But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Luke 18:16
Tonight our church had the first meeting of the Baptist Youth Fellowship that has not been held in the past 6 or 8 years because we had few teens.
Being a bit of a worry wart, I got myself in a knot beforehand: what if no one shows up, what if it is boring, what if we run out of things to do, what if we don't have enough snacks, what if no one likes it.
Ah, me, of little faith. About 1 dozen children age 10 to 16 came. They brainstormed ways they could spread God's ministry in the community by serving others, spent time decorating pumpkins to take to the shut-ins for harvest/Thanksgiving decorations, and played volleyball in fellowship hall, followed by cider and cookies.
It was fun for adults and children, to interact and laugh with each other, to share Christian fellowship and feel the youngsters' enthusiasm. They begged for it to be extended to two hours and for it to be held every week instead of two Sunday evenings a month.
In spite of my worrying, it was better than I could have ever imagined.
Lord, thank you for giving us the prompt to revive this group and for the blessings it has already bestowed on children and parents alike. And thank you for being there.
OK, friends, you've convinced me. Some of our faithful readers have made me rethink Halloween and help me see it in another light, other than evil. It is a harvest celebration and a time of reflection before All Saints' Day on Nov. 1, when we remember all the saints (Christians) who have passed, especially our loved ones. I am appreciating the vivid colors, Indian summer (of which we have been having a bit of in Connecticut) and look forward to pumpkin carving with friends. But if I gain 5 pounds from the candy, you all are going to Weight Watchers with me!
(Maybe it comes down to the fact that I'm afraid of the dark?)
In recognition of my new Halloween attitude, I posted new Halloween photos in my photo gallery. Halloween 1987 includes our daughter, Kim, 4, as a red vitamin, and Drew,1, on the far left front row, as a white bunny. Kim is now 26 and Drew is now 23. Drew's girlfriend loved him in his bunny suit!
I also loaded in the photo gallery is a photo of my sister, Stephanie, and myself in our Halloween costumes made by my mom and dad. I am the artist and she is the painting (sorry you can't see what she looks like.) We usually won the town parade costume contest, which isn't very fair. Stephanie is now 58 and I am 53.
There was a story in the New York Times and on the Internet last week that stated an organization is putting up billboards in New York City subways with the slogan: "1 million New Yorkers are good without God? Are you?"
This campaign makes me very sad. What this world needs more than ever is God - seems all Christians have lost their rights with the movements to take "In God We Trust" off currency; the Pledge of Allegiance and certain patriotic songs should be rewritten without "God"; and Nativity scenes are banned from public display on town greens, all because it offends someone.
Well, these movements offend me and I fear for our world. Only knowing that Jesus is our savior and He will come again is a comfort in that we know who will live forever.
In Jesus' name - thank you for praying for those who put up the signs, those who read them and those who believe them.
I think the decorations were already in the store in July and now gravestones and goblins are popping up in almost every yard. I understand that with retailers it is the 2nd most popular holiday. Hooray, hooray...
I hate Halloween because to me it is evil, creepy, scary, gross, hyped and has no redeeming qualities. Yes, I walk with our children in the neighborhood. And yes, I do eat some of the candy... (OK, maybe that's the only redeeming quality...) It's been fun to put together a few costumes but I'm really not very handy. One year my daughter wanted to be a red vitamin and another year, a Band-aid... OK, don't ask me where those ideas came from but I gotta give it to you they were pretty funny ideas... Alright, I like to carve a pumpkin, too...
But to me, for the most part, Halloween invokes death and the evil one. We have enough of that in the world and it makes me scared and sad...
Lord, help us make Halloween a holiday of light: when we light our pumpkins, may we remember your eternal light...
P.S. As of Oct. 26, I reloaded Halloween photos in my photo gallery. Halloween 1987 includes our daughter, Kim, 4, as a red vitamin, and Drew,1, on the far left front row, as a white bunny. Kim is now 26 and Drew is now 23. Drew's girlfriend loved him in his bunny suit!
I also loaded in the photo gallery is a photo of my sister, Stephanie, and myself in our Halloween costumes made by my mom and dad. I am the artist and she is the painting so you can't see what she looks like. We usually won the town parade costume contest. Stephanie is now 58 and I am 53.
I am seeking parental advice... our 12-year-old son is starting to lie about many things. We never had that problem with our older children. He hardly ever gets in trouble because he does his chores, keeps good grades, etc. But for the last month or so he is lying about when his homework is due, handing things in late, Tuesday he pretended he was sick so he didn't have to go to school... Obviously we don't like this. We have had the conversation and he said he isn't lying anymore but I caught him red-handed this morning...
To be honest, I was a chronic liar when I was in high school - I was a little more "adventurous" than my parents liked so I lied about who I was with, where I was, what I was doing... It sure was hard keeping track of all those lies and after awhile they seem like truth (after you get past feeling guilty)... I'm glad I survived myself... but that's for another blog...
Any ideas, readers? Thanks for sharing your experiences and wisdom... Together we will survive parenthood!
Today was our annual church tag sale. I may have finally succeeded in bringing more stuff there than I purchased - Every year is a toss up on that one...I am getting better at saying no to something I think I must have because it costs only $1 or $2 or $3... (Though I may have to check tomorrow after church to see if a certain serving dish sold...)
My friend, Joyce, organizes it and she is truly amazing. However, we also have a great group of volunteers that meets every night for a week to organize - because we use the same format, everyone now knows where everything goes because it's the same as in past years. It is really a fun time of fellowship. And when those doors open at 8 a.m., there is always a stampede... tomorrow afternoon social services will stop by and so will another church to "pick" for their tag sale. I'm always in charge of finding homes for the books and will sell a few goodies on e-bay.
