VBS Fun!

This week has been full of VBS Science fun with the Pirates Who Don't Do anything VBS. Myron and I taught the three elementary classes in the Rock Monster Science lab. If you want to see more VBS Pictures, go to my church website here.
John's coming tonight for a couple days, and I also have a bridal shower tomorrow! It's going to be a great weekend!

A Weekend in Alabama

The weekend in Ohio was a lot of fun, but went way too fast. Before you know it, the week is gone and so is another weekend! This weekend was spent at home and out with church activities. Friday evening I had a chance to do some sorting of some of my boxes which was great. Saturday morning brought a nice morning for a car wash in which we raised over $300 toward our Mission trips to Peru.


In the past when I've helped at a car wash, I have been one of those people scrubbing the cars. This time, I mostly held a car wash / truck wash sign at the road. Though standing at the road doesn't seem like real "work," it was still hot and tiring due to the sun. I was amazed to see the generosity of several people driving by who would roll down their windows and give a donation even though they didn't have time to have their car washed. I have never been that generous to those holding signs for car washes so it was a bit convicting.

After the car was was over, we had Peru drama practice for about an hour and then I was able to go home. When I arrived home, I found Anna busy at work sewing the flower girl dresses. Soon she took a break from that to work with me to cut out the pieces for my bridesmaid dresses. It was funny since I kept asking her questions about material and the patterns. The last time we sewed together many years ago, the roles had been reverse as I was teaching her to sew. Since then she has surpassed me and has learned to modify patterns and has sewn probably hundreds of items while I have let my machine sit idle.
Note the material is really plum colored not black as it appears in the pictures. After cutting out the pieces, I spent some time editing Sunday's virtual announcements while catching up with John on the phone.
Sunday after church I enjoyed our church potluck. We had a father's day back-off contest in which the dads entered deserts made by themselves or with the help of their children. It was fun to have the kids cheering for the awards given to each dad for his entry. The deserts were great! After eating, Anna and Jubilee helped me decorate my room for VBS.
We transformed the nursery into what is supposed to be a pirate's science lab. VBS is every evening this week from 6 to 8:30. We are doing the Veggie Tales "The Pirates who Don't Do Anything." This VBS is unique in that one of the activities is science experiments! That's the class that I will be co-teaching.

Many of the experiments use baking soda and vinegar and look as though they will be a lot of fun for the kids. It will be a very busy week, but I am looking forward to it! I actually only will be at church two more Sundays before I go to Peru and then Ohio so it's great to be spending extra time with my church family this week.

In My Father's House. . .

John 14:2 "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you."

Last night as I drifted off to sleep in my parents house again, this verse came to mind. It was nice to be in the house of my earthly father. I appreciate the fact that he does have many rooms, and that they were more than happy to have their daughter come home again. Though I had not intended to move in with my parents for another month, some circumstances in the house I was living in made me think otherwise. I finally took John's advice and that of many of my friends and began moving out on Monday morning before work. There is still some packing to be done, and I'm planning to try to get the rest of my stuff moved out within a week (if possible). I have other plans each evening this week and am leaving for Ohio to see John this weekend, but I think I could make a lot of progress packing in the mornings before work.

It's been a tumultuous few days with changes in both work and home life. But in the midst of it all, it was very comfortable to fall asleep safe in my father's house last night.

In the midst of uncertainty, we had some fun this weekend with a Peru trip pancake breakfast Saturday morning, helping a family move after that and then Anna's graduation at the end of the day. On Sunday, we had a fun time eating and playing games after church. I didn't feel like taking pictures so one of the girls took pictures for me and did a great job. Enjoy!

Tornado Today in Prattville

We were very blessed as the Church escaped with only minor damage. The sign was destroyed, but that seemed to be the only major problem. As you can see, the neighborhoods and busineses accross the street and down the road had major damage. A few minutes before 3pm, the power went out in the church. Then we saw debris swirling in the air and Pastor Tony told us to run inside. We went inside to one of the classrooms and heard the strong winds. Soon the winds stopped and we went outside to see that the basketball goal had been blown across the parking lot and into the church sign. Later on, we walked down the street to see the terrible damage to the neighborhoods and businesses. Power is still out and a curfew is in effect right now. We thank God for how he spared us. There are currently no reports of fatalities!

Church Website!

