy is up in the Soundbooth using a device to make sounds for the wookie Chubba Wukka, and the Jawa too, Jinky.  Also, we had a little bit of interaction today with a mouse droid.

This is MSE-6 droid that we had acting with us on stage today.  Josh was backstage, using a remote control while Daddy was doing the sound effects in the sound booth as well.  The mouse droid was interacting with the wookie on stage, and the kids were having fun with it - the droid kept hitting Chubba Wukka until the wookie had enough, and chased him off.

As for the message we spoke today, it was about lightsabers, as you can see above.  Or rather, the message was about the Word of God, which of course is "...is alive and active. It is sharper than any sword that has two edges.” Hebrews 4:12 NIRV

It was a fantastic morning at KidPak, quite memorable for all kinds of reasons.  We had a lot of fun, kids and grown-ups alike.  You'd think the smaller kids would be slightly taken aback by the Dark Lord of the Sith... but...

Yeah, he's actually a big softy!

The rest of our day was slow and relaxing - at home.  When we got there.  It was a long day at work, but when we arrived at home, we were playing "Rebels" characters on Disney Infinity for a bit.  But we also did a little bit of work:  Madison was playing piano, and then were studying the best way to make a solar system model.  YES!  It may not be a galaxy far, far away, but we're finally getting to make a model solar system.  This is one of those things that's pretty much a rite of passage for parents, and I was wondering when that big moment is, when I get to help make a solar system.  Well, that moment is now!  So Madison, Mommy and Daddy were looking through different ways we can make up a solar system.  There were a few different ideas, but we all settled on one method.  Madison wrote down the notes and the materials it will take for our next project, and pretty soon we'll be out collecting what we need to build the solar system.  But by gum, what do we do about Pluto?

Madison made the decision of what to watch tonight, and given our direction with Star Wars of late, she's wanting to binge-watch the entire series of "Star Wars:  Rebels."  Yes, we watched all of season four last week, which was pretty quick.  But now she wants to start all over again, and we're okay with that - it's a great show.

We went to bed a bit earlier tonight, reading and praying and delivering zerberts.  It's been a great day, with an obvious theme that was pretty fun.  We'll be sleeping easy tonight, dreaming of tauntauns and mouse droids.

And before I go, one more thing - I usually write a letter to our volunteers to thank them, and this afternoon was no different.  This one had a personal spin to it, so I thought I'd share it here in closing, as it attempts to explain the driving passion behind what we do at KidPak, and why we do it:

Hey there,

     Some of you may have heard this before, but I was raised in a Catholic Church.  As a kid, my main memory of the church was that every single blessed service had the same exact steps:  you did the Lord’s prayer, sang an old song or two, took communion, recited some long speech about what we believe, listened to a priest talk about ten minutes and then left.  I couldn’t wait for that last part!  And… I can’ t remember a single thing that was ever said by the priest there, because I was so focused on how many steps we had to go until I could get out of there!

      One day though, the priest started his short homily with the words, “Today I want to talk about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia….”  And suddenly I didn’t want to leave as quickly.  I was absolutely there at that moment, paying full attention and completely sucked in!   It’s literally the only thing I remember that priest saying, to this day.

      This month at KidPak, we didn’t just mention a few characters to get the kids' attention.  No, we brought Star Wars characters here, and brought the Star Wars galaxy to life in front of them.  And when Pastor Lance was holding those lightsabers while talking, those kids were really paying attention as he was speaking about the Word of God. If they’re anything like me, yesterday was a service they’ll never forget!

      We do that each and every week at KidPak, and we can’t do it without your help.  I am so grateful we can make these lasting memories with these kids - our kids!  Just think of all the foundation we’re putting down, the excitement of going to church, and the Biblical foundations were putting in place.  Thank you so much for your help, your passion, your friendship, your prayers, and your love for this ministry!

And may the force be with you!

-d