Fret Not!

There are only two things that upset me to the point of uncontrollable crying.  One of those is anything having to do with a vehicle not working properly.  I am sad to say this week I had a bit of trouble with my beloved mini van.  I was driving along when I noticed my van felt as if it could not change gears.  The rpm would go up to 4 or 5 and I could only travel at the speed of 30 mph.   The van would be okay for a while and then it would do the same thing again.  It was as if my van was having random seizures.  I immediately called a very trustworthy fellow who knows a lot about cars.  After driving and inspecting the van, he came to the conclusion that something was wrong with my transmission.   I was told that transmission fluid needed to be added.  He was careful to purchase "Honda" transmission fluid from the dealer, replaced the fluid and told me to drive it.  I drove it one day and the same problem began again.  Once again, I called the trustworthy mechanic.  This time I was told it may be something else in the transmission.  The worse case would be that I could need a new transmission and I should take it to the Honda dealership.

Oh the agony!  I literally cried  for two days before taking it to the dealership.  You see, fixing cars are totally out of my comfort range.  I have no clue about what could be wrong with them or how to fix them.   All day Tuesday all I could think about was that I had no vehicle to drive and it was probably going to cost me $4,000.00 for a new transmission.  Wednesday morning my husband dropped me off at staff meeting, because I had no running vehicle to drive myself there:(  As prayer requests were being spoken, I pleaded with the staff as tears ran down my cheeks "Please pray for my poor van because I think something is wrong with the transmission"  I feel quite confident most of them thought I was nuts.  I realize upcoming surgeries and the death of loved ones were important prayer requests.  I was just praying my van would not die.

After staff meeting, Sandy Miller followed me to the dealership to drop off my van.  I walked inside the service department and spied a gentleman I thought could help me.  He explained that all the mechanics were at lunch but he would be happy to get me registered to have service on my van after lunch.  Once again, I teared up just explaining to him what was wrong with my van.  Poor fellow!  I did not mean to cry; I just couldn't help it.  He assured me they would call as soon as they figured out what was wrong with my van. I thanked him, wiped my tears once more, and walked out to Sandy's van.

As we traveled down the road, me still crying and her trying to console me, my 9 year old daughter popped her head up between our seats.  She said "Fret not!",  smiled then she continued "Mom, I really don't know why you are so upset.  Don't you know what God says?  The Bible says to fret not.  So stop worrying, God takes care of everything."   I had to smile, although it was taken out of context from Psalm 31:1, she knew that we were not to worry about anything because God is in control of everything.   I love that!

So, What happened with my van?  I received a call around 3pm from the dealership.  Apparently, the transmission is suppose to be serviced every 15-30 thousand miles.  The van was serviced and it was under $100.  Praise the Lord!!!

It's a small world after all...

While I was at the Children's Pastors Conference in Orlando, FL, I had the opportunity to go into Disney and ride "It's a Small World".  A week later that song is still stuck in my head! It wasn't until after church tonight that I realized just how true that song was.

While at the Children's Pastors Conference I had the opportunity to hear Beth Guckenberger speak. Beth and her husband Todd served as missionaries in Mexico.  I had never met her, had never even heard of her, but I connected with almost everything she said.  I loved her passion for children and her willingness to continually seek God in everything.  After she spoke, I planned on meeting her.  Unfortunately, the lines to speak with her were long. So, I bought her book and CD curriculum.  I could not find an email for her online but I did find her husband's email at back2backministries.org.  I emailed him, hoping he might forward it to Beth.   I told him how much I enjoyed Beth's talk, let him know we would be using the curriculum Beth wrote for our VBS/ missions camp, and asked him to please be in prayer for us as we plan.  I knew this was what we were suppose to do for VBS.  Actually, we morphed VBS into a three day Missions Camp.  I was excited to share her stories with our children!  I contacted our graphics guys and he produced a fabulous t-shirt design for our camp. I quickly added it to our calendar of events in preparation for the meetings I would be having with the parents in our church this weekend.  I was to present all the summer activities and new classes in a parent meeting after each of the three services this weekend at church.

The church service ended and I began my explanation of all the fun things planned for the children this summer.  After the parent meeting I always hang out in the front for a while to answer questions.  A parent and dear friend of mine came up to me and began to inquire about the VBS/Missions Camp.  I began to explain to her how I had  heard Beth at a conference and wanted to share her stories with our children.  The parent, with eyes wide and her face beaming, said "I know her!  I used to double date with her and she was dating my husband at the time."  LOL This parent and her husband have actually been to Monterrey, Mexico and worked with Beth and her husband Todd on the mission field!!

I think I just found my first VBS Volunteer :)  It's a small world after all.

