I have to say - yesterday God was stretching me. I was up at the crack of dawn to serve with one of our new Sunday leaders for setup and breakdown. I loved having the chance to sit with him and speak from my heart about the passion of plugging people in and getting them connected in church - in our church family. I do believe that our new Sunday leader is a great fit and I think God will be using him in ways he doesn't even imagine yet.
I got to address 50+ kids in project 252 yesterday. It has been a long time since speaking in front of that many kids but I was not nervous at all for some reason. Maybe because what I had to say came from a place that really loves those kids. I am thankful for the leaders in our youth group - they are amazing people and willing to tackle those complex things that our youth is really fighting with these days. Our youth Pastor told me yesterday that they had 4 kids yesterday give their lives to Christ! That is what it is all about ...that is why all of us serve the way we do. Together - we are making a difference! If one part of the body fails - or doesn't do what it is supposed to do - or continues to drop the ball - we could end up losing the entire body. It takes each piece of the church to make it work - for someone to come to know Christ.
In K-5 yesterday, Carol was leading the lesson. With 4 assistants - it was all we could do to keep the flow going. Our lesson was on tything and God asks for 10% of our fruit. Give Him our best - so the last few days we saved up some half eaten pizza slices and we crushed up some gold fish and flat half empty soda bottles. We then told the kids we loved them and we brought them food in. Once they got there eyes on the pizza - it was nuts. We again told them we love them and we dropped the pizza box on the table. Man, you should have seen their faces when they opened the box and didn't see a pizza - but just the pieces. That is how we treat God when we don't give Him our firsts, our best and His share in our lives. So many times we just give Him our leftovers. Do you think God will bless that? It was a great lesson - Carol - you did an awesome job with it!!

Rock group started at 4:30 for me. I had the kids meeting at "The Way" at the pumpkin patch. This is our k-5 kids that get together once a month and have some fun. We have 2 great leaders running that ministry and yesterday - there were lots of new faces! After the patch - we then ran home for Rock Group. It was a great meeting with lots of good things shared and discussed. I ended the meeting with a prayer that I found while cleaning out my computer. I broke down a few times and had to regroup as it was hard for me to finish it because it was written at a time in my life - being a new baby Christian but also at a time that was really hard. I think we have a few folks in our RG that are in those same places - tough places and their faith really being tested. I pray that it spoke to someone in some way. I prayed that prayer for almost the entire week........and it was an honor to share it with my peeps.

Its fall break here at work the next few days. Enjoying the peace and quiet - getting a chance to work on some stuff we don't normall get to work on. Nice change of pace..... change is good sometimes right?
Hope everyone has a great Monday~
Lon~