Today, LifePointe held a chuch picnic at Baileywick park. While we’re not members there yet, they did invite us and we thought it would be a good way to meet folks and see what the people are like outside of the church environment. Needless to say, they were just as warm and welcoming as in the building.
We got to spend quite a bit of time talking with old Brooks folks as well as meeting new people. The girls, of course, drew a lot of attention. Everyone want to know if they were twins, boys or girls, how old, etc. So, that was a good starting point for conversations. Never underestimate the power of a baby in meeting new people! 🙂
Patsy Lasley (self-appointed grandmother to all babies) held Abby for a bit — until Abby decided to show here “I’m, hungry NOW!” colors. 🙂 Later though, she was held by Joni Horn for quite a bit too. Again, until Mommy’s food back was needed.
Why did Abby get to be held so much? Emily, was zonked in her car seat for much of the time! I actually had to wake her up at one point and almost force-feed her just so she wouldn’t be starving upon waking up later. So anyway, those that wanted a baby-fix got one!
The finale to the picnic was 12 baptisms! This picnic was an all-out affair. There was a TON of food (and very yummy BBQ from Smithfields). There were two “moonwalks” where the kids could go and jump in them. There was another game (inflatable thing, too) where two opponents are on top with big soft “bopping” things and they try to knock each other down. And, they brought in a small 3-foot high pool, had a firetruck fill it with water and that was used for the baptisms.
Yup! Right there in the middle of the park — on the end of the parking lot, the entire picnic group surrounded this miniature pool and watched these folks get baptised. It was very cool. And, according to Greg Lindsey (the lead pastor) there have been 31 baptisms at LifePointe since their inception in February of this year!
Joseph had a lot of fun too. He brought his scooter and scooted around. He met two other kids with scooters too (one that goes to LifePointe and one that doesn’t) and hung out with them for the 2.5 hours we were there. Needless to say, he was zonked on the trip home.
I am honestly really impressed with this church — the people that make up the church. They are warm, friendly, open, inviting, obviously caring, loving and willing to reach out. They have an obvious and true love of God and believe that getting that message out is important — especially to children. There were 108 K through 5th graders in the children’s program on Sunday morning. Yes, that’s one-hundred and eight! And they have a program built just for them. Despite Joseph’s shy-ness, he really does enjoy it!