A few weeks ago I challenged the folks in the adult fellowship I attend to not only tithe their money but their time as well. Lately I’ve had so many opportunities to put that advice into practice it’s not funny.
A few days after I made said announcement I went down to the George Beto Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Wednesday to interview inmates for the upcoming Kairos #61 weekend.
I made it back in time on Friday to attend our church’s Fall Festival. I got wrangled into pulling kids out of a bounce house our adult fellowship sponsored.
The main reason I went to the festival was to scout out the games. I needed to see which ones would fit in Clifford, the big red van.
The madness behind that motive was because I volunteered to take one of the games to another festival the following Saturday. This was for an organization called Real Options for Women. They provide women considering abortion healthy alternatives rather than ending the life of their child.
I ended up bringing the game called The Frog Flinger. It uses a rubber mallet to strike one end of a board to raise the other end so it lifts another board on top of it to catapult a rubber frog into a wooden pond in the hopes that this bouncing critter would stop on top of a lily pad painted in the middle of the fake pond.
It’s a lot harder than it sounds, but a whole lot of fun if you have enough energy to get excited each time a kid gets lucky.
I got to judge whether enough of the rubber was on the paint to win a Squeezimal. One toe ended up being enough sometimes. The pond got moved quickly to one side once and I became a moving backboard a few more times.
Like I said it took a lot of energy. Fortunately we had too much candy to give out, too. Chocolate was my best friend.
On Sunday I got called back into action in the Early Childhood department at church because the high school seniors were on a retreat for the weekend. Many of the teens volunteer to watch kids. That meant we were probably going to have to turn away some families if we were too short staffed to watch kiddos.
In swooped the toddler whisperer to the rescue. Where was that chocolate when I needed more of it? Goldfish crackers just don’t have the same lift. Know what I mean?
Next Saturday the toddler whisperer gets to show his stuff off to a whole new audience. Down at the Dallas Theological Seminary, yeah I get to watch seminarians, they need child care volunteers to watch kiddos while their parents are attending a half day conference.
That’s what I get for attending the adult fellowship led by the couple who run the Seminary Wives In Ministry, SWIM, events. The international flavor will be a treat. Since the tykes I connect with the most can’t talk yet anyway this should be a snap. I hope.
I’m not so secretly praying for international chocolate as my not so secret ingredient to keep energized that day.
The day after that I plan on attending the closing ceremony for Kairos at Beto #61. Since I helped choose some of the inmates attending it will be interesting hearing from them what impact the weekend had on them.
The best part is they don’t know that part is coming until it happens…like many of the parts of the weekend.
The following Saturday I’ll probably go back down to south Dallas to help hand out clothes to homeless folks. That’s what we do on the third Saturday of each month…and Thanksgiving Day.
I might have a weekend or two off in between those two days.
I’m not real good at math but I think I’m tithing enough time for the entire adult fellowship of about 150 people. Possibly.
If I didn’t get such a kick out of helping people I might get worn out from all of this activity.
That’s one advantage to being single at this stage in my life. I have the freedom to choose how to spend each weekend and energy available that doesn’t go toward trying to keep a spouse happy.
Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to have a wife participating in these events with me. Until that happens I’ll just keep doing what the good Lord asks me to do with the strength He provides.
A bit more chocolate, please.
I’ll see you later. Wade
