Now, I really don't mean to offend anyone, or confuse anyone so that they think that I am not a Christian, and don't go to church. This isn't saying that church is bad, but I just feel like writing about things that happen at church.

Last Wednesday, my family and I went to our former church. We started going to a new church about a year ago, but we wanted to see some old friends. And our new church didn't have a Thanksgiving service.

My new church is rather contemporary, with guitars keyboards, drums, an LCD projector for the slide presentations that go along with the sermon, and a whole bunch of other things. Well, this church doesn't have hymn books. However, my old church does, and it caused me to notice a few things about hymns. It seems almost like a conspiracy to me, the way that the hymns are set up, so that you can sing along, even if you can't find the song at first in the hymn book. While you fumble through the hymn book, the piano player plays the little introduction. If the singing started immediately, everyone would have to guess at the first verse, because it is tricky to get those songs fast. If the little introduction part of the song isn't enough, you can sing the title, because that's normally the first few words, anyway. Singing the title reapeatedly isn't a good idea, though.

Before I go on, I think that you should know that I have allergies to dust and pollen. This will tie in!

Once a month, I help out in the nursery, where my two youngest siblings go. Yesterday, they played with homemade playdough at the start, when they were waiting for everyone to get to the class. I started sneezing, and my nose was suddenly runny. Well, I knew that it wasn't a cold - it just didn't feel like a cold. However, allergies were almost immediately ruled out because I normally start sneezing in the morning, and don't stop for a while, and I hadn't sneezed before that morning. Well, as I stepped away from the table, to blow my nose, I didn't feel so bad. I went back to the tables, and the sneezing started again. Finally the playdough was put away, and my nose felt better. The only explanation for this is that I must be allergic to the playdough!

That night, my church had a covered-dish fellowship. We don't have communion on Sunday mornings because, I guess, the pastor wants to be sure that casual visitors won't eat and drink damnation unto themselves (That's in the Bible - I didn't make that up!) Well, after supper, we played some party games, like where we'd have to add shoe sizes and stuff, and then we had communion. I accidentally spilled the juice. Well, my one of friends saw this, and she started laughing. Here, I had just spilled something symbolizing the blood of Jesus on the table. I had to mop it up with a napkin. I'm glad I'm not Catholic or Lutheran. They believe that the bread and juice actually become the real body and blood of Christ. I heard a story about how a young priest made a mistake of vacuuming up the crumbs from communion, and then had to bury the new Hoover he had used, only to discover that the crumbs were from regular bread!

I have a friend who has had accidents regarding communion. Once, he spilled one of those dishes of the little cups on his mother. Another time, he had his rubber bands in his braces, and didn't feel like taking them out, but forgot about this when he was served the communion bread! He offered his portion, and explanation to me. I felt guilty about doing so, so I suggested that he put the bread in his mouth and let it dissolve.