Adventures in Church

1,101 Church Meetings --

A Natural Greeter

To sum it up, there was no need to fear that we would ever

fall asleep when Joshua was in Church! 

I don’t really know how many Sunday meetings Joshua has attended.  I do know that Joshua regularly attended Church for almost 23 years, so I did a rough calculation taking into account sick days, etc., and it could be close to 1,101 meetings.  That also calculates to at least 1,101 stories!  Here are a "few" of the many!

A typical Joshua look -- ready to run!
With my siblings:
Cynthia, Julie, John, Nancy & Vickie

Joshua occasionally attended church with my brother, Glenn and his wife, Debbie.   Joshua loved being with Glenn, Debbie, Chelsey and Michael.  Glenn took Joshua with him to the Priesthood Meeting for the men in the congregation.  When the Bishop conducted the meeting, he welcomed the visitors, and after welcoming Joshua, he stated that “no one will be falling asleep in class today.  Joshua’s here.”  That was definitely true.  If you sat next to or near Joshua in church, you were sure to get countless hugs, high fives or handshakes, a program or hymnbook given to you or thrown at you, and generally many pulls and tugs from this handsome young man.  To sum it up, there was no need to fear that we would ever fall asleep when Joshua was in Church! 

Joshua truly loved to say hi and greet people.  The funny thing about it was that Joshua was so intent on doing this that it did not matter to him if the meeting was already fully underway.  I can remember the look of surprise of the bishopric of a ward we were visiting, when right in the middle of the meeting, Joshua just stood up, spotted these three men sitting at the front of the congregation, and determinedly made his way over to them, and then separately and enthusiastically shook each bishopric member’s hand.  It might have been at this same meeting, or another one, when Joshua also made his way to the very back of the congregation, and proceeded to plop himself down right next to a gentleman who was sitting all alone.  Joshua shook his hand, tried to tell him something in his Joshua language, and stayed sitting beside him for just a few minutes.  I could tell that this man was very touched.  Later in the program, the speaker told the members of the congregation that those of you who were able to shake Joshua’s hand that day had been blessed.  There was no doubt that they truly had been blessed.  I loved to watch the love in Joshua’s face and in his handshake pour out into the person who was greeting.  It never took long for that person’s face to equally light up with joy and love for this very special young man.

Joshua also added appreciation to the special musical numbers performed in Sacrament Meeting.  We have beautiful musical numbers in the middle of Sacrament Meeting.  It always made me smile at the conclusion of a beautiful musical number, as Joshua would  loudly clap his hands loudly together, and call out “yaaaa.”  This always brought smiles and laughter from the congregation.  This was especially interesting because Joshua was usually hyperactive, busy and distracted during these musical numbers.  So although he didn’t appear to be paying attention, he certainly was, as the timing of his loud approval was right on cue.  After one of these particular clapping moments, I was so appreciative of one speaker in particular because the first words he spoke were to acknowledge Joshua’s verbal approval.  This inspired speaker from the pulpit “Joshua, that’s exactly how I feel about that music.”

As I struggled to find ways for Joshua to be able to continue participating in church, without too much disruption to the congregation, I talked with our bishop, Bishop Brent Palmer, about Joshua helping to pass out programs.  Not only did my bishop embrace the idea, but he made it an official calling for Joshua and even had him stand up in front of the ward and receive a sustaining vote.  This new calling to hand out programs turned out to be a huge blessing as Joshua would sit on his chair right by the entrance, alongside either myself, or another young man, as he would happily perform his duty.  Joshua loved to shake each person’s hand as they came in the door, and then the question of the day would be if Joshua was in the mood to give that person a program.  There were many times when I would have to slip a person their program after they passed Joshua because Joshua gave them a handshake only, but not a program.  And if Joshua saw me give them a program, he might get upset because for whatever reason, in his unique mind, they were not to get a program.  There were also many times when Joshua’s frustration would catch up to him, and suddenly the programs would all go flying to the floor as Joshua’s extremely quick arm threw the programs faster than I could catch them.  I think people enjoyed the adventure of what they would get at the door – a handshake, a thrown program, or a high five and a happy and endearing laugh.  Joshua was also not very fast at handing out the programs, so often there was a line at the door.  But no one seemed to mind as they knew what a special privilege it was to shake such a wonderful young man’s hand, and see the big grin and his eyes light up as Joshua gave them a high five!