PETAL PUSHER MISSION UPDATE #5 – MONDAY – JANUARY 2ND
When you are near Pasadena and find they are scheduling one
of the most famous parades in the world, what should you do? We Petal Pushers pondered that question and
the resounding answer was that we should go!
And go we did!
We boarded the shuttles and headed to the special seating we
had right along Colorado Boulevard in the middle of the parade route. The time was 6:15 AM. Many in our group had never been to the
famous Rose Parade so they were excited and for those who had been there
before, it was still an exciting event to look forward to. It was wonderful to leave a little later than
in the past when we drive eight cars to get there. The stress of driving was gone and we didn’t
have to deal with finding and paying for parking spots for all those vehicles
and then walking blocks to find our seats.
Our three shuttle drivers drove to within a block of the
intersection of Madison and Colorado.
The street was closed there, but when our three black shuttles arrived
someone moved the barricades and let us enter.
We were dropped off right at the seating area! Someone said we probably appeared to be some
very important people and that was why the street was opened up for us. Come to think of it, they were right. We are God’s kids and there were seats
waiting that He had set up for us. Some
of you know that story of how God provided the Colorado Boulevard seating but
the story is too long to include here.
The day was starting out well for it was a fantastic beginning to our
parade adventure.
Two of the shuttle drivers had never been to the parade
before. They were able to stay with us instead
of driving back to their home base. There
just ‘happened to be’ three extra seats for them! As is customary, the parade begins at 8:00 with
a stealth bomber flying close to the ground the length of Colorado
Boulevard. What an awesome sight! Every parade I attend I thank God the boys
flying that plane are good guys that are on our side. As we waited for the floats to reach our
location we were glad we had coats for the temperature was only about 50
degrees under cloudy skies. The wind
speed increased as well to push the cold against us. It was not exactly uncomfortable but not as
pleasant as I have seen in year past either.
The first entry in the parade takes a good half hour to
reach us. There is nervous excitement as
we wait and sometimes back and forth banter from the people in the bleachers on
each side of the street. It’s party time
and everyone is in a good mood. Never,
of all the times I have been there, have I seen anger or problems. It’s New Years and everyone is there to have
a good time and enjoy the big event.
Of course we are anxious to see the floats for we now know
and appreciate the time and energy that went into each of them. When we see one of the floats we have worked
on the past few days the excitement level increases and we yell and scream to
anyone who will listen as we point out the parts we personally worked on. If someone riding on one of those floats
recognizes our group of petal pushers there is an instant bonding with yelling
and pointing and jubilation exchanged.
There is such pride that comes to the surface for having worked hard and
completed this float, even if it was only a tiny part of the whole thing.
The highlight is the arrival of our own Lutheran Hour float
of course. The feeling mentioned above
is magnified. Those who have been there will understand this incredible feeling
of connection. Many of you know that the
major TV networks many times will go to commercial when our float, the only
Christian float, comes into view. This
year cell phones were ringing and announcing from folks back home that NBC did
a nice coverage of our float as it went by their TV booth.
The parade lasted about two hours and we boarded the
shuttles for the drivers to get us out of the traffic jam that is inevitable
when over a million people try to leave the area at the same time. It took some time but we made it. First stop was back to the Rose Palace where
there were porta-potties still in place.
Welcome relief and I need say no more.
From there we traveled back south and drove along the beach for a few
miles in the Malibu area. At one point
we stopped for photos of the ocean and ended up taking a group photo with the
ocean in the background.
Our next stop was near our hotel at Ralph’s grocery
store. Ellie had ordered 80 pieces of chicken
the night before and had organized the people in her shuttle into a group of
shoppers. When they left the store we
had fixins for a picnic meal to be enjoyed in our hotel meeting room. That was followed by more organization of the
items for our mission to Skid Row tomorrow.
At 7:00 this evening we gathered again to reflect upon the
day and watch another segment of the video series from Ken Ham on how to defend
your faith. He gave an interesting and
solid presentation on the first chapter of Genesis where the days of creation
are explained. He makes it clear that
the Bible says it was regular length days as we understand them. A good discussion followed and hopefully got
thoughts generated that otherwise wouldn’t have been.
We also did a surprise birthday recognition for Rhonda with
cupcake treats to honor her. Dorothy was
also honored for her birthday a few days ago.
I’m not sure our singing of Happy Birthday made the occasion any more
festive but we did it anyway. Secret
Servant gifts were handed out. For those
who were hungry we had ingredients to make sandwiches and more cupcakes. As we ate we chatted about the float decorating
process and the highlights of the parade.
It marked the end of a monumental day, another day of grace!
God’s Blessing to each of you,
Lynn Menz – tired petal pusher – one who has now seen some
of his petals move down the street!
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