The Song of the Lamb

I spent 6 hours at church yesterday, doing Sunday school, worship, and then set up for vacation Bible school, and I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed it all. Sunday school was jam-packed, and we did a little precursor to VBS, and then came an incredible service about the Lord's righteousness, judgment and vengeance. This was especially poignant this week, and our pastor related it to the shooting in Colorado. I'm going to share what he said, just because it's a bit different than anything else I'd heard so far, "God is perfectly just to allow that to happen. He could have stopped it, but He allowed it. There is a purpose. We all deserve death; we all deserved to be in that movie theater; each breath we take is only by His grace". He went on to say that we don't know what the eternal effects may be or why God allowed it to happen. But we do know that He is entirely just and sovereign over all.

Remember how I was all over Revelation 15:4 this week? Well we were in that chapter this week at church, as well as the first half of 16, as part of the longest sermon series ever on eschatology. In any event, we sang The Song of the Lamb (song) and it was such a powerful moment of worship (lyrics). I'm starting to see how different elements are coming together to create a deeper experience of the presence of God: corporate worship, personal Bible study, fellowship, studying theology, prayer, service. Each one gives me more perspective into another, all teaching me so much more about the Lord.

In any event, after the service, one of the men in the choir came up to me and said, "One of my favorite parts about being up there for choir is that I can see you while you worship (Beloit College has pretty well claimed the first two rows, dead center). I just love to watch you worship; it's an inspiration" The better you know God, the better the worship will be. It's just a fact. I was so moved because everything I'd been learning about God's character was so present in my heart and in the songs and in the body.

And setting up VBS was a time so full of laughter. I was paired up with one of the men from the church to hang streamers - so he could be messing around on our "ladder" (aka wobbly chair) while I provided the decorative insight. He was hysterical, questioning why one of the other fathers got to color while he was sweating from climbing all over the place. With streamers done, it was time for balloons. The kids had actually done a great job getting them blown up, albeit not exactly in an efficient matter. We tied them to strings, and then my pastor's wife and I set to hanging them from the ceiling in the hallway. This time, I was on ladder duty, though I did have a real ladder. I even got to pull in one of the young kids to help, Jake,  age 3, who desperately wanted to be useful. He was my balloon holder for me. And then, when there was some cutting to be done, I got to sit with one of my favorite sassy old women and cut shapes out until all was more or less complete. There were many pictures taken of these shenanigans, and if I ever find more than just these few, I will let you know.

Later that day, when Kathryn and I were cooking (summer corn chowder), Pastor Tim said he loved how happy we were and how much fun we were having in the kitchen, and decided photographic evidence needed to be taken.

But really, I love her. And yes, that is a piece of yarn in my hair. I didn't have a hair tie and I was hot. 

These are the incredible people I get to teach Sunday school with. Jason and Erin run children's ministry, including everything for VBS. They have 3 girls running around and just found out that the baby Erin's pregnant with is a little boy! So much excitement. You can also see the aforementioned streamers and balloons in this shot. 

This is Kathryn and I. I'm sautéing, and she's mixing biscuits. Between us is a pile of corn taken off of the cob. 

Tim was trying to be artsy and get just the right shot. This is how we originally were when he wanted to take a picture. The one above is a posed pic, which we decided was just not as good.

Jason was actually over during the cooking process, as his girls were playing at the house, and his bright idea was to have an internet cooking show with all of our dialogue. "Cooking with Kate" because we're both Katherine (Kathryn). Maybe some day...