Overnighter

I am busy getting ready for my big spring overnight scrapbooking event at the Amish door. I can hardly wait. I have my pictures all printed, organized and even have picked out paper and stickers to go with each page. So each page should be relatively easy. My hope is to get at least a few pages done. I am so excited to have a big group of friends and soon-to-be friends coming. I have several coming that I do not know yet. How cool! The whole group is up to 67 people!! I have 23 of those! I love these events to get away. You come back tired but energized because you got so much accomplished. Now that's ambition in action! Hopefully I can inspire you to join me next time! What an opportunity! Can't you feel my enthusiasm!

If you didn't follow the last part, let me fill you in. I am still going through round table principles at Sunday School and at kinship. So I am immersed in this character stuff right now. Inspiration, enthusiasm and opportunity are just a few. I've got the enthusiasm down for the overnighter, now I just need to keep my attitude in check. That's a challenging one for me.

I tried my hand at inspiring Javin to be more responsible and so on. I took my group's suggestion of sitting down for "tea" to create a welcome atmosphere. We made cappuccinos instead. Yum. Javin created a list of things that he wanted to do or own someday (like a 4-wheeler). The concept of inspiration is to encourage others to follow your dreams. Then I gave a list of things that I hope to see in his life someday. Then he came up with a list of consequences that would motivate him to keep him on track. (Losing his light saber was one of them.) I made a list of my promises in how I would communicate with him. (Here is where the attitude is such a problem, but I am working on it.)

So our first "situation" arose last night and he handled his consequences very well. Now this morning, it was another story. A good nights sleep must have erased our whole conversation and he denies that we even talked about his consequences. I held my end and didn't yell or get upset. And he managed to get himself together in time to get on the bus. Yeah! Progress, I think.

Painting the Day Away

I have definitely increased my ambition rating this past week. If you have been at the ladies round table Sunday School class, you know what I am talking about. For the rest of you, we are going through a series of principles and one of them is ambition. So how ambitious are you?

My project was the basement - painting the walls. What a transformation! I went from white walls to a nice warm and homey brown. So now all my scrapbookers will feel comfy and cozy in my basement when they come.

The amazing thing is that I pulled off the project pretty much on my own, (Kailyn helped paint a little and Mom helped with the kids and a little bit of painting) and didn't have a major catastrophe! I only stepped in the paint twice!! Can you believe it? Thank goodness I had on my garden clogs and could quickly go wash off the paint, no real damage. My triceps are aching from all the rolling but other than that I'm doing good.

The wall going down the steps didn't turn out to be the color I had imagined. It is green but more on the cool side and I thought it would be a warmer tone. Oh well, it works. The lighter brown, Basalt Mineral, is great and the chocolate brown, Olympia's Curls, is striking! Okay, so who in the world thinks up these crazy paint names? Olympia must have some dark curls on her head!!

I have one more project left, the steps. I am thinking about Olympia's Curls to tie it all together. But a dark color for the steps will probably show dirt really quickly. What do you think? Should I go dark or light on the steps?

Princess Tea

Last week Kailyn and her friend, Bianca, had a memorable time at the library's Princess Tea Story Time. The girls got all dressed up in their princess outfits and Mimi escorted them to their night out. Bianca and Kailyn are best of friends. We are NOT looking forward to May when Bianca and her family will return to Ukraine. It has been such a joy having a friend like Bianca.

The princesses arrived at the library and joined a room full of other princesses. They had a story about a princess, made princess necklaces and hats. They were even awarded rings. The event ended with princess "tea" (apple juice and cookies) with real china cups.

What a great night! It's so fun to be a princess when you're 4!

Swimming Day Outing

Javin has enjoyed being home and taking a break from studying. Today we visited a beautiful indoor swimming pool. The kids had a great time splashing around and getting wet. Javin was really interested in his goggles. He swam the length of the pool breathing through the air tube underwater. He only got water in the air tube a few times. That was quite a shock to him when that happened though. He kept working at it until he got the hang of it.

Kailyn enjoyed her goggles as well. She loves to go underwater and pick up rings on the steps. It won't be long until she is swimming on her own. Here she is goofing off with Javin's goggles.

