Well, the mystery song award goes to Chris. Van Halen's rendition of "Ice Cream Man" is ringing through my ears even now. Not as bad as the real ice cream man's efforts as he drives around my neighborhood, but you know what I mean. Next time we are looking for songs that talk about SHAPES. Weird, I know, but I do already have a song in mind. So when you think about how I am dumb as a bag of wet hair you should easily be able to come up with several if I can come up with one.

The drum beats of unemployment are beating more and more loudly. Prayer, please.

I led worship on Sunday and two interesting things happened afterward. Right after the service I was approached by a disgruntled member lamenting the fact that we no longer use sheet music. I am a little disappointed by our loss of harmony, too, but I don't know how feasible some of the options are. Much of the music we are singing now simply was not meant for four-part harmony. Valiant efforts have been made to convert them accordingly, but this has resulted in a greater degree of difficulty causing people to overwhelmingly sing the melody (also because they sing what they're hearing on the radio). Well, this guy was not satisfied with any of this discussion and said we should go back to books or use one of the multi-media hymnals. The problem with this is that many of the songs we sing are not in the books and though eventually available on the other products, updates aren't free. The answer? I don't know and neither did he. I will say, however, that praise teams can help fill some of that gap if they are consistent in singing songs as written. However, when praise teams approach their ministry half-heartedly and do not take the time and effort to learn the music, they add to the confusion. Oh well, that's enough about that.

The other thing that happened after Sunday morning was kind of funny. After one of our elders told a story about the blessings that come from adopting children I mentioned that although I had heard his story before, I still get "veklempt" at the re-telling. Sunday night I got a call from a member saying her IATW group had been discussing Mike's use of the word "perfunctory" but instead she wanted to know what "veklempt" meant. I did my best to define it for her and gave her the best spelling I could dream up, but I was still amazed at the call. I recommended a Yiddish deictionary, but I don't know if there is one in Abilene.

The finish line is in sight as far as the concession stand goes. Kendra has been a real trooper and the stand has done great, financially. But tonight it will close for the last time this season so there may be some bargains on the stuff that hasn't moved all that well. Anyone for some grape Laffy Taffy?

Mike has mentioned several times lately the concept of living below our means for the sake of the kingdom. This is a great thing to pursue, but extremely difficult in our society but a central theme in Christ's teachings. I was fortunate to grow up in the shadow of someone who modeled this very well, but I still struggle not to succomb to the pull of materialism. Let's all encourage one another toward better things than materialism. Since it is so difficult, encouragement from one another is key. Just a thought.

Have a great day.