Sunday

I will give you an assignment for tonight, but I want you to spend the evening with your dads, making sure that they feel honored and special. We will be meeting up early Monday morning to get started hardcore.

DO: start packing
 
RSVP and let me know if you plan to be there Monday morning and for how long: until noon, all day, spending the night, etc...
 
Check your email (or look for me at church!) to get your “assignment” for tonight!

READ: Joshua 1:9

PRAY: that God would clear your schedule at the times that He wants you to be a part of this thing.

Saturday

 
Enjoy your crazy day, and get ready for Monday morning!
 
Sunday night, I will give you an assignment, but I want you to spend the evening with your dads, making sure that they feel honored and special. We will be meeting up early Monday morning to get started hardcore.
 
DO: listen to the conversations around you today and take note of what people are talking about. How often do justice things come up?

READ: Matthew 6 at least three times, even if you have to do it verse by verse in between graduation parties or fundraisers. Be intentional, and take the time to finish it.

PRAY: for excitement and creativity over the next month, because, guys, our goal is to change the world.
 
 

Friday

Someday, I will be able to think of this day of the week without the song running through my head...
 
In the meantime, I”m excited to see you Monday morning.
 
Sunday night, I will give you an assignment, but I want you to spend the evening with your dads, making sure that they feel honored and special. We will be meeting up early Monday morning to get started hardcore.
 
DO: set aside a backpack and fill it with two sets of clothes, one that you'll wear on the day that you come join us and one for in case you end up spending the night.

READ: Psalms 37 and highlight the parts that confuse you. If you get the chance, go back over it again and ask someone about it.

PRAY: that God would start showing you things now that will tie into the rest of the month (issues, ideas, actions, people, etc).

Thursday

We're getting closer! If I don't have your email address or phone number, I need them soon. Otherwise, there will be participation forms for your parents to fill out whenever you join us!
 
Sunday night, I will give you an assignment, but I want you to spend the evening with your dads, making sure that they feel honored and special. We will be meeting up early Monday morning to get started hardcore.
 
DO: take five minutes to write down any ideas that you want to see come life over the next month, things that your gut gets excited about – even if it's that you want to do a flash mob in the middle of Howard Amon park. Just write it down!

READ: Matthew 25:31–46 at least twice, and feel free to let it bother you.  

PRAY: for friends to invite along, even if just for an hour. (Maybe Suzy and Billy Bob have always wanted to do a flash mob too!)

In Preparation

The “Focus Month” officially starts on Sunday night. Are you ready? I know that I am not. There are a  dozen other things that need to happen between then and now: graduations, yard sales, car washes, birthday parties, Father's Day, etc. And, quite frankly, I get busy and distract – Ooh! Shiny!
 
So... we'll keep it simple, something to do, read, and pray in preparation for the next month. (Even if you can't be with us in real life, feel free to follow along on this blog and participate in any way that you can!)
 
DO: check out the packing list and make sure that, even if you're not planning to join us for several weeks, you have everything that you are going to need. Get a hold of me if you don't, and we'll figure it out!
 
READ: Isaiah 58 at least three times over the course of the day – if you're out and busy, look it up on your phone and read a verse or two in between events.
 
PRAY: for creative ideas to bring to life over the next month. Maybe you've always wanted to do X,Y, or Z but never quite had the guts to do it by yourself. Tell somebody about it! We can probably make it happen.
Sunday night, I will give you an assignment, but I want you to spend the evening with your dads, making sure that they feel honored and special. We will be meeting up early Monday morning to get started hardcore.

Ancient

Well, all of the new freshmen survived their first night of high school youth group, so I think that that counts as a success! Now, we just have to wait and see how many of them come back next week...

It was ridiculously fun to have them, though, and we kept them busy running around and playing games all night.

I taught quite a few of the kids when they were in third grade Sunday school, but, when I tried to convince them that they weren't allowed to be in high school because it made me too old, they just laughed at me and informed me that I am, in fact, old.

Clearly, I missed the memo whereby twenty-two was declared ancient!

Crazy Morning

Crazy Sunday, but a good Sunday.

The Haiti team sold homemade brownies and ice-cream between and after church services as a fundraiser, summer Sunday school started for the elementary schoolers, the new sixth graders moved up to middle school for the first time, and the new freshmen come to high school youth group to tonight.

Because of when I ran out of the fundraiser and showed up for elementary Sunday school, I ended up helping with crafts - meaning that I got to see all three groups of kids cycle through, rather than just stick with one group the entire time. The difference between the first two groups of 1st-3rd graders and the last group of new 4th and 5th graders was... just a little pronounced.

Smaller room, bigger kids, lack of leaders that the fifth graders knew and trusted (although not a lack of leaders), last station of the day, "new" situation (although we've done this every summer that they would remember), and a group that is not used to being herded = much noise and plenty of needing to know that they were heard and seen even in a massive crowd.