I've had a great Sunday afternoon today adding more information to my church's website http://fountainofgrace.us/. Take a look at the site again if it has been awhile since you've seen it. Pastor Tony had me add Pauline Theology Sunday school lessons, a long study on tithing and some other information. I enjoyed sharing my excitement with Pastor Tony about the website possibilities through showing him the hits that come throughout the world to the site. He's talking about the amazing possibilites that exist to get God's truth out through the web. I'm so thankful that I am able to make some of this possible. I'm also very thankful that my brother Elijah was willing and able to get us started and teach me all I know!

P.S. Link is now working! How can it be that I can work on a website and yet can't type the name of it? ! Goes to show you that I have definitely not yet reached perfection!

Me and the Other Me

There are at least two me's. There's the "me" who plans and has goals. This me is one that I like since I would like to consider myself to be someone who accomplishes what she sets out to do. This is the me who is always on time and is never lazy. This me is pretty cool and can be depended on in every situation. This me always sends someone an address or files as promised and is never late to work, church or any appointment. This me runs like the wind and doesn't give up until there is absolutely no more energy in her body. This me gives her all to every situation and is always more concerned about others than herself. This me blogs every day and never wastes time.

Of course that me is not always in control. There is the "other me". The other me often tries to convince me that it's much better to sleep in than to get up and run. It is always looking out for its own best interests. It prefers to be lazy and eat whenever and whatever it wants. This other me thinks that me is just too strict and too controlling. The other me wants to simply goof off and have fun and never clean up after itself. This other me is much more likely to spend the whole morning sleeping and then to just read novels all day.

There's no activity in which I see the way "me" and the "other me" are in coflict as I do when I run. I know that the "other me" hates running. It argues that all running does is to make me tired for no real gain. It reminds me that running can make me sore and might give me a headache. It tells me that there are other things that are much more fun that I could be doing with my time such as sleeping, reading, eating, or even more spiritual things such as reading the bible, praying, or serving others. Since I know how persuasive the other me can be, I always make sure to allow me to make firm goals before I begin a run.

So this is how a run goes. I will make plans (like I did yesterday) to say, get up at 7 and run 4 miles. The other me will immediately argue that it's a waste of time and sleep would be much more profitable. I'll consider this other me's arguement and decide that sleep may be useful and so will change my alarm clock from 7 to 8:30. Sometime in the early morning, I will wake up and the other me will remind me that I'm still tired and 8:30 is way too early to be up on a weekend. When I'm tired, this other me's arguments make perfect sense, so I will change my alarm clock from 8:30 to 9:30.

Somehow my interal alam clock will go off at 9 o'clock and so I then may be alert enough to decide that I will indeed run and will make my way out of bed and get ready to run. You would think the battle is over. I am finally outside and beginning to run. The weather is perfect, I'm rested so all is well, right?

Not in your wildest dreams! Especialy if it's been a couple weeks since you were in the running routine. Immediatly that other me will remind you that it's much easier to breath if you walk every now and then. Your legs will chime in with that other me and tell you that they are not used to so much work and may stage a strike. You tell them all that it's me who is in charge and they must fall into line. Me reminds them that the request that they run is not unreasonable - they've done it before and can obviously do it again. Me reminds them that they've had a nice break so should be happy about that and since they are so rested they ought to run better than ever. Me reminds them of all the benefits of running: feeling better, gaining a sense of accomplishment, sleeping well, being able to run hard when playing sports and more.

The arguments don't always work for that other me. The other me will often put up enough of a fuss that me will give in just a little and won't run its hardests. Often the other me will tell me that it is indeed running as hard as possible, and me allows itself to believe the lie while knowing it is a lie.


When the other me wins little battles, it get's stronger and harder to fight off the next time. Me knows this and will argue back until it either wins or gets tired. Sometimes me gives up and lets the other me be in control and simply decides that tomorrow is another day.


This struggle between me and the other me is nothing new. Paul spoke about a similar struggle in Romans 7 where he said in verse 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. I don't know if Paul's struggle against sin can actually be equal to my struggle to make my body run when it doesn't like to. Maybe the struggle that Paul speaks of is only in reguard to trying to keep from lying, stealing, lusting, cheating or other obvious sins. But, lazyness or slothfullness is also a sin, right? So maybe the correlation is there after all.

