saved by seventh graders
A month ago I was going through one of those ‘church sucks’ phases. It was mostly a result of lame church-related gigs. That and I was going through a little bout of depression. And there was other crap going on in my life. Anyways, it resulted me being in a very low, emotionally unbalanced place. On reading some of my blogs my friend Jonathan, himself an accomplished church rocker and roller and a heckuva stay at home parent, said, €œNate, you need to have a positive Church show where you feel like a sense of community has been formed.€ Well with the help of Jason Deboer-Moran and 40 seventh graders this totally happened. This last weekend Jason and I led music for a seventh grade confirmation retreat at the YMCA camp on the St. Croix in Hudson WI. On Friday I made a trip to Menards and came home to make 20 drums, 15 shakers, and a handful of bottle cap tambourines. Friday night Jason led the kids in a huge drum circle which they totally loved. We sang all kinds of sing alongs which I normally hate leading but they totally got into it and so my hate turned to love. Yippee. On Saturday Jason and I went back out, this time with my 4 year old along for the ride and we had more group singing and drumming, playing in the snow (we got dumped on), and all in all a wonderful day. So not only has my outlook on church been salvaged, the salvaging came from two things I normally avoid at all costs. Sing-a-longs and Seventh graders. I blame/thank the holy spirit. As an Irish friend of mine once wrote €“ it’s all right, it’s all right, all right. She moves in mysterious ways.