Planning and a rockin' team

Today has been a grand day of planning and strategy. I love it! This morning Mindy Cooper and I got together to start planning the children's Christmas play. It's going to be amazing. We're going to be doing a news cast theme. Mindy and I have amazing creativity synergy. The two of us get together and you know something incredible is going to happen. The creativity can usually be gauged by the amount and volume of our laughter. Sometimes when we're planning and writing together we laugh so hard that when we finally stop, things in my office are still ringing. No lie, ask anyone else in the office.

This afternoon I got to plan the Kids Rock lesson on joy. We'll be using lemons to show that we can have joy no matter what. When life hands you a lemon of a situation, joy helps you make lemonade. Delightful. I also got to plan the Rock Climbers craft and activity for Sunday to go along with their lesson on creation. Our preschoolers will choose an animal picture out of a hat, act out the animal and when the other kids guess it, they'll all color in the picture together and staple it to the creation board. Beautiful.

I just got back from a planning, scheduling and strategy meeting with Suzanne Crueger, my Rock Formations (nursery) director. We're getting ready for our big Dr. Seuss Sunday at the end of June and for the Amazing Family Race at the end of July. It is great to have such strategic thinkers in my pool of kids leaders.

I'm about to go into a meeting to work out more of the details for our Dr. Seuss Sunday and Tale of Despereaux carnival with more wonderful, creative and detail oriented team members. What a fantastic day! There are a lot of events going on this summer, but these events are in capable hands. I get to work with such a great team. Highland Church is incredibly blessed to have this team of leaders putting their time, energy and thought into Highland Kids.

This is an official shout out to the Highland Kids team. You all rock!

Dreaming and Moldova

Amy Winkelman and Cristi Schroeder are getting ready to embark on an incredible journey to Moldova. This journey is something that has come from years of dreaming, praying and following. Amy has had a strong pull toward helping orphans for years and years and at a women's conferent last year, Cristi started recognizing the great desire she had to help victims of sex trafficking. But these women didn't just take their deeply felt compassion and sit on it. In only a little over a month Amy and Cristi will be traveling to Moldova in Eastern Europe to work with missionaries and meet with others who help orphans and victims of sex trafficking.

I wish I could put into words how proud I am of these two women for following their God given dreams and passions, to act on what He has placed in their hearts. I wish I could share an ounce of how inspired I have been by their dreams. After "The Worth of One" missions and informational meeting Cristi and Amy hosted several weeks ago I have been more pressed than ever to find and succeed in the dreams and plans God has for my life. Cristi recently wrote , "Because we are following our dreams to Moldova. God is inspiring others to follow their dreams."

The best way I can think to pass on the inspiration and the dream is to ask you to look into their trip at Cristi's website. Be inspired and follow the dream God has for You. If you don't know what that dream is, start asking Him to show it to you.

Please be praying for these wonderful ladies, for their dreams and Moldova.

Stories and the why question

I recently finished 1 & 2 Samuel and I'm now in 1 Kings. I'm pretty familiar with all of the stories, but this time through I feel like the story quality of these books has been illluminated to me. The emotion, the fear, the betrayal, the revenge, the love, the jealousy. At first I thought this perspective would disappear after I finished with David's story, but it just keeps on going! His sons, his grandsons, the overthrowing of the throne! It's excellent, action packed reading.

Just this week one of my favorite Bible figures has come onto the scene: Elijah. His story is gripping! He performs incredible miracles, calling down fire from God, defeating the prophets of Baal, seeing rain fall for the first time in over 3 years, outruns chariots, is fed supernatural food by angels, runs for 40 days straight, sees wind rip apart a mountain, witnesses a supernatural earthquake and raging fire and is able to discern the gentle whisper that is the voice of God! But in the midst of all this he is desperate, scared and incredibly lonely. At one point he tells God that he's through and asks God to take his life.

1 Kings 19:14-18 records that on Mount Horeb Elijah cries out to God saying, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left and now they are trying to kill me too." It's after this that God's answer comes quickly. God gives Elijah instructions and lets him know not only has He been preparing a ministry partner and successor for Elijah, there are also "7,000 in Israel--all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him."

