Why are these people smiling?

This is my family, and they are smiling because they were serving Jesus at the July 4th parade. I'm the guy in the glasses. I tried to stay out of the way... NO! I helped direct traffic at the park and handed out water to those folks that came to us.

Beth sang on the float with our praise team. She brings her gifts whenever she can in music, and loves to lead people into worship.

Mac handed out water bottles in the Old Town area at the beginning of the parade rout. He told me later that he saw 20 of the people he invited out to Caldwell Park actually show up for the free hot dogs and to hear the band play some more.

Rachel (she's the one with all the paint) sat and painted faces from 9 am until almost noon. She carefully put fireworks and smiles on the faces of children all morning. Look at her concentrate!




So, why were we there? Two reasons: first, we love Jesus, and we love Pocatello, so we wanted to serve Jesus by serving Pocatello. Second, we as a family hold serving God as a high value. We want to bring our gifts to the table whenever we can. We don't believe in watching as the move of God goes by, we believe in pitching in and being a part of what God is doing.

I am SO PROUD OF MY FAMILY!! But here's the best part: they were four of well over 100 people who showed up as a part of the First Baptist Family!!!! We gave out close to 3000 bottles of water, several hundred hot dogs, more Popsicles than I can count, and multiple thousands of smiles. One of those smiles, I'm pretty sure, was on the face of Jesus.