Day Camp and River Cleanup!

Monday was wonderful! We started the day with a wonderful worship time at the church to "jump start" our day with worship and a short session by Jay to get us focused on God! Getting ready to head out for the day!
We all circled up in the parking lot to pray together before we all headed out. This is just about a fourth of the people...there are 150 of us!!

The day camp went great! Jay started with the story of creation and cut out these awesome reminders to help us. We didn't know how many kids might show up, but we were thrilled!

We played lots of fun games...

We learned to make balloon animals...

There was an awesome God moment at the end of the day when an Indian lady came to pick up her girls. We got to talking and she was a strong Christian who is working to reach out to the Indian Hindu and Muslim people in MARIETTA, GA! Yep...she lives just minutes from our church and we hit it off wonderfully. It was totally a God moment (our theme for the week!).

We are getting together the week after we get home from Helen and going to talk about ways that we can pray and reach out to the Indians in our community! How cool is that since I have been to India! God totally brings mission fields right to where you are when you you are where He wants you! I can't wait to see what He is up to in this new friendship!

Then, we headed to the river (Chattahoochee) and joined the rest of our group to clean the river of trash. Many tubed down the river to collect trash, but Jonathan needed families to walk the river to clean the banks. So, we were ready to help! How cute is my sweetie on the bank?

So, we headed off and walked for a while to reach our entry point. Then, it was in the river! It looks quite tame and shallow here...don't be fooled. Many times the water was up to our chest and the water moved very quickly! It was quite an adventure I must say...especially to keep my camera dry!

I saw this white thing floating in the water and thought it was a paper towel...nope...it was a dead fish! I would like to say I never made that mistake again...but I did! We all got a good laugh:)

Here the girls load trash into our HUGE garbage bag! But, we almost filled the whole thing up with LOTS of shoes, life vests, beer cans, water bottles, and just about anything you could imagine!

Mr. Jonathan helps Virginia at a slippery part! He was so precious! He is a summer missionary with NAMB for the summer.

We finished the river and headed back for a quick swim at the hotel with all our friends. I love that this place is crawling with families and kids who have a passion for God, their families, and the lost of this world.

We have been talking to our girls this week about what it means to be a servant. Jesus said that He came to SERVE and not to BE served! A servant did the things their masters didn't want to do. So, we have been reminded to follow Jesus we must look for those things that NO ONE else wants to do and get to it with joy...because that is where Jesus was found. No one else wanted to hang out with the lepers...much less touch them.

No one else wanted to be with tax collectors or prostitutes...but Jesus reclined and ate with them in their homes. No one wanted to die on a cross and be beaten for a people who would rebel, hate, and turn away from them...but Jesus was found doing the things NO ONE else wanted to do. What are we doing today that no one else wants to do? Are we truly servants?

I heard an amazing quote recently...

"If you want to be a servant -

Don't be surprised when you are treated like one!"

Hi from Helen!

We are in full swing of our Families on Mission trip in Helen, GA already! We arrived early on Saturday morning so that Jay could go through the weekly schedule with the summer staff and those from the North American Mission Board (NAMB). We enjoyed hanging out with them most of the morning and then eating a quick lunch together before all the families arrived. There are 35-40 families here totalling 150 people for the week!!

Families on Mission is our FAVORITE mission project because it sends families on mission together. It's not a trip to drag your kids along on...it's one designed especially with families in mind. It brings families who go on mission trips and retreats separately...together to minister. It allows parents to mentor their families in every area...it's just AWESOME!

And the Shriner's showed up this weekend too! Yep, talk about a lot of clowns and itty bitty cars...by the truck loads! They were a rowdy bunch last night...but it was really hysterical to see them out and about all weekend riding their cars and dressed up.

Jay has done an amazing job already! The kids love his Children's sermons...and the big kids love his messages at night too! He has been very strategic to make sure he makes it applicable to ALL ages...great job sweetie!

Here's what we're up to so far...

We've built towers of shoes...

Made some wonderful friends...

Prayer walked our awesome resort ministry site...

Loved our summer staff...

Prayer driven our massive resort site in a cool golf cart...at breakneck speeds!

Learned to make some cool balloon animals with our friends...

Played and swam with LOTS of new friends...and it's only been a day and a half!

Tomorrow begins our ministry days filled with day camps and servant evangelism. We will be doing VBS at a local resort for tourists then heading to help with river clean up. We are super excited to meet the wonderful people of Helen and share Christ's love with them. Keep us in your prayers!

Gonna Say YES to VBS!

Well, this week we have been finishing up our school work for the year (YEAH WE ARE DONE!) and enjoying the best VBS ever this week! And the best part is that it ALL comes back to Jesus on the Boomerang Express...

...Rockin' in the worship rally!

