The Dastardly Dustin Deed

Is that a great title or what??? That alone makes me happy, but it can't begin to compare to how happy the deed itself made me. Of course, it may sound a little misleading. Brother Dustin isn't actually the one who performed the dastardly deed. He was more the victim of it. :-)

Most people who come to this blog (hi, Mom!) are aware that Brother Dustin was appointed as the new General VLB Coordinator for the Church this year. I have been helping proof read the Evening Light in recent months (forgive any mistakes I may have missed! Ha!) and have therefore had a "preview," if you will, of each issue before it goes to print. When I saw the centerfold of the October issue introducing the three new auxiliary coordinators and presenting a picture of each of them... well, let's just say I felt a rather impish grin spread across my face. How could you pass up an opportunity like that?!?!? So I talked it over with the right people and made the necessary arrangements to have a special edition printed up. Actually, two of them--one for me and one for Brother Dustin. :-) We had several options to choose from (Dustin wearing socks on his ears, riding a mechanical horse, or... well, worse), but we finally selected a pose that would tear his little world apart but still be somewhat believable.

This is the REAL version that all everybody else received.



And this is the special edition that arrived at Brother Dustin's house...



And a close up so you can get a true feel for the glory of the situation...



Now, I must confess that I never imagined this little prank could be half as successful as it actually turned out to be. I truly pictured Brother Dustin opening up his Evening Light, feeling a miserable surge of panic and agony, gasping for breath, and then saying, "No way... they wouldn't have really done that..." I thought he would then start calling around to see if anybody else had received their Evening Light and what theirs looked like. I was right about the miserable surge of panic and agony and the gasping for breath, but oh-so-gloriously wrong about the rest. As the story goes, the first words out of his mouth were something like, "I'm going to KILL Becki!!!" Although I'm certain he didn't really mean them. ~ahem~ You see, he was aware that I proof the paper and immediately (though I can't imagine why) placed me as the culprit. But contrary to my expectations, it never for one moment crossed his mind that he had received a special edition of the paper. I guess because it was a complete and official looking Evening Light he just assumed that it was the real deal and that everybody in The Church of God would be receiving the very same thing! I mean, that was the intention, but I really expected it to last only moments or perhaps a few minutes. But I received a phone call from Mr. Hays that lasted, oh, 30 or 40 minutes or so that morning. Because he is our new VLB leader and I feel somewhat compelled to not taint anybody's opinion of him, I must confess that he handled the whole situation amazingly well. By that I mean that he didn't actually threaten my life. No, wait... I'm pretty sure that he did, now that I think about it. In any case, he didn't yell or scream or otherwise display any actual anger or frustration. His words were very calm and calculated. Ha! No, he really was great considering the fact that his life had just been destroyed. He denies it, but a very reliable source tells me that he was so sick over it he couldn't even eat his breakfast that day! He was saying things like, "Jamey, I know I'm not supposed to be vain... but everybody in the whole Church of God is going to see that picture introducing me as the new VLB guy!!!" Ha! Ha! Ha! I'm dying!!! This is still just too funny, even weeks later!

Yes, it has been weeks. You see, when I learned that he really and truly thought that everybody's Evening Light looked like that, well, I just couldn't make myself tell him otherwise. I didn't lie to him, I just didn't straighten out what he had chosen to believe. ;-) I called Sister Jamey later that day to let her know that it was just a joke and not everybody's Evening Light looked like that. She laughed heartily and I think she said, "He deserves this--he is such a punk!" or something equally great. I was laughing so hard I couldn't contain myself and had to make a couple of phone calls to regional folks to tell them what we'd done and that Brother Dustin really thought it was the real thing. The response was the same across the board and pretty much agreed with Sister Jamey's statement--followed by lots of laughter. The only rebuke I got was from my Dad, but it wasn't stern enough to make me call and confess just yet. Ha! He actually just said that he couldn't believe I didn't TELL Dustin that it was just a joke--that I was just letting him go on and believe that ALL of the papers looked that way. That's only because he doesn't realize how cruel and merciless Brother Dustin is to ME--it's not a one way street here! Anyway, we decided to not say anything until Minister's Retreat... about a week and a half away. :-)

So at Retreat I confessed to Brother Dustin and showed him the REAL page from the Evening Light. He laughed a lot, but it was a rather nervous sort of a laugh, not sure if he should believe me or not. Can you imagine?! I can't begin to express the FUN that all of this was or the pleasure it gives me knowing that Brother Dustin would think that I would have the power and/or ability to pull off such a prank throughout the entire Church of God using our church paper. Just to know that he's on his toes, always looking over his shoulder, expecting that at any moment his life may come crashing down on him... ~aaaahhhhh~ What joy! HA!

Wow--two posts in one day! Look, Mom!!! ;-)