This weekend, much like last weekend, was a celebration of relationships. The highlights of my weekend featured time with my friends and family. I mean, come on, how can I top this?

On Friday night after work I did my regular Graham’s hitch to socialize and dance and shed the tension of the work week. To my fortune and delight, the radio station Big I, 107.9, was there, giving away CDs to people with August birthdays. With a flash of my driver’s license, I left with Rascal Flatts’ latest, “Changed”. Yes, Wendy, I do love those guys, even if they sound whiney.

Saturday morning was such a good morning because my church, along with all of the other Sagebrush campuses, dedicated this month’s Second Saturday (the monthly church-wide service day) to distributing backpacks full of school supplies to students at a number of campus around the city. I went to Sagebrush Highland at 7:30 in the morning to help set up the campus for church on Sunday, and then we volunteers shifted gears and prepared for backpack distribution to Highland area youth at 10:30. Around 9:40, truckloads of backpacks and lunch goodies came over to us from the main campus.

Matt Bradshaw addresses volunteers before the start of the Second Saturday backpack giveaway at the Sagebrush Highland campus on August 11, 2012.

By 10:30, a long line of recipients roped around 1/3 of the school’s Performing Arts Center. Hot dogs were cooking on a vendor’s grill in the courtyard behind the auditorium. Volunteers worked to organize people and backpacks and food. At 10:30, the backpack selection area opened for business, and several families came through at a time, letting kids from elementary through high school pick up a pack. It was priceless to see some kids turn around, faces beaming, showing their new bag to their parents. For some, it was their first backpack. It was also great meeting volunteers who came and helped out, visiting from other campuses.

Despite any other issues faced by life in a multi-site church, Sagebrush members are active and love to serve. The backpacks for this weekend’s giveaway were all given by church members, along with a $10 donation in each for the provision of school supplies.

After picking up bags, participating families went out back to the courtyard for a lunch, and a chance to talk with some church members if they wanted.

By the end of the event, we had had just enough backpacks to give away to people who came for them. In total, about 350 backpacks were distributed at Highland.

After cleaning up following the event, I went for a short while to try and rest before the evening madness. My sister-in-law turned 40- err, 39- this week, and my brother threw her a party with invitations for many of her friends to come. Held at his in-law’s home in the near South Valley, my bro asked me to bring my grill. The low light of the weekend was reaching 60 mph on Paseo heading south into a headwind, and looking up in my rear view mirror out the back window to see my lack of ties at the top of the grill result in the wind knocking it down into the back of my truck, warping the control panel and bending side edges. Unmechanical, I also feared the fuel delivery system was compromised, and that I would blow up the block when I lit it after the accident. I had to get off the freeway and climb in my truck bed and right the grill, inspecting it to find as much damage as I could discern, and then I had to figure out how to re-bungee it so it would not fall again. Needless to say, the remaining drive to the South Valley was done with caution and anxiety. However, bent control panel or not, when I ignited the thing, it didn’t explode.

There were probably 60 or 70 people at my sister-in-law’s party. The yard featured 3 grills that I and my bro manned, cooking burgers and dogs, as well as two tents under which sat long tables for dining, and a jumper house for the kids present to bounce in. The evening was great weather-wise. I saw some old friends I had not seen in years, including two that I spoke to at some length. My sister-in-law got a lot of nice gifts. It was a great evening of celebration of her, and afterwards, I was reminded I have a great family, and I am so luck in that area.

This morning, I slept in a while before church (because we didn’t have to set anything up), and then sat with a number of my small group friends during the service, as well as a guy I met yesterday at the backpack giveaway. I was filled with joy in the service, and after the service I went with a few friends to lunch, and talked about how God has worked in our lives.

After lunch, I read a few chapters in Deuteronomy, and then met another friend to see “The Bourne Legacy”, which was excellent as an action film, but it lacked a clear plot movement and story resolution. It just ends. A set up for Damo to resurface in the next one, I believe.

A lot of words for a Quick Hit here, but it was a good weekend for connecting, reconnecting, sharing, and remembering. And in it all, I am reminded to keep God first, and joy fills in the cracks.

I was reminded this weekend that forgetting myself and just trying to tune in to others brings a great amount of joy. God says to love, and when I forget myself and do that, I pretty much realize how greatly I am loved by Him. It’s a good deal.

Tonight, it is raining and breezy. I look forward to going to bed and feeling the cool air blow in my bedroom and to hearing raindrops patter on the back porch awning as I doze off. Thanks for a great weekend, Father.