Meet Your Teacher Night

Today was our "last day of summer," as the kids go back to school tomorrow!  We spent the day at home, trying to rest up.  I taught lessons this morning and afternoon, and Jeremy and the kids played some Wii.  The girls cleaned out their overflowing closet, because I told them I am going to the resale shop next week and will take half of their stuff if they didn't choose some things to get rid of.  

The school did something different this year, and we thought it was a great idea...Instead of having an open house a few days after the start of school, the elementary had Meet Your Teacher Night from 6-7pm tonight.  We got to take all the kids' bags and bags of school supplies, and they didn't have to carry them on the bus.  They got to see their classrooms, meet their teachers, find their desks and lockers and see all the things that had changed over the summer--with parents along to help.  It was such a lovely evening, and I'm sure, will make for a much easier, less nerve-wracking first day back tomorrow!

We went first to Caeden's 2nd grade classroom, and met his lovely teacher, Miss Johnson.  We're excited for him to be in her class!

Sylvia's 4th grade teacher is Mrs. Meyer, whom Annah also had for 4th grade.  Sylvia's grade is larger than others in the school, and they've had 3 classrooms until this year.  She has 25 kids in her class, but is excited that some of her closest friends are among them--like her friend Ella!

4th graders have combination lockers at our school, which Sylvia has admitted a few times she is nervous about.  She was able to open her locker a few times tonight, so is feeling much better about that!

Now, this is the photo that made me cry tonight when I came home and loaded them to the computer...

Addie helped Annah get her locker all set up for junior high, and it looks pretty cute with her pink locker shelves and pencil holders, I must say.  But when I stopped for a moment and looked at our sweet little girl all ready to go off to SIXTH GRADE, it shook me for a minute.  People say it constantly, but it is still truly shocking how fast time races by and children grow.  I'm so thankful Annah is growing beautifully, and most of all, that she is doing all her growing along with Jesus.  The thought of the social part of junior high is what scares me most, but I am actually excited to see her grow this year.  She has her head on straight.  We are praying diligently for her protection, pushing gently for her to always do her very best, and trusting she will continue to grow and be a shining light in her school and relationships.

Actually, we hope and pray those same things for all the kids.  They are such blessings, and we do love every part of getting through this life together and trying to grow through whatever comes our way.  Praise God!

Fundraisers

We have had several fundraisers lately, in which local restaurants partnered with PoC to give a portion of the bill to PoC when people came in on a designated day.  Today it was Avanti's, and have one more coming up next week--Monical's.  As I've been making these flyers available to our launch team to share with others, it started feeling like we've been asking for money a lot over these past few months.  I felt led to offer a bit of explanation on my Facebook wall today, for those friends who may be getting irritated with my fundraising flyer posts or just don't understand exactly what planting a church is about.  That post is below.

You may have noticed that we are part of a team helping to plant a new church in our city. You probably noticed we’ve been asking for money a lot. You might have wondered why we would suddenly leave church we’ve loved for more than 10 years. You may have wondered or assumed and felt you shouldn’t ask...but there are no secrets here.

It all comes down to this: God told us to. 

There are many 

wonderful churches in our city. But, there are actually very few churches in the southwest part of town where we are planting. People in every corner of every town need the Lord. Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19, to “...Go and make disciples of all nations...” We are starting right here where we are. God has put us here, in this corner of this nation. We are burdened for the people of our city and want them to be able to know Jesus.

I have heard some people say that all the church wants is your money. I’ve really found that is not true--at least not in the churches I’ve been privileged to be part of. However, I will say, starting a church from nothing does require some funding and donations. We want to have Bibles to give to people who come to our church that don’t have one. We need to have systems and resources in place to protect and teach the children who come. There are a lot of basic needs required, and God is helping provide these through the generous donations of many people. We are so grateful, and we are committed to using the resources wisely to bless as many people as God brings.

We would never have chosen to leave our church home, where we have been grown and ministered to and learned so much about the love of God...We would not have done that of our own choice. But, we prayed and fasted and sought God’s will and clearly felt His calling to go. We needed to obey God! We didn’t feel that we left, but that we were being sent, lovingly by our church family, along with others from our church family...not to divide the church, but to multiply and extend the family and the love of God. Churches are not in competition. We are all in the same thing together...to love people and tell and show them that there is love and joy and peace and forgiveness in knowing Jesus, and to live and get through life together. We are grateful to have had such a wonderful church family who taught us how this works, and sent us out to continue this in another part of our community. They are still our family, and we love them all so much.

