Bekah's Baptism: Sprinkled and Dunked

Warning - lots of pictures in this post! And I'm not even going to apologize, because I love all of them.

I'm so thankful Brian agreed to do my baptism. He was absolutely wonderful about the entire thing. I know I had some unusual elements to the event, but he let me do what I needed to do to make this special.
He actually opened up the evening by explaining a little bit about what was going to take place.

Then he turned it over to me to explain whatever I wanted to say. It's a good thing I'd mostly written it down in the booklets I gave to everyone there, because I turned into a blubbering mess of tears trying to talk.

Case in point.

Listening to Brent's song...the words to that song are so beautiful. (I tried to find it on YouTube, but the closest I could come was a clip in the sneak peek to the album. It's the third song in the lineup if you want to hear a tiny clip.)

So won't You use my life for greater things than I could ever dream of...Grant a passion, Lord, a never dying flame...and may my days be spent in serving You...in sharing You...giving glory to Your Name!

Brian joined me in the water after I threw the stones and he prayed for me. That water felt amazing.

And here it goes...

Utter relief. There's a new GVB song (I'll post a link tomorrow) called Clean. This picture captures that song the best, I think - There was something bout the water...there was power in the blood...for the first time in my life I felt clean.

Another favorite moment of the night.

My parents went to the Holy Land several years ago and brought back some water from the Jordan River. I asked if I could use some of it in the baptism, and they said yes. So after I was baptized the traditional way, Brian poured the Jordan water over me. That was an amazing feeling.

I kind of didn't want to get out of the water. It felt really good in there!

Moment with Brian after the baptism.

Thank you, Brian!!

It was a perfect night. The weather was gorgeous - slight breeze, but not an annoying wind, warm temperature, warm water, beautiful sun. God certainly blessed me with that and I was grateful.

Bekah's Baptism: The Cloud of Witnesses

I wanted to show you some of the pictures of the people who came to share in the evening with me. I didn't put up all the pictures...some people are blog anonymous. But I thought you might enjoy the sampling.

Mike and Lara were the first to arrive. They were the ones who gave me those beautiful replacement stones I told you about yesterday. Lara is my mentor, and Mike helped video the baptism. They are one of the most beautiful examples of a couple in love I've EVER seen. Love them.
You know Greg and Angi. :) They've been in my life for a long time and have taken good care of me. Angi made cupcakes for my after-party. (Yes, there was a party.) They were SO GOOD. She had something like 280 cupcakes to make last week, and yet she took time to come to the baptism. Meant the world to me!

Julie Crandall and her kiddos drove an hour or so just to be with me. Julie, as you might remember, has been a friend of mine for several years now (back to the college days) and she was also a faithful encouragement to me in the desert. I was excited that after all that, she got to be here to see something good in my life! (And her son wasn't drugged. I wanted to make a note of that to explain his expression. HA!)

Ronda!!! Even though she had company, she took time to come on over and be part of the night. Thanks for coming, Ronda! Love you! (Please make a note that I was trying to relive my Florida vacation - also with Ronda - by sporting the beach coverup!)

My parents were in attendance. I've been keeping them pretty busy lately with all the end of work parties...baptism parties...I'm trying not to let them rest. :)

After spending a whole work week with me, the lovely Jamie Bennett also came down and not only attended, but HELPED. She helped get the food together before the party, she helped video the baptism, she took pictures for me. Love her!!

My adopted family....Sandee and Kari. Sandee is like my second mom, and Kari is like another sister. So glad they could come - and so glad they wanted to come!

Rachel, one of my former co-workers, brought her baby and came out to be part of the night. Rachel and I used have some good hear-to-hearts at work. I miss her!

And of course, Rachel Ashley. She took all the pictures of the baptism itself - and you'll get to see those tomorrow. THANK YOU RACHEL for all your hard work after a very busy week of hard work!

And now for some candid shots....

Talking with Brian Holland, who baptized me, about the presence of fish in the pond. It was a source of concern for this chicken. Just hanging out before everything began. This would be about the time I started to get unbelievably nervous and emotional.

I played a song by my friend Brent Vernon...a great song called Fully Yours. I wasn't sure how easy it would be for everyone to hear the words (turned out great) so I put the words in the little booklets I gave out - and they followed along during the song.
Mike and Jamie recording....
Lara and me after the baptism.

One of my favorite pictures - a very special moment with my dad.

