All posts by KME

Bible Study, Family, Holidays

Home Church – Family Style

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This year we spent some time in the Duckabush (the valley after which our blog is named) with Tim’s family over Christmas. His brother (Mark), sister-in-law (Elizabeth) and family (children – Timothy & wife Sunny, Rebecca and Samuel) were all in town after a long road trip from Virginia/Arkansas/Tennessee. What a delightful gift to spend several days with them. One of the special treats was a morning of Family/Home Church on Sunday.

Chaplain Edgren (aka Grandpa) told us, well in advance, that he was officially handing the service over to the grandchildren. Parceling out the various roles, Joshua led our Sunday School class (Colossians 1 and 2). Moving into the actual worship service, Samuel gave the invocation/call to worship. Timothy preached the sermon (Colossians 3). Sunny led music and played her guitar for us (and piano too, but not at the same time) while the rest of the children sang. David, Daniel and Samuel read scripture. Daniel and Samuel were ushers, while Rebecca, Rachel and Sarah formed the core of the choir. Since the service was not widely publicized, and attendance was by invitation only, it was strictly a family affair.

Sunny led the rest of the group in worship practice

Practice Session for Music

Tim’s dad printed up an elegant bulletin for our morning service — there is nothing quite like having the whole family together and enjoying a home church.

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Important to know the Order of Events for the service.

Tim and his dad have both been leading adult Bible classes for years. I think between them they have taught at least 60 years of Sunday School and covered most of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation with the Reformation, Marriage and Parenting thrown in the mix. How inspiring, then, to have Joshua leading our Sunday School discussion this Christmas. He makes a third generation of Bible teachers in the family. He cleverly split us into groups of two and assigned us each a portion of Colossians 1 and 2. With Timothy preaching on Colossians 3 the second hour, it is clear that teaching and preaching the Word of God will persist in our family legacy.

Let's study Colossians!

Let’s study Colossians!

It was a treat and delight to spend time with our nephew Timothy’s new wife. Sunny and Tim were married in Arkansas this summer and she is already proven as a wonderful addition to our family.

Christmas 2013 457a

What an incredible blessing to have three generations gathered together to worship the Lord – with each person participating from the youngest to the oldest.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100

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AWANA, Tim

Goals, AWANA & Godly Plans

I LOVE fresh starts. My spirits lift when I think of new opportunities and new beginnings. I am definitely a Glass is Half Full kind of girl. Actually, I’m more like a Venti Americano ALL the WAY FULL kind of girl, but that’s another subject. As an optimist, I really and truly believe that THIS time I will meet my goals, THIS time I will change and grow, THIS time I will be different, conquer my weakness, blah, blah, blah.

This one keeps my heart full of joy and love!

I’m not sure why I continue to have such optimism when one of my other defining characteristics is a horrible inability to actually COMPLETE a project. Really, the only way I ever finish things is because they often come with concrete deadlines. Sigh.

Still, again this is where my optimistic nature immediately kicks in, I LOVE the New Year and the chance to reevaluate the previous year and cast some sort of vision for the upcoming year. In this and last weeks’ sermons, Pastor Jim has been teaching on the importance of establishing godly plans. [Best Time to Plant a Tree Pts 1 & 2] I so appreciate the emphasis on “godly” and “plans” rather than resolutions.

School and candy canes – perfect combination!

Tim and I have blogged on the subject of goals several times over the past few years. It has been a topic that encourages and challenges us in our growth as believers, parents, spouses, and servants in our local church body.

Last week Tim presented the idea of goal planning to our T&T kids at AWANA. These 3rd through 5th graders are such an exciting group to work with. They have energy, enthusiasm, and, unlike the younger ages, are capable of handling some complex and difficult concepts.

Brendan and Zach are ready for some serious goal planning!

Tim shared with them a video from the Skit Guys and selected six student to come up front and read a passage from I Corinthians 3. We try hard to keep the kids engaged and interested in the Word of God – and nothing like a little competition (“Pick me, Mr. Tim! Pick me!”) to focus their attention. :)

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. I Corin 3:10-15

Finally Tim passed out some goal planning sheets for the kids. Here’s a link to the Word file. I respect Tim immensely for encouraging the children to think about the upcoming year and make some decisions about how they want to spend their time and energy.

Mr. Tim offers a special prize for the kids who return their goal sheets!

Love that the night hasn’t even ended and Bethlehem already has her form filled out!

It has been a tremendous blessing to serve in AWANA as a family over the past few years. Tim is the T&T Director. I help him in T&T’s (administrative duties and the like). Daniel works in the games department (as Joshua did before he went off to college). Rachel is a Sparks leader (probably one of the best in the whole program). Sarah is a current T & T’er and David helps in Sparks when he isn’t attending middle school.

Another awesome T&T’er.

