MAF Concert

Well, our concert went fairly well yesterday morning, lack of sleep notwithstanding. While it's never easy to sing in the morning, I am here to tell you that singing tenor at 8:00 AM should be outlawed. Fortunately, Philip took the high part on most of the songs so by the end of the morning he looked like a purple raisin and sounded like Oscar the Grouch. Poor guy. After a four day trip I normally take 3 days off before I even think of singing. So, my voice was in rare form, let me tell you. We sing a cover of GVB's Yes I Know and we've rearranged it a little to fit our style. Well, I have the solo part on the last verse and I started to go up like Penrod does at the end of the phrase and in the milliseconds of my initial ascent it hit me that I might not hit the note. So, I decided to improvise and make up a new part. Well, there's only so much you can do in a limited amount of time, not to mention jumping ship on a melody line that's going up. The end result was what would happen if you threw in a line from Jingle Bell Rock while singing Joy to the World. It didn't come close. My interesting new melody line wasn't even in the key. Embarrassing to say the least. I'm not a perfectionist, per se, but I do get irritated when something is that far off. It took me about 5 songs to get over that one. Due to the holidays, Dave and Julia's trip, Philip's work schedule, and Liberty's travel we were only able to practice twice. That the concert went well, was nothing short of a miracle.

The rest of the guys did an awesome job. Julia tore it up, as usual. And we even talked Dave into singing a song with his wife. Overall, a great concert. Thanks to all you Grace folks that showed up. It's a privilege to be part of such an incredible church!

Trunk Or Treat

Last night was Trunk or Treat at Grace. Last year they had it on a weekend so I had to miss it. It was loads of fun! I helped Lori in the kids service by being a puppeteer, a first for me. LaRona gave me just enough instruction to keep me from making a fool of myself...well, let me take that back. She gave me enough rope to hang myself. It's harder than it looks. Anyway, then I passed out candy to kids from the back of my festive-looking Explorer. I enjoyed giving candy to the first-timers, kids who have never been trunk-or-treating. They had this puzzled expression that said, "Why are people giving me all this candy? Is this Heaven?" I even grilled a couple of hotdogs over at Mindy Ritchey's fire pit. A good time was had by all.

I spent quite a bit of time stuffing straw down my pants. Now, I wasn't wearing the pants at the time. Kassady thought it was pretty funny and took a picture. My stuffed man didn't turn out so good as you can see below. I've done better.

The back of the Waggonermobile, strawman and all. I have about one hundred little cuts on my hands from all that straw. I'll use gloves next time.

Trey was Joseph. Lori made his technicolor dreamcoat. He was sufficiently impressed. He got loads (and I mean LOADS) of candy. It will last him, in all seriousness, until next October.

Kassady was Queen Esther. She posed with one of her angelic friends, Taylor. This was the only time they weren't on a sugar high the rest of the evening.

The kids paraded in front of the adults during the midweek service. Thunderous applause greeted them.

Lots of kids, everywhere!

Katie Keep was Jezebel, but fortunately she had a little angel tugging at her trying to turn her in the right direction.

Allen dressed up as, well, himself. It was very realistic. They have the cutest baby girl! She wasn't that dazzled by my camera action. In fact, if babies can glare, I'm pretty sure one was cast my direction.

Lori gave an object lesson involving a pumpkin. The part where the pumpkin innards splashed all over her wasn't planned. The kids liked it, though.

Trey went over to the dark side of special ops, led there by his little green friend Noah.

Lori and I dressed for the occasion. I wore my Bubba teeth. They were a big hit with the 8-year-olds. We thought about dressing up like Abraham and Sarah, with this whole pregnancy and everything. Sarah decided not to.

Peace, peace, fina-a-a-ncial peace...

Lori and I have enrolled in Financial Peace University with professor and financial guru Dave Ramsey. I've been a fan of his books and radio show for the last couple of years, and in fact used his "Total Money Makeover" to help get our finances in order. It's a fantastic program, but, I'm telling you FPU takes this to a whole new level. First of all, Dave is a fantastic communicator who keeps the class moving. When you couple that with the fact that he's offering practical solutions that you can use NOW, it creates a passion for doing the right thing. Thanks to Marc and Talisha for offering the class at their home. Marc is the FPU moderator at Boise First and they have been using the program for 2-3 years themselves, so being able to hear how God has used the program in their lives is pretty awesome. Being able to share openly and candidly with friends about the realities of who and where you are is huge. I've found out that if there's one area that people tend to gloss over and try to paint this bright and rosy picture, it's finances. Our egos must be tied to our money. Admitting that we don't have it all together when it comes to money apparently makes us feel like losers, so we fake our way through life, no plan, nothing concrete, continually losing the financial battle just because we can't be honest that we have a problem. I've made up my mind I'm not going to live my life like that. Lori and I have credit card debt that is going to be gone (GONE!) by the end of next year. The facade is crumbling, the charades game is over. If that's where you are, get over your pride and put a plan together. I do highly recommend Financial Peace University. Instead of working with a icepick to knock down this mountain of debt, they give you tools, a jackhammer if you will, to get the job done. Have any of you guys gone through the program? What was your impression? How did it help you?

