“Oh Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” Psalm 104:24
I was sitting at my desk early this morning praying and going over my message for today when I saw the high grass moving behind the wood shed. I could not see anything so I went out on the porch. As I did I heard a crunching sound. As I got to where I could see behind the wood shed…there it was…
Guess he wanted me to fire up the ole grill for him!
We had a wonderful service this morning. It was a gorgeous day and the presence of the Lord was in the place. The folks love when we come because we sing praise and worship songs. This morning the church sounded so sweet as we sang “Open The Eyes Of My Heart”, “Cornerstone”, and “In Christ Alone”! Haley Polk did was an awesome job with the special music. She sang “Still Believe” by Kim Walker Smith. WOW, it was hard to follow her with my message! We could have said amen and gone home!
Our team has had some good time together as we have shared devotions, made adjustments to the VBS activities, and walked through the Beatitudes at night. I love these guys and the Father knew exactly what He was doing when He put this team together.
“I am the Good Shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. He gives me everything I need. He lets me lie down in fields of green grass. He leads me beside quiet waters. He gives me new strength. He guides me in the right paths for the honor of his name. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid. You are with me. Your shepherd’s rod and staff comfort me….” John 10:14, Psalm 23:1-4
Day 2 was an amazing day. The team made some adjustments to a few things and it made a huge difference. The theme for today was “Jesus Is The Good Shepherd”.
Our special friends showed up today to tell the the story. We did not have a sheep puppet so we took “Dallas”, wrapped him in paper towels and cotton balls…(not like we could run down to Hobby Lobby to get costume stuff! 🙂 It was hilarious. The cotton balls kept falling off when he talked and the kids went nuts! The story was “The Little Boy Who Cried Wool!”
The craft was decorating a sheep and the snack was making editable sheep. I need to add this disclaimer: “NO SHEEP OR OTHER ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN ANY WAY IN THIS SNACK! 🙂
Today was an awesome day and we had a very good group of kids. We are really glad that several older kids came. They were a great help with the younger kids at craft time. They also hung around after VBS for an hour talking with Haley and Jay. This was very encouraging to me because last year these particular girls really did not engage during VBS! God is so good!
Dinner tonight was at Ray and Sally Collins’ home. Ray and Sally are very special friends to us. They are the original founders of the church many, many years ago. Ray came to McGrath as a Wycliffe Bible Translator. He was planning to translate the Bible into the Athabascan language. When he got to McGrath and started his work, he found that the only people who spoke the language were the older Native Americans. All the younger people and children spoke English. He decided it was not a wise investment of money to continue so he started the church plant now known as McGrath Community Church.
Anyway, about dinner. When you hear the word “potluck” it does not mean you get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Potluck in McGrath means incredible dishes with moose, bear, salmon, whitefish and all the trimmings. And tonight was no exception…except tonight was the best potluck I have had! And desserts…well, I cannot mention those because you will start drooling and I do not want you to get it all over your keyboard! You should have been here. Ms. Lynett is blaming me because she says the food is so incredible that she has to taste it all and when she gets home she will have to eat celery and lettuce to well, enough said! hahaha
Monday’s theme is “Jesus Is The Bread Of Life”. We will talk about salvation and the importance of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Please be in prayer that the words shared tomorrow will plant seeds in the hearts of the kids!
God is still doing amazing things in VBS and in the hearts of this team! Thanks for praying and supporting us!