What an incredible response! It wasn't instant. Elijah had been feeling all alone in his quest for God for a long time before God answered and encouraged by sending him to Elisha and letting him know there were others who were devoted toe God. God kept urging Elijah along, even when Elijah finally got to the mountain he had to state his case twice. Why?

Why doesn't God answer our questions and our despairs right away? I don't know. But I do know that God is at work even when we are frustrated with Him and want to give up. Even when we feel like we're all alone, His plan is working. He is leading us to Mount Horeb where He will reveal His answer.

Elijah's story is so inspirational because it's finished. We know the end. We know God didn't let Elijah die in the desert or leave him to be killed by Queen Jezebel. It's much more desperate when we're in the middle of our own stories. But there is hope.

Wherever you are in your journey with God, whether you are seeing God bring down consuming fire and drenching a dry desert land in rain or you are slumped against a broom tree trunk in the middle of the desert telling God that you're finished, you can't keep going. He has a plan. He's leading you to the place where He can speak to your need too.

Chameleons vs. Transformers

What an awesome Sunday! Whenever a month has five Sundays, the fifth Sunday is our all family service. Kids 3 and up join in the adult service. Pastor Dan or Pastor Nathan and I team teach and we create special kids' notes for the sermon, more object lessons and sermon illustrations. Last Sunday was our third time doing it and Pastor Nathan and I pulled out all the stops! We did a message entitled Chameleons vs. Transformers. Our base Scripture was Romans 12:2a "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

There was a fantastic skit, an exploding experiment, awesome notes for the kids AND great content and message! This Sunday had it all, including the wonderful background Nathan created picture above.

I got more comments on Mindy Cooper's portrayal of Kerry Chameleon, a woman who is terrified of standing out in a crowd, than any other portion of the service. Especially emblazoned on the minds of the church was the moment Kerry started trying to make her hair and camo sweatshirt look like my hair style and suit jacket.

Teaching the absolute truth of God's Word in a creative way. What an excellent way to start the week.

It is good to be a part of Highland Church. Love it.

Rockumentary

I'm a big fan of the mockumentary. I'm also a BIG fan of David Crowder*Band. So when Jeff, our youth intern, told me about David Crowder*Band Rockumentary I was apprehensive. If you love two things and then they come together it can either be great like peanut butter and chocolate or it can be bizarre and not great like chocolate flavored popcorn, or fried pickles and peanut butter, or worse yet the pear flavored jelly bellies. These episodes are definitely like a Reese's Peanut Butter cup.

Oxen

This morning I finished The Organic God by Margaret Feinberg. She's an amazing author. I discovered her through a post on Mark Batterson's blog regarding her book The Sacred Echo. I got the book and devoured it! Fantastic. Wanting more of her writing I found Organic God and started pouring through it as well.

While there were many ways God used this book to open my eyes and get my attention, the best take away is her reflection on Proverbs 14:4 in her chapter on God being incredibly wise. Provebs 14:4 says, "Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest." (NLT) Some parts of every job are stinky. There are parts of every job we'd rather do without, but stick with it because it will lead to profit. Her observation is that no oxen=no poop=no profit OR oxen+poop=profit.

There are parts of jobs and projects I would love to do without, but it's way better to keep at it and reap the benefits of a job well done in the end. Good reminder and a great challenge.

Life Themes

I caught this thought from Mark Batterson.

"One part of finding your voice is identifying your life themes. C.S. Lewis said, "Every life is comprised of a few themes." Over time you identify those unique God-given convictions that drive you. For example, there are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet. That is one of my themes. A life theme isn't something you know. It's something you ooze out of your pores. It's not something you define. It's something that defines you. It's more than head-knowledge. It's a gut-conviction."

It got me to thinking about what I know about myself. What are my life themes? I'm sure that I have them, but when I ask that question I draw a blank, so I've started to think about it and ask God to help me recognize the life themes of my life.

What are yours?