May 19 Day 19
As I mentioned in previous entries, Sundays tend to be my crazy days. 4:30 AM wake. 5:30 get Mom ready. 6:30 out the door. 7:00 set up at The Greene. 8 rehearsal. 9 Service 1. 10:20 Service 2. Scramble to tear everything down by 12 noon. Lunch with Mom afterwards. Go home. Post-church coma about 3:30. Get up 5:30 and go rehearse with the Dayton Salsa Project (DSP) at 6:30. Get home at about 10 PM. Usually on about 3 hours of sleep the previous night. So… If I’m lucky, my post-church coma will be about two hours. Doesn’t usually work out that way.
Mosaic worship celebrations went pretty well this morning. There were some challenges to work around, but it went fine. I caved in and brought my 100-lb, 21-year-old electric piano with the floppy disk drive. It worked fine with the exception of twice where someone touched the power cord and it came right on out. During the first service, I had to scramble around and flop right around on my back during the first song to put it back in. (I can’t see the insert from above.)
It went okay… but I will probably not be bringing that particular instrument back out in the future. Simply finding a way to get the stand (which is screwed together) inside of the car with Mom’s wheelchair and ramp added about 10 minutes to packing and unpacking. And don’t get me started on the extra time with screwing the top of it on the stand. I used to gig with that keyboard all the time – and it looks like it – but these days, I don’t need to be hauling stuff like that around and balancing with it over my head while I screw it in.
Nope. I can’t wait until I get my (much lighter and newer) keyboard back from my guy IB!
My post-church coma ended up getting cut short today. Our International Pastor Ayad Attia graduated from United Theological Seminary yesterday with his doctorate and the graduation party was held today. Crash course on Ayad: He’s Egyptian and grew up as a Christian in a predominantly-Muslim country. He knows the Bible and the history better than just about anyone I know. Much of his work involves Christian outreach to Muslims. Ayad has a huge heart and a warm spirit. I was honored to celebrate this milestone with him.
I left the party early to make a mad dash to Dayton to rehearse with DSP. I already bragged about them last week, so I’ll avoid rehashing history and becoming a basket case.
One of the things I have noticed from the past week is how sometimes the smallest thing can be an enormous help to the people around you. I won’t get into the details, but while working on one of my own projects, I realized there were resources I wasn’t using and people that could use them. So… I offered. They accepted. I’m curious to see what they do with them. The additional cost to me was basically negligible, but the dividend is well worth it. Glad I could be a part of it.
All right… Time to back up the website. Pretty sure I can get it done before the website moves!
Thanks all!
TKP
5/19/2019
I am so honored to have known you since we met for the first time almost three years ago. And it is so much fun to serve the international community alongside you. Love you brother!