Church Outdoors

Yesterday we had a combined service between Mercy and our host church, Good Shephard Community, in conjunction with a German food festival with inflatables for the kids and concerts for the afternoon. The weather in the days leading up had been rainy and the forecast for Sunday wasn't much better, but we had a sunny morning and the weather held pretty well until about 1:30. Thankfully, we had already finished the service, food, the concert by our guest group and the kids had had plenty of time to play. Our band was the only thing to suffer the effects of the weather.

Our guest group was Freedom's Call, a group of young ladies from Bemidji, MN who played guitars, mandolins, fiddles and sang (all of the girls played more than one instrument) and did primarily old-timey music (see "O Brother Where Art Thou"). The girls are younger teenagers and are very good at what they do. They weren't necessarily a professional quality group, but if they stay together, I think they have the potential to get there. Amy and I both agreed that the experience they're getting now will help them be able to do a wide range of things musically down the road because they are learning multiple instruments and have great voices and the ability to sing harmony very well.

After Freedom's Call, we started to set up. We knew it was going to rain, but we were under a tent and had a few folks that had come out just to hear us, so we plugged ahead. I figured, if nothing else, we'd get a chance to practice a couple of songs that we might do in Mitchell next week at Casey's church. Maia was distraught because the inflatables were coming down which made it hard for us to decide what to do as a family. I suggested to Amy that she take the kids home and we'd just do a few songs that didn't require keys, so she headed out. The band only wound up doing three songs, but two of them are songs we're still getting a feel for together, so it wasn't totally a wasted experience. We lucked out and the rain let up while we tore down and either took things inside or loaded them on the truck.

I was surprised to be home by 3:00 and we just hung out the rest of the day. The service was well attended (at least 175 people including numerous first time visitors) and the food was fantastic (especially if you love kraut). We've got a few more months before our next big to-do outdoors. Hopefully the weather will be as kind as it was yesterday morning.