Haiti 2012

July 7th-17th (exactly six weeks from today), we're taking the high schoolers back to Haiti to run another VBS. 

In between finals and EOCs, AP testing and graduation, they are super excited about the trip, and we are beyond excited to be taking them! (Although, "we" is much smaller this year - 3 or 4 leaders compared to the 8 we had last year - with the same number of kids.) It will be an adventure to see what God does with the very unique group of people that He has pulled together for this. Of course, when is following God ever not an adventure?

We have fourteen amazing high school students, one young college age, one older college age/potential leader, and three youth leaders. Nineteen all told, with plane tickets being bought on Tuesday. 

In missions land, the purchasing of plane tickets is a big deal - the point where the commitment has been made, a good chunk of the money has been provided, and people are either all in or all out. So, this is about to become very, very REAL. At least, real in the tangible, logistical sense of reality. It has been real in the hearts and minds of the people going for far longer than that. 

It has been prayed over, thought about, wished through, and talked to death. It is still alive and constantly pulsing at the back of minds and hearts. The kids who went last year have come to three conclusions:

1) We don't have any idea what God is going to do.

2) It is going to be nothing like what we saw Him do last year.

3) It is going to be amazing. 

These kids are faithful and servant hearted and frighteningly good at loving with everything that they have. I have already heard them pray hard things over the trip, the type of fully surrendered prayers that God seems to take delight in answering, so I know that, whatever else it turns out to be, it will be a trip where Christ is present. 

SOLD responses

If a picture speaks a thousand words, does a picture of words speak ten thousand?

Not fans of change

Upon hearing story number 9,796,000 about "my kids" the other day (not that I would ever be full of kid stories or anything...) my sister laughingly mentioned that, "Your kids really don't like change, do they?" Umm. No. Not really. No.

Sometimes I forget just how much they don't like change. And then, a second grader, who goes through three pencils in an hour and a half because he doesn't realize when they've fallen on the floor and can't remember whether or not he put socks on this morning, comes running up for a hug and pulls away afterwards with the phrase, "Where did you get your new bracelet?"

Or, I wear a different than normal necklace to school and end up taking it off my neck on the playground so that curious little fingers can touch it and make sure that they know what it really is. Because, heaven forbid they go to play until they have decided.

I've always kind of joked that kids like me because nothing about me ever changes - clothing, hair, jewelry, shoes, response to their shenanigans. As the school year draws to a close and already hypervigilant kids are on higher than ever alert, I'm starting to think that might be more true than I would have guessed.

(I had a couple of panic stricken 5th grade boys the other day, because my hair was in a braid instead of a ponytail, and, even though I was wearing the exact same clothes they has seen me wear at least once a week for the last five months, from the back, they couldn't tell if it was actually me. As if someone else would take my clothes and come stand in my spot to pick them up for reading group...

But, these are the same boys who spotted me at their choir concert even though I was across the gym and up two sets of bleachers in a sea of faces. Typically they are ninja status in their Ms. Jessica spotting ability, so they found not being able to instantly identify me more than a little disconcerting.)

Add in the behaviors that speak - sometimes very loudly - when they don't have the words to get it across, and... Nope. They are not fans of change.

SOLD

The exhibit is up in the gym and, so far, drawing a pretty steady crowd. We've sent over 300 people through since our official opening on Friday evening.

The volunteers have been amazingly flexible and willing to do whatever is needed whenever it is needed - everything from their actual job, to painting red hands and sitting around waiting for the next wave of attendees to arrive.

If you haven't checked out the site yet, soldexperience.org is up and running, and it looks great.

We're open until next Sunday, so, if you're in Tri-town, come and visit us! (If you're anywhere else on the west coast, book the exhibit on the site, and we'll come visit you!

Chasing Rabbits

I love getting the chance to see the world through the eyes of my 4th and 5th graders.

We had a small group this week (technically three small groups, as I had my own kids and the kids from two other groups), and the kids relished the chance to not have to be quite so loud in order to be heard!

One of the fifth grade girls was quick to remind us that we could share "sad" things about our weeks as well as awesome things. The kids from the other groups looked at her like she was a little crazy and then jumped right in, quick to follow her confident example.

The verse for the month is Proverbs 19:7-8, which is chock full of weird words and phrases, so we were dissecting it a little. "The statutes of the Lord are just, making wise the simple," translated into kid speak as, "even if you have a hard time knowing how to make good choices, following God's rules will always turn out to be a wise choice."

There were still a few furrowed brows, so I clarified, "Can you be super smart and still have a hard time making smart decisions?" Lightbulb as one of the girls looks at me. "Like M! He's really smart, but he lots of times doesn't make good decisions." And, boom. They all knew exactly what the verse was talking about. Not the illustration I would have used, but, whatever works.

Note: M wasn't present this week, but she could have (would have) said the exact same thing to his face, and he would not have taken offense, because there us something entirely earnest about her, even as she is grinning and referring to the boys from their school as 'her knuckleheads.'

We ran and climbed a tree and threw seed balls and ran some more. We found a rabbit in the parking lot and made sure that it stayed out of the classrooms. We listened to a story and snuck into big church to hear a spoken word piece from a guest artist.

But, the kids' response when prompted to think of something that they had learned or God had done during church that they could tell their parents about was unanimously, "like the rabbit!"

Yes. Like the rabbit. Like the rabbit that God put in the parking lot just for us because He delights in giving gifts that make His children smile and because there is something that He wants you to remember about this week. This week with the rabbit and the poet who has rad hair and words that are faster than your brain can comprehend. I don't know what it is, but He does.