Friday, June 17th was our 21st wedding anniversary. 21 years of marriage. That is a long time. I remember when I thought people who were 21 years old were, well, old. And now, I have been MARRIED that long! It certainly does not seem like that long. Time flies when you are having fun - right? We must be having fun, because time has flown. It hasn't been completely perfect, but it has been as perfect as I could ask for. And I would do it all over again. A thousand times. So here is to many, many more years together!
We celebrated the day with the Oldest Princess and the Young Prince. We went early and saw Finding Dory. Then lunch at Chick-fil-a, and home to get some last minute things done, and get packed and ready to go.
Saturday we got up bright and early and met at the church and loaded up to head out for a week of World Changers. We had a wonderful trip. We spent the week hosting a VBS and helping an awesome couple make contacts for their church plant. We set up for VBS. We went door to door in a neighborhood inviting kids to come to VBS. We went to Wal-Mart and put flyers on cars. We stood out by the road with signs to let people know about VBS. We went to the park and invited people to bring their children. We had three days of VBS, where we loved on the kids that came and taught them about Jesus and how much He loves them. We hosted a "Family Night", where the kids could show their parents what they had learned the last three days, and so that the church planter could share his vision with the parents in hopes that some of them would be interested in helping them launch the new church. It was a week full of laughter, songs, arts and crafts, missions, recess, smiles, stickers, lessons and games. We went to be a blessing, and came home being doubly blessed.
I could not be more proud of the team of kids that we took with us. There was not one time where I asked one of them to do something where they acted like they did not want to do it. They were more than eager and willing to help. Often seeing what needed to be done and doing it before being asked. I was the adult helper in the older kids' class. The teacher was one of our 8th grade girls. She taught the class. She planned, prepped, and had all of the games organized. I did not have to do anything, but be crowd control. She was absolutely amazing! I brag on her, because I was with her, and I saw her in action. But while she was doing our class, there were other kids all over the building doing just as amazing a job at their stations. The Oldest Princess did music and missions. The Young Prince and his friend followed people around and took pictures and videos to put together a video of the week that the church planter could use as a promotion video. There were teens helping with the crafts. There were other teens helping with recess. And it all ran like a smoothly oiled machine. I was so proud of them! And then we would get on the bus and go back to our host church, where we would eat food that we may or may not have liked. But I never heard one complaint. We would take showers in shower trailers, where we may or may not have had hot water or water pressure, and still no complaints. We slept on air mattresses crammed into a small room, and woke up very early to do it all again the next day. And still no complaints.
In the middle of all of that, we laughed and picked on each other. We made memories that we will have for a lifetime. We fell in love with the couple that is planting the church and their precious children. We ate a few doughnuts, and retaped our encouragram envelopes back on the wall because the weight of all of the encouragrams from our church members made them tear and start to fall off the wall. We slept in the bus on the way to and from our project. We played song charades/interpretative dance and told very creative bedtime stories. We threw things at each other and did blob fish impersonations. We made new friends and worshipped together each night. We were encouraged to Live, Love and Speak Boldly. And our kids did just that. It was a week that I was very blessed to be a part of. It was my third World Changers, and my very favorite of the three.
Thursday night our kids were in tears telling some of our VBS kids good-bye. It was sad to know that we may not ever see some of those kids again this side of heaven.
Friday morning, we got up, repacked everything, let the air out of our air mattresses and loaded back up on the bus to head home. We had a pretty uneventful trip home. And the only thing we left behind was our van, which got sick and began pouring transmission fluid on Thursday night. So we left it there, to be doctored and did a little rearranging of the luggage to be sure that every person had a seat. Thankfully it all all worked out and we made it home much earlier than we had anticipated.
I was very glad to get home and see the Youngest Princess. Grammy had a roast in the crock pot, and that made me very happy too. We all took warm showers with lots of water pressure, and then we all zonked out. When we woke up the roast was ready, and we were starving, so it was perfect timing. We ate, watched some tv together, and went to bed. It was wonderful to sleep in our own beds again!
This morning was nice and relaxed. We slept in a little. We took our time getting up and getting ready. The kids and My Prince washed the cars. I did some laundry. I met with a friend for about an hour. Grammy and Poppy came over and joined us in eating hamburgers for dinner. Poppy and the Young Prince went shopping for fishing gear. All in all it was a good day. All in all it was a great week.
Until I blog again...
No comments:
Post a Comment