Why Wait?

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Waiting
Tock
Waiting
Tick
Waiting
Tock
Waiting
Waiting for that phone call, that message, that email, that one thing that may never happen
Waiting, waiting, waiting.

When I left my last church and was banned from participating in any of their ministries I all but lost contact with my kids. It was painful and I felt a bit helpless about the situation. Granted, they weren't really my kids. They claim that I am their uncle, and I let them, even though I'm pretty confident that we are not related. Why though did I allow the church to cut me off from them? They don't hold a monopoly on kids. After all, I'm highly respected as a children's minister in their neighborhood and I know their mom.

Yesterday I went to their house and took them to the park. We had gone to the park once before but this time there were even more kids. I had 6 kids of them packed into my little Celica, all in seat belts mind you. The oldest was 12 and the youngest around 3 or 4. I don't think he could remember my name and kept calling me daddy. Daddy, watch me do this, daddy watch me do that.

Our first stop was Delhi park where we played freeze tag and I pushed the little ones on the swings. I played freeze tag like a mad man and ended up with a scraped elbow. 4 of my kids played plus 3 or 4 kids from the park. Just so you know, it is impossible to freeze that many kids at once (plus the boy in the blue shirt was a cheater). I let the 12 year old in the passenger seat steer my car from where she was sitting while in the parking lot. Is that irresponsible? After Delhi park we went to McDonald's (every kid loves McDonalds) and then off to another park. The kids all claimed that the park was just a little bit farther down River Road and of course the classic line was, "we're almost there." 10 miles later we finally made it. Out concepts of close may be a bit different. It was a nice park though, right along the river. It had rubber floors, a rocking boat, giant slides, bridges and lots of things to climb. After over 3 hours of playing at the park I was tired and dropped everyone off. It was starting to get dark anyways. Ministry is not confined to the four corners of the church or even to official organizations with their own letterheads. Ministry is how you live. Why wait?