So how'd I do?
2 lampshades for lamps I bought at a tag sale: one for my work office, one for my son's room
10 early reader books for my sister's 3- and 4-year-old sons/grandsons
4 books for me: Dr. Peale, Max Lucado and ??
A penguin snow hat that belonged to our pastor's daughter and that I''m sending to our daughter in Maine
An unusual hair clip with seed pearls
A handpainted vase
A ceramic wall clock that looks like all the numbers are falling off for one of our newspaper offices
A new towel and washcloth set
A scarf
A Yoda Pez dispenser
A computer game with all the old Atari games like Centipede
A nice iron (not that I know how to use it...)
Some glitzy plastic beads for the next time our son dresses up as a pirate (he went as one last weekend to a Renaissance Fair)
In our town, for the past 40 years, there has been the Apple Harvest Festival: two weekends featuring a parade, arts and crafts, food including infamous apple fritters, a bed race, fritter- and pie-eating contests and entertainment. In the past, our church has marched in the parade; it's actually fun if I can get myself out the door.
My son just joined a new Boy Scout troop and their major fundraiser is selling baked potatoes at a booth: nearly 1 ton of potatoes over two weekends! So doing my civic duty, we were strongly encouraged (required) to work at the booth.
I really didn't want to: I don't mind work and actually like doing community work but sometimes I would make a wonderful clam. In spite of the fact my job has me out and about interviewing people for and representing a newspaper, I would make a very good clam: sit in my shell and close the top. I often feel rather uncomfortable in the public and would rather be anonymous/invisible.
But my son (willingly) and I (begrudgingly) went to do our two-hour stint. I hate to admit it but we had a lot of fun. Kids were stopping by the booth to say hi to my son and the other scouts. They bustled around serving customers. I was immediately given a lesson on custom-making baked potatoes.
Take a foil-wrapped baked potato out of the foam insulated cooler, put it in a paper tray, cut it open (yowch!) and go down the assembly line in this order: butter, chili, broccoli, cheese, sour cream, chives and bacon - that's a "garbage can special" - or whatever combination the customer wants.
I lost track immediately of how many potatoes I did but within minutes we were all working as a team and they put up with my novice-hood (I only dropped the broccoli in the cheese once.)
So, clam I am, and David, signed up again for Sunday night, this time because we wanted to.
Now, what do I do with the 50 leftover potatoes I was given?
Lord, thank you for dragging me out of my clam shell kicking and screaming. You always know what I really need and sometimes that involves a potato...
On Thursday night, we gathered with our pastor for a time of prayer, to lift him up to the Lord and ask for blessings on his retirement and to give thanks for the 22 years he has walked beside each one of us, leading us closer to the Lord and guiding the church through tough times and good. It was a time of peace and healing, for loving and thanking the Lord, and loving and thanking the pastor. As he said, he came at the right time and is leaving at the right time. And when he concluded with one of the most soul-filled prayers I ever heard, we wept. It was a wonderful, perfect end to a wonderful, perfect relationship.
And now we know that our church is ready for new beginnings, for a new direction, for new missions and we're excited. We are blessed. We know what we do is guided by the Lord. And though this is a time of sadness, it is also a time of joy to be able to send Pastor David and his wife, Pastor Cyndi, off with love to their new life together.
Tomorrow is his final sermon -
Thank you, Lord, for all the people you bring into our lives to fulfill your mission on your time. Thank you for emotions so that we can love, rejoice and mourn. And thank you for your faith in us and ours in you...
I work in a small New England town of about 19,000 residents, a former thriving manufacturing and railroad town that has been devastated by evolving society: more high tech, less railroad, big shopping malls. Many of the residents are low to lower middle class: retired folks, immigrants, unemployed. Behind our office is a small neighborhood: trailer homes, lower income apartments, small World War II-era houses.
Several days a week, when school is over, a bunch of kids stops by our office to hang out and tell us about what happened in school that day. Mostly boys, 6th- to 8th-graders, many are from broken homes or immigrant families. They usually want a drink from our water cooler, goof around, try to get us to let them use the computers (no), play basketball with balled-up waste paper into the garbage can, play hide-and seek, tell us Tall Tales about life. Some of the kids we've seen once, but most have come by for years.
Sometimes the talk is more serious: about their families, about their grades, something that happened at school, our jobs. They know we have rules - no swearing or bad-talking anyone - and once in a while we toss them out for being too rowdy. But they really are good kids trying to traverse a world that has been less than kind.
Last Saturday they saw the office door open and decided to sneak in and hide behind the counter. When they heard someone coming out, they popped up and surprised... the cleaning man! I don't know who was more startled but the cleaning man chased them outside, locked one boy in and called 911.
I believe for some of these boys' families, police have been present often in their lives. At least one father is in jail. But the boys were scared and ran... and then came back for Oscar. The police questioned them and unscrambled the misunderstanding and sent them on their way with an admonishment. This week when they told us the story, they were laughing but were still a little worried too.
Yesterday afternoon, a policeman stopped by to verify the story. I told him that they were good kids, doing what 12-years-old do, and that they are welcome here, they mean no harm. Later, only Oscar stopped by the office and I told him the police had been there. "You aren't going to tell my parents are you? My dad would kill me. Well, not really. Are we in trouble?"
I assured him all is well, no one was mad and the police would not be stopping by his house.
I hope today they will all be back. sweet-talking us out of a few candy bars and telling us another Tall Tale...
Lord, please guide us to mentor all youngsters in every little way we can with the hopes that some day they will know you too.
