Tie-Dye time!

If you grew up going to camp, you know that no summer is complete with out making at least 1 tie-dye shirt. In Kids Club we use a rewards system called Party Points.  The 6 groups earn Party Points throughout the trimester with the hope of earning the Party Points Party at the end of the trimester.  This trimester we had two teams win.  The Green Group, the older boys and the Pink Group, the older girls.  The Pink Group had their party last Tuesday.  We had snacks, made shirts, had a Nepali dance party, and took one fuzzy group picture!

The finished product!

A Looonnnggg Update

So, once upon a time I used to be really good at blogging on a regular basis.  Then, I went to Atlanta, Nashville, India and Nepal, and somewhere in there I forgot how to blog.   Sooo....I'm going to fill you in really quickly about the last 6 months of my life, and then hopefully I will be able to blog a little more regularly.

So, around spring break time I had the chance to go to Nashville and Atlanta and catch up with college, Northlake and NCS friends.  It was wonderful to see everyone, and meet many new babies!  I also got to spend some time talking with the folks who make up Ubuntu Village.  It was fun to dream with them as they seek what the Lord has in store for their community.  I also got to visit a Nepali friend who used to live in Kansas City, and moved to one of the apartment communities the folks from Ubuntu Village live in.  Small world.

When I got back to Kansas City it was time to celebrate Easter, and then the end of the the Spring trimester.  We had a wonderful Easter celebration at Mission Adelante with many of our friends from the community.  I even had the chance to make a flower carpet to decorate.  Pookalams are used for decoration, and they are soo beautiful.  We also had a great End of Trimester Party, and the folks from Christ Community Church EVC rocked out a super fun kids program complete with amazing face painting!

About a week after the End of Trimester Party we left for Nepal and India.  It was an amazing journey.  The Lord taught me so much about myself and ministry in just two short weeks.  My eyes were opened to two beautiful countries, and He provided for us new family in both places.  It is way too much to write about in this post, so if you want to hear about my trip, please ask me!

When we got back from Nepal and India we jumped straight in to the summer trimester.  It's been wonderful.  We had 3 great Kids Camps hosted by our friends at Christ Church Anglican, Shoal Creek Community Church and Emmanuel Baptist Church.  We had our biggest turnouts for Kids Camps ever, with 110 kids one night!  Crazy.  These three churches did wonderful jobs!

We also had two great summer interns, who were TONS of help with the Kids Camps and loved the kids so well this summer.  Tomorrow is their last day, and we are all pretty sad to see them go.  They were great sports, even when they had to have a pie eating contest during one of the Kids Camps!

Our friend Noel Castellanos from CCDA came and visited and shared with us the vision and values of CCDA.  He even got to share a meal with some of our friends.

We've also had lots of fun at Kids Club this summer.  Last week was a highlight because it was BACKPACK week, everyone's favorite week of the year.  Who doesn't like a bag full of new supplies?

Tomorrow is our Summer End of Trimester party.  It is crazy how fast time flies.  It is hard to believe that my nephews go back to school soon.  I can't believe that the older one starts Kindergarten Wednesday.  We got to have a lot of good quality time this summer, as their mom spent a month on bed rest before the newest brother was born!  And my moms whole side of the family got to meet little Brody as they came up to visit just a few weeks after he was born.  It was a joy to have everyone together.  

It has been a busy and crazy past 6 months.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  And though I love summer more than any other season, I am getting excited for the fall and the launch of our afterschool leadership development program, Leaders in Training.  I am almost giddy about the idea of spending 3 afternoons, and Tuesday night with these cool kids!  It's going to be a blast, and hopefully will inspire me to blog a little more often! :-)

I apologize

I've been a bit of a blogging slacker lately.  I hope to remedy this in the next week or two.  Life has been super busy.  I just got back in town from a wonderful trip to visit friends and family in Nashville and Atlanta.  I will have a few pictures from that and an update in the next few days.

CCDA

So in October we had the chance to go to the CCDA conference.  It was a wonderful week of learning.  Richard Twiss was my favorite speaker of the whole week, and I just found his presentation he gave at CCDA on YouTube.  Check it out, its long, but worth it. 

....It's been awhile...

So life got really busy, and blogging took a back seat.  Life has calmed down some, and I thought it was time to catch everyone up.

Christmas was great.  We were on our trimester break and I got to have some quality hang out time with these two cute dudes.  We had lots of fun, did a lot of baking, and hanging out.

After Christmas, I realized that we were about to start the new trimester, and had a whole lot of work to get done, in not a lot of time.  We had a great trimester launch and have had a wonderful first couple of weeks.  We have had quite a few new families arrive in the area recently and our Kids' Club numbers topped 50 for the first time since we sent the teens to Teens' Club.  It is a whole lot of fun, and such a blessing to get to love these kids every week.

Right after the launch of the trimester we found a new house to move in to.  If you haven't heard, the house we had been living in was in bad shape and the landlord wasn't willing to fix anything.  We had been looking for a good place, in the neighborhood, found one and less than a week later we were moved in.  It has already been such a blessing.  It is in a great location, right next door to some of our great friends, and on the same street as many others.  I'm excited to see how the Lord uses this house to bless others.

fear

I would have to say that when I first moved down to the neighborhood, the question I got most often was "Is it safe?"  


