Graveyards are Not Cool Places for Having Fun - Gaston Christian is

When I turned on my computer a few minutes ago after just arriving at home from a full day of ministry and fun (not that the two are in contradistinction and not that ministry is not fun - on the contrary, ministry is always fun, well, most always fun, except when you have to have a "conversation" with the parent of a youth who was caught in the graveyard of the church having his kind of "fun," but that's another story, and thankfully a scenario I don't have to deal with anymore being as I'm not currently a youth pastor - back to the original thought, though, in this case I was only referring to even more fun that was had after a day of ministry ... oh, never mind) I found one of the most encouraging e-mails in my inbox that I've had in a long time. It came from one of my dear friends from the church I grew up in and now a key supporter of our ministry. He wrote in regards to our day of ministry today at Gaston Christian School in Belmont, NC, an awesome school that has become a huge partner in ministry and a wonderful place to return to and lead in worship.

My friend wrote this,

"Hope everything went well at the school today. Just wanted you to know we fasted and prayed for your ministry today. May God richly bless you and your family. In Christ."

The first thing I did was to turn to Tasha and say, "Unbelievable! Who does this kind of thing anymore?! (in a good way) How blessed are we!!?"


I immediately wrote him back and told him the great news that his prayers had certainly reached heaven because we had an incredible day at GCS, and certainly not because of us, but simply because God chose to show up and make His presence known in that place this morning. With voices raised, hands held high, and hearts engaged with God, these 200 students worshiped God like no other group of students that I've ever seen and like no other high school event that I've ever been a part of. It was incredible. Thanks, buddy, for praying and fasting! Now, that's the kind of people I'm glad we have on our team!

And thanks to my buddies, Nate and Brandon, (and of course, Tasha, though she is much more than a buddy, though there's certainly nothing wrong with being a buddy, no offense Nate and Brandon) for carving out time in their day to back me up on their respective instruments. I love you guys.


And the more fun that was had afterwards to which I earlier referred was a rousing afternoon with our good friends the McMurray's, some of the coolest people in the world. Later our good friends the Bradley's decided to show up for dinner. These guys go back to seminary days. We picked up right where we left off, though now with four ankle-biters between the six of us running around and reeking havoc on their suburban Gastonia neighborhood. Great times were had by all.

Oh, and Zeke fell and busted his top lip again. No broken teeth though, thankfully. I can see that this is becoming a routine event. His top lip looks very similar to a small prune or large raisin in contrast to his lower lip which, proportionately is the size of several small peas lined up in a row, thus forming a normal size 18-month-old child's lip. Due to the massivity of the top lip, swallowing is hard for little Zeke right now. He's drooling alot. But he's on the mend. Nothing slows him down. Not even a big lip that is now a tripping hazard in itself!