Last week, I told you that I was at a conference in Florida and I brought my youngest brother Shawn along with me. After the conference, we spent five days and four nights in Orlando. Shawn has had a cognitive disability from birth. Although he is 54 years old, he still has the mind of a seven-year-old. He had never been to Disney World or Universal Studios, so I decided it was time to give him the experience of a lifetime.
We arrived on Saturday, and after checking into our hotel, we made our first park by going to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Shawn was enraptured with the place. He had been to Six Flags in Arlington and Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, but this was so much more.
Our first ride was “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.” We wound through the very long line through a castle and, just before we got on the ride, we saw a sign recessed into a small alcove in the wall that said: “No Muggles”. Being the father and grandfather of several Harry Potter fans, I know that a “muggle” is someone who is not a wizard. I pointed it out to Shawn, and we decided to ignore the sign and ride the ride anyway. After that, we rode King Kong’s Adventure and several other rides. All of the lines were fairly long, and it wasn’t long before we were both exhausted.
The next day was Sunday, and we had decided to pace ourselves so the only thing we did was attend Church in downtown Orlando and do some shopping.
On Monday, we went to Magic Kingdom but on my wife Lori’s suggestion we stopped at the guest relations office, and I told them that it was Shawn’s first trip there and that he had special needs. They took the cards we had entered the park with and encoded them so that we could go through the Lightning Pass Lane on all of the rides. That made for a much more efficient day of rides and shows. So much so that by early afternoon we upgraded our passes to two parks and spent the afternoon at Epcot. By supper, I arranged for us to be at my favorite place to eat, the fish and chips place at the England Exhibit. Shawn told the British girl who took our order that we were from Texas. With her beautiful English voice she said, “Texas is WONDERFUL! I love Buc-ee’s!” I jokingly told her, “You know Buc-ee’s is a cult, right?” Without missing a beat, she said, “YES, and I’m a member.”
On Tuesday, we took the day off from parks and did some shopping. On Wednesday we went to the main Universal Studios Park. Again, we got a pass that allowed us to skip the line, and we got to go on a lot of rides. We started with ET, a ride I had gone on eleven times in one day with my kids when it was brand new. By late afternoon
I was exhausted, and we ended the day at the Jason Bourne stunt show, mainly because it was air conditioned and I could sit down. I have to say that I really enjoyed the show. I would have enjoyed it more if all of the explosions and gunfire didn’t keep waking me up.
Finally, I want to tell you some great news. As you know, I have traveled for years across the country doing disaster relief work and being away from home a lot. A little over a year ago, we moved to Lone Oak and placed our church membership at a wonderful congregation, Creekside Church of Christ in Greenville. As you know, I have preached at well over a hundred congregations, and I can say without hesitation that Creekside is one of my favorite congregations. A few weeks ago, the Elders asked if I would be willing to serve as a Deacon. I agreed that I would, and last Sunday it became official.
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