Pastor Phil preached this morning on Jesus and the Cross in 2008. He reminded us that it's only through Jesus that we have the power to accomplish things like new years resolutions. A focus on Jesus and the cross will give us courage for the coming year. It's only through his death that we have freedom from ourselves, from the world, statan, death and sin. We can in our will make a choice, but we can only cary it out through His Spirit. We can make the choice to live through Him.



I must admit that though I do belive that God gives us the power to live through his sprit, I feel that developing willpower to run when you don't want to seems to be something that a Christian doesn't do any better than a non-Christian. Does trusting in the power of Christ really make you better able to force yourself to run harder or faster? I don't know. I guess I've not thought of running in a spiritual sense at all. Is it always the sin nature that desires to do the easy thing? I guess that will be one more thing to ponder the next time I run.

Is Church an Important Part of your Christian Life?

I've been catching up on reading blogs recently. Today I read the latest New Attitude Blog post "Why I don't Go to Church." This post challenges those in their 20's to really examine their reasons for not attending church rather than accepting the standard "I'm too busy" excuses.

It also links to the first chapter of a book which begins with “If you call yourself a Christian but you are not a member of the church you regularly attend, I worry that you might be going to hell.” The explanation for that statement is worth the read here as he continues by saying:

"But I’m concerned that many Christians don’t realize how this most important relationship with God necessitates a number of secondary personal relationships—the relationships that Christ establishes between us and his body, the Church. God doesn’t mean for these to be relationships that we pick and choose at our whim among the many Christians “out there.” He means to establish us in relationship with an actual flesh-and-blood, step-on-your-toes body of people.

That article points out that we are identified as already being a part of the universal church. But at the same time we are told to be part of the local church and not to give up meeting together especially as the time gets closer for Christ to return.

To me these articles brought up interesting thoughts. Many of the great homeschooling families in this area who read this blog (mine included) have at one time not attended or are currently not attending traditional churches. Some simply don't attend any church at all. To be honest, not being a part of a traditional church that has a pastor and a meeting place makes me a bit nervous. Of course my nervous feeling doesn't make the thing wrong.

People have many reasons for distancing themselves from "regular churches." Sometimes the reasons seem good. Maybe the teaching their kids would receive in a traditional youth group is contrary to what they are being taught at home. Maybe the preaching does 'put you to sleep' and the fellowship leaves much to be desired. Maybe the kids in the church you attended are not properly disciplined and would make your job as a parent more difficult for the rest of the week.

But consider this. Maybe God has given you the ability to be an instrumental part of someone else's life in building up people who have needs in the local church. Obviously none of us are perfect, but maybe you have learned something that another has not. Does that mean you should stop being around that person because they don't understand what you do?

I am very thankful for my local church Fountain of Grace. After college I did consider looking for another church. I didn't choose Fountain of Grace - it was a church my family begin attending and eventually joined while I was in college. But after prayer and consideration, I realized that I had not really given Fountain of Grace (then called Prattville Alliance) a chance. I wanted to get to know people, but yet was not involved in much of anything. Instead of leaving, I became involved. Is my church perfect? Certainly not! I know that I'm not perfect so any church I'm in will also not be perfect. There is no perfect church. But there are churches in which the Bible is preached and people are real - two things that seem very essential in a church.

So whether you attend a traditional church, do home church, or have family church, do nothing or something in between, what impact does it have on your life?

So what can I say about my church? I can say that relationships I've developed in church have enriched my life. A friendship with Pam and attending a church related prayer meeting brought me a new place to live across the street from her. This made deepening a relationship with her and her family possible and a lot of fun. Having many ladies who know me and are interested in and concerned about me is invaluable. I know that many of them pray for me and I'm sure that makes a big difference in my life. Learning and thinking about things preached by Pastor Tony has hopefully shaped my thinking in many ways. I know that his teaching on position based acceptance versus performance based acceptance is something that I have come back to time and time again. Being reminded of grace and righteousness is important and having it come from a Pastor who seems to genuinely care for the people of his church is invaluable. Pastor Phil and all the mission trips he has led keeps me reminded of all the needs outside of our church. It gives me a better perspective on life and a reminder of how small our emergencies in life really are. Being a teacher in AWANA has given me more than just an opportunity to serve. It's given me a chance to relive the joy of children's excitement in science experiments and to see how the little things matter to a child. Running sound has taught me to appreciate the job that so many others do in conferences. It has also taught me a skill that I may have never otherwise learned. Being in board meetings has given me an invaluable look at some of the issues faced by a church and the needs of both the people and the church leadership. Being a part of a "smaller" church means that even your yet undeveloped talents may have a place to be used (especially if you have a little time and a brother like Elijah who will help you get a website going!).

