Wanting to Beat Up Your Sunday School Teacher

Many of you may have heard already that It only took me two tries to pick a church down here. The girls down here (and by girls, I mean the teachers that I hang around) have said the best quality of Northridge Baptist Chruch is Pastor Tolley. I could not for the life of me figure out why you would go to a church just because you think the pastor is good if you don't like any of the other parts of it. Well, it was the second church I tried down here, and after hearing the man preach once, I knew why you'd go to a church just because of the pastor. He was really that good. It's a pretty unanimous decision he's probably the best pastor at the churches pretty much all of them have tried. One of the complaints that several people have expressed about the church is that the people don't seem overly friendly. I can see where this could be seen that way, but when you have a church the size this one is (and I'd guess they probably have around 500 people attending church at the two services on any given Sunday) it can be hard to tell who is new, and who isn't. You don't want to look silly going to someone and saying, "Ohh, I've not seen you before, you must be new," to find out that they actually just needed to go to the 8:30 service that day instead of the 11:00 service, which is the one they normally go to. So, I didn't let that bother me much, and I enjoyed the music, so I was pretty much hooked. So far, I've only attended the 8:30 service. It'd say there are 80 to 110 people in this service on a regular morning (the later one is quite full from what I'm told.) And, I found as you get into the church a little more, people do realize you're new and you do get that attention. That's what happened to me joining a Sunday School class.

I believe I've talked about that before, and how my friend Chet (who is more like a grandfather figure, but really seems to like me for some reason) seemed to want me to come back to his class, so I did, and actually enjoy the study of Romans alot. Anyhow, I met the new teacher of the class. It's my second time, and apparently the first time it was a substitute teacher. Well, the new teacher was Alan Olson, and his wife Deb (who is the boss of alot of my friends who are elementary teachers). I started out liking Alan's teaching style, and his wife was a hoot, especially when she saw I wanted to ask a question, and said, "Well, I think Jared has a question." Ha! I smiled and didn't say anything and asked my question, and we moved on. And yes, I later told her that my name was Tyler when class was over. I told one of the girls that they should go to Deb today and say, "I heard you met my friend Jared in church yesterday," and see if there is any response. I doubt she was actually going to do it, but anyhow, I digress. So, after Sunday School, Alan, the Sunday School teacher comes over to where Chet and I were talking and joins our conversation. Chet had to leave, so, Alan and I talked for a while, and he started calling me Jerry (I hadn't told him or Deb yet that they didn't have my name right).
"So, Jerry, where do you work?"
"Umm, my name is actaully Tyler. I think you heard your wife mistakenly call me that."
"Ohh, I'm sorry that's my mistake."
"It's ok. I work at Martin Group."
"Ohh, I work at your competition then!"
"Excuse me?"
"Well, I work at Innovative. We make mapping software for phone companies to track their lines and junction boxes and such. It's more narrow then Martin Group's focus, but what division do you work in at Martin Group?"
"Umm, the one that makes mapping software for phone companies to track their lines and junction boxes and such."

Yup, we were truly working in the exact same field for different companies who try to take business from each other. We were hated rivals, just like that. We got a chuckle out of that part, and ended up saying that we'd just not talk about hating each other, and try to get along anyway. It all turned out just fine, and actually, I don't think that either of us really cares that we work for opposing companies, it was just quite an interesting occurrence.


Tonight is my debut in the regular season of "C League Basketball." That would be Mitchell's lowest City League Level. Martin Group sponsors a team, and a while back, I played in a series of scrimmages that determine which league we'd play in. We lost all our scrimmage games, usually by 1 point, so we ended up in the lowest division. That means, I might have a chance to excel! Maybe I can be the league MVP or something. I'll let you know how all that turns out. I've missed the past two nights from being on the road in Texas for our opening week, and being sick last week. I'm actually playing with some kids that I played against in high school. I think one is from Highmore, and another from Doland. So, if you're watching highlights on ESPN tonight, I'm actually going to be wearing a new number. You can be looking for #10. I'll be wearing that number from here on out. It's a marketing ploy so we can sell more of the jerseys with my name on them in the company store.