And a moment with Sandee. I realize this is not all that flattering of me, but it's how I looked for most of the night. :)

Come back tomorrow to see the baptism itself. :)

Bekah's Baptism: Throwing Stones

I decided on the stone theme I told you about yesterday way back in January. But in May, God added an element to it.

It was in mid-May that I found myself wrestling with some significant inner turmoil. A couple of weeks earlier I had stumbled through the one year anniversary of the beginning of Isaac's wilderness and it brought back waves of pain that almost drowned my heart. I'd questioned so much about myself and why I hadn't been enough to keep him...on and on it went.

That was also the time frame when I'd been called in for my first interview at WBCL and not many people knew about that. I had no idea what God was stirring up in my life, or if I was about to make a major life move...guess we now know the answer to THAT!

Anyway, one afternoon I was sitting out at the athletic fields at IWU, overlooking the ponds (one of my favorite places to pray during my lunch hour when I worked there), and God impressed this on my heart.

He reminded me I had about two months until my baptism, and He wanted me to spend that time working through the issues that commonly plagued me. Unpack them, figure out why they kept coming back, pray about them, be ready to let go of them.

And then, before the baptism, I was to write each issue on a stone and before I actually got baptized, I was to throw those stones in the pond and be done with them. Leave them there. Never go back for them.
These were my stones. For the sake of my privacy, I turned them over so you can't see what the specific issues were, but I do have words on the flip side of each stone.


I tried to explain out loud to everyone there what God has asked of me with these stones, but alas, I had a meltdown complete with hand waves that looked like something you'd see at the Miss America Pageant, so I just stomped my foot and said, "WORLD PEACE!!" Everyone laughed. (Several told me later they were crying pretty hard at that moment themselves and the laugh was welcomed.)

So instead I directed them to read about the stone adventure in the booklets I gave them (because I feared something like this would happen) and we moved on to the next item of business.
This became one of my favorite moments of the entire baptism. Brian turned aside and talked to me about the assignment and then he prayed privately with me: I will normally blog just about anything, but that's all I'm going to say about that part. That was a sacred moment between God, Brian, and me.
Then Brian asked everyone there to pray for me while I walked on into the water and had a moment with my God.

It was at this moment that the enormity of what I was doing really hit me. That was a long walk into the water.

Brian prayed out loud while I threw stones. I chucked them hard and loved hearing them plop into the water and sink to the bottom. They're gone and I can't get them back.

Love it. And yes. I throw like a girl.

He was still praying when I finished, so I stood in the water and listened and prayed. And tried not to fall over. (NERVOUS!!)

And that's one time I think God's okay with throwing stones.

I thought that was going to be the end of the stone part, but God had the most beautiful hidden surprise for me. My mentor, Lara, and her husband were in the crowd that day (you'll meet her in tomorrow's post) and after the baptism, when they came to my house, she handed me a gift bag.

Inside was a little Vera Bradley pouch filled with these stones:
Do you see the words written on them? She looked at me as I read over the stones and said to me, "You need new stones to replace the ones you threw."

She had no idea that about a month ago, when Jamie came down to spend the night with me, we prayed through each stronghold I'd written on a stone and Jamie told me specifically "Now we need to pray for God to replace these things with things of HIM. And much of what we asked for was what Lara wrote on the new stones - and she had no idea.

That's God, my friends. Lara didn't know ahead of time about the stone tossing. On the way to my house from the baptism, she and Mike got the idea to give me replacements, so they made a detour to a bookstore to get the stones. And she had no idea about Jamie's prayer. Isn't that so God??

Bekah's Baptism: Stone Altars

If you've been reading my blog throughout this year, you know I have a "stone theme" going on with my life. If you missed that, you can read the explanation here. Each day, a stone goes in my jar, representing something God has said or done in my life that day that has been pivotal to me. This is how the jar looked at the end of June. (I take a picture at the end of every month to mark its progress.)


It seemed fitting to carry on the stone theme with the baptism. Oh yes. There was a theme. I'm a theme girl.

