It’s 5:33 pm. I wouldn’t believe it except for two clocks independent of one another have made mutual confirmation for me. I have been caught up in the whirlwind. Missions trip to Port Alice, BC to do a VBS (which was a lifetime of experiences in itself), back down the coast to Keats Camps where our youth pastor put on a youth camp for our youth. So you got the connection there. Youth. Ok. Moving on. All of my family is in town: the ones from Quebec and the ones from the Island. They were all here today. So I’m home. They’re home. We’re all home.
VBS. So great. Yeah, yeah, challenging and all that stuff. Tell me what about working with people isn’t challenging. But working with kids, now that’s the big time. Especially telling them stories about Jesus and watching their blank faces register absolutely no sort of recognition to any of even the most familiar tales we tell of scripture and our God. Introducing them to singing together and hopefully some worship. Can you imagine (in this crazy Bible belt of ours) telling someone about Jesus for the first time? That was my privilege on this trip. Me and the team. Not only that, but making them laugh. Feeding them. Teaching, hugging, playing. Priceless. You can’t take that stuff home. You can only cry as you hug each kid good bye. What about my group, those teenagers?! If you want to find out where you’re at with your character and the fruit of the Spirit of God in your life, be the single authority over of a group of kids who are not your own, take them away from everything they know, and love them and lead them for a week. I found out what was in me, which led to a lot of frustration and repentance and embarrassment and ultimately, humility. Oh yes. Desperation. As for the kids themselves, they were amazing. All of them had their moment to shine as well as their moment to be sharpened. I am so proud of them all and love them. I never expected that. I’ve known many of them from a distance for a few years. It’s just more evidence that what you see is not what you get and unless we slow down these crazy lives of ours and start to spend some of it with people other than the ones we work with, there is a richness and depth of love and life experience we’ll never get around to.
And family. Well, there is a pirates sword on our bathroom floor. Mom can’t sit in her chair because it is a cornucopia of plastic fruit, thanks to Timmy. Toys are strewn all over the back yard. An assortment of croquet pieces and bocce balls create the semblance of the idea of some sort of game. Arabelle pee’d in the community pool. I was a simple foot away from her, but it didn’t stop our fun. What was I supposed to do – get out and make an announcement and stop everyone’s play time? Give me a break. We just kept on like everything was normal. The lady was checking the chlorine/impurity levels anyways. No one was harmed. I am sleeping in my office while 5 people make my old bedroom their little home for the week. We just had stew with heart biscuits on the top. I brought up all my Martha Stewart magazines and we had a tea party on Sunday with all the girls from the fam. The sandwiches were wrapped with ribbons. There was a two tiered tray. My friend allowed her grandmother’s childhood tiny tea cup and saucer to be used by us. When we found that out, everyone with a cup nearly fainted for fear that they had the treasured porcelain in their hands and that it would turn to sand and betray their lack of carefulness and dainty princess skills. What can I say about family except that we are together and that’s all that matters. When love is in the home, everybody comes home. Eventually.
And me. Who hopes for what they already have. That’s what I’ve been hearing in my heart. That and thankfulness. I tend to hope with comparison in my mind and a chip on my shoulder. I want God to realize that he is not doing as good of a job with me as he is with others and that I’ve noticed. And so my hope isn’t happy. It’s angry and frustrated. If I got what I wanted, I’d probably grab it and run and sit in a corner all by myself and mutter strange things while rocking back and forth. What a prize I am! So I will by Gods complete mercy, become more grateful. The good thing is that I can literally practice it and grow in it. So this is good. Happy expectations of things to come. Not knowing doesn’t mean there is nothing to know. It means I don’t know. That’s all.
VBS. So great. Yeah, yeah, challenging and all that stuff. Tell me what about working with people isn’t challenging. But working with kids, now that’s the big time. Especially telling them stories about Jesus and watching their blank faces register absolutely no sort of recognition to any of even the most familiar tales we tell of scripture and our God. Introducing them to singing together and hopefully some worship. Can you imagine (in this crazy Bible belt of ours) telling someone about Jesus for the first time? That was my privilege on this trip. Me and the team. Not only that, but making them laugh. Feeding them. Teaching, hugging, playing. Priceless. You can’t take that stuff home. You can only cry as you hug each kid good bye. What about my group, those teenagers?! If you want to find out where you’re at with your character and the fruit of the Spirit of God in your life, be the single authority over of a group of kids who are not your own, take them away from everything they know, and love them and lead them for a week. I found out what was in me, which led to a lot of frustration and repentance and embarrassment and ultimately, humility. Oh yes. Desperation. As for the kids themselves, they were amazing. All of them had their moment to shine as well as their moment to be sharpened. I am so proud of them all and love them. I never expected that. I’ve known many of them from a distance for a few years. It’s just more evidence that what you see is not what you get and unless we slow down these crazy lives of ours and start to spend some of it with people other than the ones we work with, there is a richness and depth of love and life experience we’ll never get around to.
And family. Well, there is a pirates sword on our bathroom floor. Mom can’t sit in her chair because it is a cornucopia of plastic fruit, thanks to Timmy. Toys are strewn all over the back yard. An assortment of croquet pieces and bocce balls create the semblance of the idea of some sort of game. Arabelle pee’d in the community pool. I was a simple foot away from her, but it didn’t stop our fun. What was I supposed to do – get out and make an announcement and stop everyone’s play time? Give me a break. We just kept on like everything was normal. The lady was checking the chlorine/impurity levels anyways. No one was harmed. I am sleeping in my office while 5 people make my old bedroom their little home for the week. We just had stew with heart biscuits on the top. I brought up all my Martha Stewart magazines and we had a tea party on Sunday with all the girls from the fam. The sandwiches were wrapped with ribbons. There was a two tiered tray. My friend allowed her grandmother’s childhood tiny tea cup and saucer to be used by us. When we found that out, everyone with a cup nearly fainted for fear that they had the treasured porcelain in their hands and that it would turn to sand and betray their lack of carefulness and dainty princess skills. What can I say about family except that we are together and that’s all that matters. When love is in the home, everybody comes home. Eventually.
And me. Who hopes for what they already have. That’s what I’ve been hearing in my heart. That and thankfulness. I tend to hope with comparison in my mind and a chip on my shoulder. I want God to realize that he is not doing as good of a job with me as he is with others and that I’ve noticed. And so my hope isn’t happy. It’s angry and frustrated. If I got what I wanted, I’d probably grab it and run and sit in a corner all by myself and mutter strange things while rocking back and forth. What a prize I am! So I will by Gods complete mercy, become more grateful. The good thing is that I can literally practice it and grow in it. So this is good. Happy expectations of things to come. Not knowing doesn’t mean there is nothing to know. It means I don’t know. That’s all.
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