Fun and Games by Susan L.

  Literally it was fun and games at the church summer service/barbeque in the barn. Normally I'm not one to sign up for this kind of thing but, once again, in a rare fit of exuberance, I found myself signing a piece of paper that would place me on a team.
  The first game was a water bucket challenge. We were give a pail of water with spongy objects in it. There was an empty pail twenty feet away. The goal (oooo, sneaky things) was to fill the empty pail until it overflowed by running with the sponges and squishing the water out. My team won that! We had three mature women whose dish rag wringing experience showed it actually has some value!
  The next game was a bit more complicated. It was a race, albeit a very slow race. The lawn was an imaginary river of lava. We were given bits of "fire proof fabric" that had to be stepped on as the team worked its way around an orange cone and back to home base. It ended up being like the game "Twister" only in a wiggly line. There were fabric thieves who would snatch the fabric foot thingies if no one was touching it. Balance was tricky. It took a whole lot of physical coordination not to step on each other's toes. We waddled in last.
  Give a group of people a rope and a tug of war is bound to break out. The ole muscles are complaining a bit this morning after that workout. Legs mostly. One of the teams had been stacked by chance with large, able bodied, young men who pulled their way to victory with very little resistance from the rest of us.
  The final game was to toss softballs into a pail. The rules were quickly changed that if you even hit the pail it was allowed to be tossed in otherwise I think we'd still be there! Nope. No winner there either but I think we came in second. Only one of our team managed to actually toss the ball into the pail. Her accomplishment was celebrated by a huge cheer from us.
  There was much laughter and much sweat. It was pretty hot. The prizes for everyone were the same: a huge, right-from-the-freezer, Freezie that, for me, never tasted so good!
  I surprised myself a bit by signing up but ended up having a lot of fun. It's easy to forget that it's okay to get a bit silly every once in a while.
  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering , kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentle ness, self control." Gal 5:22-23