The Third Place

I am very blessed to be part of a vibrant church that worships in an amazing facility that was built just a few years ago. We have benefited so much from the church leadership and their desire to create a "third place" for families and individuals to go. We spend tons of time there, and not just in worship services and meetings. Take today for example:

• We get to church at 7:30am and hang out in the Gathering while Kaylie gets her picture taken with her youth basketball team - yes, it is early, but there is a nice open area with tables and couches and room for the kids, so we can hang out and chat and forget it is early. Plus, soon Lori Julian, coffee queen extraordinaire, shows up and opens the Eagle Creek Coffee Company shop that is right there in the Gathering and you can get coffee and bagel and cinnamon roll and big chocolate chip cookie and muffins and on and on.
• Then Kaylie has a basketball game (which I have to admit, I pretty much missed, because I did not make it past the social phase of the morning and was still in the Gathering catching up with a very dear friend who I have not had the opportunity to see very often lately) - right there in the gym at church with the Traders Point youth basketball league.
• Then we have a brief layover, so we go to the Park, a huge indoor playland - STILL inside the church and the girls play for about 30 minutes.
• Then back to the Gathering for Jim and Hannah for her photos and then her game in the gym.
• Kaylie and I head to another area of the church for a "Fiber Arts" class on quiltmaking hosted, by the way, by Jean Abbott who has known me since forever - scary the things she probably knows.
• Then we did actually go off campus just for a smidge (well Jim did - yay Jim!) to get lunch. Alot of the time we bring it and eat in the Gathering, but we decided to go wild today and eat fast food, being the wacky folks we are.
• Finally, still at church, it was movie time with the special needs ministry where the kids watched a movie on the big screen and got to spread out on the floor with blankets and sleeping bags and pillows and eat popcorn and everything.

And then we had to go because we had been at church for almost 7 hours and the dogs were probably getting yellow eyes. But I LOVE that we have so much we can do there and the above is just part of what was happening there today. Yes, we need to be out being salt and light, too, but I still feel so blessed to have such a wonderful place to do so many things with my family!