At first I would get frustrated, "Of course it's safe", I would say.  Would I really move down here if it wasn't safe?


As time has passed my response has changed.   Now more often than not I respond,  "We were never promised it would be safe."  


I wanted to share with you the lyrics to one of my favorite songs.  Aslan, by Kendall Payne.  It paints a great picture of who Christ is, and how he is nothing we would have ever expected.  

Don't stop your crying on my account

A frightening lion, no doubt

He's not safe, no he's not safe

Are you tempted now to run away?

The King above all Kings is coming down

But He won't say the words you wish that he would 

Oh, he don't do the deeds you know that He could

He won't think the thoughts you think He should

But He is good, He is good

I know you're thirsty, the water is free

But I should warn you, it costs everything

Well, He's not fair, no He's not fair

When He fixes what's beyond repair

And graces everyone that don't deserve

No one knows Him whom eyes never seen

No, I don't know Him but He knows me

He knows me, He knows me

Lay down your layers, shed off your skin

But without His incision, you can't enter in

He cuts deep, yeah He cuts deep

When the risk is great and the talk is cheap

But never leaves a wounded one behind

Sorry...

So it's been a while since I've had time to post. I hope to have some updates up within the next week. Sorry, life has been crazy. It's a good kind of crazy though.

Christmas...

I love Christmas time.  I love getting to take the time and recount the birth of our Savior.  I love hearing the story of how God humbled Himself as a man, and came and lived life as a human.  I get goosebumps thinking about what it would have been like to be a goat staring into the manger that night, witnessing the birth of the King of Kings, Emmanuel, God with us.  

I love getting to share the story of Christmas with our Kids' Club kids.  In our 2 years of loving them, this is the second time we have come to the birth of Christ in our lessons.  We have been able to arrange the lessons so Jesus comes right around Christmas time each year.  We use the Jesus Storybook Bible as our curriculum, and the kids hear all trimester about how God is going to send His Rescuer to bring His people back to Him.  The kids have figured out his name is Jesus. 

The last Tuesday of the winter trimester we watch a video of our story about the birth of Christ. The story tells of how God could have sent His rescuer in so many ways.  He could have made the mountains bow down, seas roar, and trees to clap their hands.  But, He didn't choose that way.  He choose to send Jesus as a baby, a totally human, fully God, baby.  

One our most inquisitive kids asked after watching the video why Jesus needed that lady, Mary.  My young friend seemed to have a hard time imagining a God so humble, who flung the planets into space, was coming to earth as a baby.   As we took a second to chat we related it to the babies we knew in our community, and how if it weren't for their moms they wouldn't be alive.  We had the chance to talk about how to be a man, Jesus had to start out as a baby.

While they are young now, the Kids' Club kids are listening and learning.  They are beginning to understand how lessons from the Bible stories apply to their lives.  My hope for my Kids' Club friends is they grow into young men and young women who love Jesus, and allow Him to guide them through life.

If you have a few seconds watch the video we watch.  It's one of my favorites

Why I Love What I Do....

Soo...if you can't read it, here is what this note says.

(Please forgive my spelling and punctuation, I am copying this from the original)

Thank You note

Dear: Kristian

Merry Christmas.  Thank you for teaching alot about God and I enjoy with you when we do our homework and  I really like when we go to watch movie I hope you enjoy your Christmas.  Have a nice Christmas.

Love, A

So many sweet notes from this little girl.  Her heart is so open, honest and listening to what the Lord is teaching her, and she is only in the 4th grade.  Jesus was on to something when he talked about having the faith of a child and I am so lucky to get to see it in such a real and personal way.   

5 years...

So I realized today that I graduated from college 5 years ago this weekend.  

Yep, 5 years ago.  It got me thinking about what a crazy journey the Lord has led me on over the past 5 years.  

Little known fact: After I graduated I worked as a puppeteer.  Yet, that's right.  A puppeteer.  As a job.  

No, not Sesame Street.  

I hung out with these guys:

These are the Kids on the Block.  They travel to schools and teach kids about differences.  They cover everything from wheel chairs, to Epilepsy to bullying. It didn't last for more than a few months because I got in to grad school to become a teacher. 

So I went to grad school and subbed for about a year.  Then, I graduated again. 

Then I had an amazing first year of teaching in Nashville. 

Wasn't my room cute?  

Then I traveled Europe with two of my best friends.

Then I moved back to Kansas.  

And then I had the worst second year of teaching imaginable.

But, the Lord redeemed that year by introducing me to my beautiful friends.  

I loved being with my friends so much that I quit my teaching job to spend more of my time with them.  I started to raise funds to be able to spend all of my time with them. Over the past year and a half we have had so much fun together, grown, loved and laughed.  

If you would have asked me 5 years ago where I would be now I would have probably said NOT in Kansas City.  Now, I can't imagine being anywhere else.  It is amazing the wonderful things the Lord brings in to your life when you follow his leading.  He might even take you where you said you would never go.