Inside Today's Experiences - Gilbert Thurston

I have mixed feelings about today.
From a positive standpoint, we tied for our highest attendance ever, including a new record at 9:15 and many people are excited about the Contagious Christmas Challenge that I outlined
On the other end, we had our worst day since we moved into the building from an execution standpoint.
It actually started earlier in the week as things kept getting further and further behind in getting things ready for the weekend.
In fact I ended up working both all day Friday and Saturday trying to wrap-up loose ends.
It didn’t help that Aaron was fighting a bad cold all week.
This morning then things got off to a late start for the team doing their run-through which pushed everything behind to the point that guests were already coming in and they were still practicing.
Then we couldn’t get my mic to work until about 5 minutes before the 9:15 started.
To add on, our computer operator forgot to tell us he couldn’t make it this morning and so Lisa was having to run it even though she had no clue what to do.
I frantically was running all through the building try to find one of our normal operators and of course couldn’t find one.
To say I was a bit frazzled by the time I hit the stage would be a great understatement.
I hate not going on the stage with a clear mind…and it showed… the first message and for that matter the entire first Experience was terrible.
The second one went much better but there were still glitches that drive me crazy…it’s been awhile since we’ve had anything remotely like today and I’m glad they occur few and far between.
To cap things off, I felt much better about the 10:45 message but when I got home to post it, something had happened so it never recorded.
Oh well in the old days that meant going in tomorrow and re-recording…now with 2 Experiences, I’m able to post the other one…even if it was terrible.
It was great to have some family members in attendance today as well as our Executive Director for the denomination, Kevin Richardson. That was his first time with us and man was I embarrased that he was with us on this day of all days.
He said he enjoyed it though…which either means he was lying (doubtful) or the standards of what he normally sees are not that high.
Despite all this, I am still excited about the Contagious Christmas Challenge. Please don’t forget to bring in your money over the next 3 weeks and nominate families that may be in need if you know of any.
Here are the links to the videos so you can share with your family and friends what we’re doing. On United. On Youtube.
Ok, time for a nap…and then tonight is the Redskins against the team I won’t even bother mentioning…either a bad day will instantly get better or you’d better hide all sharp objects from me. ;-)

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