Aloha!

About two or three weeks ago, Sandy Miller and I were sitting in our office planning our summer camp.  We knew we were going with a surfing theme.  We were trying to come up with something original.  We had planned on using the son surf VBS and the Promise Island VBS as a spring board for our teaching and planning, but we still needed an original name. I collaborated with our graphics designer and he sent me two online dictionaries, a Hawaiian dictionary and a surf lingo dictionary.  I found both of them humorous but, I didn't want to just make up a Hawaiian phrase.  As I surfed the web I ran across a church in Hawaii called One Love.  As I researched this church, I realized they were a lot like our church in teaching.  They have surfing outreach opportunities, The pastor is a surfer and the children's ministry sounds like it would be fun.  So, I emailed the church office to see if they could help me come up with a good "Hawaiian" name for our camp.  The children's minister, Desirre, emailed me back.  This was the first of many emails. She helped us come up with the name Akua Makana Beach for our camp.  That means God's Gift.  I Love it! and... I love that Desirre was willing to help me even though  I live far away in the mountains of Tennessee and have no idea how to surf :)

Click here to check out our camp info  :)

It's a family thing

 "No one has more potential to influence a child's relationship with God than a parent."  -Reggie Joiner

While at the Children's Pastors Conference, I have met some really cool people, had encouraging conversation with others in ministry  and reconnected with old friends.  However, the most valuable thing I have learned today is the power of family.  I have had the opportunity to re connect with my family while hanging out in Disney earlier in the week.  I have had the privilege of looking deep into my children's eyes and re-affirming how much I love them and how they have a heavenly father that loves them even more.   After all, I can not effectively minister to other children and families if I do not minister to mine.  I often get caught up in the next big event, the cool lesson planned for next week or details of registering new families into our ministry and forget I have a family begging for my time as well.

So today, I am exchanging "self" for "God."  I am in a passionate pursuit for Christ.  I want to impart God's truth to this generation by living for Christ and dying to self.  I desire our families to have real "family time" and an intimacy with Christ.  In a time when children are involved in so many activities and the world is constantly pulling us in one direction and then in another, How do we get to the point of even having time for family?

I have recently read a book by Kevin Leman, "It's you kid, not a gerbil."  This book explains all to well the pulls of society on the family of today.  Parents who are raising children to accomplish the dreams they were never able to accomplish.  Young boys who spend more time on the basketball court than in the court of our heavenly King.  Parents who rush in from work, have a drive thru dinner, and spend the night on the sidelines while others are influencing our children.  Oh, I know it all too well... my mini van is my second home :)

My question to you is... What are you doing to make family a priority?

Storming the Castle

Today was spent storming the castle...literally :) We spent the day in Magic Kingdom.  Our party of 13 managed quite well.  All of the big kids were able to ride the coasters, while the non-coaster riders took in other sights or less thrilling rides. 

                                               Beautifully photographed by my husband :)


A few highlights of the day:
* Watching the face of the 3 year old who was with us light up as he watched Tinker Bell fly through the sky
* The excitement of my daughter, Macey, as she talked about the "it's a small world" ride
* Watching the big kids & Teddy Miller race from one roller coaster to the next
* Laughing at my husband, Jamie,  as he insisted on taking pictures of almost everything in the park and saying "it's the magic baby!"
*Watching my daughter, Madeline, conquer her fear of Space Mountain
 
I also enjoyed reconnecting  with old friends as we registered for the Children's Pastors Conference.  For some of them, this is the only time of the year that we have a chance to find out what is going on in each others ministries.  Lastly, we were able to to catch a late night snack with Ms. Lori, the children's minister at The River in Cookeville, TN.

I have faith that I will survive my strong willed child!

Worked all morning trying to make sure I had subs lined up for next weekend while I am gone to the Children's Pastors Conference in sunny Orlando, FL.  Madeline slept in and had a friend over, my sweet husband worked in the yard and told me about all the cleaning he had done yesterday (You see, he is the cleaner and I am the organizer :), Macey had a slumber party and did not return home until almost noon.

Let me just tell you, Macey was super sweet when she came home.  However, later in the day I believe the slumber party hang over must have occurred.  Of course all of the madness ensues right as I am trying to get out the door to go to church.  Oh the sight of it!  Crying, whining, stomping and nagging all this over very trivial things.  I had to leave!  After all, I had to read over my lesson.  So I left my sweet husband in charge.  I had no sooner pulled out of the drive when my phone begins to ring; it was Macey.  More crying ensued.  I could not reason with her.  She called me ten times before I even got to church.  I took a moment to read over the scripture for my lesson in the parking lot before going into the church.  Hebrews 11:1... as I read it..."Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen;" Well then, I have "Faith" that Macey will straighten up and clean her room.  My phone rang again.  I declined the call. I continued reading..."It gives us assurance about things we can not see."  I can not see a clean room or a good attitude.  My phone rang again.  I declined the call again. 

