It's been a very full week. Work, church and fellowship online have all been stepped up this week at the same time. lol

These last two weeks at work have just buried us all with every type of equipment maintenance and and repair aspect. The weather has moderated and people are trying to catch up on all of the things they didn't want to accomplish in the heat.

This last week at church we've had our Harvest Outreach and the last two Sundays I haven't made it home until after 10 p.m.. It was worth it though. Souls were added to the body the first week.

The second Sunday, though no one came forward, I saw a very cool thing happen. A young man came with his parents to see the band, Lystra's Silence, who travelled from their last engagement in Missouri, graciously to perform and fellowship with us.

I was ushering and opened the door for him and his family. I had not seen this family before, and the mom and dad were about late thirties, early forties. Their son was about twelve--ish. He was dressed in shorts and a sort of goth band logo shirt.

He was not at all happy about being there. When he walked into the sanctuary, (well, the convention center we were renting) he took a quick left turn muttering sarcastically about how "cool" this was going to be, and plopped onto the floor next to the nearest garbage can.

His mom smiled sweetly at him and without a word took him gently but firmly by the arm as dad looked on and when the boy stood up, his mother put her arm through his and they all walked in together to find a place to sit.

I turned to Greg, the usher I usually work with and briefly mentioned the situation so that we both could pray. He sought a detailed description from me of the boy, his parents and what all had happened.

I did the best I could and we prayed. Through the course of the concert I caught glimpses of the boy from behind, each time someone needed to enter or leave the sanctuary. He seemed to be in different stages of abject boredome and pouting rebellion. Then something cool happened. I had usherly things to do and lost track of him.

After the concert, our pastor came out and taught from the Bible for about forty minutes. As ushers, we were busy about the business of keeping distractions from disturbing the message for the listeners.

The next time I saw this young man, the message was over, his whole demeaner had changed, and he got up and walked over to talk to our youth pastor, (who actually doesn't look a lot older than this teenager.) Our youth pastor is an engaging young guy and they soon hit it off and were, I imagine, talking things youthfully pastoral. laughing here

Anyways, it was very encouraging to watch. If you have time, you might add a prayer for him and his parents. You never know how the Lord is going to affect real change in someone's life or what tool He will use to bring that change about.