"Bring a Friend" Thoughts

This week is a huge event at our church, Life Pointe. It's "Bring a Friend Day" on sunday, and it should be a great day.

Once again, the upcoming service makes me think of days gone by...to a simpler time. A time when a young lad growing up on the "mean streets" of Dayton, Ohio spent his summer days chasing ice cream trucks and watching Star Trek re-runs (yes...it was me.) I think back to my best friend of that era, Scott. Scott and I spent many days making fun of other kids, getting punched, mouthing off to older kids, getting punched, and trying to get the neighborhood girls to kiss us (and then getting punched). I look at those days with fondness, and a sore jaw. Even though we were beat up an awful lot, what counted is that we were beat up together. And that's what having a friend is all about: doing stuff together. And as I think back, I remember one more, very important thing: that son-of-a-gun Scott still owes me $2.00 and a pack of Pop Rocks!

Good times...good times.

Goodbye to Rev. Falwell

Mom's Day

Wow! What a great day for Life Pointe Church! The message was inspiring, the worship music was awesome, and the graphics stole the show! (Okay...maybe stole the show is an exaggeration...just given myself some props!)

186 people in attendance...wow! Not bad for starting 4 1/2 months ago w/only 50 or 60!

Now, on to my favorite part of the day. Lunch. Not because of the tasty fajita burrito at Qdoba (maybe I can get a little endorsement cash for that), not because of the totally electric mood at the table from everyone regarding one of our best days as a church ever, and not because of the free refills on my diet soda (diet, because I'm trying to maintain my girlish figure). No, none of those are the reason for lunch being my favorite part.

It was my favorite part because Jeremy, one of our leaders, dazzled us with stories of his high school days as a Hoopeston Cornjerker. That's right...you read right. Their mascott was a cornjerker. So that our minds dont digress to parts unknown, here is what the encyclopedia says about a cornjerker:

"In a time before modern machinery, when work was done by hand and horsepower was measured in mules, sweet corn was pulled or jerked from the stalk. The leaves were shucked off and the golden ears were thrown in a wooden wagon pulled by a team of mules. This was Cornjerking, In other parts of the United States, this harvesting process may have been known as corn snapping, corn shucking, or corn husking. The many laborers who walked the fields to harvest the crops were called Cornjerkers. "

All I know is this...the term cornjerker makes soda pop shoot out of my nose.