Praise Night/Singles Mixer Report

I promised a report, so I'd better make good on that.

Dennis Jernigan is one of the most spirit-filled people I've seen (perhaps even more so than Gary Bruce, if you know him). It would almost be over the top, but he is completely sincere and passionate about what Christ has done for him and wants to share that with others. DJ has written a lot of songs. Seriously prolific writer. Some of the ones people would most quickly recognize are "I am a Sheep", "All in All", "Thank You", "We Will Worship the Lamb of Glory", etc etc. You can google him to see some others. It was fun and meaningful and an overall great night of praise. If you have the chance to go see him and have a rather open mind to worship expressions, then definitely go check him out.

The singles mixer was... interesting. :) First things first, they had a great cookie/donut/pastry spread and a lot of coffee. But most of the singles there were I'd say 40s and over. Considering the average age of our group is mid-twenties, it wasn't really our demographic. Honestly, no one in our group was excited about going, so I'm not sure why we did. We did end up playing it a little snotty, probably, because we just stayed in our small circle and chatted amongst ourselves. A couple of the ladies from the hosting church came and introduced themselves to us, and they were very nice. Both asked if we all went to the same church, we said "Yes, Quail Springs CoC", and they were cool with that. But as we said our goodbyes to one lady, we parted ways, and suddenly she spins around and says, "Oh yeah, and by the way you guys, don't worry about the fact that y'all go to a Church of Christ. I grew up there; it's okay." :) Ha, I think I said something mildly snarky like, "Oh don't worry, we've made peace with our identity." Which was then followed by the usual remarks about how Quail really isn't your average CoC. :)

As for the singles mixing, lemmie tell you. Our group was 5 girls and 1 guy, Pete. As we were in our closed circle, one gentleman came by. He carried himself in a manner that made us all immediately suspicious, I think. He stuck his head in our circle and said, "Is this a closed conversation." We reassured him it wasn't and he began to introduce himself to us... well, the girls at least. :) When Pete tried to shake his hand and introduce himself, Cletus* flat ignored him! Ha! We tried to make small talk, but he turned his attention to one young lady in our group. So he was asking her about her profession, which, regrettably at that moment, is a massage therapist. She said that and he eyes took on a new gleam. "Oooooh," Cletus said, "Well where would someone go to be massaged by you?" She explained that she works free lance in peoples' homes, to which he said, "Well do you have a card if someone were interested in being massaged?" We all cringed at that moment. She quickly and curtly explained that she only works off of referrals and quickly whisked herself off, leaving him looking kind of dejected. Sorry, but he totally had it coming. Uh, CREEPY!

We didn't stay much longer after that. It was nice, but really not our scene. No more singles mixers for a while. :) But I'd love to go hear DJ again. All in all, a fun night. No pun intended. :)