And a One and a Two and a . . .

Another milestone for Tyler tonight. He led his first song in front of the congregation--and this without the benefit of training through Lads to Leaders or anything. He led Step By Step (Oh God, you are my God and I will ever praise you . . .) and did a fantastic job. When he was finished and had taken his seat, Mike Phillips got up and said, "How cool was that?!" He went on to compliment Tyler for beating time with his hand, something Mike said he can't ever get right (somehow I think he was exaggerating) and then he turned to Tyler and said, "What are you doing next Sunday morning?" Tyler just blushed scarlet and laughed.

I noticed that several of our members caught Tyler on the way out and hugged his neck and encouraged him, and he was just beaming. I am sorry to say that Tyler has got a lot of his mama in him because he worried that he would get laughed at when he stood up in front of everyone, so I think tonight went a long way in removing any hesitation he had about song-leading in general.

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An interesting occurrence this morning at church which was, for me, just another example of God's providence at work: I've got the quarter off from teaching the 3rd - 5th graders so I am attending Randy's Bible class. We had already gotten started and Randy, in the middle of a thought, broke off and said, "Oh, by the way, that sound you hear behind me is the baptistry filling up. Apparently it was a little low." He then resumed his thought and I uncharacteristically (ha ha) interrupted him and said, "It's just . . . running? Is there a timer on it or something?" Randy, I must say honestly, seemed unconcerned for the most part, and while I'm being honest, I have to say that this is the sort of thing that I usually would file away as "not my responsibility." But I couldn't get the thought out of my head--"How long has it been running? And is anybody going to check on it?" About that time Randy broke into my thoughts and said, "You can go take a look if it'll make you feel better." Keep in mind, this is during Bible class, and you know there's nothing I hate worse than having attention drawn to myself (I did not insert "ha ha" here because I'm totally serious, people!), but I excused myself and traipsed down the aisle and into the little room that leads to the baptistry, feeling a sense of dread with every step.

When I got to the door leading directly into the pool I found it locked, which was somewhat surprising given the fact that the water was running, but I suppose the person "in charge" wanted to avoid the risk of any potential accidents and locked it purposely. Smart thinking. I unlocked the door, peeked in and . . . (drum roll please) . . . that pool was FILLED TO THE BRIM! Literally, water was seconds away from pouring over the sides of the tub! I hightailed it down the stairs and back into the auditorium and alerted Randy to the problem, and he and Mike Mastro came to my aid (as though I actually did anything). Randy shut off the water and he and Mike monkeyed around with some stuff under the stairs until water started draining out of the pool. Can you say "Whoa"?!

Sure enough, one of our elders had started the fill-up process, then went to make copies in the Copy Room and after that, he looked at his watch and decided he'd better get to class, and all thoughts of the baptistry went out the window. I think he and I must be related somehow, because that is SO me! Anyway, later I couldn't help but think that if the sequence of events had not played out as they did . . . if Randy hadn't felt the need to explain the sound of running water, if I hadn't felt the need to check out the situation . . . well, as I say, by the providence of God we caught it just in time and disaster was averted!