Saturday, August 25, 2007 God's Provision
Our 2nd week of school went well ~ we are still not up to full throttle, but are easing in. This week we added Tapestry of Grace ~ history, geography, bible, and literature ~ to the math and chores we started the week before. Next week we add writing and science. Yesterday was the first meeting of our TOG Yr. 1 Co-op, and it went really well! We have 13 families in the group, and we meet every Friday from 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM. The kids are divided into 5 age groups ~ Babies/ PreK , K-3rd, 4th-5th, 6th-7th, and 8th -9th. Each group works separately with 2-3 moms, doing crafts, discussing the week's history & literature assignments, playing games, etc. We have a 1 hour lunch and recreation break from 11:30-12:30 so everyone gets to play and talk together during that time. My group ( 8th-9th ) played Jeopardy, using a game board and question cards I had prepared. They played in partners, with each one earning the points for their question. My teaching partner kept track of the score while I read the questions. We used this as a review of the facts from the week's reading in history, geography, and Bible. I think the girls ( there are 6 girls in the group, and 1 boy who was on vacation this week) realized that they need to pay closer attention to the details when they read, because they stumbled on coming up the answers to questions that they knew were fairly easy. So hopefully next week we'll see an improvement in their readiness!
I really view this group as one of God's provisions for our homeschool. It gives me some needed accountability and the kids something to look forward to and prepare for each week.
I have been without a car all week, since Mark's Honda had to go in the shop to have the transmission replaced. ugh I don't know if there is ever a "good" time for a big financial hit like that, but this comes on top of still paying for our family trip this spring, as well as school books and supplies, clothes & shoes ( these things just keep wearing out!), college tuition bills, a son needing wisdom teeth pulled..... Last night Mark compared our financial crunch to the story of Gideon found in the Bible in Judges 6 & 7. Gideon raised an army of 32,000 Israelites to fight the Midianites. But God said that there were too many, and told Gideon to send home all but 300 men. God wanted them to know that their own strength wouldn't bring them victory, but trust in Him alone. So maybe God is showing us that we cannot trust in our own resources, but in His provision?
I love the story of George Mueller, the 19th century English evangelist and orphanage director. He cared for over 100,000 orphans in 5 different homes, but never solicited financial support. Rather, he relied on God to provide through His people, as the Holy Spirit prompted them. One morning, the story goes, there was no food left in the home to feed the orphans. George led morning prayers as usual, thanking the Lord for his wonderful provision for them. A knock on the door came shortly afterwards, from a local baker who told them that he had felt compelled to bake bread for the orphans that morning. Then a milkman came to the door, saying that his cart had broken down in the street in front of the orphanage, and would they take the milk he had, since it would have to be spilled in the street otherwise.
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Friday, June 22, 2007 Heart for the Orphan
My favorite book when I was young ( okay, one of my favorites - I was a big reader ) was The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss, the autobiographical story of a young couple who adopted 12 children, most considered "unadoptable" because they were of mixed-race. As a young teen, I must have read this little dog-eared paperback dozens of times, and I still have it. I always thought I would someday adopt children, just like the Dosses.
Well, I got married fresh out of college, and having babies wasn't a problem for us. We struggled a bit ( mostly he ) with how big our family should be, but ended up with 5 precious children, spread over 13 years. They are a joy and a pleasure and a gift - and costly and frustrating and time consuming. But I can't think of a better way to spend my life than in pouring myself into raising and teaching and loving these unique gifts from God. I hadn't given adoption much thought until this past year, when I started to spend a lot of time with friends who have felt God's call to enlarge their family through adoption. http://www.jobsdaughters.blogspot.com/. Suddenly it seems that God is doing some serious shaking up of the Christian community in regards to the plight of orphans. Family Life and Focus on the Family have recently joined together with Shaohannah's Hope ( started by Christian recording star Steven Curtis Chapman ) to form Voice of the Orphan, to raise awareness of the orphan crisis worldwide and to spur Christians to action. Family Life also has their own Hope for the Orphans, to provide information and assistance for individuals and churches interested in adoption and adoption ministry. Oprah Winfrey has featured orphans and adoption stories on her TV show. Of course, celebrities Madonna and Angelina Jolie have also gotten lots of media attention for their international adoptions.
Most amazing to me is the subtle work going on the hearts of everyday people like you and me ~ people with busy families and full lives, who are feeling their hearts being pulled toward the orphan. Several people in my own circle of friends have been surprised to learn that each was feeling similar stirrings in their hearts. The need is huge, gigantic, overwhelming. But one family can totally transform the life of one child ~ giving them hope and a future that they otherwise would not have. Many families can rescue many children. Hundreds of families, hundreds of kids....
God doesn't ask us to save the world. But he might be calling us to stretch out of our comfort zone and share our abundance with one desperately needy child, and give them a FAMILY. Or to come alongside and help others in that task.
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007 Summer Means Summer Camp
For the last nine years, summer has meant New Life Camp for my children. Nestled in a wooded corner next to a water treatment plant and across from a medical center in N. Raleigh, NLC is a seemingly innocuous Christian camp which has been operating for over 50 years. It is a small camp, with rustic cabins that have patches in the screens and holes in the floor boards and generations of campers' names scrawled in ink over every square inch of wall space. Metal bunks with thin, sagging mattresses line the walls, and a large electric ceiling fan stirs the sultry Carolina summer air. Yet these are 5-star accomodations in the eyes of many children and young adults who flock here each summer. A concrete basketball court , a gazebo, and a picnic shelter providing shade to several ping pong and carpetball tables grace the center of the camp. A small swimming pond of muddy water features a zip line, diving platform, and water slide which provide hours of fun for the boys and girls who enjoy them during their separate swim times each day. Hungry campers fill up on stacks of pancakes, plates of sausage gravy and biscuits, T macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, pizza, and spaghetti in the newly air-conditioned dining hall ~ gourmet dining at its finest! When hunger and thirst strike mid-morning or afternoon, the Snack Shack is ready to provide popcorn, candy, snowcones, ice cream bars, and soda. Up on the hill, across the "athletic field", is the gym, built several years ago to provide indoor recreation space for the growing camp programs. Ultimate elimination dodge ball and the climbing wall, not to mention the BIG GAME held during Teen Week are found in the gym. Cabin devotions are led each morning by the staff of devoted young men and women who spend their summers earning little but living for the Lord as camp counselors. Bible classes, Missionary Moments, Skit Night, and Evening Campfire reinforce the message of hope and the challenge to live a life that makes a difference. A new group of campers arrives every Sunday afternoon, and soon learns "the ways of NLC" via the Rules Video. Cabins are meticulously cleaned each morning by their occupants as they compete with one another for the distinction of earning "Honor Cabin" for the week. Games, challenges, prayers, competition, kindness, skills, homesickness, encouragement, drama, worship, sweat, refreshment, testimony ~ all part of the NLC experience.
Some campers come back as teens to serve as CITS, some can't stay away even as they head into adulthood and join the summer staff as counselors. NLC seems to get into your blood.
The camp may seem old and run down at first glance, with little to offer in the way of amenities... but the fierce devotion of NLCampers tells something of the heart of the people who minister there. To many people, young and old, no place on earth is as beautiful as New Life Camp.
www.newlifecamp.com
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