A Day of Play

We're starting this blog 2 weeks into taking Thursdays off to date. It's 1:25 a.m. and I will attempt to re-cap a day full of moments that reminded me I'm married to a youth pastor.

10 a.m. Breakfast at downtown coffee shop. Yes, our Thursday breakfast will begin at 10. That is early for this Youth Pastor and wife. I should expect this by now, but it catches me off guard every time we go to the Coffee Corner. The gray-haired men in the back corner love nothing more than to see Tony – as energetic and outgoing as ever – bound through the doors. As soon as they see him, they bombard him with questions and tease him relentlessly. In no time, what could have been a meaningful conversation for the two of us over lattes and a giant cinnamon roll, has become a history lesson from said gray-haired men. I don’t mean to complain, their stories are always entertaining.

11 a.m. Hit the golf course. Side note: I started the day in a darling cardigan, nice jeans and loafers for my 8:30 Main Street meeting. I knew that as soon as I got home to begin our date day, I'd need a wardrobe change. Tony's idea of a date always includes a great deal of athletic activity - or play if you will - so, I quickly switched outfits and tied my tennies. I’m really not very good at golf, so thankfully Tony is not one for closely following the official rules of golf. He never seems to mind when I pull out my foot or hand wedge for a couple swings.

2:00 p.m. Lunch @ Kalona Bakery. Tony’s meal: 1 jelly filled donut, 6 donut holes, pulled pork sandwich, cheetos, and root beer. Yep – that’s my youth pastor.

3:30 p.m. It’s time to get down to business. We need to pick out tile and countertops for our kitchen. The next couple hours were spent at Menards and Lowes. Long periods of shopping don’t typically make for an ideal day for Tony, but he’s really good at keeping himself entertained despite having to shop. Here are a few of his ideas for other youth pastors to try if forced to shop with their wives: Sing at the top of your lungs in the parking lot – everyone entering and exiting store will be highly entertained (except for maybe your wife). If that doesn’t work, act like you run into every obstacle in the parking lot and through the front doors of the store, then grunt loudly to show your imaginary pain.

5:30 Our day needs more play. We drive around in search of a park to play Frisbee. We head into a large field at an Iowa City park and begin some catch. I’m not the talented athlete that my husband is, but when I’m with him I’m always the champion. He’s a great encourager. And, hey – we even made it to 31 catches without dropping the Frisbee. He’s always got a challenge or game up his sleeve.

7:00 Dinner @ Applebees. That 2 for $20 is a pretty good deal…especially when you have a $25 gift card! Tony’s meal: Chicken tender basket, the usual. He looked at the fresh veggies on my plate and said, “Maybe I need a more adult-looking meal.”

8:00 We’ve got some time to kill before picking a former youth group student up at the bus stop, so we take a stroll around downtown Iowa City. While watching all the college kids out and about, we began reminiscing about our college days.

9:30 Moments like these remind me how precious a gift it is to be involved in youth ministry. We found ourselves chasing a greyhound bus to the bus stop to greet one of our youth group students who graduated last year and was coming home from college in Chicago to visit for the weekend. We did the typical “we’re really excited to see you and we’re probably embarrassing you” things and waved our hands frantically and screamed his name as he came off the bus. Tony and Matt embraced and in moments we were hearing story after story after story of the amazing things God is up to in Matt’s life at Moody Bible Institute. Matt is going to school to be a youth pastor too. Hopefully his future bride can find this blog very useful. ;) Matt gave Tony a pretty sweet compliment tonight – “Ya know Tony, you would have been a great youth pastor even if you didn’t go to college for it. Some people just have it, and you have it.” I agree.

Here’s to happy dating. Good night….errr good morning.