I wrote out an explanation of the stone altar so everyone could have that to take home. (My goal was to do minimal talking during this event, because I figured I'd cry like crazy, which I did.) I ended it with this passage from the book of Joshua:

Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord…
… “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord. “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.”Joshua 24:14-15, 23-27

My baptism represented my large stone. Even though I was saved years and years ago (my salvation story and the stories of several other "large stone moments" were also something I wrote out to give to everyone who attended) this day was the representation of my decision. It became pivotal to me because it's a day I can look back upon and say "I left those things in the water and came out a new girl." It is my stone of witness.
I thought it was important to share the stone of witness with everyone who attended that day. I wanted each of them to have something tangible to take home to remind them not only of what they witnessed in my life that day, but to encourage them to have their own stone of witness.
So my friend Amber helped me by engraving these stones with Joshua 24:24-27 - the reference for the verses in bold above. (Remember that Sunday I went to her house to do a craft project I couldn't tell you about until later? This was it!) Here I am helping Esther pick out her stone... The stones may look small here, but rest assured this was a HUGE stone in my life's altar.

Bekah's Baptism: The Back Story

If you missed Saturday's post, you might want to go back and catch up. What you're about to read will make a lot more sense once you know my background.

Like I said in that post, I grew up Quaker, and as result, I was never baptized. My sophomore year in college, I started attending a Wesleyan church, and the pastor asked me if I wanted to be baptized. I told him no. Not because I had an issue with it...but because I didn't see the point in doing it just to do it...just to fit in with everyone else. I told him if I felt the Lord urging me to be baptized, I'd do it. But I wanted the urging to come from Him. And my pastor let it go at that.

I left the Wesleyan church eleven years later, still "dry cleaned" as they say. I went back into the Quaker denomination (different church from the one where I grew up) - and in early 2010, I felt the urge.

I can't tell you the day or how it happened...but I knew in my heart the time had come. God wanted me to be baptized...with water.

Shortly after sensing that in my heart, I met Isaac. He was a minister - and as God impressed upon me that Isaac was also the one He wanted me to marry, He unfolded a beautiful picture of Isaac baptizing me. In Ephesians, the Bible talks about a husband loving his wife as Christ loves the church - washing her with water through the Word. I loved it. It was the best possible scenario. I could be obedient to God's promptings and enjoy the added blessing of being baptized by the man who would be my husband.

For reasons he never could articulate to me, Isaac never baptized me. I asked more than once - and he finally told me he couldn't, but couldn't tell me why. It broke my heart.

During my Christmas break this year, God put that urge back on my heart - stronger than ever. It was time. Isaac or no Isaac, He wanted me to be baptized.

I asked Him if He wanted me to do it right away or wait until it was warmer. (Ever since I began entertaining the idea of baptism, it was my dream to be baptized outside in a river or pond - just like Jesus.) He told me it was okay to wait so I could go with the outdoor plan, but He wanted it done.

And so it was that I contacted Brian Holland, the youth pastor at the Wesleyan church I attended for those eleven years, and asked him if he would be willing to baptize me, come summer. Without hesitation, he said yes. And it was settled - back in January. This was my year to obey.

It's the Weekly Recap!

*Last Sunday, I had lunch with Amber (had to stop by her house to pick up the finished project we started a couple of weeks earlier) and then I went to Mom and Dad's house to pick up some stuff they had for me...including this picture:
Perhaps some foreshadowing of my future? Yes indeed, that is yours truly back in 1987 - when WBCL moved into its new studio and had an open house. Dad, whose radio program was on the station at that point in time, wanted to go see the new digs. Who knew they'd one day be my digs?

* Monday I learned about working the phones during a show. Since the show is live, sometimes they take callers for questions/comments, and sometimes they take callers for giveaways. Jamie took this picture through glass, so that's why it looks a little fuzzy. She was in the studio where the engineering takes place, and I was in the middle studio. Lynne hosts in the far studio - right under that heart on the wall.

* Tuesday was my first day to engineer the show. Oh goodness. I was sweating like crazy! Jamie helped me and it was a two person operation, but I did a good chunk of it. Lynne thought I was pretty funny...she told the listeners it looked like I was commanding the launch of a space shuttle when I pointed to her to signal that her microphone was on. LOL!

* Wednesday I overslept (not enough to be late, but enough to be cranky) and the whole day was just questionable. I didn't feel very well either. BUT never fear...I still managed to do my first on-air appearance! I listened to it later and asked Jamie - Do I really sound like that out loud? So weird to hear my own voice. It was only two or three minutes on the air with Lynne, but it was so much fun! AND...when I came home, look what had arrived! My brand new sassy lunchbox I ordered from Etsy!
* Okay you're going to think I'm a total dork for this, but it was seriously exciting to me. Thursday I got a comment on my blog post, and I didn't know the person, so I went over to her blog to meet her. She has my name on her blog roll. I've never been to a stranger's blog and seen my name there. It was like a blog rite of passage!