Ironically, Pastor Dave just started a series on money "Financial Peace for Troubled Times" at Grace. He had told me several months ago to start working on some promo material for the October series, but he had no clue about the financial crisis that would perfect set up the series. You'll have to listen in as they upload the sermons (not quite sure why Sunday's sermon isn't on there). Dynamic material!

Easter

We had a meaningful Easter. Pastor Dave once again rang the bell with his Easter sermon. And, wow! What a crowd! Our church is growing weekly and that's not an exaggeration. Yesterday was the largest Sunday morning crowd I've ever seen at Grace. Packed! Lori said they had a large group of kids in Children's Worship, too. The cool thing is that we're experience dynamic spiritual growth in our church. We're hearing reports every week of someone new getting saved. I think there were 8 or 9 that accepted Christ Sunday morning. I'm thankful for a vibrant, passionate church that's loving people into the kingdom. I'm seeing more and more people connect to the Grace Bible Church community. They're connecting, growing, serving, and ultimately coming full circle to love the new people God sends our way. (Side note: for an insightful article on the importance of connection, read Mike Avery's article in the March Revivalist)

It was so good to see so many friends again. Several people who I have met through my Liberty touring showed up on Sunday morning. In fact, there are several who have started going to Grace in the last year. I enjoyed spending some time after church with Clark and Shelby Dyess (not to mention their daughter and her family). Clark and Shelby were in from Wyoming and showed up for morning worship. Shelby, I know you read the blog, so let me say thanks for coming.

If Royce ever fires me, I have a back-up group ready to go. The last few times I've been home I've sung with Philip Batten and Matt Ritchey as part of the morning worship. We're all tenors, but we've pulled it off. We sang the Eldridge Fox classic "Gone" yesterday morning. We didn't come close to the Teddy Huffam and the Gems rendition, but I sure enjoyed our interpretation. Those boys can sing!

In the afternoon I was privileged to sing for Robbie and Crystal Rehling's wedding. Julia Keep and I are getting to be quite the wedding singers. The wedding was at 2:00 in the afternoon, so the Waggoner family ran over to the Keep residence to scarf down some sandwiches and practice the music. Well, that was the plan anyway. By the time we got done eating we had just enough time to run through a verse and chorus of one song. The song that we didn't practice came off without a hitch (Nat King Cole's version of L-O-V-E). The other song was "I Will Be Here". We had practiced the song in F (I think), but Julia blanked out and started playing the song in C. When she started the song, I thought something was odd, but I opened my mouth to sing anyway. My first note was one note above where I normally bottom out. My brain immediately went into overdrive trying to think of what I was going to have to do to make it through the song. I started by changing the melody. Steven Curtis Chapman wouldn't have recognized my initial rendition. I was all over the place. After about 4 lines, Julia subtly did a keychange to F and off we went. I'm sure it was noticeable (actually I know it was noticeable) but it sure saved the rest of the song. Another plan should we have continued in C was to pull off a Bill Gaither narration of the song lyrics. I'm glad Julia had the guts to pull off the key change. Alls well that ends well, I guess. The rest of the wedding was beautiful. Amelia Jensen did a fantastic job on the decorations, food, reception, everything. I'm happy for Robbie and Crystal.

Later that evening we went back over to the Keeps to finish our meal and play a competitive game of Rook. Actually, Dave and I got our socks blown off. I think we finished in the red.

We had been reading about Jesus' arrest, trial, and crucifixion in our family devotions. Last night, we finished our reading with the empty tomb and the reappearance of the living Christ. We then had a discussion about the awesome love of God for us. The whole Easter story has been a tough concept for Kassady to grasp. And, you know, sometimes I don't totally get it myself. The miracle of redemption. It was a cool way to bring Easter '08 to an end.

He's a keeper

Isaiah Grant Keep made a grand entrance this afternoon to very proud parents Dave and Julia. Congrats! I think I'm going to dub him Ike. I'm sure Julia will be impressed.

By the way, I have to give Pastor Dave some props. He is doing a fantastic job at Grace Bible Church. I had last weekend off, so I was privileged to be home for our Sunday services. He flat tore it up! He's doing an October series on the family and it is powerful. You can listen here.

It's awesome to see the numerical growth (there were probably 25-30 new people that have been coming regularly that I didn't recognize), but even more incredible to hear the life-changing testimonies and witness the spiritual growth of our congregation. God is working.