Why So Serious?

While at rehearsal at our Pretoria Campus one Thursday evening, I was, as usual, freaking out over all the song changes the team was making to the set (unexpected changes cause me great distress). As we started rehearsing one of the newly added songs, we noticed from stage that one of the doors in the back had suddenly received an unexpected indoor water feature. It had been raining so hard that the roof, which obviously had a weakened spot somewhere, buckled under the immense pressure of the merciless downpour causing a bucket load of water and more to come gushing down into the building.
Within seconds, the auditorium we were in had been transformed to the view of a river leading into a duckless pond; within minutes half of the foyer and kids church area had become splash pool facilities.

As some ran around stressing, trying to save the electronics and expensive gear, others immediately started sweeping and mopping out the water... I, of course, took on the task of documenting the unfolding events both photographically and videographically (if that's not a real word, it is now). What intrigued me most, in and among the chaos, was the different responses people had to the situation (there are always two types of people in every predicament - those who are so stressed out, they take the rest of us down with them into their dark and miserable hole... and those who are so annoyingly calm, they don't seem the least bit worried about anything, as if the problem doesn't event exist. Of course there are also those who are indifferent but they don't really count in this case).

As I watched the volunteers band together to clean up the mess (and boy did they own that task), I took some time to observe and categorize which group each of the individuals potentially belonged to (I definitely fell under the "waaay too excited to catalog the moment" group). While everyone was getting something done, I noticed that some of the boys had chosen to see the "disaster" as an opportunity to have some fun... Armed with dish washing liquid, rubber mats, and enough obstacles to kill a penguin, they had decided to turn the flooded area into a slip and slide arena.

Not only was I invited to join in on the fun, but I very enthusiastically encouraged and continued taking footage of their so called childish and dangerous behaviour, despite the scolding they were receiving from the more serious and mature individuals. Yes, I understand the necessity of dealing with problems in a mature and adult like manner and I also understand the irritation and frustration of people messing about when you are trying to sort out a problem, but I was also reminded, that no matter the situation or the stress behind it, there is always time to have fun - ALWAYS!!! So have F.U.N! And lots of it