Community of Love

Sunday I will say goodbye to something extraordinarily special.
Ten months ago a handful of young ninth grade girls shyly entered my unadorned class. They were as sweet as can be but their dance with each other was as bland as our surroundings. I saw little prospect of a close-knit group, but God would prove me so wrong. Funny how those four walls became our waiting room: a kneeling place for me and a hearth for their hearts to be prepared for a change that only a Holy Father could orchestrate. June's Camp Tallowood provided the stage for His magnificent performance. Actually a little adjoining balcony hosted His opening night; seasoned 9th graders blending their hearts into one community fueled by His Son's own offering of blood. God would bless an act of obedience to gather and charge...to offer them fellowship founded on trust and His love. God touched every one of those hearts late that night! None of our doing ...the script was all His...
Their fellowship would ripen under summer's sun as they watched Christ find new homes and beginners emerge from the waters. Others would join and encourage each other, feasting on Truth... offering up prayers. Our room is now dressed with proof of the journey, walls dotted with memories of roads explored.
Sunday a pink army of warriors will emerge, a class equipped with a mission...girded with love. Father, protect them from snares ...watch over their lives.
Perhaps something special will happen again...but for now I'll just thank Him for this Community of Love.

Brittany...Brooke...Sarah...Sandra...Karly...Carlye...Sarah...Shelby...Valerie...Beth...Emily

The sweetest of blessings

Sometimes we almost miss the sweetest of blessings... We're so busy trying to capture the extravagant that we often fail to see the beauty in the simplest of gestures. A husband... tired from travel... frustrated from foiled plans... arrives home with a handful of love. Sometimes she fails to receive what he can offer.

Travelers we are...tired from this journey... still searching for grand things that may never be... ignoring the smiles and the hand-picked bouquets... Sometimes we almost miss the sweetest of blessings.