I took a deep breath, prayed for wisdom and had a sip of my McDonald's tea before the phone rang again.  This time I answered.  Macey was hitting where it hurt this time, she held back no punches.  She said, "Why do you have to go to work? I want you here with me! You promised to see my volcano erupt and now you are gone!"  Now, I have read a lot of books on strong willed children, I have taken child psychology, my entire life and career revolves around children and yet, I could not think of a good reply.  Instead I said, "Get the volcano ready; I'm headed home."

I walked through the door with a smile on my face and peace in my heart.  I gave her a big hug and said let me see this volcano that you and your daddy made.  Both she and my husband were excited about the grand revealing of the volcano that they had worked so hard on for Macey's Science class.
After the volcano erupted, Macey said " I'm really sorry mommy for all the trouble I caused.  I think I am going to go rest.  I'm pretty tired."  Ya Think!???  LOL

I returned to church to find all of the work I had put into building out the weekend lesson had been deleted from Pro Presenter, the computer program we use.  With great frustration and many tears, I sat in the sound booth and rebuilt everything, read over my lesson and prepared to teach our sweet children. 
"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1  I choose to put my faith in God, even when life gets tough!

Long toe nails and Lamas & Pajamas

After realizing my toe nails were too long for public viewing, and a flashback from clipping my elderly aunt's curled toe nails, I decided it was time for a Pedicure!  My daughters were eager to join me today knowing that a pedicure was in store at some point :)

We met Ms. Ann our Parish Nurse to give her a quick tutelage on how to enter the medical team into our parent pager system at church and then we were off to spend our holiday gift cards :)  The girls found a few deals and then we headed to the nail salon.  While I waited my turn I confirmed our speaker, booked our cabin and worked on securing a t-shirt design for the Lamas & Pajamas retreat for our 5th & 6th graders.  Then I secured preschool curriculum for Wednesday night.  I was very productive! We should have our nails done more often. 

I thought an hour and a half would be plenty of time for two child mani/pedi's and one adult.  The salon normally has a lot of workers. The girls were both finished before I was ever started.  Yikes! Time crunch! Both of the girls had to be at a friend's house this afternoon.  Madeline was to be dropped off at her friend's house at 3:30 and Macey was to be dropped off at a birthday party at 4 pm.   At 3:30 the nail tech was just finishing my toes! Yikes!  I paid for a full mani/pedi and explained I would need to return later.  They looked at me with an odd expression, said "ok" and took my money.  
The race was on... we hurried home, timed Macey to see how fast she could pack her bags for the birthday slumber party, bolted to Madeline's friend's house to drop her off and then back across town to drop off Macey. 

Whew!  the mad dash was over, and I could return to my manicure.  I walked back in the salon and was told I would have to wait about 15 minutes before they could get to me.  Of course, it was after 5 pm now, everyone was off work and getting their nails done.  It was ok with me because after all the stressful running around town I could use some down time.  I enjoyed my wait.  I looked at magazines and even learned how to say hello and good-bye in Vietnamese.  What a bonus! nails done, caught up on the latest fashion trends in the magazines and I got a Vietnamese lesson :)

God has a sense of humor :)

Today began with running several church errands, getting my girls situated with their school work and then more church errands.  We had an outreach, school assembly, scheduled today at one of the local elementary schools that we visit.  Our friend, Kumba the capuchin monkey, was suppose to join us.  Our lesson for this month's outreach is on self-control.   We had a nice script explaining how these monkeys are trained to help others and must have self-control to do what they are told.  Ha! Our sweet friend Kumba was not exhibiting that today.  He was a grouchy monkey today and would not let his owner Ms. Sandy Knefel put his leash on him.  So Sad:(  The children always love to see Kumba.  Unfortunately, he did not make it to school today.  When Mrs. Sandy Knefel called I could hear Kumba barking loudly in the background. But never fear, there was still plenty of excitement.  Mr. Kemp Brown joined us and taught them all about self-control with his cool Karate moves :) 

After the outreach, I was very tired and grouchy. Why?? Why am I tired & grouchy?? Oh yeah! one small detail had been overlooked today. It was nearly 4 PM and I had not eaten! oops.  The girls and I ate a lunch filled with carbs, grease and cheese with Ms. Sandy, Camen & Gavin.  Yes, It was indeed cheese pizza.  I must eat better... and more often. After all those carbs I traveled home for a short nap before heading to the pool. 