Planting a new church is pretty hard work. We depend on the Lord, and we depend a lot on others. We lose some sleep working into the wee hours. We have lots of meetings. But, most of all we pray. We continue to live life and have troubles and need Jesus all the time. We take time to pray for others and minister to those in need. We get overwhelmed by all there is to do sometimes, but more than that we are constantly overwhelmed at how great it all is when we are constantly walking with the Lord. He is incredibly good to us.

Right after He told us to GO, in Matthew 28:20 Jesus promised“...And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” And He keeps His promises.

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As Jeremy is off work this week, we decided to head into town at lunchtime to catch the Avanti's fundraiser at lunch.  The kids love their pizza bread!  Jeremy had their yummy spaghetti with meat sauce.  I tried something new to me today, and totally grossed Jeremy out! ;)  It was spinach rotini filled with feta and artichoke and topped with clam sauce.  It did look pretty unappealing, but it was good.  Jeremy said he didn't even want to pay for it! ;)

We ran some errands, and by the time we finished the grocery shopping, it was almost time for supper.  So, we called Avanti's and ordered a couple pizzas to pick up on our way home.  Mmmm!  

The Sword of the Spirit

Celia is well again, and led our 8:30 pre-service prayer this morning.  She talked about the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, and how he praised the Lord and gave forgiveness even through the very moments while he was being persecuted and killed for his preaching about Jesus.  

So powerful.  I love our pre-service prayer time.

Our current sermon series is called "guts&glory...oh, it's on!" and is all about the armor of God.  Today Pastor Brian spoke poignantly about the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, the Bible.  Studying and knowing scripture truly is our best weapon of defense against the difficulties of this world.

"Goliath" visited children's worship this morning.  (He looks a little familiar to us...hmm...)

PoC is coming together

We did some more work on design elements at the church this morning.  Jeremy and Dustin painted the buckets of concrete that hold up our sanctuary curtain framing.  The kids put together yard signs that everyone on the launch team will receive tomorrow!  I worked on pressing the edges of what will be the skirt for the stage platforms.

The girls helped Kim with some of the foyer decorations. (Caeden elected not to help, but agreed to pose for the picture.)

This evening was Supper Club, with an Olympic Minute-to-Win-It theme.  Fun times!

Once Supper Club was over about 9pm, cleanup/setup for tomorrow morning could start.  Since we are still making/putting together some things, and haven't completely developed the system of how setup will go, it took a while.  

I decided to get out of the way, and went to the workshop area to start sewing the stage skirt.  I am SO not a seamstress, but I was able to sew the loop side of the velcro on and hem the bottom of one of the sections!  Clearly God was guiding the sewing machine, as I barely am able to operate it.  Kim and Jeremy put the skirt on the front of the stage, and it actually looks really nice.  

The setup crew found that some things took longer than last time, and are continuing to brainstorm ways to make it go more smoothly and easily.  We left the church at about 11:30pm, totally exhausted, but excited to come back for worship in the morning!

A Hang-out-at-home Day

The kids played with Littlest PetShop a bit today...always so cute to watch them.

It has been nice and cool the past few days, and we decided to turn on the oven and bake!  We've been itching to try making these Jello Cookies for a while.  They were easy and fun to make, and so colorful and tasty too!  

Annah mixed up the dough, I added the Jello powder and food coloring, and the kids rolled them into balls and in Jello.  Fun!

Sleepovers!

All three kids got to have a sleepover last night.  Annah had Ashley over to our house, Sylvia went to Eliza's and we did "the ol' switcheroo" and Owen came to stay with Caeden.  

Annah made up some interesting "Olympic" games the four kids played upstairs.  Some of the events were Potholder Loop Fling, Play-dough Sculptures, Belt Tying, Teacup Carpet Air Hockey, and  Scissor Pencil Sharpening.

I absolutely love that these girls are 11, and they asked if they could play play-dough! They also played some Trouble!

The boys played with Legos (which Caeden was very excited to see, after being without them most of the summer) until we made them go to bed just before 10pm.  The girls were watching a movie and struggling to stay awake.  They gave in and went to bed about 11.  Just before they came upstairs, I saw a light go on in Caeden's room.  When I went in, the boys were sitting up in bed, looking at a Lego magazine by flashlight!  "We can't fall asleep!" they tried to tell me.  I told them, of course they couldn't, while sitting up and reading by flashlight!  Silly boys!  

I really don't think they slept at all last night, because when Jeremy got up at 4:00am, Caeden bolted out of his room and down the stairs ahead of Jeremy!  When Jeremy made him come back upstairs, he saw Owen on his way to the bathroom.  Then we heard them talking some more.  Jeremy told them they needed to get to sleep for at least a couple more hours.  They were up and rooting through the Legos before 6:30.  

We had waffles for breakfast.

 Caeden and Owen played as much Wii Super Mario Galaxy 2 as they possibly could last night and today.