I still have a lot to learn about the Church. My involvement in it can sometimes degrade into duty instead of joyful service. Church is not always as important in my life as it should be. But for all its flaws (and mine!), I am very thankful for the local church. What about you? Is your church important to do? Has it changed your life or does it impact you at all?

Church Christmas Party

Last night we had the adult Christmas party for our church. It's always been a fun party, and last night was no exception. After eating a wonderful dinner, we have what's become the traditional white elephant gift exchange. The 37 adults each drew numbers and the fun began. Some gifts were definitely of the white elephant variety (like the brick!), but others were gifts that many people wanted (like the nuts or flood lights). The most guarded gift was the duck! It actually was stolen by a very smooth move by Susie before the game was over! She did end up returning it since new house rules were created saying the the duck couldn't be stolen until it was frozen (stolen 3 times) or until the exchange was over. Mrs. Duck comes to almost every Christmas party as a gift and almost every year is kidnapped. Sometimes, like last year, it's even before the winner of the duck is able to bring it home.

This year the Morton's ended up with Mrs. Duck again. They got the duck in 2005 and I (through the help of my siblings) was able to ducknap it in 2006. After holding on to the duck for about a month, I sent ransom notes through the mail. When they never responded to my email contact (due to some email problems of their own), I eventually returned the duck with Easter candy (ducks and chicks and eggs and peeps) about a month later. It was fun to create and send the ransom notes, but I certainly found out that I don't like to be the one suspected of a "crime" like this. To this day, the Morton kids will often refer to me as ducknapper. Below are pictures of my ransom notes!

Spiritual Warfare Walk

This Spiritual Warfare Walk "Above All - Stand" was put on by my church (Fountain of Grace) this weekend at Poplar Point Camp. This walk illustrates the reality of demons and their tactics. It also reminds us that through Jesus we are able to stand firm. I believe our pastors came up with the idea for this walk several years ago. This year Pastor Phil wrote the skit with several people in our church.

Enjoy!

Ladies Retreat - Saturday Session 2 - Suffering and Death

This message is on the suffering and death of Jesus. Only with God, does the place of death become a place of life. (Matt 27, Ro 5:3)

We have been (past tense) crucified with Christ. It's done once, not over and over (Gal 2:20).

You may ask, if that's true, why do we still struggle? It's because we still have flesh. Why do we have to deal with flesh if it's put to death? The old man was put to death in our life, but our own flesh still exits.

An parallel of how this works would be if a car manufacturing plant was destroyed, there would still be cars made in that plan driving around on the roads.

Gal 5:17-21. The flesh and spirit are in opposition. We cannot do what we please. We can use the term self-life to describe the flesh. We like to rule over our own self life, but we're to lay it down before God.

We try to satisfy with self-indulgence like eating, spending money, etc, but only Jesus can satisfy our desires.

We try self-seeking, self-glorification and self confidence, but can we be confident in anything in our flesh?

We try self pity, complacency, self-consciousness, or thinking you're not good enough or smart enough. There is just as much pride in walking in self-condemnation as self-glory.

We are to recognize (reckon) that we are dead to so. It's not that we die daily, but that we recognize it. We don't have to walk in the flesh. Gal 3:13 - Without Christ's death, there would be no deliverance since we would still be under the law.

Ro. 6:6-7 - we are free from our flesh. Nothing good dwells in our flesh. We must recognize it's dead and realize we are free.

The pictures in this post are from the small groups. I enjoyed being in a small group with people from my church. Other conferences such as New Attitude and Urbana also had small groups. The difference there is that you will probably never see the people in your small group again. Being in a small group with friends is cool since we already understood a lot of where we were coming from and I think were more able to encourage one another.

Ladies Retreat Photos

The pictures from the Ladies Retreat can now be seen on our Church Picasa Photo Album by clicking here.

Ladies Retreat - Saturday, Session 1

The theme for these messages was Buried in Suffering, Risen in Joy. This message is called Gethsemene to the Cross - Road of Suffering

On Saturday morning, Mary Heather continued the theme by speaking more about suffering. We read Matthew 26 beginning in verse 36 about Jesus in Gethsemane praying alone while his disciples slept. We learned that:

Because God wants our holiness even more than our happiness, we need to change our right to happiness to a right to holiness

We are not put here to get from God, we're not spiritual consumers. God may have suffering in store for us. We are here to serve and glorify God

Suffering has the ability to make us holy. We have the choice though of anger and bitterness instead, but let God move you from anger to embrace suffering (Phil 3:10). To know Christ, there are seasons of suffering.

