Our one and only day of balcony seating

Today we attended church in a beautiful building called a tabernacle. It is an older building built in 1909. There have been some improvements since then of course, such as indoor plumbing which I am a BIG fan of:)

The building has charm and little touches of elegance that they used to build into such buildings back in the day. We attend church here about every 6 months as it a time when several wards meet together so a larger venue is needed.

A note as to what a ward and stake are:
A ward is a group of church members that live with in a specified radius and meet together to worship each week. A ward usually consists of roughly 300 people and is presided over by a bishop who cares for and looks after the people in his ward. A stake is a group of about 7 wards and typically consists of about 2,000 people with a stake president presiding over the 7 wards. These numbers can vary depending on where in the world you are located. These wards and stakes can be found all over the world in many different counties using many different languages. About every 6 months, a stake meets together to receive instruction from the stake president and his counselors. This merits the need for a bigger meeting place and so we use the tabernacle in our area.

In years past, we have sat in the basement area where we are close to the bathrooms and where we watch the proceedings on a television. This area is great for families with young children as there is a hallway outside where you can let the little ones stretch their legs after sitting for a while and there are bathrooms close by. The meeting lasts about 2 hours so there is a need to stretch ones legs when you are a little kid:) Plus, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that sometimes we have sat in the basement because we have not arrived early enough to get another seat in the chapel. Mostly though, we sit in the basement because it is best for young kids:)

Today, we decided to graduate to the balcony of the old building. We had a sweeping view of the stage and the chapel below. We could see in detail the beautiful decorative work along the ceilings and railings. It was a great place to be to be spiritually fed.

As the first speaker got under way however, I found that I had to focus in order to hear him. Then I thought of Chance and wondered what he was hearing. I leaned over and asked him,"Chance, can you hear?" He despondently answered,"I can't hear anything." (which would help explain why he kept having issues with his sister. When one can't hear, one has time to focus on other things and can be more irritated by little sisters...who it should be mentioned was not an innocent victim in this scenario)

Beautiful old building, with minimal acoustic stability.

There was still an hour and 35 minutes left in the meeting which was much too long for Chance to be expected to just sit not hearing. So, I began to check out the seats below from our balcony view to see if there was another place closer to the podium so Chance could hear. As luck would have it, there were a few seats on pews off to the side of the stage where a television screen had been set up so you could see the speaker.

We could not take the entire family up to the new seats(OK, maybe we could have but we were not ready to take several young children up to the front of the chapel where they could be seen by everyone and where there was not room to stretch little legs and noise made would be heard through out the chapel). Thankfully, other families seemed to feel the same way so there were some seats still available in this area.

In a tender and loving gesture, Chance's brother who it should be noted is always there for his brother, volunteered to go sit up on the side of the stage with Chance so he could hear. I escorted the boys down the stairs and waited at the back of the room while they made their way up to the seats on the side of the stage. I then waited for the signal that told me if Chance could hear there.......an intricate system that required the boys to give me a thumbs up or down.

The boys flashed a thumbs up sign and then I headed back up to the balcony seat. I could see the boys from up there and they sat so reverently down there together it did my heart proud.

At the dinner table at home, we discussed what was talked about at stake conference and Chance was able to tell us what he had learned since he could actually hear after the move.

We have now learned that when we next attend church in the tabernacle, our family needs to get there extra early so we can sit in the chapel down by the podium so that Chance can hear. Or stick to our seats in the basement. The balcony is a beautiful place to sit, but Chance is more than worth it so we can give up the lofty seating from here on out:)