A acolytes for the first time

This year, since A is now in the 3rd grade and has options of ways to participate at church, we gave him 3 choices of ways to participate:

be an acolyte
sing in the choir
tithe

A has chosen to be an acolyte. (M, who has the same choices, chose to sing in the choir, as the least odious option).

They held the first acolyte training session last Sunday - while we were on our way up to the Smokies. Needless to say, A wasn't at the training. Yet, he was scheduled to be on the altar today. So, I called K, who heads up the acolytes and alerted her last night. She apologized for the scheduling him so soon - none of the new acolytes were supposed to be scheduled before the 2nd training in 2 weeks. But K said she would meet with A this morning and give him a quick run-down on his duties.

I was a little bit worried that A was going to protest about going up there without training, but nope, not A. When I told him he was acolyting today, he said "fine".

The other acolytes helped him find a robe - the smallest size they had was too long in the arms for him, but they rolled up the sleeves a bit. And then they tied his belt on for him and got him a cross.

Here he is just before going into the church:


He was a torch-bearer. There are 2 torches, so they act together. They were twins, today - the other torch is also an "A". I told A to just watch the other A and do the same thing. I couldn't see A for most of the service, but everything seemed to go fine. He was reminded by one of the other acolytes when it was time for him to do something. And he did it - with a smile on his face.

Afterwards, he got many comments and compliments on how well he had done. A's take on it - "it was fun".

Good going, A!