Athena in a Minivan

VBS Update

VBS was over last night. The 60 children plus 50 staff raised $505 dollars to purchase water filters for Africa. No that is not a typo. Our original goal was $160 for one filter. We can now purchase 3.15 filters for missionaries to take to Africa. It is called Pure Love Pure Water. It is amazing that these children from different households, many of them who live in small homes with many family members, gave from their hearts. They brought their candy money, their allowance and their pennies. What a blessing VBS was this week.

VBS........again

This week I am leading Vacation Bible School..... again. Our new church has VBS at the end of the summer where our old one has VBS at the beginning. I don't  mind doing it and I love teaching children about Jesus. It is just interesting the difference between the two.

My large church ran around 1100 in VBS. The small one is celebrating 55 children. When you put it in perspective though the large church had 20% of the total members at VBS and the small church has 37% of the total members at VBS. The total offering taken for the large church was about $1.36 per child. This is only Tuesday and the children at the small church have already collected $1.00 per child. I'll update on Friday and let you know how we did. We are raising money to buy a water system for a village in Africa.

Our new church is such a family. Betty the grandmother is the director, her husband is driving the van, their two daughters are teaching, her four grandchildren (teenagers) are also helping. Nelda is the director of the preschool, her daughter and niece are teaching, two grandchildren are helping teenagers and 2 great nephews are attending. I could go on but it would just get confusing. Families who serve the Lord together, stay together.

I'll update on Friday about how many children we have total the whole week. Pray for my 4 and 5 year olds that they will know that Jesus loves them. Many of them come from families who are struggling to get by. Pray that the older children will learn to know and love Jesus and that some of them will make a decision to accept Jesus in their hearts.

Dirty Laundry, Again

Today my dear friend Rene came over to help me with the laundry. She is such a sweet friend who is getting almost more than she can take in life right now but that is for another post. This is about dirty laundry (well, sorta). The picture is of my twins, Butch and Sundance and my mother, Mommom as they called her (click on it to get a better view). I use the past tense because my mother is now a resident of Heaven. She left the earth to live with her best friend Jesus on April 20, 2002. A day that changed my life forever. You see, mother was not just my mother. She was my friend, my counselor, my cheerleader, my teacher, my kindred spirit. She had the wisdom of the saints, the joy of a thousand days, a love that is unconditional and the playfulness of a child. She is and was truly a blessed mother. Whenever I would enter the room whether we had been apart for an hour or a month her face would light up and she couldn't wait to hug me and find out what I had been up to. I was the envy of many of my friends to have such a wonderful mother.

Now that I am on this journey called Motherhood, I have been wondering how I can be a wonderful mother too. I look back on her example and try to emulate what she did for us (my brother, sister, father and me). I keep trying to be the best mother I can be yet many days I fail horribly. Like laundry for instance. How is it that I can be such a failure with laundry. How does it pile up so?

While Rene and I were in my room folding clothes and hanging them up, I came accross a large mailing envelope full of various letters written during the summer after I had graduated from high school. I went to Colorado to work for Young Life at Frontier Ranch on their work crew and wouldn't you know it. What did I have to do for four weeks, WASH LAUNDRY for all the staff and crew. Every day huge bundles of laundry would come into the washroom and we would wash it, fold it and then pray for the person whose laundry it was. I guess I had written to Mother about how I hated doing all that laundry and what hard work it was. My letter to her is lost but her reply will stay with me as long as I can preserve it.

Here is her reply:

Dear Amy,

            How very much I have enjoyed your letters. I’m so grateful that you have a personal sustaining faith in Jesus Christ.  I so love you and so want to make your life good – however I know that I can’t do that for you and you cannot even do it for yourself. The resource that makes that possible is Jesus Christ so to know you have him means you have the most important thing life can bring and I know God can give you a good life in spite of what the circumstances of your life are.

She goes on to talk about family, friends and the weather (typical hot and humid for a Texas summer.) and it closes with this:

Hope you’re having a good time as well as working hard. Grandmother said, “Didn’t Amy know she’d have to work hard?” when I told her about your letter. She said, “I think she knew she’d have to work hard, but I don’t think she really knew what hard work was.” You’ll know now.

            I love you very much and miss you.

Love,

Mother

She didn't preach, she didn't talk about how laundry isn't that bad, she didn't even say that this too shall pass. She just encouraged me with trusting God. She knew where my source of strength was because He was her source of strength too. As a wife and mother, I am not going to be perfect. As a friend, I am not going to be perfect. As a laundress, I am not going to be perfect but Christ is perfect and if I work side by side with Him as my strength then He can take my filthy rags and make them white as snow.

Happy Independence Day

What a wonderful day we had!!!!!!! I spent the past few days with Dad, Brother and Sister here at the house. My family rocks!!!! Today we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for their annual 4th party. It is a mixed group of their teacher friends, neighbors, church friends, family and anyone else who happens to get invited. The menu is always the same, BBQ, beans, potato salad, slaw, toms, cantelope, watermelon and ice cream. There are some great and fasinating people to talk to and I love seeing them all. Tonight we had a new experience. We were invited out to the farm of some people from our new church. Their teenagers set off cool fireworks. We had homemade icecream, watermelon and great fellowship. Sundance who has not been adjusting to the new church very well said, " Are these people all from our new church?" to which I replied, "Yes, dear they are." He thought about it for a minute and then said, "I think I will like our new church."