If you aren't quite sure what "the games" means, you can catch up by jumping over to this post!
First day of our challenge. As I thought about all the things on my personal challenge list (to begin with, I was grateful the Holy Spirit kept me from committing to THIRTY!), and then added in the three for our family, I thought that perhaps a daily blog post about every item on both lists might be a bit of an overkill. So I thought I'd just give some highlights every couple of days or so...
So here I go!
For some reason, I've always had this desire to try grilled watermelon. So yesterday, day one, was my day. I was super pumped. Yah... it was all right. I mean, I 'm not sure what exactly it was that I was expecting. But that wasn't it. I mean, it wasn't horrible. It just wasn't... well, it just wasn't. But it looks cool!
And if you want to try it for yourself, this is the recipe that I used. I did love the honey. And the salt. There was just something that was... off. I don't know. But it was new, so it counted!
In regards to the other aspects of our challenge, my kiddos were beyond cute when they were working on their cards and letters. The funniest moment for me was when the older two were being a little... over zealous, shall we say... in their excitement. I didn't want to squelch their passion, so I took a couple of deep breaths to gain perspective.
Daniel suddenly became very perplexed and says, "Oh, no. Mama, am I frustrating you?"
His sincerity took me so by surprise that all my tension just melted away. I was able to give a big belly laugh and assure him in total honesty, "No, baby. Mama's just trying to process it all!"
D and E selected our missionary for each day, we prayed for them, and then they began working on their cards to send to that missionary family. Well, that's what they were supposed to be doing. I had a lovely "grown up card" selected to send for part of my personal challenge; however, I somehow got momentarily distracted and set it down. When I came back, my sweet, tender, missionary daughter had already started writing a note on my special card. My initial reaction was to chide her for messing with my card instead [I thought!] of doing what I had asked her to do. However, when I asked her what she was doing, she says in the most urgent of voices, "But, mama! I'm writing my card for Cami to come to our church!"
"Please come to our church. Love, Ellie"
Now, I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but the burden my sweet Ellie has for one of her little friends from school is beyond convicting to this mama's heart. So I was thankful that my sweet Ellie Rose covered the "pass out a tract/tell someone about Jesus" part of our challenge! Without even having to be asked and outside of my planning.
Cards were written, colored, addressed, and sealed. We then proceeded to whip up a new recipe for blueberry muffins which we would be dropping off to some neighbors and invite them to church. [Um, do you SEE how many goals I knocked outta the park right there?!]
Such great helpers... they love to bake!
Please stop licking your screen. That's kind of tacky.
One of my favorite taste testers!
In case you can't read what it says, the inside of the card
(which was written all on the own of my sweet Daniel) reads,
"You are invited to Grace Bible Church. We hope you come to Grace Bible Church. From the Gibsons We are praying for you!"
Melt. My. Heart.
We gathered up all of our notes and cards and letters and muffins and headed out to make our stop. We had our plan that mama and the older kiddos would drop off the muffins and church info to the family while daddy and Samuel waited in the car. I was fairly certain that our visit would consist mostly of "We made you some muffins, please come to our church" and then we would be on our way.
But that's not exactly how it went. Yes, there is a great story is here. To begin with, when we pulled up the long-ish drive way and walked around the two parked cars, *poof* we suddenly came upon the owner of the house. Already talking with two lovely gentlemen in dress shirts and ties with "church literature".
And here I stand with my plate o' muffins and two little bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed whippersnappers.
Color me awkward.
The long and the short of it is that I gave my little shpeel, "Hi! I know you moved in a couple months ago, but we wanted to drop by with some muffins as a sort of 'welcome to the neighborhood' kind of gesture. And we just wanted to invite you to our church, Grace Bible Church." All the while thinking, I'll just drop these off and we'll just slip away...
Not so.
Ask me how long we stayed. Go ahead. Ask me.
Twenty minutes. TWENTY.
But not with the "ties and shirts and church literature guys". They left kinda in a hurry. We met three of the six children, and my kiddos were elated. They played with all the animals; they took a nice ride on their tire swing; they played with these new friends as if they were in all actuality, old friends! Please pray that we will be able to have more contact with these new friends. Pray that our seed will truly fall upon fresh soil, watered and loved by a gracious Savior.
I'm not sure who was more blessed on this visit: us or our new friends!
Oh, and I did do my sit-ups, quiet time, and quality time, too!
