SHAT!

One of the things that I love about Bethlehem is just how low key it is.  Every week during worship it seems like something happens that goes slightly off, and yet we keep going and no one seems to care.  And occasionally we have Sundays like this past one were all sorts of things go odd.

It all started with the prelude, when the organ, yet again mysteriously decided to cut out.  This has been a common problem over the last few years and though the organ repair guy has been out multiple times he can never seem to find the cause.  Lyudmila just paused, looked at the organ frustrated and started right back up again.

The second thing was during announcement.  Mark the worship assistant was asking for names for the prayers of  concerns.  Bob, my husband, said my name should be one the list because I'm headed to Baby Pastor School this week and the food is terrible.  After a little give and take, Mark then responded "Are there any real names for the prayer list?"   This of course got a few gasps, snickers and a look of shock and hurt from me as apparently my name is not a real name.

There was also the cousin of the child being baptized who screamed pretty much through the entire sermon and hymn of the day and baptism, and though her father took her downstairs the shrieks could still be heard throughout the church.  Oh well, she was just jealous her cousin was getting all the attention, her baptism is in two weeks then she will be the center of attention.

There was also the moment at the end of the service when Mark thought we were only are the 2nd stanza of the hymn instead of the 3rd and final stanza and was waiting for us to finish before he said "Go in peace, serve the Lord."  And when he made a brief comment about this, Lyudmila thought her counting of verses was off and so she played the 3rd verse for a second time.

While these were the much more obvious bloopers of the day, they were not my favorite, nor the most memorable, at least to me.  It was during the gospel as I was saying the verse "The people who have sat in darkness have seen a great light and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned."  The second part of this verse I kept stumbling on as I was memorizing it.  And I had a bit of dry mouth.  And I could make up a bunch of other excuses. But what came out of my mouth, what was heard by quite a few people in the congregation and what I'm positive that I said was "for those who SHAT in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."

Yes I said shat during worship.

Yes I said shat during the gospel.

And for those few of you who do not know what shat means I will defer you to Bob's definition:

 Shat: Past tense of "to shit." Used in such phrases as: "I shat som'in' nasty!" and "You're dog just shat on my lawn!" Note possible confusion with 'sat,' past tense of 'to sit.'

 At least it was the I-am-not-swearing-version-of-a-swear-word.

At least I didn't draw attention to it by then correcting myself.

At least the giggles were kinda subdue.

At least I'm at Bethlehem where I know the congregation will just laugh about it and move on.