Last week LifeStream Christian Church was having its Vacation Bible School and some friends of mine, Tom and April who have been attending LSCC for a few months were helping out. Now Tom and April have been doing events at church for a while now.  In the past they asked if they could come to small group with us on Wednesday nights.  I said yeah, no problem... and over time they have started to really connect with other families and feel at home. 

But while they were serving the minister decided to pull them aside and talk to them (his side of the story is that Tom asked to talk...).  Apparently the talk was about them becoming members and apparently the decision was made that they would join on Sunday.  Now with Tom and April I took a similar approach that I took with my friends Adam and Kelly.  Tell them that they need to base their membership on things outside of our friendship.  Because I will never rule out leaving a church.  If it is the right thing for my family to do I will leave.  So I wanted them to join on their own terms and with relationships outside of ours.  Tom and April are even more unique in this regard because they came to their last church in large part due to my wife and I being there... so I didn't want them to come to another church because of us.  But because it was where they felt they needed to be.  One thing that this does allow for though is a Bethel small group!  I've been trying to get one started there for years.... and now It looks like the right dynamic of people are there to make it happen.

Problem 1: We were supposed to miss church on Sunday to get to our vacation spot.

So we could either be a good friend and stay home for a few more hours or just leave as planned.  Of course we stayed home and watched them place membership at LSCC.

Problem 2: But on Saturday night we needed to go pick up my daughter from a friend's birthday party.  I immediately noticed our van, which was supposed to take us on our vacation, was running pretty bad.  It did this in the fall and turned out to be a distributor cap (or whatever that piece is called now).  Chances are that is the problem now, but it was Saturday night and we were leaving in less than 18 hours.  So after some 'discussion' between my wife and I we load up my tiny Kia for a 310 mile trip.  Now in hind-site this drive wasn't toooo bad.  Could have been much worse, but it worked itself out.  Thankfully this was/is a warranty issue so once we return to home I'll get it in the shop for some warranty work.