The best part was the nice hot tub. We relaxed in it several times and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves this morning. Ahh, vacation. What fun!

Discover World

It's Spring Break and we are enjoying having Javin around the house again.

We joined some friends for a trip to the Discover World Museum at the McKinley Monument in Canton yesterday. It was a nice little museum for the kids to explore.

The roaring dinosaur made quite an impression on Kailyn. Javin loved the shadow maker wall and the robotic arm.

So if you are looking for a fun and educational adventure with your kids, check out Discover World. It's not COSI, but it's local. Here's the web site for more info http://www.mckinleymuseum.org/discover_world

Do you want to hear more?

This Sunday I will speaking during our morning service for a few minutes. Please pray for me if you think about it. Surprisingly enough, I am not nervous about it. Maybe singing in front of 3,000 cured me of my speaking in front of crowds ailment! I will be sharing about how the trip impacted me and the opportunity that I had to minster to the brokenhearted.

Then on Sunday night, March 30, our team will be sharing about our trip from 6 to 8 pm at BCF. You are all welcome to come out and hear what God did through our trip. We will have pictures and video for you to see. Hope you can come. Thanks again to everyone who prayed for us and invested in this trip.

Saving for Change

Another glimpse into my trip last week...

We were meeting under a mango tree with a Saving for Change group and learning from them regarding their support of one another in business and the principles and guidelines they follow. As we observed them, there were so many revelations and so much inspiration we were overwhelmed. Simple, yet so effective, much like the Amish Culture of Berlin. Their eyes had hope in them and their faces had smiles! Because they are an oral society (this nation is the second most illiterate nation in the world), they recite and memorize everything they need. Their minds are much sharper than ours who rely on electronics to do our thinking for us! They recite the guidelines and parameters clearly before and after each meeting and have to remember the amount they have invested into the treasury box and the total amount their neighbor owes in loans as well as the total amount the group has in the box and out in loans. They each contribute to the seed money each week and decide as group who gets a 2-month loan to start a business. Fines are paid for being late or missing a meeting.

We also watched the Mentor, a young lady from ACTS, and learned much from her about how to tell stories that illustrate principles. The principle she shared was Goals using the illustration of two ladies, one with goals and one without, then asking coaching questions after her story as to which one they wanted to be like. One of the most impacting thing to all of us was their answer to our question: what happens if a business fails and the money is gone? They smiled and said there is no such thing, they think positive! Pressed for more, they said there is no rule regarding failure. There is no room for it. It they made room for it then people would fail. That jarred the paradigm within all of us and confirmed Heidi's revelation from the Lord that in Him, we could not fail. Many of these ladies don't even have Him and they still believed they could not fail!

While we were interacting with these ladies, the chief of the village approached with his "entourage." He held a crop in his hand as a symbol of authority. The male leaders of ACTS that had escorted us responded immediately. The Chief wanted to greet us, shake our hand, and sit with us and the ladies under the tree all of which is absolutely unheard of in this culture. At first we sensed the ladies seemed to be uneasy as to what this might mean. As he shook each of our hands and expressed his gratitude for the program and support of it to help his people, they seemed to relax. On our side we expressed our respect for him following the lead of the ACTS team and the genuine positional respect for him we instinctively felt. He was a chief, an idol worshipping, animal sacrificing chief, but a chief none the less. Arman, the Supervisor of the Saving for Change program for ACTS, and his team were so excited at the attention because they said they had never been acknowledged by a chief in any of the many villages where they work.


Then lo and behold another astonishing thing happened. We were invited to his home. A breakthrough was happening. Women were never acknowledged, let alone asked to his home! The name of his village meant "To Multiply". It was started by three men that saw it multiplying and expanding out. We believe that in the Spirit. When we met with him under a tree he said he saw the respect we had for him and he was pleased with that and was happy we were helping the ladies and his village. He received our gift and gave us a live chicken in return. (Sharyl was thanking God we did not have to participate in the sacrificing of it and we were thanking God for that too!) We are so happy that our visit brought favor and support from the chief and ushered the leaders into a relationship with him that we are sure will be transforming.