I did not want to go swim tonight.  I just wanted to lay under my electric blanket where it was warm and cozy.  But alas, my 10 year old alarm clock (that would be my daughter Macey) forced me out of bed and into the cold air.  I did not have a partner in crime tonight :(  Ms. Sandy could not swim because she had to take her son Camen to Kung-Fu.  Imagine her putting Kung-Fu before swimming a torturous 300 meters. Ha! I am just kidding, I love it that she puts the needs of her family first.  But I did not want to swim alone.

When I arrive at the pool there was yet again several children from church with their parents watching from the bleachers.  I set my mind to swimming exactly the way I needed to swim the laps for the test.  I swam 4 laps of the front crawl, 4 laps of the breast stroke, and 4 laps mixed crawl and breast stroke.   Yeah!  I swam all 12 laps continueously; I did not stop to rest.  But on my last lap, the instructor told me I needed to start wearing goggles and I needed to swim with my head under the water.  I thought to my self "Hey! I'm doing good to actually know I can swim 12 laps without a rest!"

Swimming with the brick was next.  While waiting on the instructor to bring me the brick, I had a chance to talk with Hannah.  She is a student from church and can swim quiet well.  I asked her how old she was, as I was plotting how long it would be before she could lifeguard for me.  She replied "12, How old are you?"  I laughed and said "too old."  Hannah swam off to do another lap and then returned.  She said "I think you are probably about 20."  I laughed and told her to times that by two and she would be pretty close.  "That's ok my mom is forty-two, so you are 40" she said.  "39 to be exact, I could be your mother" I replied with a smile and a wink.  I think she was trying to comfort me as she said "Well, you have one more year left so live it up and then you can live it up with the old people like my mom does."  I laughed and told her that was good advice.  I was going to live it up and get back to my brick work. Swimming with the 10 lb. brick still proved to be a challenge. It was hard to hold onto the brick and make it to the end of the pool.  I would sink, take in water, spit the water out, and try again.  I repeated this process until I decided I should save some water for the rest of the swimmers.  I dried off and sat for a minute watching all the young children swimming laps like it was as easy as having a conversation.

After I had changed, I approached the instructor and asked if he had an extra "official diving brick" that I could borrow or rent to take to Florida to practice with.  He said he only had one and he could not lend it out.  I told him I felt pretty good about swimming the 300 meters but the brick was killing me.  He said I would do just fine and encouraged me to continue to come in and practice.  He said he would watch me swim with the brick next time and give me some tips.  I explained I was a bit worried because I was going out of town for a week to attend the Children's Pastors Conference and I was worried I would not be ready for the test on Jan. 19th.  He laughed and said that he was giving eight classes and the last class was in February.  He said, "Just keep practicing, you will be ready!"  "Ok!, maybe I can be ready." I mumbled with some encouragement as I began putting on my shoes.  I looked up and saw a parent looking right at me.  The parent asked why I was swimming and I explained that it is often hard to find a lifeguard to go on all our trips and to be at camp for a week.  I chuckled as I told him we (Sandy & I) were just trying to keep the children safe at camp and prevent a possible drowning.  Then the strangest thing happened.  He offered to pay for our lifeguard classes!  How sweet, I thought, and how embarassing.  I thought maybe he was entertained at my skills, swimming with the brick, or maybe he just felt sorry for us.  But he continued and said that he and his wife saw us swimming last night and they admired what we were doing and wanted to pay for the classes.  He said he would work everything out with the instructor.  God really does have a sense of humor!

The 300 meter swim

We often have a hard time finding certified lifeguards to go on trips and spend a week of their summer at camp with us so, I had the brilliant idea that we (Sandy & I) should just get certified ourselves.  I called in August to see when the next classes would take place.  I was told they would not happen until January and that I would receive an email when a class was available.  Guess what??? I got the email.  I was a little surprised when I read there would be a test before taking the class.   "The 1st night of each session is the skills pre-test consisting of a: 1. 300 meter swim demonstrating the front crawl, and breaststroke. 2. Dive into 5ft of water swim 20 yards and recover a 10lb brick in 9 ft of water and return to the starting position under 1:40 seconds."  Holy smoke, I thought that was what the class was for.  I thought we would practice and work our way up to that goal.  With some fear of failure, I called the guy in charge and preceded to tell him that I am almost 40 years old and I just want to keep our kids safe at camp.  I'm not trying to join the Marines.  He was very sweet and told me that he was sure I could do anything that I set my mind too.   You could tell he was a coach! He had that go get em' pep talk ready.  He assured me that I could come in and practice all the needed skills several times before the actual test (on the first day of class!).  Of course, I was not doing this alone so I persuaded Ms. Sandy to take the class with me.