* Friday night was a huge night for me, which I sorta spilled the beans about in yesterday's post. I was baptized in what I think was a beautiful service. A great group of my friends and family came over for it, the weather was perfect, I cried like a beauty pageant queen (not kidding) - and I think there were even some tears shed among those watching. There's far too much to share about it to say it all here. But check back this week! More to come! But to start out the festivities - this was the sunrise Friday morning. I knew it was going to be the perfect baptism day when I saw that. * Saturday I took a much deserved break. I slept in and didn't even get out of bed until 1 pm. (I was awake before then. Just not out of bed.) I got caught up on blogs, did some reading, worked on pictures, and took it easy the whole day. And I stopped by Ronda's for dinner and to see her friends that I met during the Florida vacation. (Remember the gated community/Bekah in her swimsuit fiasco?) It was a good low-key day. Loved it.

Books I'm Reading: There wasn't a ton of time for reading this week, since I had so much baptism prep to do, but I did squeeze in more magazines, plus Sparkling Gems from the Greek, Jesus Calling, and Forever in Love with Jesus.

Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: I think the baptism stands on its own as the biggest moment of the week, but of the "unexpected," I'd have to say it was Thursday morning. I prayed as I drove to work, and God put on my heart that this job is His calling for me and that it's more than I can see from here. And within about ten minutes of arriving at work, I had a conversation with Lynne (without telling her about my prayer time) in which she said she felt like God had called me to this job and proceeded to share some of what she hoped might be part of that bigger picture vision. Talk about goose-bumps!

Update on Last Week's Goals: I did well preparing for the baptism (except I failed to get proper rest which led to me feeling pretty sick one day). I worked hard so I could really enjoy the day OF the baptism with no stress. And I'm SO excited that I felt like I grasped some of the technical stuff this week. I had begun to worry that it was just beyond me. But I grasped a bit of it!

Goals for the Coming Week: This is my last full week with Jamie and I still have much to learn. So I want to pack in as much as I can during those hours. And off the clock, I need to go through this house from top to bottom and pull out anything and everything I might want to put in a moving sale. My sister has offered (bless her) to come out here and do the whole sale for me. Sort it, price it, sell it. All I have to do is point at the pile I want her to sell.

Quakers and Baptism

WAIT! Don't stop reading.

I couldn't think of a good title that would actually create the desire to read more, so please accept my apologies for the textbook-esque title and hang with me for a minute.

Yesterday I was baptized.

I wanted to save that for tomorrow's recap and of course, other posts next week, but lest you say "Aren't you kind of old to just be getting baptized?" I wanted to offer a word of explanation.

First, I'm not old. (Thankyouverymuch.)

I grew up in the Quaker church. (Also known as the Friends church.) Over the course of my life, I've been questioned often as to why the Quakers don't practice water baptism. (And by questioned, I also mean that one of my friends in high school calmly announced to me over our lunch trays one day that I was going straight to hell for it. Comforting, no?)

To save you the trouble of being plagued by such a question, I took the liberty of perusing the riveting reading of the Quaker Faith and Practice book. I'm going to try to put it in slightly more interesting terms (no offense to the F&P authors) for you - and hope I mostly get it right.

The practice states that Jesus Himself set forth no particular command of ceremony for baptism. The Bible talks about "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" and they interpreted that to mean baptism into the Spirit...not necessarily baptism into water. Therefore, the denomination focuses more on what happens in a person's heart. It's not about getting literally bathed in water...but about a transformed heart.

The practice also states that John the Baptist said of Jesus..."He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire." And when Jesus gave the great commission before His ascension, He said to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." They interpreted that to mean the Name should be more of the focus than the water method.

That's the condensed version. The full version is found on pages 21 and 22 of that link above if you want to read it in its entirety.

I will be the first to admit to you I'm not a theologian. I'm unapologetic about that. I'd rather hide by some water and have a great heart to Heart with my Abba than debate theology with anyone. You can agree or disagree with what the denomination practices - and you won't get an argument out of me, because frankly, I'm not smart enough to hold my own.

But this I can tell you. When (during those heart to Hearts), my Abba told me He wanted me to get baptized (with water) I said okay. And so it was...that yesterday I was baptized.