I hope to do some work on my only godly plans for 2013 as well in the next two weeks. I’m sure this will be the year …

Kathy

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Being a Disciple of Jesus

Serve Team

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Some time ago Nancy/Niki, the amazing duo who run our Christian Education department at church, came up with a brilliant idea for developing leaders among the older elementary kids. They wanted to create an environment where young children could serve in ministry and leadership positions. Brilliant! Why wait for high school or college age to ask kids to start leading and serving?

Niki invited all interested children in grades 3rd through 5th (with some 6th grade stragglers); she formed a core team of willing kids and created the LC3 Serve Team. Now this team meets monthly for dinner and planning sessions. They practice, train and play. Each month the children come to the meetings armed with their calendar of availability (LOVE IT!) and sign up for ministry responsibilities.

Duties/Opportunities of Service Include:
1) Helping in the nursery
2) Working with the 2 and 3 year olds
3) Serving in the 4 year olds class
4) Leading worship in Promiseland (k thru 5th grade)
5) Acting in skits and dramas

What a gift for the children serving, the little ones being served and the church as a whole! These kids on the “Serve Team” are learning how to minister at church. They are learning the joy of giving of themselves. They are seeing how they can be a part of the body of believers and use their gifts, no matter what their age.

It is thrilling to think we are raising a new generation of children who are excited to be at church, who are taking responsibility for significant ministries at church, and who desire to be a blessing and a servant.

Let’s get that mixer and start making cookies!

During a brainstorming session, the serve team kids came up with several projects they wanted to do. One of them was to make meals for people in need. This week Niki and Nancy (seriously, did I already note how amazing and humble and full of grace, energy and true selflessness these women are!!) put together an entire meal making event. The families were divided into groups, assigned a station, and handed out their recipes and instructions. One team made up pieces of garlic bread. Another set out salad fixings. Still another group prepared the ingredients for lasagna rolls, and of course, it wouldn’t be a complete meal without a dessert (snickerdoodles).

Hurry, we need that Kitchen Aid inside, asap!

Each group prepared their part of the meal and then went to all of the stations to assemble the individual portions. There was even a table of blank notes and a bin of markers so we could write little notes. Next to that table was a collection of names of people who might enjoy a meal (everyone from singles, Prime Timers, and families with a deployed parent). On the slips of paper was the phone number and address so we could easily deliver our meal.

In between our cooking and assembling we had time to write a few notes.

Daniel spent nearly all of the time washing dishes. What a servant!

They think of everything! We had a blast making cookie dough and then going around the room and gathering our meal fixings. I didn’t get a picture of Niki (probably because she was running around answering all of our questions) and I wish I had taken a picture of our final dinner – so compact and ready for delivery. We dropped one meal off on our way home and left the other in the church fridge (all labeled and ready to be picked up on Sunday).

Would you trust these two in your kitchen? (Nice gloves, Debi and Nancy)

Serve Team Rocks!

Thank you Niki and Nancy for all your hard work.

Kathy

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Daily Life

Thank You Notes

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We are AWFUL about thank you notes. It’s a source of continual frustration and shame. I have no excuse – my parents were faithful and consistent about teaching and modeling a practice of writing thank you notes. In fact, one of our favorite things to get in the mail was my dad’s thank you notes, scratched in his (barely) legible handwriting. We would take turns reading aloud, the first time quickly with much laughter, and the second for actual comprehension. We keep one pinned to the bulletin board – makes us both smile and tear up in remembrance.

One of our last letters from Grandad

Often our problem isn’t writing the notes, it’s MAILING THEM!! Ugh. Once I found a sweet note Joshua had written to my uncle TWO YEARS after he had received the gift. Seriously? Hanging head in shame.

So two nights ago when I was making Tim’s lunch, I had the brilliant idea of gathering the kids together for a Daddy Thank You Note writing session. I hoped a few cheerful cards in his lunch bag would help ease the transition off vacation and back to “real life.”

“What did I get for Christmas? It’s been so long.”
“Um, it’s been a week and a half.”
“I know, but I still can’t remember.”

We use a company called Send Out Cards for our Christmas letters and other photo cards. For several years we’ve had a subscription, but we never really used it to its full potential. We have birthdays loaded into the database as well as addresses and contact information. I hate to even admit how easy Sendoutcards makes it to upload your own photos and connect with friends and family.

Thank you notes to Pa!

But this is January, a new year. Fresh starts and all that. Surely we can do better! I think Mamie mailed out at least a dozen thank you notes while she was staying with us – it does NOT have to be difficult or time-consuming, fancy or long-winded. A simple note. A stamp and we’re done. David has already gotten online, uploaded a picture and sent off a cute thank you note. Only one, but still it’s a start!

These kids look VERY grateful!

I’d like to be done with all of our Christmas thank you notes by the end of this month. We won’t talk about the ones from the birthdays over this past year. Sigh. I guess this is a good time to mention how very grateful I am for all the gifts and hospitality our family has enjoyed over the years.

If you don’t get a personal card, consider yourself thanked here on the blog. ;)

Kathy

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