Labor Day, and Connecting Through Living Waters

We had an action packed Labor Day weekend. It's a good thing it's not called Couch Potato Day, because we never came close to the couch. I don't think we ever stopped moving!

We actually spent a lot of time with our church over the course of the weekend. Our church is known to the public as the one that hands out the water at parades. The water bottles are each wrapped with another label, turning it into "Living Waters water". It's pretty cool, and a great way to spread the word about a great church.

We have never walked in a parade before as a family, but Elisabeth actually requested that we do it. You can't say no to a kid that asks to help her church by walking in the parade! So, we said yes.


And it was a blast. Being in a parade is a completely different experience than standing on the curb and watching the parade. There was this sense of connection. Connecting with hundreds of complete strangers. Bringing smiles to their faces. And bringing smiles to our own faces. Working as a team to empty a pick up truck's worth of ice cold water bottles until it's all gone. It's no small task! We were sweating. Panting. Mark's legs hurt so bad for the next 3 days that he actually screeched when the cat jumped on his lap. (We think his mass pain level was possibly multiplied somehow by his heart meds, because I wasn't even close to being in that much pain. Or maybe it's just because I'm a superwoman... Yeah. Let's go with superwoman.)


That's our pastor in the photo above. He is phenomenal. I am not sure if he realizes just how much he has impacted our family over the past 3 years.


The parade concluded at a park with a huge festival set up. And on Sunday morning our church had its worship service right on the festival grounds!


After that, we all headed over to the church for a picnic. More fellowship! More connecting!

We absolutely love our church. Neither Mark nor myself have ever felt such a connection with a church community as we do with this one. I am sure that connection will just keep on growing over the years. It's so nice. We have attended churches that left us feeling like horrible guilty sinners. It's not exactly the way we want to feel. But this church leaves us feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and wanting to share our joy!