FCY Wednesday

Wednesday night is time for Free Chapel Youth, and Maddie doesn’t miss that.  It’s February, so there’s a bit of a theme going on there this month, tonight’s message being about Samson, his strength and perhaps his lack of self-control.  Afterwards, there are opportunities to hangout together in the common area, eating pizza and waffles.  The waffles are nearly famous at this point, an unusual choice of food for a meal, but nonetheless pretty popular amongst both the students and the adult workers.  I was there to pick up Maddie afterwards, but I had gone home in between so that I can spend time with Mom.  We were watching some television and sharing a meal and some quiet time together.

 

It was a good day today, a productive one at work where we were setting up for multiple events upcoming, including something Friday, a movie night.  We’ve been going back and forth about the movie to choose, but there just haven’t been enough family movies you can show at church lately.  Disney has seen to that this year, certainly, and there’s this shift to Dreamworks with a few of us of late.  Their movie “The Bad Guys” was actually really good, and that’s the one we’re going with soon.  We’ve had a bit of a Dreamworks nostalgia lately, as there’s been a hankering to revisit “Shrek,” “Madagascar,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and so many others.  There were some great movies in that run.  Disney hasn’t had a great one in a while… I think “Encanto” might have been the last great movie from them.  Anyway, it was more challenging trying to find a movie this year for the movie night, and we just suddenly remembered that one from last spring and so yes, that’s the one we’re going with.

 

We have Sunday all planned out, but we’re also planning a big production that tells the story of “Esther.”  It’s somewhat of an underground project, a little pipe dream.  But Camile, Dawn and I have been writing this stage production out, walking through the actual story and attempting to be as Biblically accurate as we possibly can while telling a story that could be enjoyable to see on stage. 

 

Tonight we read from our book, and we’re seeing that Death is going to be working on a farm.  He’s chosen the name Bill Door, which is now synonymous with Death of course.  But the book has been a fun read – Maddie is enjoying the other ongoing stories within this novel, as am I.  I’ve been reading another book lately, one from Garrison Keillor, and a last visit to Lake Wobegon.  It’s been decent, and in fact we’ve been listening to a collection of stories from the last few years of his radio show, recorded within the last seven or eight years. We saw him in person, Mom and I, way back in the 90’s.  He and his talented cast came to the Fox Theater for a live broadcast, and we were there amongst a full crowd, looking down from the balcony as he told the news from Lake Wobegon where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.  I got a souvenir Christmas ornament that year, and a ball cap too, one that says Lake Wobegon.  It’s surprising how many people have no idea what or where that is.  Each year Mom gets me a few books or audio recordings from what was the Prairie Home Companion, to the point that this month is usually where I’m reading a novel or listening to something in the car I got from Christmas.  Several of the books I have are actually signed by Garrison Keillor, which is pretty cool.  We enjoyed the show back when we went earlier, and just never got around to going back to visit, although we wanted to.  I’m glad we did that one time though.  It was a really nice memory. 

 

All that to say we were reading tonight.  I read from the devotional, and from the Discworld, and then it’s time to tuck Maddie in with her plush entourage, saying our prayers of course.  It’s wet and cold outside.  It’s been a wet and cold season, although not cold enough to freeze the precipitation.  Therefore, it’s been an ugly wet and cold thus far.  So any sign of spring is welcome.  The Groundhog’s news last week was most welcome!

Before we go, here are a few other pictures taken by Maddie of a new friend that I'll probably just let her talk about... stay tuned for that!