A Special Day
Joseph Anderson Donetti looked expectantly at Pastor Chuck. So did Mac and Hannah and Trevor. Pastor Chuck’s eyes sparkled. Whatever his idea was, he clearly liked it!
“How would you guys like to share some of what you’ve been learning with the whole church?” Pastor Chuck asked. “I’m in charge of the church service the week after next, and I think it would be fantastic to have all of you help me!”
“You mean preach?” Trevor asked. His voice squeaked. “You want us to preach?”
“I don’t know,” Pastor Chuck admitted. “I just thought this up. But maybe preach. Or maybe share with the congregation in some other way. We’d have to think it over.”
“Cool!” Mac said. “Her face turned pink with excitement. “I think that would be really fun.”
“Well, I can’t get up in front of the whole church and preach!” Hannah said with great finality. “I could never do anything like that!”
“I don’t know why not,” Pastor Chuck said. “You have great ideas, and you express yourself very clearly here in the baptismal class. But,” he continued, “you don’t have to think of yourselves as preachers. Let’s think of it more like doing a project—sort of like a school project—that we will share with the church members. They are, after all, your brothers and sisters in the Lord. It will be like sharing a school project with your family.”
“You mean do a project about creation?” Joseph asked. “Or about everything we have been learning in baptismal class?”
“We couldn’t do a project about everything!” Mac put in. “My teacher last year said that we needed to focus in on one special thing when we did our science projects. We would have to pick something to focus on for church.”
“Maybe we could do something about some part of creation,” Trevor suggested.
Everyone fell silent, thinking.
“We don’t have to finalize anything right now,” Pastor Chuck said. “We can think about it for a couple of days.” He ripped five pages out of his notebook and began writing on the top one. “I’m going to put my phone number on each of these papers,” he said. “Each of you add your own phone number, and everybody can take home one of the lists. That way you can call one another if you get a terrific idea.” He looked up and grinned. “Or even a sort-of-terrific idea. And you can call me and tell me about it too.”
Joseph carefully tucked his copy of the phone list inside his Bible. His mind was already racing. In fact, he didn’t even hear Pastor Chuck announce that it was time for prayer. Finally he looked up, wondering why everyone was giggling.
“Could you join us for prayer?” Pastor Chuck said. His mouth was not laughing, but his eyes were.
This is embarrassing, Joseph thought. He shut his eyes. “Sure. I’m ready,” he announced.
“Dear Father in heaven,” Pastor Chuck began. “I want to thank You again for these precious children You have given me to teach. It is so special to watch how they soak up Your Word so eagerly.” He paused.
Mac began. “I want to thank You, God, for the beautiful world You made for us. And thank You for giving us Pastor Chuck to teach us about You.”
There was a moment of quiet. Then Trevor said, “Thank You for making us a little bit creative like You. Even if we can only create model airplanes and stuff that doesn’t breathe or fly by itself.”
“Help us to be creative when we think about our projects for church,” Hannah said softly.
There was another little moment of quiet. Joseph knew that everybody was giving him a chance to add something to the prayer. He still felt a little strange about praying out loud. He took a deep breath. He guessed he wasn’t as shy as Hannah. And if she could pray out loud, he could too. “Thank You, God, for my new Oregon friends.” He stopped. Thinking about his new friends reminded him of his old friends back in the neighborhood at home. And that made him think about his mom. “Please take care of my mom at home,” Joseph prayed, “because I’m not there to help her, and I think she’s missing me.”
“Yes, Lord,” he heard Pastor Chuck whisper in agreement.
Mac’s back door banged. Joseph squinted and looked through his eyelashes. Mr. Evans was standing on the porch, looking toward the baptismal class.
Pastor Chuck must have heard the door, too, because he finished up the prayer. “Please keep us all safe in Your loving arms until we meet again. Amen.”
“Amen,” Mac and Trevor and Hannah and Joseph echoed.
“It’s just about that time,” Mr. Evans called. “Supper’s on the table.”
Everybody stood up. Trevor and Hannah sprinted off toward the house.
“Wait!” Pastor Chuck called. He winked at Joseph and Mac and then ran after Hannah and Trevor. He ran right past them. “I’ll beat you to the food!” he called back over his shoulder.
Joseph and Mac laughed. Mac brushed bits of grass off the back of her overalls. She looked at Joseph. “Isn’t it exciting that we get to help do the church service? I hope I can think of something really neat to do for my part. You know, this is a good thing for my career too.” Mac swatted at a mosquito that had been hovering around her head. “Firefighters have to give talks to groups of people who visit the fire station. Like school kids on field trips. So I’m lucky to get some practice talking about important things in front of people. Do you have any ideas about what you want to do yet?”
“Nope, not yet,” Joseph answered. “But I’ve only begun to think.” He spun around. “I’ll beat you to the porch!”
