Today was the Elizabeth City District United Methodist Lay Rally. Basically its the anual conference of all the non-clergy district leaders and anyone else, lay or clergy that wants to attend. The district youth praise band played before the service (most of it anyway, which only included two actual youth). So I got to jam with Toni and that was cool. After the service we went upstairs to the youth room and I got to play a little more music with Marlowe and Elanit. Also always a pleasure.
When I finally left and dragged myself to First Baptist (exhausted after having preached there this morning, played guitar all afternoon, and being sick) I just sat in the congregation. I did stand up and play bass so David could sing “That Where I Am There You,” but otherwise I was just a regular guy at the service, which was a nice change. No preaching, no praying out loud, no singing or playing, just a chance to be a part of the worship service, which I needed. And I just generally had some good conversations with Becca and later David and Steve and the Winslows and the Saunders.
Overall, the thing that stuck out to me all day was just getting to see a lot of random and very special people that I don’t usually have the opportunity to spend a lot of time with. And that’s a blessing in and of itself.