And a little Mario Kart, which they let Annah join in on after Ashley had to leave this morning.

At one point, while the boys were upstairs playing Legos this morning, I asked them how they were doing.  Caeden said, "We're having a blast!"  and Owen agreed, "Yeah, we're having the time of our lives right now!"  Such good friends. 

Owen wanted to try the ice cream ball, so the boys tried playing with it soccer-style this afternoon.

It was a little hard on the bare feet, so they switched...

Sylvia and Eliza were busy making cake pops when we went to switch the kids back.  I hear they were full of smiles and giggles and totally enjoyed their time together.  Dear, compatible girls.

Dana and I agreed that we were so glad the kids all got to have some time together, as they are moving about 45 minutes away (and out of our school district) next week.  The kids won't be in school together anymore.  I won't have Eliza and Koty for lessons anymore.  We won't see them regularly anymore.  But, we are grateful for the time we've had, and we hope we can still make time to get together and keep in touch.  We're so grateful for these friendships!

Not for Potting

Back in April, we planted Sweet Williams, Bachelor Buttons, and Zinnia's in terra cotta pots on our front porch.  Annah and Jeremy were diligent to water them during the drought we've had, so they did grow.  But, we now know that none of those are the kind of flower that should be planted in a pot!  The Sweet Williams haven't any blooms yet, though they do look green and hearty.  The Bachelor Buttons were scrawny and wispy, and looked like the weeds that grow along the fields and roadsides.  They are all curled up and dead now.  These few Zinnia's are pretty, but only three bloomed.  They are about 3 feet tall in the pot and look pretty silly.

I really do not have a green thumb at all.  But they do make for pretty pictures.  ;)

Haircut Day

The girls are staying with Gram and Krampa this week, and went to see Mindy for haircuts today.   They look lovely and ready to go back to school next week. 

Car Races

We had SUCH a beautiful day today!!  All of July was so unbearably hot, the kids hardly played outside at all.  Caeden has become a bit too used to playing video games, so I told him to play outside today.  He took his Lightning McQueen and Mater cars outside for some races.

My Lord, What a Mornin'!

It was after 10pm when we left the church last night, hoping we had as much as possible prepared for worship this morning.  In the night, we were awakened by thunder and lightning and rain (Praise God!) at 1:45.  Also during the wee hours, a family's little boy was hospitalized for recurring seizures, and we were awakened with texts from Pastor Todd that he was stable but being transferred to the children's hospital in Peoria.  That also meant our children's director and some of the teachers wouldn't be there today, because they are the little guy's family, and Pastor Todd would be going on next to no sleep, as he went to the hospital at 5am this morning.  

So, while we were excited about our first morning in the new building, our hearts were heavy for our little friend in the hospital and so many other physical and emotional struggles going on within our church family.  We were exhausted from working so hard physically this week.  But, we recognize that we are in a fight.  Satan doesn't want another church in town preaching and praising and worshipping Jesus.  Our excitement and love for God is much stronger than the devil!

So, we got up at 5am and we did church!  Jeremy was there by 6:30, I think, making sure the building was clean and things were ready for people to come in.  I took Caeden in at 7:30 for praise band practice.  

Things were not "perfect." Our drummer was sick, so we had only one keyboard and one guitar and 4 singers...which is still plenty enough to lift praise.  Our prayer director, who is also a greeter, had become sick in the night, and wasn't able to be there to lead our pre-service prayer time...But we still prayed, and God was with us!

We let God lead the way He wanted to service to go, including Angela being prompted to add in the "old" song Holy Ground and reading of much of 2 Chronicles 6-7 as we, in a way, dedicated the temple to the Lord today.  

We still have a lot of chairs to fill.  There were nearly as many in the children's area as in the sanctuary today.  But, it is not about the numbers of people; it is about lives changing.  

God is working out amazing stories in lives of this church, and in the lives of those we know and love.  We are privileged to be a part of His plan!  It is exciting!

Even while we work hard on the details of planting a church, we work hard at the personal things--prayer, worship, ministering to the sick and hurting, helping those in need, having fun together, studying the Bible, reaching out to others...these are what the church really does, the most important things.

We all knew the Holy Spirit was with us this morning.  He comforted us, gave us joy and peace, made us glad, and reminded us that He keeps His promises.  We had a beautiful time of worship and learning and prayer together.

Our announcement time turned into an impromptu launch team meeting after church.  We all received PoC pens, invitation business cards, and flyers about 3 fundraisers we're having this week.  Though we've been able to accomplish a lot, there is still a great deal to do. 

 “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! ¹⁹ Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, ²⁰  that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. ²¹ And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive."

- 2 Chronicles 6:18-21