I can't wait to share it with you. I just thought before we got there, I should give you the background. Thanks for hanging with me through the post and hearing how it all began!

SSMT: Verse 14

Last night, I was driving to Marie's house to drop off a couple of things, and I told God right out loud I'm POOPED.

It has been the best week - but also very draining. I'm trying to give about 130% at work, and in preparation for this weekend, I've also spent every possible evening moment working as hard as I can.

And I'm POOPED.

As soon as I said that, God urged me to look for a verse on strength for this round of SSMT. So.....

O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you.

Be our strength every morning,

our salvation in time of distress.

Isaiah 33:2

Isn't that beautiful?

Here's what I love. My last verse started out asking God for His favor. This one starts out asking for His grace. Those are not things I ask for easily. I'm much more likely to focus on God's judgment than His mercy and favor. But what a great thing for me to embrace...asking for grace.

I remember studying the word "hope" last year - and I found that in most cases, the word means to actually expect something. Biblical hope isn't a finger crossing sort of experience. It's about confident expectation. And this word "long for" means the same thing. To hope. To expect. And right now, I hope for...expect...a supernatural strength.

If there's one thing I need right this minute...it's morning strength! But I need that strength to last more than just the morning. It's for the whole day. In every task, every phone call, every mile driven, every decision made....strength.

Last night was a night of distress. I thought of something and then couldn't get it out of my mind...nor could I rest with it IN my mind. And finally I had to ask God to be my salvation in that moment. And He did! He comforted me...gave me His grace...and allowed me to rest.

So this is my strength verse.

And how I need it.

All Things New

This week has been hard for me. It has nothing to do with the job...but more to do with life. I think part of it stems from this week being another one-year marker from my relationship with Isaac, and those are always hard to work through. (Lest you roll your eyes, trust me. I don't strive to remember this stuff. It just shows up in my brain like it or not.)

Sunday night I had one of "those" meltdowns in the kitchen while trying to shred a chicken. Hard to shred when you can't see through the crocodile tears and you have to remind yourself to take a breath now and then. I went to bed completely depleted, and when I awakened Monday morning, it was the first thing on my mind.

Don't you hate it when you wake up and remember why you wished you were still in the blissful land of sleep?

But the song playing when I awakened Monday was Laura Story's Blessings - and the specific line that hit my ears was "What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy?" And right there in bed, God wrapped me up in the biggest, warmest embrace that said to me I know. I know this hurts. I know it's confusing. I know it feels like it will never go away. But I haven't gone anywhere. And I have a plan.

Monday night wasn't much better. I was beyond busy. I ran out of lines in my day planner to list the things I needed to do. (Took that as a sign the night was full enough.) And as I sat in my fat chair catching up on emails before my workout, I felt the heaviness again and a tear or two escaped.

I flipped over to Facebook and one of my friends posted a link to this song by Wes Hampton. (Isn't it amazing that I do know there are TWO tenors in the Vocal Band???) We sing this song at church quite often, but I didn't know Wes had recorded it - probably because I've been busy listening to David. Oops.

And though I know the words well, this line stuck out to me: Freedom’s calling, chains are falling, hope is dawning bright and true. Day is breaking, night is quaking, God is making all things new.



He is. I know it. He and I will get through this week and its memories...its wounds...and we will come out on the other side brand new.

30 Days of You and Me: Day Twenty-Two

It's been a while since I did a 30 days post - and we are actually nearing the end of them. Today's is guaranteed to make me shiver just a bit.

The topic? My Deepest Fear.

This one might surprise you!

My honest to goodness deepest fear of my life isn't dying. It's the rapture.

And here goes Bekah, putting on the blog the thing she wouldn't tell ANYONE for most of her life.

When I was very little...truthfully not even sure I was five yet...our church showed the movie Thief in the Night. (At least I'm pretty sure that was the name of it.) It was the 80's answer to Left Behind. I was far too young to watch that movie. I remember people getting shot in the head...and trying to draw the Mark of the Beast on their hands so they could buy groceries. I didn't comprehend most of it, but I absorbed enough to know that for me, rapture = terror.

Shortly thereafter, in our family devotions, we read Ernest Angley's book Raptured. (Side note for the sake of my parents...they are NOT Ernest Angley fans or supporters, but Dad felt that book had a lot of scriptural basis to it, so we read it.) All I remember was one of the families in the book going in to get their baby one morning and it wasn't in the crib. So for me, babies = safety.

