Goats at VBS

At VBS last night the girls were declared the winners of the overall competition. There was a lot of cheering and booing – depending on which side of the auditorium you were on. It had been predetermined that the captain and workers of the losing side would have to kiss a goat. The original concept was that they would have to kiss a pig (or piglet) but we could not find anyone with a pig small enough to use for the shaming. So, Mama and I offered to provide a goat – two actually. We took Patrick and Aspen. They are going on four months old, so they are still very cute. It lessened the embarrassment for the boys having to come up on stage and kiss the animal. Getting the goats to the church could not be that difficult, right?

We had it all planned out. While I got the dog crate into the Sequoia, Victoria went to get Aspen and Mama went to get Patrick. For some incomprehensible reason, once she was in the yard, Mama put Patrick down. I suppose she has watched too many Disney movies because she thought he would happily follow her across the yard. That was not how it worked out. Once he was on the ground, he did not want to be caught again. After she and Victoria had tried several times to get hold of him, I had to go and help Victoria corner him. It took me getting on my knees to grab him. Neither Mama nor Victoria had wanted to do that. Fortunately, the area he chose to run to was not a particularly bad corner of the yard and I did not get anything on me more than a little dust when I had to take a knee. Once the two goats were in the crate, we headed to church. They protested the entire way.

It is a good thing that we have such a versatile vehicle. On the way to church, we had the back seats down to accommodate the dog crate with the two baby goats. There is a mat that can be used to cover the area when the seats are down. It has a rubber side as well as a carpeted side. Last night, the rubber side was showing. We dropped the goats and Mama off at church and Victoria and I went back to get Yilin and Cheyenne. When we got to the girls house we found out that Aubrey and Lin were also coming. So, I had to raise the seats back up and fold the mat we used to put under the goat cage in order to get all of them into the Sequoia.

It only takes a minute to do all that, but it would have been a great commercial for how to get the most out of your Sequoia in Texas. Lin and the girls had a great time. Lin got to hear a really simple Gospel message. I think he told me and Mama that he is saved, but since he does not get to come to church very often it was good that the message was reinforced. On Wednesday night, Cheyenne raise her had in response to the invitation, but she did not get up and go talk to a worker. That is the first indication we have had that she may understand the salvation message. Tuesday night Trace’s oldest, Norman, got saved. It was a good VBS.

The goats both did wonderfully for the entire evening. They were fairly quiet throughout the event. The only time they got noisy is when a child – or adult – would bleat at them. They immediately responded to every goat-like noise. Some people have incredible bad goat imitations. Once, they were carrying on so long that I thought someone was tormenting them, so I went to check. Instead, there was a very little girl at their cage “talking” to them. Her bleating must have sounded authentic to them because they were searching all around for the goat they were hearing. The little girl was delighted with their participation. It was well after dark when we got home. The baby goats were very happy to get back to their quarters.

Tonight, Mama and I go back to Lawton to look at the several homes that were added to our list since we made our last trip. Hopefully it will not be as late an evening as we have had the past four nights.