God wants us to look like him, not like unbelievers. So, God uses all things for our good (which is for our holiness) Ro. 8:28

Suffering is a place of loneliness (Matt 26:40). It's an OK place to be. God tells us to make Him our husband, that he will satisfy us in our suffering (Psalm 142). We do need the church body. It's not that we're to always keep our suffering to ourselves, but lower your expectations of people. They don't know what you're going through, especially if you don't tell them . God can satisfy you in suffering.
Jesus has experienced that utter loneliness. Withhold judgement on someone elses suffering. Speak carefully to that person so you don't become like Job's friends and increase their suffering.

Suffering can come from loss or physical death or even the death of a dream.

Ps 34: I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise will always be on my lips. Mourning is a part of suffering and we must go through it for as long as it takes (Eccl 3)
If you are suffering and you know that you have sinned, repent and move on. If you don't think it is due to sin, don't entertain Satan's accusations, wait on God.

In your suffering, make it your goal to know Him (Phil 3:10)

October Ladies Retreat

I had a great time at the Ladies Retreat this past weekend! We had times of fun, good discussion as well as good teaching and singing. I'm either great at condensing things down to a point of non-information or not very good at summarizing things down enough. (The condensing too much often is done to my family - So far all they got out of me about the Ladies retreat was that "it was good"). The too much or not short enough parts usually come when I start writing here. At least this way, those who don't want to hear about it, don't have to read it. It's almost 10, so I think I'll just use tonight's post to describe the first night.

I drove to Lake Martin with Tammy. I enjoyed the time to catch up on her life. Its fun to have the time to chat about the many aspects of life that she is going through as her kids get older. Hearing dreams and learning more about where people have been and desires they have for the future is neat. We enjoyed the short drive and got there in time to relax for a little bit before the first session entitled "Getting God."

Mary Heather was our speaker. She's an awesome mother of 9 kids who I've known for many many years. She had an American Girl doll club at here house while I was in high school which I helped out at since my sisters went to it one summer. Her family attends our church and I've gotten to know some of her children through AWANA and Sunday School classes there. Mary Heather teaches the ladies Sunday school class. Though I've never gone to the class, I've heard from others that it's an awesome class. For the first session, she spoke about some of the things that keep us from God: Wrong ideas about God, sin, the flesh, unforgiveness and self-centeredness.

She illustrated how sin and our reaction to sin can vary so drastically and have terrible consequences by having us look at the lives of both Saul and David. Both men sinned: Saul offered a sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel (1 Sam 15) and David sinned through adultery with Bathsheba (2 Sam 11).

They both sinned, yet Saul responded by blaming the people and claiming to be doing what God said. Saul was so self centered that he even blamed Samuel for being the cause of his sin because he did not show up in time to make the sacrifice. Only when Saul heard that God had rejected him as king did Saul seem to maybe repent. Even then, it seems like he was only repenting for show, so that Samuel would honor him in front of the people.

David's reaction couldn't have been different. I look at David's sin and would tend to even consider it to be worse, yet through David's response, God forgave him. David immediately acknowledged that he had sinned against God. He didn't blame anyone else, but turned to God. The other example of David had to do with his desire to build a temple for God. He had the idea, yet it wasn't God's idea for David to do. Instead of being upset that God didn't want to honor him that way, David responds with humility and thanks God for his promise to establish David's kingdom forever.

Saul was self-centered, but David was God focused. Saul didn't want to wait on God's time-table, but David was glad to allow his son to have the honor of building the temple.

Which one more represents who you are?

After that session, we enjoyed refreshments and then Marilyn led us in some of her family's "crazy group games!" The pictures of Bibity Bibity Bop were a lot of fun to take as people had to think fast to act like an elephant, rabbit, or kamikaze. There was laughter all around as we tried to think quick and act crazy! Eventually the group game broke up and ten of us went to the cabin where we continued playing games until about midnight. We played a fun game of Taboo. It's amazing how quickly some words are gotten! Sometimes brains are linked in a crazy way. Soon it was time to get some sleep (as it is now!).

