Productive day

It has been a productive day.  We found the place we will purchase the mattresses.  Ms. Vicki & I had our hair made:).  Then we purchased supplies for tomorrows outreach in the village. We also purchased a dvd playerdor the children's home and some popcorn for the movie party we will have this weekend.

Productive day

It has been a productive day.  We found the place we will purchase the mattresses.  Ms. Vicki & I had our hair made:).  Then we purchased supplies for tomorrows outreach in the village. We also purchased a dvd player for the children's home and some popcorn for the movie party we will have this weekend.

A day of rest

I woke up and had fresh pineapple and sweet bananas for breakfast, two of my favorite things to eat while in Kenya.  Ms.  Vicki had already left the compound to run an errand.  When she returned, I asked how I could best help her today.  She replied Oh no sister, today is your day if rest and then we shall get to work.  

For those of you who know me well, you know that I don't rest well.  I'm trying to be obedient and rest.  However,  I would rather be working.  I have walked around the compound, played with the children and that's about it.  I can't wait till this day of rest is over!

Made to Kenya with 200 lbs of luggage!

Made it to Kenya.  Had a wonderful visit with Josh & Ruth Barron and their 5 children. I enjoyed meeting the CFM team that that work so closely with.  Today I fly to Kissumu,  where Ms . Vicki will pick me up from the airport.  Wamzy is my sweet driver today.  She is a girl from the Barron's church.

Funny luggage story: Wrangling about 250 lbs total luggage has been interesting.  When i arrived at NBO we exited the plane via stairs.  There was no way i could get all that luggage down the stairs!  Thankfully, there was a good southern boy wearing an LSU hat that volunteered to help carry my luggage down the stairs.  I then had ti gi get the other 150 lbs by myself at baggage claim,  load it onto a cart and go outside to meet the Barron family.   Thankfully,  Josh helped with akl my luggage from that point. On my way back to the airport to catch my flight to Kissumu I was one bag less and 50lbs lighter.  However,  i still had about 200 lbs of luggage.  Wamzy,  the sweet lady driving me today helped me make it across the parking lot and guided me to check in.  I then had to take over all the luggage again.  I took all the bags through security and was thankful to deposit the two larger bags at the baggage check.  That left me with my carry on luggage and my large backpack,  totaling 100lbs. I have a system though... I stack my backpack on top if the rolling suitcase ant it is easy!  If course that was the perfect plan until I had to climb the stairs to board the plane.  Thankfully, a nice gentlemen saw my dilemma and volunteered to help.  As if that wasn't enough, upon boarding the Kenya airways plane for Kissumu my carry on bag would not fit in the overhead compartment. Oh yes!  I was officially the crazy lady with too much luggage.!!  I got a variety of looks. Some people felt sorry for me, some we disgusted and others smirked a grin and tried not to laugh.  I am sure it was comical.  Finally the flight attendant just moved me to another seat. I had one seat for my luggage and one seat for me :).  Thankfully Vicki brought one if the boys to take care if the luggage!!  Praise the Lord!

Worship

Psalm 100:2

New International Version (NIV)

²     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.

In working with children one of the things I love is how they worship with abandonment.  Nothing holds them back.  They do not care what the people next to them are doing and they each have their own style. You may worship sitting, standing, singing, praying, dancing or even laughing.  In Xtreme kids I have noticed we have wild worshipers, performers, serious worshipers, and the "I'm too cool for this" crew. 

Each week there is a small group of children who are wild worshipers. You will find them hip hop dancing in the back of children's worship. They even dance wildly during the slow songs. Everyone will be singing softly lifting their hands and voices to the Lord and these children are singing and doing the coffee grinder or cartwheels in the back of the room.  It makes me smile knowing they can worship with all their energy.  On a few occasions I have thought about correcting them with the whole "This is a slow worship song speech".  You know the one where children are told "let's stand still or sway during the slow songs".  However, each time I start to head in their direction I am reminded that David danced before the Lord and who am I to tell them how to worship! They are engaged, participating and having a blast worshiping our Savior. Dance on kiddos!

In the front of the room, there is a group of girls that are all about the motions and the words on the screen.  They are the performers putting on a show for Jesus each week. They giggle and dance with each other and interact with the praise team.  They are all glitter, bows and everything frilly.  Along with them are my cool boys!  They enjoy worship and doing the motions and dance moves. Those boys can certainly rock out on the air guitar on every guitar solo during worship (that's when the girls giggle and try to join in the air guitar playing as well).

There are the serious worshipers,  they are contemplating the words of each song as they sing them, raising their hands in praise, eyes closed and totally unaware of anyone around them.  You can just see the praise on their lips and the joy in their souls as they give all their worship to the Lord as a gift they are placing on the alter. No one would dare speak to them or interrupt their worship time.  As a matter of fact, if you tapped one of these serious worshipers on the shoulder to get their attention they would jump in fright because they are so tuned into worship.

