Church Shopping

Just the title of that bothers me. Church Shopping. My entire life I have had just two "home churches". They are right down the street from one another and I am able to greet people every few steps. So familiar, so comforting.

Now here we are in Corona. I have been putting off "the hunt". It makes me very uncomfortable. How do you know where to go? How do you know there will be solid teaching, solid teachers, loving caregivers for our boys?

We have tried a church here called "Crossroads", the past 2 Sundays. Our first impression was mostly good. Both Craig and I really liked the Pastor and his sermon (which brought both of us to tears!) I was very excited. My one major drawback was the lack of Sunday School classes for adults. This is a very large church. Big campus, lot's of people. I couldn't understand where the list of classes was. Yesterday I was talking to a friend about this absence and she brought to my attention that Sunday School classes are the "old" way of doing things. The old way??? All I have ever known is that there are Sunday School classes for everyone, of every age, of every life stage...that's how it goes, right?? I guess not anymore! Now at just 28 years old...I am left feeling...old!!

The next drawback came when we went to pick up Jacob. He seemed happy but when they handed him to me, he stunk to the high heavens!! I could smell him before the tranfer was even complete!! I just thought they had somehow missed it,(like maybe they all had really bad colds??) took him to the car and immediately changed him.

Fast forward a week later to this morning. It was raining, we got there a bit late. The check in process for the older boys is quite lengthy. After filling out both forms, and all the name tags, we were informed that there was no room in the inn. For any of the older children. So, we had to take them to service with us. We dropped of Jacob first specifically asking them to check Jacob since he has been fighting a rash (very sensitive skin!). We then set off for the service. Surprsingly Tyler and Zachary behaved very well (not easy for a 5 & 3 year old to sit through a sermon!). We once again enjoyed the pastor's message. Afterwards we all went to pick up our sweet baby...always so fun to return to his huge grin!! As soon as we picked him up the ladies chimed in that he may have a dirty diaper...but they weren't sure. Once again we were sure!!! (whew, SMELL-E!!!) But his diaper was SO bad, that it had broken open and all of those little crystals had burst everywhere. His little bottom was raw and he would just say, "ow, ow!" We felt SO bad!! So, needless to say, we are not planning on going back next week. And that means the hunt is still on.

If anyone has a chance, please pray for us to find a good church home. One that fits the needs of everyone in our family and will be a place to further our relationship with Jesus. And a place where we feel our children are well taken care of. And if you are happy with your home church, I would just remind you to give thanks for that today. It really is a great blessing!