Normal behavior for 4th and 5th grade, but pretty entertaining to watch the teachers who are used to younger kids try to adjust to, nonetheless. But, we have an awesome group of high school shepherds (Sunday school teachers) who just rolled with the punches and loved on the kids regardless. Because, yes, these high schoolers really are that amazing.

* Hopefully, as the summer goes on, we'll get some shepherds in who are a little farther from their own elementary years. The high schoolers are AMAZING, but the kids need to know that "real adults" - to borrow a phrase from a 4th grader - care about them too. And, the high schoolers need to know that it's not all being left to them! *

Vegan Chocolate Spice Cake

This chocolate spice cake was modified from a recipe that someone modified from a recipe, but I think that you still ought to be able to google the original cake under the name, "wacky cake."

Either way, it's tasty, cheap (although, not quite as cheap as the plain spice cake), vegan, and invariably makes me think of "The Outsiders" when I run our of time to make oatmeal and end up snagging a piece for breakfast.

The recipe may sound a little odd, but it works! I promise!

(Fair warning: chocolate/cocoa are often slave produced commodities, so make sure that yours wears the Fair Trade label before you buy it.)

1.5 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder (or the approximate equivalent of unsweetened baker's chocolate
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup water

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large skillet heat water, shortening, sugars, cocoa, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly (the spices and melted chocolate will want to stick to the sides and the sugars will want to burn to the bottom, if left unattended.) Let cool slightly.

Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, mixing well. Pour vinegar on top. Add the liquid from the skillet, and mix until you have a smooth batter.

Pour mixture into a greased 8×8 cake pan. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Cool and eat. Like most cakes, this one is better if you can resist until the second day. But, who really wants to wait that long?

Business Meeting

Sunday night was the annual business meeting at church, and the first business meeting that I have been to since I became a member (right before leaving for Kenya).

Nothing super amazing, but it was a good use of an evening nonetheless, and it was cool to have members from all three of the sites and all however-many of the venues together in the same spot at the same time. We voted on some elder nominations and the purchase of a new piece of land from one if the smaller sites that has been meeting in a theater. We worshipped with teams from all of the sites.

And...they talked a little bit about starting to pass on leadership of the church, which was, quite honestly, a little weird to hear, because, with the exception of a few staff who have been hired from out of town over the last few years, most of the leadership has been around, and been in leadership, for as long as I can remember.

I'm not sure which is weirder, the thought of different people being in charge or the thought of these people NOT being in charge.

Either way, though, I am excited to see what God continues to do in and through this church that has worked so hard to be; not just another mega-church, but a body that is legitimately on fire for Christ.

Vegan Spice Cake

This is a heavy but extremely tasty spice cake (almost to the point of being a gingerbread). It's cheap, easy, vegan, and the sort of thing that it feels like Laura Ingals Wilder might have eaten.

The steps are a little weird, but I've done it several times, and they really do work.

1 cup water
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Place water, cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar, shortening, nutmeg and salt in a saucepan and mix. Place on heat and bring to a boil. Cook 3 minutes. Allow to cool, then sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir into cooked mixture.

You should end up with a very thick batter that will have to be pushed into the edges of your pan. Transfer batter to a well-oiled pan and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until cake tests done.

Cool and enjoy!

Moving Up

My fifth graders spent their last hour in the Children's Wing this morning. (Or, my fifth grader, as the case may be. We are well into the season of weekend sports, so, out of a tiny group of seven kids, I had one fifth grader, one sixth grader, a third grader and four fourth graders.)

He was excited to be moving up, though, and, seeing as these are the children who practically melt with relief when they make it the ten steps across a crowded room to where our small group is standing, I plan to sic a few leaders on him and a couple of my other fifth graders, to make sure that they do more than stand in the entry way, wide eyed, and hesitant  to go anywhere near a large group of humans.

They have been amazing to have in my small group, and it's been so much fun to watch them grow as they get more confident in all of this God stuff and more confident in the fact that I will always tell them the truth, no matter what they ask.

(The fourth graders were amazing as well. I just have a little more time to hang out with them still. One of the boys informed me confidently that he was, "going to be in [my] group next year too." Which, as most of my kids ended up placing themselves into my group, regardless of where they were "supposed" to be, might just end up working out for him. Lol.)

We finished off the year with a Jeopardy style competition between the small groups to see who remembered the most from the year. And... they kicked butt. They remembered not only all of the memory verses (Oh, the excited eyes and fist pumping that occurred when they realized that was one of the categories!) but also characters and events from the various stories AND when we did which virtue.

I just wish someone else could have overheard them talking through the questions, because it was pretty hilarious at times. "No, forgiveness was in May!" "No!" "Yeah! It was! 'Cause, that's when we had the donut fight!" "Oh, yeah!"

Clearly, whatever we did this year, over 39 weeks of laughing, sweating, running, jumping, flopping on the ground, chaotic, sometimes bleeding, never slow, sharing of our lives, was enough to make some lessons stick and imbed some verses deep enough to not be forgotten.

Now, we just need to find a way to teach that to other small groups!