Go Karts and Lasers and Brownies, Oh My!

In early September I was told by the Wolfes not to schedule anything on Oct 10th between the hours of 3pm-6pm.  The event was top secret, so I didn’t ask any questions. Last Sunday I discovered that the Guilfords were also in on this plan.  On Thursday night I inquired about appropriate dress and was told we would be outside.  Hm, is it a train ride? A hike? A cookout? It was not until Saturday morning that I was told to be at Fastrax in Waynesboro at 4:00. When Kemper and I arrived, there was a party room reserved with my name on it! In addition to the Wolfes and Guilfords, the Browns and the Newbills also arrived. This was a party for me; to celebrate Pastor Appreciation Month and the kids chose where to hold the festivities.  What an excellent choice! Most of us went around the racetrack in Go-Karts and I must say, there weren’t any spinouts or crashes-everyone drove respectfully (at least around me).  We played arcade games; the children were particularly gifted with the claw machine! It didn’t hurt that the machine glitched and seemed to give infinite attempts. Apparently, there are new squishy toys called Dumplings, that are all the rage and everyone got at least one Dumpling from the claw machine, mine is glittery lavender.  Daisy also grabbed an egg for me from one machine, with a panda ring inside, which I proudly wore.  Pizza, chips, Capri Sun and brownies were devoured as there was no time to waste when games were calling.  We did get suited up to play Laser Tag… how was I the only adult in the room and still the shortest? Just kidding, Daisy, Weston, and MG haven’t caught up to me yet!  Despite having Owen and Kemper on Daisy and I’s team we were soundly beaten by Ben, Addison, and Weston. 

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed riding some silly adventure ride with Mary Grace. Or how delightful it was to see all the kids gathered around the claw machine, cheering each other on as they tried to make sure everyone got a Dumpling squishy. Or when someone’s arcade game card was out of credit, I was more than willing to swipe mine.   I loved the mylar balloons, the fun ink pens, the high fives and hugs.

I was prepared to tell you about how the thoughtfulness emanating from these kids made me think maybe the world, as we know it, wouldn’t end too soon after all.  And what a testament it is to their parents, and their grandparents and great grandparents…if these are the next leaders, we’ll be alright.  But then, I came downstairs for fellowship time yesterday and saw them all with mops and brooms in hand, trying their best to help sop up the water pooling in the floor. Barbies and plates of goodies abandoned to…serve.  I’m sure they didn’t think of it as work, it was just a novel activity, an opportunity to play in puddles in their Sunday clothes. But isn’t it interesting that after I just talked to them at children’s time about how they didn’t need to do good works to earn God’s love, there they were, joyfully responding to that love by doing what needed to be done?  You could have knocked me over with a feather. It simply never occurred to me that they would mop the floors.  Just like it never occurred to me that they would want to play games with me on a Saturday afternoon.  Yeah, today, the future looks bright.