Partner, Neighbor, Corner

One of our last events for the summer is the English Country Dancing Ball.  This is the dance where participants come in period costumes, any time period when the dances were performed. Abigail and I found a fabulous dress that we raised the waistline making an empire waist; and added cap sleeves. She completed her ensemble with elbow length sleeves which she promptly took off upon arrival at the ball! 

Caleb also attended but choose not to mess with wearing his suits or tux.  It was a good move because the air conditioning in the building could not keep up with all the warm bodies and energy being expended! Abigail invited several of her friends to join her this evening.  She enjoyed introducing her PEACH friends to the ECD friends she's made over the last four years.

It was a great evening surrounded by good friends!  We finished off the evening with a Whataburger run!  

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, 

as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:29

Wax On Wax Off

This week we've been spending time outside finishing projects on the house.  Jon's taken advantage of the last few days of the boy being home.  They have scraped paint, replaced boards and painted the outside of the house.  It looks fantastic. 

The girls and I have been working on the privacy fence.  I used the power washer to clean the wood. The next step is after it dries out to re-stain and seal the fence, but that will wait for cooler weather! 

For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. Galatians 2:18

Whistle a Happy Tune

My girl puts in 500+ hours a year volunteering at the local food bank and at church.  She plays softball three days per week and has batting practice on another day. She is currently taking Calculus and Trig. She has taken one of the top 3 spots in Texas Bible Bowl for the last several years. Just your typical 15 year old, right? 

Besides, what else would you expect her to do?   After years of piano lesson the girl is now composing music!  Abigail has never been one to sit still and loves to learn.  

I sat today in amazement as she played her latest composition for her instructor.  Abigail had the sheet music written out and together they reviewed that what she was playing is what she has now composed. I love the kids drive and hard work.  Are there things she not good at, of course!  And there are wonderful lessons of humility and perseverance in those times as well. But for today I celebrate the girls strengths!   

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 

and all these things will be added to you.  Matthew 6:33

Lessons Learned

It's hard to believe it is almost time for school to begin!  I have the girl enrolled in dual-credit classes; software classes installed; and teacher/student book sets covering all of her subjects.  She will have a nice variety of classes and learning options.  Today I also enrolled her for the ACT & SAT at our local high school this fall.  

One of the nice things about Caleb being in college is he can pick out and enroll in his own classes.  He also took care of ordering his own books and getting most of his school supplies! 

Today I laid out Abigail's classes for the fall, including volunteer work, piano lessons, and batting lessons.  The only variable we still have is her high school game schedule and from there we will get her practice schedule for the select ball team.  Once we have those filled in, I can map out her other extra-curricular activities and field trips!  Sophomore year for kiddo number three, here I come! 

Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser,
Teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.  Proverbs 9:9

Sweet Souls

There is a lot of greatness in these pictures, and no, I don't mean the kids and I.   Here's what I see when I look at these pictures

In the lower right is Abigail in Metro Relief's now working cooler.  Do you see we now have refrigerated food for our guest!  It has been a tough almost 2 months without any refrigerated items for our guests, but because of very generous donations we are up and running again.

In the lower left is a giant basket of soaps and toiletries our friend Ms. Kathy has been collecting for the pantry.  Today we were able to hand them out to our guests! 

In the upper right is me giving one of our smaller guests a kid's Bible.  All of the Bible's at the pantry were donated by my friend Derek, who is a manager at Mardel's! 

In the upper left corner is Caleb working in Intake with a mom and her little girl.  Caleb is explaining where she can get various services and will pray with the family.  What I see is the nice adjustable leather chair, you see another friend of ours donated three of these chairs for our volunteers.  He knew that the volunteers sit with guests for three hours and asked what would make that easier on our volunteers.  Jon and Caleb went and picked up the chairs from our friend!  

When I look at these pictures it is neat to see my kids working hard to serve others, but I also see all the generosity behind the scenes of the people who aren't in the pictures.  

So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:2-4

All About That Base

Sandwiched between morning services with Bible class and evening services is an afternoon of softball.  The girl puts in three hours of batting and fielding practice every Sunday with her select team Rage.  The team also practices on Monday nights and Friday nights, for now. 

Funny thing is I know what their tournament schedule is through July 2017, but still have no idea what the practice schedule will be like once school starts!  

Because this is a selcet team it is more of a tournament team, unlike Abigail's CHANT high school team.  As we found out last year, the varsity coaches have full control over how much and what type of practice a player can have with other teams.  

