Not Much Of A Church

We've been members of our new church for several months now. Actually, in the fall, it will be a year.

WOW!

When we joined, the church had already started a building program. It had been prayed for, planned for and voted on. Typically, a church in the middle of all of that would have gotten a check in the negative column from us...because you just never know what all has gone on to get to that point, and the (potential) controversy it has caused...not really ever been anxious to jump into a situation like that.

But God...

So, Joshua has been very interested in the building program at our church. We typically drive by our "West Campus" (site of our new building) several times a week to look for signs of progress that can be seen from the road.

Joshua has Down Syndrome, but don't anyone think he doesn't know exactly what is going on. He does. He is on top of things. He has some trouble hearing, but he takes meticulous sermon notes each Sunday. He likes order, so he likes it when the sermon has points that can be easily followed, one right after the other. He does not like sermons on a "topic" where there are no set notes...or when you are supposed to jot down thoughts that jump out and speak to you personally from the message. He is all about taking notes, but any more than one or two words?

Ain't nobody got time for that!

In fact, one time the "answer" for one of the blanks was "enthusiasm." Joshua wrote "enu," and crossed it out. He wrote "enthi" and crossed it out. Jim was just about ready to help him when Joshua carefully wrote, "j-o-y" in the blank, and looked up at us SO PROUD of himself.

I nearly busted out laughing...in church. In fact, I may or may not have snorted.

Joshua reads the bulletin and will often point out events that are scheduled for our church. He points out "Men's Ministry" events to Jim and says, "we should go to that." He also has NO problem saying what's on his mind. Example: "I like Bro. Mark the best...this guy (guest speaker or other staff minister) talks too fast and I can't keep up."

So, Joshua likes to stay up on things at church. Even so, when it comes to the West Campus construction, people can talk "preparing the foundation," and "laying pipes" all day long...but when we drove by the other day and could not see any visible progress...this is what he said:

 "not much of a church...just a big pile of dirt."

"There is an appointed time for everything...a time to tear down and a time to build up." Ecclesiastes 3:1,3