Lights! Camera! Ladds!
Yesterday was Ladd Family Screenapaloouza! (It’s very weird that auto-correct just kicked in and added a “u” to that word. Is screenapaloouza a real word?!)
Chris preached the message for church online, and Lifa was featured in a worship dance video for kids. I live with legends! I had been prepping all week to record a short video series for Help Club for Moms, and we decided Sunday was the best day for me to film. Chris borrowed light boxes from church and set up a studio in the bedroom for me. He even offered to take the boys to the empty church building for the morning while he facilitated the tech side of church online. (My man can do it all!) I would have three solid hours alone to record my videos.
My filming studio!
It was an amazing day. We all got to participate in ministry we’re passionate about - virtually! Here’s what happened behind the scenes:
Saturday night a ginormous storm rolled in with crazy winds and rain. Chris was out of bed at 1:30am looking outside to see what kind of wind could produce such crazy sounds. It woke Benjamin up at 3:15am, and we lost power as soon as I got him down and got back in bed. The power loss (and loss of noise machine) frightened Benjamin, so we rocked, bounced, sang, swayed, and prayed, until he finally fell asleep at 5am. I took a nap until 6 while Chris was able to get our power back on. I mom-chugged two cups of coffee, fed the people and gave Lifa the run-down on how to keep Benjamin alive and well while I stayed home to put on all the under-eye concealer in Africa.
At the church, Chris ran back and forth dealing with tech issues and dirty diapers all morning - until I called him for help with the repeated power outages at home. Together on the phone, we tested every breaker, found the source, and the show went on! If you would have been in my bedroom studio with me, you might have thought the series of events was comical. It felt like every time I tried to press record, a torrential downpour would fall, making it impossible to hear me. Then the power would go out in response to the rain. Still, I slowly made progress. In the last 30 seconds of the last video, my phone’s camera shut down.
But.... We did it. Crazy storm. Crazy night. Crazy series of events. It was an adrenaline rush from 3am until noon!
At the end of days like this, I usually think about two things: Dark chocolate (had some!) and how much I love my life. Sometimes, when the days feel so absurd I can’t believe them, I think of the other things I can’t believe...
I can’t believe this is my life. I can’t believe God plucked me out of Alvin, TX to bring me to South Africa for this family and this kind of ministry. I can’t believe I get to have crazy storm nights with a man who so clearly communicates God’s Word and who loves the Church as much as I do. I can’t believe I decided to stay in Africa over 10 years ago for one little boy - a ridiculous decision by any worldly standard - but now that very big boy is joyfully leading children in worship and is grafted into a family that loves him.
Everything the screens showed yesterday was really powerful. But I’m most thankful for what happened behind the scenes!