It makes sense that the high school coaches don't want their players to get injured playing or practicing for another team.  Much of Rage's practice during softball season is considered conditioning practice. But because the girls on the select team are all playing high school varsity ball they are getting plenty of practice.

Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.

Proverbs 12:24

Idle Hands

The summer months mean Vacation Bible School is over, meaning the script writing, staging and performing are done.  That usually takes up November through January, with a little time in June.  

Summer also means I'm not in that six month stretch of teaching Bible Bowl, October through March!  But summer means I am preparing all of the study material for Bible Bowl.  No material is distributed for Bible Bowl, it's straight forward the test is over the Bible, so what the kids need to master is the Bible.  

Because I serve on the Board of Directors for Texas Bible Bowl, I began last year making a study guide available to anyone interest in Bible Bowl.  I'm so excited to announce I have completed the Study Guide for Texas Bible Bowl 2017.  It is up on the Texas Bible Bowl download page of their website. The Study Guide is 147 pages of questions over the book of Acts, broken up by chapters.  It is an aid help the kids understanding of the scriptures they are studying.  I've written the questions directly from the English Standard Version and they are all multiple choice.  Because it is a tool for learning, each question is followed by the verse number where the answer can be found.

For my McDermott group, I usually print our a Study Guide for each participant and this will serve as their homework as we work through the book of Acts.  In addition to the Study Guide their is also a color coded printed out of the Book of Acts that aids in study preparations, along with a one-word list.  My sweet friend Kristy Stickland put these together, and I put together something very similar, and then used mine to proof her final copy.  Hopefully between the two of us, it is as accurate as possible.

My next step will be writing up my lesson plans and getting all the material produced for my, Lord Willing, 30 students!

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep,

    and an idle person will suffer hunger.

Proverbs 19:15

Celebrate Friendship

The kids and their friends got together tonight to watch the DVD of their PEACH drama, 'Something's Rotten in the State of Denmark.'  The play was super clever and the kids really enjoyed watching themselves on stage.  During the performance each of them were focused on their roles, lines and timing.  But in watching it tonight they got to see what it looked like when it all came together.  Abigail is so fortunate to be surrounded by such a great group of girl friends! In the lower right is Allie, Hannah, Gracie and Abigail; aren't they sweet! 

Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,

who conduct their affairs with honesty.  Psalm 112:5

Spontaneous Sing-Along

Abigail skipped out on all the painting and refurbishing of the house today.  The youth group held a Disney Movie Marathon on this hot Texas summer day.  No princess movies were shown during this undertaking.  

The youth interns selected 'Monster's Inc.,' 'The Incredibles,' and 'Finding Nemo,' for the marathon.  Some where during the day they broke for dinner at Raising Canes.  After tonight's Wednesday night Bible Class they watched 'Up.' 

Frankie and Caleb joined the group for the final movie after services. It sounds like one of the highlights was seeing how many lines from these childhood movies that the kids remembered! It sounds to me like a great way to beat the heat and stay out of trouble! 

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:22-23

Keeping Cool

Several weeks ago the walk in cooler at Metro Relief went down.  The walk in cooler is where we keep our fresh fruits and vegetables, along with the pizza, and baked goods donations.  Because we didn't have a working cooler most of the food our family picks up on Fridays we take on to Minnie's Food Pantry.  In fact, on Friday we delivered almost 300 pounds of food to the other pantry because we had no way to keep the food fresh over the weekend.

But things are looking up!  Today Metro received the much needed compressor for our cooler! Because we are a non-profit pantry and not affiliated with any church, we rely on donations for all of our needs.  The compressor was a very expensive piece of equipment to replace.  In addition to the walk in cooler being down, the stand up freezer went down as well.  Adding an additional $14,000 to the repairs needed.  

Turner Trucking agreed to fund 50% of the cost for the freezer if the pantry was able to find matching funds.  Over the last several weeks the volunteers have worked hard to find funding.  Turner Trucking returned today with the equipment we needed to get the compressor to our roof.  We have an HVAC man who is donating his time and service to get us back up and operational! Ms. Gina our dear friend, and the pantry director posed for a picture at this monumental moment!  Hopefully, today was the last day we will run the pantry without refrigerated foods and meats.  Our guests will be thrilled next week to have lunch meats and creamy desserts again! 

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,
 as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. I Peter 4:10