The church was packed, it holds around a thousand easy so probably more than a thousand showed up. The bride, Jodi, asked for Craig Stickling to have the morning service even though we had visiting ministers. Craig opened up to Joel first then Romans. He gave us a lot of history, how the Christians were the ones that were thrown to the lions in the coliseum but as they sang and prayed when the lions would come to tear them apart soon the people that used to enjoy the spectacle of carnage soon started turning away and stopped coming. He also told us how when the plagues would come into the cities it was the Christians that would stay and care for the sick. He told us how he was challenged by a young girl to explain how He knew God was real. We were all disappointed when he sat down, Somehow his word pictures play so well in ones mind. There were 16 greetings from other AC churches but soon Tim dismissed the congregation for lunch. Mark Kieser, Jodi's dad had the lunch prayer and just as he started the fire alarm went off. Mark at first ignored the sound continuing a bit until Tim Funk announced that fire trucks were on the way and we all needed to exit the building. Trying to get over a thousand people quietly outside before the trucks come is not an easy job but it was done. It was a false alarm and somehow the alarm on the men's side was the one that went off. Lunch was crazy busy but everyone was done in time for the wedding.
Mark and I skipped the reception as we planned on going to Hymn sing tonight and I'm so glad we did. The Mortonaires sang for us along with preK Kindergarten and first grade.
When the Mortonaires sang I love to tell the Story, the memories came flooding back of lying in front of the fire, dad reading a book with his records playing. The Mortonaires are a men's group that have been singing together for probably over 50 years. Their blend is wonderful and we were truly blessed to be there.
This Sunday was one of the special ones.
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