Belle Glade Beautiful

The 5 Minute Friday topic:

Beautiful

and I immediately thought of our week in Belle Glade.

No way to do it justice.
Not in 5 minutes,
Not in 5 lifetimes!

But I want to share some of the beauty with you,
so I will attempt,
knowing that some things,
even for one who loves words,
are best shared face to face.

It was Beautiful… to see 40+ (yes, really!) girls and leaders living in unity and fun,
sharing and praying together at day’s end

Yes, we did look like a tetris board completely filled up!
Yes, we got our exercise walking/jumping to and from our mattresses each day!

It was Beautiful… to see middle school kids learn, grow, and lead Sports Camp with excellence!

It was Beautiful… to see God call me to something crazy – seriously crazy! – during the week
AND call my husband to something similar – without either one of us knowing!!

Then see Him confirm that call in His Word

It was Beautiful… to see God answer prayer!

It was Beautiful… to see 500+ students sing in worship and surrender

and to hear them cry out to God in prayer,
a Thursday night etched in eternal memories

It was Beautiful… to be challenged by our Student Ministries pastors twice daily

It was Beautiful… to share the re-cap of the week together, even though it doesn’t touch the surface.

click to watch the Belle Glade service

It IS Beautiful… to see God continuing the work He started last week!!

It WILL BE Beautiful… to see others wake up and take the challenge!
You’ve got 2 to choose from – go for both! 🙂

Prayer Pocket Challenge

Awake 514 Challenge

WILL YOU JOIN THE STUDENTS & MYSELF ON THE JOURNEY?
I’d love the company!

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Prayer Pocket Challenge

How do you put one incredible week into words?

If you’ve been on a missions trip
or to church camp,
you know what I mean.
And I was on both of those last week!

As often is the case, I had another direction to go with this post, but God changed my mind just now

because I read this

There is so much behind that great blog, but it’s for another day. What God brought to mind as I read Logan’s words was the message Pastor Aaron preached Wednesday morning

Wake Up And Pray!

Pastor Aaron talked about creating Prayer Pockets. A Prayer Pocket is something you do daily that you use as a trigger to pray – like brushing your teeth.

And I thought, here’s a challenge! The whole week of Belle Glade the pastors challenged us that the week was more than a week. Logan’s awake. Some of the other guys are also awake and planning things for the next year. We can be a part of that! How? Glad you asked!!

• We can pray! Those of you who are bloggers, what about making your blog a Prayer Pocket? Every time you sit down to blog, why not pray a quick prayer for these students who were awakened last week – that God will keep them awake and use them to transform their schools and their culture?
• If you’re not a blogger, when you read this you can pray, and ask God to give you a prayer pocket to remember the students throughout out this next year.

Would you do me a favor? Would you either write down a prayer God puts on your heart in the comments, or tell me that you’re making your blog a Prayer Pocket.

I got gooesbumps last night thinking of the prayer covering we could give these kids!!

“Prayer is the birthplace of ministry, and the fuel for its fruit.
Prayers outlive those who pray them.” Pastor Aaron

Can’t wait to see what God does as we bring these kids before Him!!

Thanks for being a part of the Great Awakening!!

 

Another Mommy Moment!

Service –
it’s not in the circumstances,
it’s in the heart.

Those are wise words from my mom!

If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know I had a Mommy Moment back in March, when my oldest realized he wasn’t going to be able to go to the annual Belle Blade mission trip at church.

As we’ve approached the time for Belle Glade, Nathan’s had some neat insights. He’s had opportunity to play with and witness to neighborhood kids. His comment: “I don’t have to go to Belle Glade, Belle Glade is coming to me.” I love seeing his insight!

Last night we had a pretty bad wind storm at my parents’ house. (Actually, after I drafted this I realized we got part of that bad storm that hit the northeast right before the 4th of July. I heard one person call it “a land hurricane.”)

This morning, Nathan was out with a rake, of his own initiative, cleaning up my parents’ yard and their neighbors’ yard. He was listening to Elevation, “For the Honor”, thinking about how he could honor God. He also said that helped him say, “Whatever you have, God, I’m ok with that,” during the storm. I thought about how Nathan would have been serving in Belle Glade and how God gave Nathan a chance to serve here at my parents’. And Nathan recognized it.

How I love these Mommy Moments – when I can see God interacting with my boys,
and can see them recognizing and responding!
All glory to HIM!!