Cajun Music Jam Session At the Gator Chateau

On every other Saturday morning beginning at 10:00 AM and ending at 1:00 PM, there is an acoustic Cajun French music jam session at the Gator Chateau in Jennings, Louisiana.  This nice place sits at the Oil & Gas Park located at 100 Rue de l'Acadie, Jennings, LA (I-10 at Hwy 26).  This same building houses the facilities where you can come by and hold an alligator.  Actually, if you look at the photo below through the window on the right, you can see someone holding up a baby alligator to hand to a tourist to hold!

We like to go walk on the walking trail that circles the lake at the park and then have a complimentary cup of Community Coffee Dark Roast, sit in the chairs in the nice air-conditioned facility and listen to French music.  Local folks show up with their instruments, bringing guitars, accordions, fiddles, bass, and other instruments to play together.  The neat thing about it is that it is a nice mix of both young and old, male and female.  They look like they are having a good time.  I know we enjoyed it!  Hit the arrow below and you can listen to about 1 minute and 10 seconds of some toe-tapping French music.

If you ever find yourself wanting to do something different, hold a baby alligator, drink some strong coffee, and enjoy a morning listening to some great music and learning more about Cajun heritage, The Gator Chateau in Jennings, Louisiana is the place to be!  

Turn It Up Tuesdays

Largely due to recent crime waves and unrest in our cities, we've made a concerted effort to stay away from cities.  We try (when we can) to shop local and support family businesses - mom & pop stores that built things from the ground up with blood, sweat and tears.  In many of our towns, Main Street is drying up, boarded up storefronts because it is hard to compete with the large retailers.

Our town, and many more, across our fruited plain is alive.  This weekend Jennings (our town) is hosting Jennings Alive Fall Festival at Founder's Park from 9AM to 2PM.  Main Street will be blocked off.  There will be live entertainment with Gritz & Gravy live on the pavilion and there will be booths of shopping, family fun, and great food!  We intend on being there.  Later there will be movies at The Strand, our historic movie theatre. 

On Tuesdays, there is free music in an event called, "Turn it up Tuesdays."  On a beautiful night, we arrived to enjoy the music.  Jamie Bergeron and the Kickin' Cajuns were playing and a whole lot of folks showed up with lawn chairs to enjoy the music.  There was a dance floor up front where people were "cuttin' the rug." 

They are a six member band and play the accordion, drums, base, guitar, keyboard and fiddle and play a wide variety of cajun, swamp pop, zydeco, and country music.  

The local chapter of the FFA had a booth offering po-boys for sale.  The hungry crowd supported them and they sold out before the show was over!

We visited with friends and swayed to the music.  Tricia wanted to get an up-close view to watch the dancers' smooth moves.  I have two left feet, so I was a spectator, you might say.

Small town America has difficulties, to be sure, but the heart and brotherhood and neighborly spirit is alive and well.  We'll make it a priority to show up at most of these events and support the revival of small town good times.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!  (Let the good times roll!!)

Strong Words

When I managed the Kinder Supermarket, there was a gentleman who was a long-time employee named Johnny V.  Johnny would get a plate lunch of rice and gravy from our little deli and walk behind the store and sit in a swing underneath a massive oak tree and he would eat lunch.  He would bring a little transistor radio out with him and tune it in to a local radio program that played Cajun French music and he would listen to French music while he ate.

Image Credit

On one occasion I walked out to join Johnny while he ate and listened to his music. As I walked up on him, I could hear the familiar sounds of the accordion and Johnny kept time to the music, tapping his foot as he chewed.  He broke into a big grin as I walked up.  I asked him what he was smiling about and he said, "It's just what that song said."  So I said, "What was he singing, Johnny?  I don't understand much french at all."  He said, "Well, it doesn't translate into English very well.  It doesn't make a whole lot of sense."  So I said, "Give it a try."

Johnny said, "The song is singing about a guy who is trying to dance with a big woman and is having a hard time.  The song says, "Dancing with you is like trying to pull a sled through some tall grass!" So that was what he was smiling and laughing about.  Words don't always translate well from language to language.

This weekend our young people's Sunday School lesson was based on text from Romans.  Romans 10:9-10 to be precise:

That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

That verse is central to the Christian faith, telling the 'nuts and bolts' of what is involved in salvation. The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek and translated into other languages, including English.  I've italicized, bolded in red, and underlined the word believe.  What does that word mean?  Of course we know what it means, but what did the word believe mean in the original Greek?  I find the answer interesting.

I have a Strong's Concordance, which is a big, thick book that will help you see what the original words meant.  In the front of Strong's, you find the word believe under Romans 10: 9-10.  It points you back to the Greek and the word believe is found in Strong's Greek 4100.  The word believe in Romans 10:9-10 comes from the Greek word pisteuó.  In English, Believe, as Strong's tells us, the Greek word means:

specifically, in a moral and religious reference, πιστεύειν is used in the N. T. of "the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of his soul"; thus it stands α. absolutely to trust in Jesus or in God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something.

Pisteuo, (Believe) in the Greek is a much stronger word than believe is in the English.  I can BELIEVE it is going to rain today, but that is not firm conviction.  I'm just saying it MAY rain today. I may say I BELIEVE LSU will win every single football game remaining on the schedule, but would I stake my life on it? Absolutely not!

Believe, I think in the context of how we use that word in everyday language is mere "head knowledge" or opinion, or wishful thinking.  See, that's not what the Apostle Paul was talking about in Romans 10:9-10.  It is not the same word.  Believing in that context is not mental assent or hoping. It is KNOWING it in your heart.  There is even evidence of what he's talking about in verse 10. Belief in your heart, results in fruit (righteousness).  Belief in your head does not always do that. Pisteuo produces fruit and results in action, culminating in salvation.  Strong words, indeed!  May God find us faithful!!