This post has been edited. After reading my post I found a bunch of errors and felt like it just kind of fell flat, so here it is again.
Our Church had us
some “Cowboy Church” two weeks ago, and it was SO MUCH FUN! Pastor Denny
invited a friend, Duke Edwards, who is a real Cowboy Pastor
from Colorado to join us for a fun day of rodeo. It was a pretty big
deal in our little community of about 8,000. About 1,000 people
enjoyed a hot day in the sun, that included our 2 hour rodeo/service,
with lunch and tons of fun activities for the kids afterward.
It was a very nice fall
weekend! Our family was there the day before helping with some of the
preparations, and practicing for some of the clown skits. I didn't
think much about sun protection on these beautiful fall days, but I
should have, because after the 2 days my family of fair skinned folks
were sun burned!
Noah got to be one the rodeo clowns.
Our little cowboy and cowgirl.
Both of my brothers and their families were able to come for the fun day of rodeo. They enjoyed the fun day, and we enjoyed spending the day with them. This is a picture of Noah clowning around with my brother, Tom, and his family.
Hannah and her friends,Abby and Clarisse, got front row seats.
Todd video taped the service. He looks a little warm in his black hat, and long sleeved shirt. But he wasn’t complaining, he was having a great time.
Here are our friends Minsan and Neil in the worship band. I'll add a short little video at the end of the post with some rodeo highlights, and its Neil singing in the background on the video. Their country worship music made the day that much more wonderful!
We had Mutton Bustin' (the kids riding sheep), Pigs in a Barrel (with H.S. kids chasing pigs and putting them in barrels), Pole Bending(young women racing their horses around the poles), a Calf Scramble (the kids chasing the calf to pull off a ribbon around his neck), Calf Ropin' with our 4 younger pastors, and finally came the Bull Riding. Pastor Denny saved the best for last, and got on the bull. He was only a tiny bit shy of a glorious 8 second ride, like maybe 6 seconds. ;) But at least the bull gave him a little buck. As you will see in the video, when it was time for Pastor Kirby's ride, the bull had decided it was just too hot for all of this. And our Youth Pastor got off easy, much to the disappointment to about a hundred High School kids. What their rides lacked in breathing taking excitement, they made up for in humor!
When the rodeo was all over, I was talking to Pastor Adam, thanking him for his part in this really fun day. He told me, “I told God,’God you know I don’t have any talents for this, so please just keep me safe and let me be funny.” And Praise God his prayers were answered! No one got hurt, and I thought Adam was the funniest guy out there the whole day! He had so many hilarious moments, like getting tripped up by Pastor Corey’s rope and falling flat on his back while Corey took a dive. And starring down the calf, I don't know if he was trying to psych the calf out, or make some sort of connection with the little guy or what, but it was hilarious!
3 twenty-something year old men vs. 1 three month old calf, who won - the calf. They never did get him down.
Even though it was all fun and games for us watching, a lot of time and work went into this amazing day. The 2 hour rodeo/service, lunch afterward, and all the other activities like the pony rides, petting zoo, hay rides, and face painting, made for a very full day for everyone involved. While taking a hayride I had a nice conversation with a couple who were at our church for the first time. They were in awe of all that was going on. They couldn’t believe that we had 6 Pastors on our staff, 7 if you include Pastor Amber who is part of our amazing administrative staff of 4. God has blessed our church with these 11 amazing people who work as his stewards, and our family and our entire community is so blessed by all of them!
Fun post! I can watch that video over and over and still laugh so hard!
Posted by: Rhonda | September 29, 2009 at 10:54 PM
Love that video too -- and I think Neil's SO great for helping put that day together :)
One correction: Amber is on staff as Kirby's assistant, so that is how she's paid through the church, BUT she and Adam co-pastor the HMC program. Just wanted to clarify since I know she has issues with the fact that she "outranks" him (she's a licensed reverand AND has a Master's degree in counseling and he has neither) and it's difficult enough for her to submit as a wife... lol!
Posted by: Ashlee | October 12, 2009 at 02:25 PM