Tonight we had our first practice, lol.  We did not even know where the pool was at the local high school.  We had to call one of our summer interns to give us directions as to where exactly to park to enter the pool.  Of course, our intern was curious why we were trying to find the high school pool.  We simply told her we were going swimming :).  She replied "Are you joining a swim team or trying to be a lifeguard or something?"  oh! our secret was out... I sighed and told her the situation.  She laughed and then said she was proud of us.  Upon entering the pool we ran into a parent and her son, Jack.  She said her daughter, Gracie, was inside swimming.  Great!  just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, we would now be swimming with our students from church and their parents would be watching.  No Pressure!  We entered the building chatted with the guy in charge and changed into out swim suits.  When we came out the guy in charge said we could use lanes 5 & 6 and we should practice the breast stroke and crawl swim as that was what we would be using to swim in the test.  we said "ok" but as we walked away Sandy & I looked at each other and asked, "What is the crawl?"  As we rounded the side of the pool we saw Jack.  He had just finished a lap and stopped to say" hello" .  We greeted him and then asked "Hey Jack, do you know what the crawl is?"  He replied "no??"  Surely a 2nd grader on a swim team would know what a crawl was!!!  Oh well, we entered the water and began to swim a bit.  At the end of our 4th lap I looked up to see Jack's sister, Gracie, standing by the edge of the pool with her goggles in hand.  She said "Hey Ms. Melinda, Would you like to borrow my swimming goggles?"  How sweet I thought, but I replied "no thanks, but hey Gracie, do you know what the crawl is?"  You see, Gracie was in the 4th grade and had just finished swimming with the older kids so I thought she would surely know what the crawl was.  Gracie wrinkled her forehead and said "no" as she smiled and walked away.

We were doomed! I can do the breast stroke but that crawl thing??? I don't know. At the end of our sixth lap the instructor walked over to see how we were doing.  I was pretty excited that we had made it for six laps, actually I thought we were done.  Sandy informed we we were only half way done.  Oh how my arms felt like spaghetti!  We did find out from the instructor that the crawl is the same thing as freestyle.  I can do that! Yeah!  We finished our last six laps and the instructor gave us the diving brick.  I had to laugh, it was a black, rubber, ten pound brick that was embossed with something like "Official Diving Brick."  I'm not sure why I found that to be so funny, maybe it was from pure exhaustion.  We practiced retrieving the brick from five feet of water and carrying it on our chest across the pool.  I only made it half way the first time.  Sandy told me to hold the brick lower on my chest and suck in air to hold my breath so I could float better.  I made it 3/4 of the way the second time. I might have been able to make it the whole way except every time  I tried to suck in air to hold my breath I got a mouthful of water which choked me.  When I stopped Sandy said she could see me laughing the whole way down and wanted to know what I was laughing about.  I told her I was not laughing I was choking!

Why I started this blog...

I do not know many people who have clowns, monkeys, local elementary schools, petting zoos and party supply stores on speed dial.  Therefore, some of my friends have suggested that my life is way too interesting and that I should really be writing all this down, hence the blog :)

Let me catch you up to speed.  I am a wife, mother of two precious girls, daughter, sister, friend, Children's Pastor and most importantly, a child of a very gracious God.  I have the pleasure of working with children and planning events for them almost every day. My esteemed colleague, Ms. Sandy, and I have found ourselves in some pretty interesting situations over the last year and a half.  Just to name a few :

Kumba and Melinda

1. Ms. Sandy has chased a weenie dog down Island Road determined to catch it and return it home while I followed beside her in my blue Honda mini van with the driver's window rolled down trying to persuade her the dog would eventually find it's way home. We were late to pick up children from school that day.
2. We have shooed horses out of the road as we traveled to pick up a van load of children for a local school in the church van. We were late to pick up children from school that day.
3. We have visited schools with Kumba, a capuchin monkey, and his owner Sandy Knefel.
4. I have tried to push/ persuade a full grown donkey to enter Children's Worship for the Easter production.  (The donkey never made it inside.  We ended up bringing the children out to pet the donkey, however, many laughs were had at my expense)
5. We have handled earthworms, chickens, sheep, goldfish, and small ponies in the process of trying to teach a biblical truth to children.
6. We have been delirious from lack of sleep at Camp Placid.
7. We have stayed too late at church working only to realize there was a blizzard outside and we wondered if we would make it home safely.  We did make it home but, our husbands did not like the fact that we neglected to look outside even though they had called us several times to tell us the weather was getting bad.