Busy Week Update

Work: This is one of the three most busy and draining weeks of work each year. It's our fall training so I switch from sitting and working primarily on my computer each day to standing and interacting with people I don't know for three days. The three days of training actually mean that we spend the entire week on the class because we set up on Monday and will tear down some on Friday. This first day of class went well today - only two more days to go and it will be over again! I don't know if it's the teaching and interacting with people or the standing or the mental and physical preparation that makes this week tiring. But it does pass and it actually usually goes pretty well.

Car: My car seems to enjoy being repaired on Tuesday. Dad graciously replaced my car's cooling fan tonight. It decided to quit working yesterday as I drove to their house for Dad's birthday. I'm sure fixing a car wasn't exactly the birthday present Dad wanted! I hope that this Tuesday trend doesn't continue

AWANA: Tomorrow is my first full night of teaching AWANA. Each evening I have the 1st grade sparks class for one hour. The hour is the "counsel" and "sections" time. Churches do AWANA many different ways. In my church, section time is done by listeners pulling the children out of the class rooms to a hallway where chairs are set up. There the children say the verses to the listeners. Usually we have about 3 listeners and about 18 children in Sparks. So, for most of the hour, each teacher has the majority of their children in class. Last week I had 8 sparks in my class, so I will probably have a minimum of 5 children at all times. I like to have 3 or 4 activities that fill the hour I have in the classroom. We begin sparks with pledges and songs and soon break into our grade level classes. This year I am again using science experiments to illustrate Bible concepts. I am also once again using memlok's Say the Books during the hour to teach the books of the old testament. Say the Books has a running story line that we read, actions to learn, and coloring sheets as well. In past years, I've used the Sparks flannel graph stories, but this year plan to use other missions related stories. Ivory asked about the science experiment we did last week. Since I'm making a handout with a slightly shorter version of the experiment each week, I'm going to post the experiments here for reference for others. I've really enjoyed doing experiments in the past with the children. Experiments seem to be something they really remember and look forward to.

Church: We had a board meeting tonight (between work and picking up my car). Tomorrow after AWANA I need to see what was causing the wireless mike to make some noise on Sunday. I also need to get some more batteries since the rechargeable once I bought last year have more than once failed before the end of a sermon.

So those are the things on my mind this week. It will be over before I know it - busy weeks always go by quickly.

Great Sunday

Today was a great day! Great is just not descriptive enough. I was smiling just now driving back from church. I can't explain all the resons now, but it was good in many ways. We were able to hear from many people in the morning service how God was a work in their two weeks in Peru. We heard how he answered specific prayers that were prayed and fresh realizations many had of what's truly important in this life.

I was able to eat lunch with my family then spent an hour or so reading Hudson Taylor and Maria (I found some more interesting quotes that I hope to type in here sometime). I uploaded the video I put together before church this morning to both youtube and godtube. I've been wanting to start puting church videos online for some time and am glad to have finally done uploaded the first one. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload some more Peru videos in the near future.

While in the middle of uploading the video, twelve-year-old Toy from across the street came over to ask if I would play capture the flag with them. I thought, why not - I've been sitting around all day. We ended up playing kick-ball instead and after an hour were so hot and sweaty that we had to stop. After a stop at McDonalds for a McFlurry with my neighbors family and another neat new family from church, we went to the night service. After the service, I was able to talk with some people that I've been meaning to speak with for some time. I had an idea and found that what I decided to do while not knowing if it was a good idea or a God idea was a direct answer to someone's prayer. That was fun! I guess God can use each of his clay pots in the most unusual ways - PTL!

July 4th Fun

The Pace family hosted this year's 4th of July part for our church. The weather was absolutely perfect for enjoying the outdoors!

The swing was a big hit for kids of every age. Some thought it was too scary, but everyone who took the risk and jumped off seemed to enjoy the thrill.

Most of us took advantage of the pool which felt especially refreshing after playing many games of volleyball.

We also played Amoeba War in which teams form circles and launch water balloons from the center of their circle into the center of the other team's circles. It was fun, though with a lot of young children, we couldn't move around or aim very well. Eventually only one team had balloons left so it became a water balloon fight. Overall, the day was perfect. I played hard, ate a lot and simply enjoyed hanging out with my church family. By the way, if you would like to see more pictures from this and other church events, check out http://picasaweb.google.com/FountainofGrace