For the next fifteen or so years, I lived in absolute terror of missing the rapture. I refused to be left alone at any time for any reason. If I was out with my parents, and we went to a gas station, I'd go inside with them to pay because I didn't want to be left in the car alone in case I missed it while they were inside paying.

I babysat for a living, but I was okay with that because, as previously mentioned, babies = safety, so as long as the kids were little, I felt safe. I just checked on them every 10 minutes or so after they went to bed.

When I got my driver's license, I had to learn to drive alone - because I didn't want to explain why I couldn't. So I found a couple of Christian radio stations and as long as they stayed on the air, I figured I was okay.

I'm not sure what finally got me over the hurdle of the worst part of the fear. Maybe it was just the sheer responsibility of growing up. Life had to be lived, and I couldn't be paralyzed in fear anymore.

I won't lie...this past May 21 or whenever that Camping guy predicted the end of the world, I was nervous. The twinges came back. So I guess I'm not completely over it.

So that's my crazy fear! What about you? Worst fear?

What Would YOU Put in a House?

I've been doing a significant amount of house hunting in the past few weeks. I'm not able to actually buy a house near my new job until I sell the one I'm living in now, so I feel like I'm in a holding pattern, but I'm trying to have viable options in front of me in case my house does sell soon and I have to hurry on a purchase.

There are so many things to consider when looking at houses! Location...basement (or not)...how many cars fit in the garage...number of bedrooms and bathrooms...type of heating - and more importantly - cooling...appearance of the inside and outside...and my all time high priority - presence of a dishwasher. (I abhor washing dishes, so I can't imagine a life without a dishwasher.)

Much to consider.

But what about this?
I read this article on Yahoo news last week. This entire house is filled with bookshelves that (combined) will hold up to ten tons of books. Ten tons! Sweet mercy. Makes my shelves that I love so much start to look rather...um...puny.

I doubt such a house exists in Fort Wayne, though, so I think I'm going to have to stick with the basics.

What about you? If you were house hunting right now, what would top your list? (Tell me in case it should top mine too and I just haven't thought of it yet.)

We Love a Parade

As you might have seen in yesterday's recap, I was in my first ever parade on Saturday! It was my first official event with WBCL - and it was fun.

The parade was for the Three Rivers Festival in Fort Wayne. I've never even been to the festival before, so the whole thing was new for me. It's a big festival - complete with television coverage of the parade! (Mama!) I actually read it's the second largest summer festival in the state - behind the state fair itself. Impressive!

I got up at five in the morning - on a Saturday! - and drove to the station to meet the other people working the parade. We piled into the official station van - check that out!
We drove to our line-up designation point, which was thankfully under a tree. Saturday was a gorgeous day - not a cloud in the sky, full sun, full HEAT. So at least while they set everything up, we were in the shade.

Two of the on-air guys rode the station trikes, but while they were trying to get the speakers to work on the van, the trikes were unoccupied. Hee hee hee. Faith and I tried them. (Faith is the daughter of one of the morning guys.)

The trikes were very comfortable (once they told us how to adjust them for our height) - but the front wheel doesn't move. It's only the back wheels that turn, so we had to learn to steer from the back. Kind of odd. They took this picture as my first event picture. :)

Here's the crew for the day. I'll introduce you to them. In the front (as you can see) are Ross and Scott. They are both on-air guys...Ross does the mid-day show and Scott does the afternoon show. I've been listening to both of them for years! In the back is Faith (you already met her), Larry the news guy, me, and Phil, who is on the morning team.

I'm really glad I got to do this event with them - not only because it was fun, but because it gave me a chance to hang out with them and get to know them a bit. So far I've not been able to see too much of the on-air guys at the station because they're all busy being on the air. So this was just a great low-pressure way to begin to get to know them.

I was one of the banner-bearers, along with Larry. (Sorry about the view of my backside!) We were right behind the Ft. Wayne Komets trolley. I was unbelievably thankful to not be in the furry mascot suit like one of their guys!! Our shirts were black, so they were hot, but they're athletic shirts that absorb sweat, so that was nice. I was still pretty nasty by the end!

Since it was my first parade, I had no idea what to expect. It was so fun to walk past groups of people who yelled out "BCL!! You're my favorite station!!" I wanted to yell back "Mine too!" I'm such a groupie. My job was to smile and wave a lot - and it helped that so many of them waved back. I'll have to remember that next time I go to a parade.