This year we, as our mission project, we took up money to support the VBS our church plant in Haiti will do in just a few weeks. They have over 1,000 children attend and they serve them a meal of rice and beans which is the only meal most of those children will get all day. We couldn't believe how God worked through the children and their parents! Each day they would come up and give their money in these cups which stood for a child they would feed at VBS...
And the children alone raised $250 in just 3 nights! We built this tower of "children" to show the kids how many children would go to VBS and hear the story of Jesus...WOW!
Jay did a wonderful job and the whole thing was so organized and fun! Great job! Here he shares the Gospel with the children and it was awesome. Anli helped out too!This year, for the first time, we had VBX for the "tweens". They LOVED it! They came to the worship rally, but then attended their own crafts, rec, snack, Bible study, etc. They even had their own shirts designed by one of their leaders! They felt awesome having their very own VBX this year.

It was a perfect kick off to our new tween ministry Jay and Shad are starting this fall called "The Edge." We are so excited that these kids will have a specific ministry just to this growing group of young teens. Anli gets to be in the first group and she is already loving it!!

Virginia had a wonderful time with all her friends! She loved the songs, the crafts, and just about everything else too! VBS is such a blessing.

Family night was great! I missed it because I was attending our Impact meeting for Foster parenting. I'll share more later on that...but we are down to our last 2 classes and one of us has to attend. I hated to miss the final night...but I know it was a blast!

The kids all performed songs with their classes and then had a huge ice cream party with the parents. There were so many people...they ran out of ice cream!!

Also, Jay challenged the leaders and parents to give a special offering that night to the Haiti VBS project...and they matched the kids offering! That's over $500 to Haiti VBS in just 4 nights...GO GOD!

We will be on our family mission trip for the next week...so I'll post as I can. It will be a great week...keep us in your prayers!

Families on Mission friends...

Last week we got together with some of our Families on Mission friends at our club. It was a beautiful day and perfect for swimming and fun! We started out at the pool and had a blast going down the slides all together and even racing some. Jayden and Anli get a quick snack during the break times!

Jarred humors me with a smile! He was so great with the kids even though he was older than everyone else. This family is so sweet and we just love hanging out with them.

Around 4pm we got our showers and headed to the rock wall until the dads got off work and we could go out to dinner all together. The kids had a great time!

Anli still loves to climb and works at it every single week! She really is great at it and has been able to get to the top of some very challenging runs.

Julie and I also did some climbing of our own. You don't realize how high those things are until you get on the wall yourself! I'm not even afraid of heights, but at the top of that wall...it's high! Julie did great!

The kids got tired after a little while (well...not Jayden!) and started to just play. Virginia used the floor of the rock wall that is like shredded tires...as sand! She buried her feet in it...silly girl!

Jay and Kevin showed up after work and we finished up on the wall and headed to EAT! We finished our day at Moe's and a good long chat to catch up with some very sweet friends. We are blessed with wonderful friends!

Hillsong United!

After we returned from Disney, some friends and I went to the Hillsong United concert at the Verizon Amphitheater and had a BLAST! It was a really nice cool overcast evening. It was really packed and we were able to see SO many other friends there...it was like a big reunion!
The worship was amazing! They even had a speaker that came out and share some strong words from the Bible with us about reaching out to those around us. It was right up my alley! God just keeps bringing that back to my heart day after day. I truly was a wonderful night with friends and worship.

Then...it started raining and raining and raining! We were under the covering so we didn't get wet until we had to run back to the car...we were soaked! It was a great night out with friends!

Happy Birthday Anli!

The day after we got home from Disney, we celebrated Anli's birthday! We had really been celebrating all week long at Disney...but this was the DAY! She was getting her ears pierced!!We got up and headed to the mall and she started getting a little nervous. But, she was quite the trooper as they measured her ears for the holes. They even gave her a cute little bear to hug while they pierced her ears.

Look at the beautiful smile...and those pierced ears! She did GREAT and not a tear anywhere.

She chose a precious little diamond so that it would match everything she had. They look so pretty on her and I was proud of how well she did. She's growing up so fast!

Moments later, she was on the phone with all the grandparents telling them all about it!

We then went by and got her a cookie birthday card! She chose green and white...her favorite colors.

We waited to get home for the birthday party! Virginia brought the cookie card to her and it being VERY careful.

Anli, you are an amazing girl! You are the most joyful person that I have ever met. You have a kind heart that would never hurt anyone. You have so much energy and passion for life. You embrace all kinds of food, activities, and experiences. You love God with all your heart! We are so proud of who you are growing to be in Christ. We pray that you continue to grow into the woman God wants you to be by living a life fully satisfied in Christ and His Word every day!

We love you more than any blog could say...

Daddy and Mommy