Parades, Picnics and Pools... Oh My!!

This past week Payette, Idaho has been a hoppin place full of fun and adventure.  Every year they have the "Apple Blossom Festival".   Friday night we went to the Lawn Mower Drag Races. That was hilarious.  Never seen such a thing.  Doug and Tyler thought it was the best thing ever and now they want a mower to modify.  Uh….  No.   Meanwhile, on the other side of town (the whole 10 blocks or so) there was a mud volleyball tournament going on.  What a mess!  There were several other things going on all week, but we didn’t make it to any of it.  Pancake breakfasts, live bands in the park, ice cream social, museum tours, and more.   Saturday was the parade and boy was it hot…  94 degrees – but it’s a dry heat.  LOL  After the parade, we sat under a tree in the park and had a picnic then walked around the vendor booths.  (I miss the Plaza Arts Fair… this was just plain sad).  Saturday evening we headed for the carnival.  The kids had a ball and Tyler found a friend to ride with.  The carnival was pretty good.  But the best part (by a landslide) was people watching.  You name it… we saw it.  My favorites were the bearded lady (for real, not a side show act!) and the girl in the fur lined sweater and long pants (remember, it was 94 degrees)  Ding dong!  After the carnival we headed down the street to the high school parking lot to enjoy the fireworks display.  It was really a pretty good show.  But I think the most amazing thing about the fireworks is that it only took us 5 minutes to get out of the parking lot.   I’m used to Olathe… 2 hours minimum to get home only 2 miles away.  Oh, and that people didn’t swarm the parking lots to stake out their places 6 hours before the show.  5 minutes would do.  (Do you think I’ll ever get used to this small town stuff?)

The parade was fun!  We’ve never been in a parade, so that was an experience.  We didn’t collect as much food as we had hoped, but for the first time we figure it wasn’t too bad.  I’m guessing we collected about one to one and a half FULL grocery carts of food. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, our church decided to ask the people to bring canned food to the parade and we collected it for the local food banks.  We think after one or two more parades, the people will learn to expect it.  If you have a parade coming up in your town, give it a try.  We passed out flyers to all the schools and businesses and got a grocery store to sponsor us with carts and an agreement to match whatever we collected).  Anyway, it was really kind of strange to walk down the middle of the street while people watch you and wave.  Weird.  Rachel marched with the color guard for her first time.  She did such a good job!   She just joined the team for next year, but they let the new recruits in if they’d learn everything in time.  She worked really hard these last two weeks to learn their two routines.    

This morning Origins Faith Community had our first baptism service.  We met at the Ontario pool and had a great service.  People said it was too humid in there for them, but we said it felt like Kansas in July!  13 people publicly professed their faith in Jesus and were baptized!  Doug and I had the great pleasure of baptizing Tyler.  He is a boy after God's heart for sure!  Rachel decided to rededicate her life and asked Kristi Wherry to do the honors.  That was really cool.  Kristi had been an intern at Indian Creek a few years ago and met Rachel there.  Little did we know then that we'd be in her neck of the woods some day.  Several of the adults who were baptized have incredible stories and will have great testimonies to what God has done and is doing in their lives.  I think it so cool that I get to walk next to these wonderful people and be a part of their journey!  How lucky am I!?!?!?   I couldn't help but cry a bit looking around at our Origins family.  I love us!!   After the service we all went across the parking lot to the park and had a pot luck picnic.  So much fun!!!   I didn't get an exact count today, but I think we had between 65 and 75 people singing and worshiping in the city pool!  Yay God!  Oh, and by the way, we had record attendance last week of 117!!!!!!!!!!!!  Woot woot!  Now we look forward to June 1st for our first "serve day".  Pray that God will do great things in the lives of everyone who participates and all who are helped.  It's shaping up to become an amazing and powerful day in so many ways.