Lots of people at this parade. We heard our names announced twice...once by the parade officials and once by the TV station. That was weird. (So odd to hear your name and know it's on TV.)

After the parade ended, we went back to the station (very slowly...you know how it goes getting out of parade congestion) and I headed for some lunch. Check THIS out.

Fort Wayne - how I love you.

It's the Weekly Recap!

* Last Sunday afternoon I went over to Miss Marie's house to swim. It was the perfect day for a swim. Just the right amount of sun and breeze. Loved it. I'm trying to get a tiny bit of a tan before Olivia's wedding.
When I came home from her house, I parked in the fat chair and spent the rest of the day catching up my scrapbook. There have been MANY pictures lately!

* Monday was, of course, the fourth of July, so I had one day off work in between my jobs. I took advantage of that day to sleep in for the last time in a while, order a sassy new lunchbox (since now I have to start packing lunches), clean up the house from the mess I made while purging and packing on Saturday, organize the week in the day planner, work out, do some laundry, spend some good quality time with the Lord, and then I packed up my car and headed to Fort Wayne to celebrate the fourth with Jamie - and to spend the night at her house so we could go to work together for my first day!
* Tuesday was my first day as Mid-Morning producer! I asked Jamie to take my "first day of school" picture. Good thing she loves me and understands my scrapbook addiction.

The first day was so good - but then again, you've already read about that. I definitely felt loved and welcomed. What a great start to a new life!

* Wednesday I actually did some real work...including...my first tweet! Yes, you read that right. I've never joined the Twitter bandwagon before. I figured this blog was more Bekah than any one person should need, but Twitter is part of the new job, so I now get to learn to express myself on 140 characters or less! And I'm now officially introduced on the Mid-Morning page!

* Thursday was the land of experiments. I tried leaving for work at a new time (always a gamble to figure out the timing) and hoped I wouldn't be late. I wasn't. I took a new route (again, a gamble) and loved it. God bless little Cal, my GPS. I took my first round of Bekah-baking to the office and think I might have made a couple new friends with that. I did a test run (aka completely fake) running the engineering board in one of the studios. Good news - I got almost all the steps right. Bad news - it took me about five times as long as I'll actually have live on the air to accomplish it. But this is why I practice! And I got to send out my first official emails as producer. SO FUN. And - I got a little present on my desk too. :)

* Friday I wrapped up my first week at WBCL and walked out with a smile on my face! I'd call that a good week. After four days with Jamie, I started to feel more comfortable with some of the tasks - and equally terrified of others. :) She really is a wonderfully patient teacher and we've had so much fun working together. (We've been caught giggling hysterically multiple times.)



* Saturday I got up at 5 in the morning (what?!?!!) to be in my first WBCL event: the Three Rivers Festival parade! Can you believe that? It was a beautiful day; not a cloud in the sky. But put a sunny sky over a black shirt and it makes for a rather warm experience. I had a blast though.
I spent the rest of the day taking it easy - it was a LONG week. A good week, but a LONG week.
Books I'm Reading: Does it surprise you to know I've had little time to read this week? I kept up with Sparkling Gems from the Greek and Jesus Calling and that's it. The only other reading I did was in some magazines Lynne gave me after she finished reading them. (That's a fun part of my new job - getting to read magazines!)

Favorite God Moment of the Whole Week: I loved the first morning of my new job best - just the way God whispered to me over and over through the devotional...the song...the reiteration of the year's verses - that I'm on the right track. This has been such a huge step for me and it's good to know His Hand is still over it.

Update on Last Week's Goals: I'm very pleased with the way I started my new job. I gave it everything I had and am thankful I can sit here and remember things I learned. And Jamie wrote on her blog, "After showing Bekah the ropes, I'm convinced more than ever that she's the girl for the job...Congratulations, Bekah, for completing week one with the pizazz!" I appreciated that vote of confidence. Still learning my new routines, but so far I've not had any close calls on oversleeping...being late to work...forgetting my lunch anything like that.

Goals for the Coming Week: I have a big event next weekend (it's a blog surprise - but never fear - you shall know) that is going to take most of my spare time. I want to be careful to not let everything pile up to the last minute. And I also want to make progress in learning some of the more technical aspects of the job. That is the hardest part for me but I am determined!