Mall flash mob

One of the most special memories I think I will cherish from this Christmas season was the ability to participate in a flash mob with a couple of hundred friends and strangers at the mall near our house.  I was invited by a friend who I went to school with, and started learning the music and when to come in and when not to, and the guidelines about where to go.  The goal was to quickly sign in and then walk around acting like a shopper until it was time to sing. 

That evening, I had dinner with some friends from my life group and we had dinner and then Sommer and Angela went to the mall with me to watch and ended up participating. 

It was really neat to be able to be singing Christmas carols and even have Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus show up to remind everyone the real reason for the season.  It is really easy to get carried away and be too tied up thinking about the many things that need to be done- the shopping, the wrapping, the cleaning, the baking, the entertaining, sending the Christmas cards, planning surprises, etc.....  But that night we came together to remind everyone where the real focus should be. And if for only a few minutes, we were singing loud and clear for all to hear.....

While there were many people shooting video, I never saw one that was really good.  But here is one of my favorites that I saw:

I am on the upper level beside my friend Marcia in the red Santa hat in group 2.  Angela and Sommer are in group 3 on the upper level and you can see them really well in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA2qGF75Ir4&feature=player_embedded 

Here is a video that reminded me a lot of what we did-although it is a MUCH better quality video-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu_iPDPDMtY 

It gave me chillbumps to watch the reactions of the surprised shoppers around us and I pray that God was glorified in our presence that night at the mall as we were encouraged to be a blessing to someone while we were there.  I was walking behind a guy whose wallet was hanging out of his back pocket and it would have been easy to take it without him knowing or for it to fall out.  I made him aware of the situation and he thanked me. Easy thing to do but it could have saved him a ton of money and headache.