I enjoyed helping lead the preschool music sessions, but Peter and the rest of our Cullman friends we see daily had to endure hearing how the songs were stuck in my head all week. There's a special place in heaven (or hell?) for the people who write jingles 90% of the year and VBS songs the rest."I've got the Source, a never-ending fountain. I've got the Source and it's flowing ever free. I've got the Source of all the good things in life. Oh, yeah! I've got the Source, and it's living in me! Are you lookin' for courage? God is the Source. Are you lookin' for wisdom? God is the So-uhuh-ource. Are you lookin' for faith? God is the So-ohoh-ource. God is the Source of All good things...."
"If you wanna go swimming in the river of life, you've got to plunge right in with all your might - you've got to jump, jump, jump right into the love of the Lord. If you wanna go surfing in the sea of love, you've got to put your faith in God above, you've got to jump, jump, jump right into the love of the Lord. When the storms of life start to get you down, and the waves of fear come crashin' round, don't give worry a place inside, just plunge right into Jesus Christ." (insert jazz hands here)
Last weekend we attended the first session of the Academy for Congregational Development, a series of six seminar/retreats sponsored by the North Alabama Conference of the and the General Board of Discipleship of the UMC. It is part of the ordination process in North Alabama, all second year probationers (like Peter) attend. The first session was very very interesting - it left me jokingly asking Peter, what did you learn for three years in seminary if you didn't ever cover this stuff? The Academy takes place at Camp Sumatanga, where our room at the retreat center featured this recliner, which looks like something they use at Space Camp to make the kids feel like they are about to launch. It takes a crane to get yourself out of "recline" position, especially as there is no recline lever.
And finally, Peter was busy Forrest Gump-ing it this afternoon.
"Now, because I had been a co-ed flag football star, and a VBS hero, and a local celebrity, and a Boy Scout canoe captain, and a seminary graduate, the city fathers of Cullman, Alabama, decided to get together and offered me a fine job . . .
And 'cause I was a godzillionaire and I liked doing it it so much, I cut that grass for free."
