Letter to Carter

I’ve been writing to Carter at boot camp almost daily. Since we are in the Days of Covid, there’s not much happening around here to talk about. I got swabbed and tested negative. Caleb got swabbed and tested negative. I got swabbed again (every 2 weeks for me). Star finally peed in the front yard instead of waiting to be taken on a walk (victory!) Camille was mad at me and said, “I’d rather spend 24 hours with a pair of snakes than with you!” which is such an awesome burn considering her snake phobia that I was quite proud of her.

All that to say I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to family news. So when I wrote to him yesterday, I decided to “live tweet” church for him. We are pretty terrible at home church and I thought he’d like to relive some of the pain along with us. I’ve copied and pasted the stream of consciousness writing below for your … enjoyment?

Hola baby!
I thought I would live tweet church for you this morning. Since you can’t be with us, why not bring church to you?
10:01 — church begins, Jaco is leading service, wearing a plaid shirt and jeans as usual, and impassioned as always. Talking about Caleb and Joshua being brave in the face of fears. That giants existed in the Promised land, but they trusted God to make a way in spite of the troubles they faced. That we get to trust in God for a breakthrough for us when we face troubles.

10:03 Bob wanders in, having showered. Camille trails behind, in her pjs.
10:04 Bob and Camille interrupt service to ask why Micah isn’t wearing his cone. Gets the big shush and the first WE’RE PRAYING! of the day from Dad. (Micah is wearing a cone because he has a big rash on his belly that he keeps scratching. The vet gave him cream for it, but he licks it. The cone we have is from star and too small for him so even with it on he can lick the area, but then bangs into walls and is restless so after he kept me awake half the night I took it off.)

10:06 singing Our God is Greater — Henry (guy with the fedora) is leading worship. The big guy is on the keyboard, the one with the dreads, but i don’t remember his name, and a filipino lady who I’ve never seen before is playing guitar. Maybe she’s from Yas.
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, our God is higher than any other . . .
10:10 Jaco again. We are free because of Christ. We are unshackled from the sins of the world so we can live a life surrendered to God.
ooh! Early communion! A big surprise. Good thing we have leftover Pretzo’s sitting out on the coffee table from last night. Bread. Thank you Lord that you are cool with Pretzo’s as communion bread.
Oh, I missed the time to take the juice, but I guess we are doing coffee this morning because that’s what I have in front of me.

10:12 Amazing Grace. (not the old one, the new one) Dreadlock keyboard man is leading vocals and has a very nice warm voice. I guess he’s not just a musician. Dad says he sings sometimes and I’m just not observant. Truth.
My chains are gone, I’ve been set free, my God my savior has ransomed me . . . and like a flood his mercy reigns, unending love, Amazing Grace.
10:15 Henry takes the mic (well no one is taking the mic from anyone because it’s still all the split screen of covid church, but you get what I’m saying)
Hmm, do I know this song? Oh yes I do! I love it, but it always takes me until the chorus to recognize it. “The darkest night . . . you can light it up, you can light it up! Oh God of revival! Let hope arise, Death is overcome, you’ve already won . . . Oh God of revival! I’ll paste the lyrics below.

We’ve seen what You can do, oh God of wonders
Your power has no end
The things You’ve done before in greater measure
You will do again

Pre-Chorus
There’s no prison wall You can’t break through
No mountain You can’t move
All things are possible
There’s no broken body You can’t raise
No soul that You can’t save
All things are possible

Chorus
The darkest night
You can light it up
You can light it up
Oh God of revival
Let hope arise
Death is overcome
You’ve already won
Oh God of revival

10:21 2nd Cor 9:10-14 tithing scripture: Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

10:23 Calvin texted to see how I’m doing. I told him I’m churching and taking notes for you.
10:24 intro to the sermon. Series on Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul is preaching

10:25 Dad shushes Camille
10:28 conversation gets off track. Dad participates and then shushes. lol I don’t know what they are talking about as I was texting with Calvin, figuring out a good time to call me.

Sermon about speaking in tongues and prophecy. 1 Cor 14:1-5
Paul says “speaking in tongues is weird.” lol
I agree and I’m looking forward to hearing him

10:31 Bob says his gym membership expired as he’s blocked from signing up for the WOD tomorrow. Dad gets concerned because he prioritizes fitness as much as church. LOL You can see him fighting his brain to focus on service, while still trying to get Bob’s membership renewed so he can go work out with us tomorrow.

Speaking in tongues is: The supernatural ability to speak a language that the speaker has never heard. Speaking in tongues is praying free from the limitations of our language . . . and then the slide went away. Dang it. Paul listed a few definitions from different theologians.

Points of tongues from 1 Cor 14
It’s us speaking to God
it’s not understandable to others, unless there is an interpreter
It builds us up
It’s intended for all
Vs 14 and 15: Pray and sing in the spirit
vs 26-28: we should expect it in our gatherings

10:36 Camille asks what is speaking in tongues and dad says, “If you’d just listen to the sermon, you’d figure it out!” He really hates home church and finds us all to be distractions.

10:40 — Camille is distracting all of us, but you’ll be happy that she’s snuggling with the dog on the Bahrain bench. She gets several “Camille, just chill” from dad.
10:42 I just got a Jolibee text announcing their 9 piece ChickenJoy special. I always think of you when I get Jolibee texts.
10:43 Bob distracts all of us by pointing out a guy in the tree across the street. Camille closes the curtains.

10:45 Paul says “be natural about the supernatural. Lets be expectant. Let’s pray for each other to speak in tongues and pray for interpretation.” He announces that he created bonus video content with more practical instruction on how to get started if you’ve never spoken in tongues.”
10:48 Oh Dang. He’s just now getting to part 2 of the sermon — Prophecy. I might run out of room in this letter.
10:51 — am I expectant?
10:52 I’m running out of space so I’ll have to end before the end of church. I’m sure it’s more of the same.
LOVE YOU

PS: Trump and Melania both tested positive for corona yesterday. But he’s still tweeting so I guess he’s fine.

END OF LETTER

And then I added this meme for my Raiders fan: