Week of Firsts

This meeting has been a week of firsts for us. For the last two nights Sarah has played her violin (fiddle in this church) for the special music. For her, it is a welcome change from the strain of singing every night. She can now even drink milk and eat ice cream before the service and not worry about it.

Tonight Josiah sang in the service for the very first time in our ministry. After practicing earlier today, I was scared stiff about what would happen. In the back of my mind was the last time he appeared in public. Those at Emmanuel may remember our Christmas program with our son stealing the show. The Elvis impersonation, the
huge and frequent sneezes, the constant wiggles - it was all too vivid in my mind as we ended our practice session today. In the service, however, Josiah was to prove that my fears were all ill-founded. He sang one verse of "Jesus Loves Me" with me playing the piano and Sarah playing the violin. He walked up to the platform with poise, sang his song, and returned to his seat without a single problem. In fact, the only thing childlike he did while he was up there was to briefly scratch his face. In the midst of this action, he seemingly remembered that this was probably not a good idea and returned his hands to their previous position behind his back.

A new day of variety has dawned in the Crow family ministry. Doubtless the next thing that will happen to me is that pastors will schedule me because my son sings (if you know of a cheap bus that I can buy, let me know), rather than because they enjoy my preaching. Oh well, whether in pretense or in truth, I guess we'll still get meetings.

We close tomorrow night. Thank you all for your prayers.

Paul

It was so neat to see and hear Josiah sing - I was so proud of him that I almost cried as he sang, and I smiled broadly throughout the whole thing. It was probably obvious to all how pleased I was. His voice was clear and sweet, and he sang out with no inhibitions. It was just so neat. So, now that we have had the "Parents Brag " session for the night, we will let you go. Wish you could have heard it. I did have someone take a few pictures while he was singing, and if you are on the photo list, you will see them.

Sarah