LTC Weekend

As many of you know, Raiden and I went to Tulsa this weekend for the Leadership Training for Christ convention. We arrived Friday evening and learned a valuable lesson immediately. If the church is offering food at 5:15 and you show up at 6:45, the ladies will still feed you. Being an LTC rookie, we bought some hotdogs, drinks and candy for $11 at the convention center only to learn that there was taco salad in the suite that the church reserves.

Anyway, Raiden's first event was bible reading. The picture is of Raiden and one of his friends Gregory. They were being big goofballs before the event. Shocking I know. To top it off Doug Caldwell and his wife Stephanie were in attendance as well. Doug was even a judge for the bible reading event. He even let Raiden know he expected a great job from him. Not really. Doug did give the 3-4th grade boys something to say by calling the restroom the "room of rest". I heard that saying 372 times that weekend.

After bible reading, there was a devo for the elementary age kids. Mark Stansberry led the devo. What I thought was pretty cool was during the singing, Raiden, Derrick and Gregory put their arms on each others shoulders and sang. I have never really hung out with Raiden's friends in this type of setting. It was pretty awesome to watch.

That night I let Raiden and his other friend Derrick stay up until midnight running around the hotel. It was pretty funny to hear the two of them talk as if they were doing something almost illegal. Well maybe they were. I will never tell.

The next day we picked up Cookie, Tookie, Turkey, also known as my mom. She accompanied us to puppets and song leading. The puppets did a great job. Raiden got to be a dog as seen in the picture.

The final event for Raiden was the Song Leading. Another rookie error was made on my part by not reading the rules for this event. The rules state that you must have a transparency in order to let everyone know what song you are singing. We did not have one. So I told Raiden to just say something before he starts about not having a transparency. Raiden walks up very confidently when his name is called and says, "I do not have a transparency. But if you want to sing Blank Screen, you can. I will be leading We Bow Down." I laughed so hard I could not video his excellent job of leading the song. Cookie was crying she was laughing so hard. As we walked out the judges were laughing too.

After we left the convention center, we visited a personal favorite of Raiden's...Fuddrucker's. While there we sat next to...Doug and Stephanie Caldwell. I think we were being stalked. Anyway we went to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum after that and had a blast.

Sunday evening Raiden led a song during evening worship. He was not nearly as nervous as you would think a 9-year old would be. He did AWESOME!

At the banquet, Raiden received his results...He took part in a total of six events. Service Projects, Pre-Convention Bible Reading, and Children's Story Book took place before this weekend. Bible Reading, Puppets, and Song Leading happened this weekend. Raiden received 5 Golds and Bronze for his work. I was VERY proud of the job he did!!!

Easter pics are coming soon...I promise! :)