Nolan didn’t know what to do next so he just kept doing what he knew how. He prayed for Jesus to live inside him, he prayed to be saved. Nolan prayed to be saved over and over again because it was the only thing anyone had shown him how to do. He got pretty good at it but he kept feeling like he needed more of something. It would be nice to know what he needed more of, but he had no clue. He didn’t know what he didn’t know but he knew he needed more of something. All he knew so far was to pray the prayer and read his Bible at night when he was supposed to be asleep.
Since, Baptism was a little scary and the Pastor Jerry gave him no reason to do it, Nolan didn’t figure that was very important. Which seems weird because they made a really big deal out of it and they named the whole church after it. But whatever, the hallway was crowded and in walked Nolan’s dad with one of the guys from Sunday school. He was inviting our family to a pool party next week! Nolan and several of the other kids from church were excited about the upcoming event. It was the only thing anyone talked about in the hallway that day.
Mr. Randal was the most fun guy in church. He was a little older and apparently his wife had left him and taken the kids. That left Mr. Randal with a nice house, a pool, a good job, lots of man toys (like boats, jet ski’s, 4 wheelers…), and all the time in the world to socialize. He had plenty of money from whatever he did and would often use it to have people over. He liked to minister to young families and connect that part of the church. The kids thought it was all so fun.
When the day came, Nolan was one of the first people there. He got to see the crawfish purged. Nolan had never seen live crawfish before and sure hadn’t seen the great purge! There were two 50 pound sacks of live crawfish for the party. Before everyone got there, they had to be dumped in the bath tub. Then Mr. Randal poured salt in the tub and the water started to turn mud brown. Mr. Randal said all the crawfish were throwing up from he salt! It was gross but fascinating! Apparently this was how you got them all cleaned up. Nolan couldn’t wait to tell people this story. But now it was time to set up for the party, Nolan and his dad had showed up early to help Mr. Randal get everything ready. There would be about a hundred people from church coming over, including probably 30-40 kids.
Practice Outlaw 