Lunge Steps Extreme
Today was my first time back to burpees. Oh my.
The electric choke for Louise came today. No instructions, no wiring, just the choke cover. I'll work on the installation tomorrow morning and hope it's as basic as I think. The plan is to identify which side of the coil is switched power and tap that as the power source, using some 16 ga. wire to make the connection. As far as the cover itself I'll start with the obvious installation position - lettering up - and go from there.
Meanwhile I'm chipping away at Ilsa. I'm installing all the rubber that goes around the windows and doors. Again, no instructions, and it's been so long since I took everything apart I don't remember how it goes back together. I got the driver's wind wing rubber installed only to realize I'd forgotten the metal part the latch hooks into. Take it out and start over. And it's a tricky process that takes over an hour - or over two hours in this case. But think how smoothly the passenger side will go!
PAM'S HOME! Her flight arrived mid-morning and we stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch on the way home. She's exhausted and it's only going to get worse. The 3-hour time difference will hit her shortly after dinner and she has to be up at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow to work her 12-hour shift at the hospital. I figure she'll be a zombie for the next two or three days.
For all but a few weeks of Pathway's four and a half year existence we've worshipped using what we lightheartedly call Christian Karaoke. I download appropriate songs from iTunes, edit them using the Mac program Garage Band (we have the appropriate CCLI license), make projection slides with the lyrics, and then Matt leads us as we sing along to Hillsong, PWB, Paul Baloche, Laura Story, and more.
It works. Conventional wisdom says you can't start a church without a kickin' band (light bars optional but recommended), and that karaoke is Japanese for "lame." But we've taken the attitude that worship is a choice, a decision of the will that transcends all but the most intrusive environmental factors. It's not that we prefer this, but for reasons known to God he didn't bless us with musicians. The elders talked about bringing in musicians from one of the local Christian colleges whom we'd pay a modest amount, but decided the priority was to have people whose first commitment was to Pathway and who then used their gifts to serve their church, not people who were brought in for a specific function and had no overriding connection with our congregation. I think the wisdom of that decision has been validated as we've seen Pathway grow qualitatively and quantitatively even while we sing along to tracks. Besides, we have some of the world's premier Christian musicians leading us in singing every Sunday morning.
That changes this week, and we're excited about the new format. Part of the numerical growth we've seen over the last three months includes...musicians! Kevin and Debyi are both very skilled vocalists and instrumentalists; she plays several instruments. Justin sings and plays both bass and drums. Chad plays guitar, and Rebekah sings.
Beginning this Sunday our music will be LIVE. It will be a transition and we'll have logistical issues to work out over the next few weeks. But Kevin was a part-time music pastor at the church they attended when they lived in Prescott so he's had experience putting together a music team.
Why now? I have no idea and don't really care. God's timing is perfect - I've seen that enough times over the years to be completely convinced on that one - and I don't need to know his details. I do think it's fascinating that we went from zero instrumentalists and only Matt who was comfortable leading even karaoke, to four or five instrumentalists and an equal number of strong vocalists, all in the span of three or four months. Almost like Somebody had a plan.
And Matt is thrilled at this development. (He's felt pressed into a service beyond his abilities.)
I'm really pleased, not just with the what, but the how. I like it that this is organic and that we're a community serving each other, now in this area, too. I've sent letters of apology to all those really great musicians we're been singing along with. It's not that we didn't appreciate their contribution to our worship but this is even better.
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