The "I'm too cool for this crew", who sits but reads the words on the screen and enjoys watching everyone else around them.  They can fully tell you the meaning behind every song but if they actually had to participate it just might kill them!  Along with them are a handful of boys usually 5th & 6th graders who think they are too cool but realize worship is just so much fun they can't stop.  They stand near the wall with arms folder for the first few minutes but something inside them overtakes their bodies and they begin to worship! However, if they are noticed or "caught" worshiping arms are quickly folded and the cool stance is assumed until once again they just can not contain themselves. They make me laugh and make me sad at the same time.  It is fun knowing they love to worship and just can not contain themselves.  It is sad to know that somewhere along the way their creativity and freedom of worship has been stifled.  Maybe it was a look or a comment from a peer, maybe it is just the awkward age they are experiencing trying to grow into a "cool" teenager but living in a "fun" child's world.  I will often go over and dance near them just to make them laugh!  I tell them "It is okay to have fun in worship, no one is really looking at you!".  

 Worship really gets interesting on weekends when we are invited to go into "Big Church" for a part of worship.  I love taking the kids in with the adults however... I'm not sure the adults would agree.  You see, children are for the most part active worshipers.  Somewhere after the 6th grade there is a decline in how actively engaged you are in worship.  I always ask the adults to stand and participate with us.  Most of them stand, about 5% actually participate.  However, the children rock out for Jesus anyway.  I find this so interesting because a survey taken by the Barna research group stated this:

Worship Was Top-Rated
Upon examining the pillars of faith practice, the survey revealed that three-quarters of all adults, and 92% of all churched adults, said that it is very important to them to worship God. Next most important to adults were the ability to learn about their faith (63%) and to experience moral and spiritual accountability (59%). Slightly more than half of all adults listed serving the needs of the poor as very important (54%). A minority of adults described each of the other four endeavors as very important: sharing their faith with non-believers (44%), feeling like they belong to a community of faith (41%), donating their time and money to the church (39%) and meeting with other believers (39%). 

If worship is top rated why do so many people feel inhibited to worship freely as they enter into adulthood?  How do you worship? More importantly what kind of example of worship are you setting for your children?

Speed bump

Have you ever been driving really slow through a neighborhood when you were suddenly upon a speed bump? At that moment you must either give the car more gas or get out and push your car over the bump in the road. Sometimes in life we hit those speed bumps. We are on the right road but we just need a bit more gas or a little push to get over the trial, the tug in your heart, the addiction, the relationship mending or what ever hurtle you may be facing. 

Here in East Tennessee the January weather is absolutely depressing. Gloomy skies, snow covered grounds and plenty of time to think about what you would like to accomplish for the kingdom in the coming years. Not really a great thing for me. I have discovered if I am lucky enough to live to 80 years old then I have already lived half of my life.  If I died today would God say "well done good and faithful servant"?  Would he say "You gave your all for kingdom sake?"

What about you? Have you lived your life to the fullest for Christ's sake?

Don't misunderstand me. I have a great life. I love working in ministry. We always have a fridge full of food, A closet full of clothing and amenities abound.  But...could we live with less to make a greater impact on the kingdom? I think so. Which brings me to the speed bump. Many Christians, including myself, are happy to just sit on the speed bump and not cross over it. We go to church, we listen to Christian music, we say the right things but ... are we willing to give life a little more gas and make it over the speed bump to the other side where we are doers of the word and not just hears of the word?

Maybe Gandhi said it best while observing Christianity: " I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."  We sit in a world of amenities and look at the hurting, hungry & homeless. Maybe we even pray for them. We put on our Sunday best and then over hear others saying " I can't believe she wore that to Church!"  Hey there self righteous! Let's just be happy they are at church. We eat dinner at restaurants and throw away enough food to feed 12 hungry orphans in Africa. We get chicken in the drive thru for our children and they refuse to eat it because we forgot to ask for barbecue sauce. Hey there ungrateful! You had three meals today! The waste in our lives is excessive while the need in others lives seems so overwhelming. What could you live without? What could you give to someone else who genuinely is in need? Instead of a vacation on a sandy beach or skiing in the mountains, could you hold an orphan child in your arms and tell them about The Lord? Could you spend the week feeding the hungry and helping the homeless?

Give it some gas friends! Get over the January speed bump. Get up, get out and show Christ to a hurting world. You do not have to travel across the ocean to do that. You only have to walk out your front door and be willing to reach out to others.

Fall Fuse retreat

The fall Fuse retreat for our 5th & 6th graders was a blast! We rented Bancroft Bible Camp in kingsport, Tn.  We had a couple decisions for Christ and I had the honor of Baptizing Chloe Puckett! 

We did a great bible study by precepts called "evil".  It was a study of job.  Our guest speakers were Scott & Lynn Kain.  We also had lots of messy games, swimming, hiking, zip line, card games and more.