Agape Mission Tour

This year for our youth ministry mission trip, we went on a 12-day “tour” of various places where churches were creatively serving their community.  The tour was the brainchild of one of our youth group parents, and it was, in my estimation, a great success.  I wish I could have gone on the whole thing, but it just was not feasible with two little ones.  I did, however, take them on the first leg of the trip, which was in Atlanta.  We worked with a local church there that was working with the large refugee community located in a small town within metro Atlanta called Clarkston, GA.  If you aren’t aware of this situation (and I sure wasn’t) you should Google refugees and Clarkston, GA.  It is crazy. 

Anyway, while in Atlanta, we got to spend time meeting refugees and playing with their children in an apartment complex; learning about a Refugee sewing ministry that is housed in the church where we stayed; attending an informational training session at World Relief; visiting a multi-ethnic church within Clarkston; grilling out with a group of missionaries to the refugee community; and eating at the most amazing Farmer’s Market ever.  Not necessarily in that order.  Also, my kids and I got to spend some great time with the wife and children of the youth minister of the church we worked with.  She was a friend of mine from college, and her kids are close to mine in age.  We had even spent a weekend with their oldest boy, Lucas, when he accompanied his dad to our Spring Retreat a few years ago,where his dad spoke.  Whew, that took too many words to explain that relationship.  Anyways…

Most of the pictures I took were from the apartment complex that was basically filled with refugees:

Here is a cultural contrast for you:

My three year old, being closely supervised by three adults…

…and this—what?—six month old? being closely supervised by three children.

I’ve got to hand it to the kids, though:  they were great babysitters.  They had a whole bucket line going where the oldest boy would slide the baby down the slide, the girl would catch him, and then she’d take him to the steps (out of the frame), where the third older child would then carry him back to the first one…and the whole cycle would start all over.  I will say this:  that baby had a blast.  He laughed and laughed.

In the meantime, my kids and Lucas made a friend:

That evening, we grilled out with some local missionaries, who gave us a tour of the community garden where the refugees can grow some food for their families.  Most of the people we met were Bhutanese farmers in their old life, so growing things is therapeutic for them:

The next evening, we went to Stone Mountain, which ended up being a lot of fun, and a great opportunity to relax before heading to the next stop on Monday morning:

[Insert adorable picture that I can’t get to download from facebook.  Sorry guys—maybe later.]

On Monday morning, the mission team headed out to Eastaboga, AL, to work at an amazing place called Rainbow Omega.  It’s a church-of-Christ run home for developmentally disabled adults that offers a phenomenal level of care, and every group we have taken there absolutely loves it.  This group was no exception.  From there, they headed to Memphis, where they worked with an inner-city after school program, and then to Oklahoma City, where they helped out with a radical effort to restore a broken community.  And then, they headed back east to Nashville. 

In the meantime, I went with my kids to Macon, since they sure weren’t going to take a van ride across the country, and I sure wasn’t going to leave them for ten days.  I did join the team in Nashville for the last three days of the trip—after all, that’s my old stomping ground:).  I’ll spare you the story of how I found myself driving a Jordanian’s car to meet a Mexican at a Chinese restaurant (let’s just say it involved AAA and a wonderful conversation about Muslim-Christian relations), and instead show you the last few pictures I took:

The kids playing “Knock Out” at Youth Encouragement Services, a really cool ministry that Greg and I volunteered at in college.

Making sack lunches for homeless people.  Fun fact:  did you know that feeding the homeless is illegal in Nashville?  True story.  So instead, we had a kind of…um…walking picnic with the homeless.

Then we went to what was perhaps the coolest, most amazing homeless shelter EVER.  I don’t have time to go into all the details, but it is a massive program (both in terms of the physical building and internal workings) that truly offers the homeless of that city a hand up and out of their situation.

They also offer really big pants:

On our last night, we went to a community event sponsored by Woodbine Family Church, which is associated with Y.E.S.  There I got to see some of my favorite Y.E.S. “kids”:

Greg looks shocked that he got Rebecca’s infant son to sleep.  Jayden enjoyed a good nap:).

The next morning, the group headed back to SC, while I swung through Macon to pick up my kiddos.  Greg had to work Wednesday and Thursday, but we spent Friday and Saturday relaxing and enjoying some much-needed family time.  Even though it’s good to be all together again, we definitely had a GREAT trip!

Wordless Wednesday

Our Fourth 4th

Today, we celebrated our fourth 4th as a family of four.

As always, we gave thanks for our country and spent a day reveling in the freedom that God and so many brave soldiers have given us. As in past years, we have also been so busy with traveling and youth events that we used the 4th of July as a chance to spend time with our own little family.

First, we went to the beach. Greg thought we were crazy to head out to the beach on the 4th, and maybe we were, but I am just so giddy that my kids actually enjoy the ocean. I have so many memories of their screams of terror whenever we even broached the idea of going into the water, and I am loving that that seems to be a thing of the past:

We also made a sandcastle:

And had a picnic lunch:

After lunch, the kids played lacrosse. It was comical.

After lacrosse, we played a lot at the edge of the water (and a lot IN the water). Here, Greg found a little sand creature and was showing the kids.

Of course, Luke loves small creatures of all kinds, and this one kept him busy for awhile.

In the meantime, Anna exfoliated.

When we first got to the beach it was high tide, and water covered where our sand castle was. And then…the tide went out (that’s my family down there). Also, we were there awhile.

Which might explained why Anna cared as much as she did about the frozen yogurt stop afterward:

Which is to say, not at all:).

Luke, on the other hand, was excited:

Okay, he was excited, but really, he is cold in that picture. So we ate outside:

Anna didn’t wake up when we got her out of the van, she didn’t wake up once at the frozen yogurt shop, and she didn’t wake up the rest of the way home!

That evening, we had a nice dinner outside on our new porch furniture. Greg has been dying for some furniture on our back porch, and I was going to get him some for Father’s Day, but then we had a major air conditioning repair that not only ruled out that possibility, but made me mentally cancel Christmas. But because we are spoiled, my parents volunteered to get him the furniture for his birthday.

For dinner, we made this dish called, “Calypso chicken and Island rice,” or something like that. Greg loves it, but I haven’t made it in forever, because, to make it, I have to buy four things that I never buy and never use for anything else but this recipe: coconut milk, sweet Asian chili sauce, cilantro herb paste, and molasses. Good grief! But tonight seemed a festive enough occasion to spring for all that randomness, and we enjoyed our meal. For dessert, we had pig-pickin’ cake.

This is Luke, trying to guess how old America is. (We were celebrating America’s 235th “birthday.” I got that little tidbit from a prayer offered at church the day before.)

Then we showed the kids what a sparkler was, b/c they were dying to know.

Look at all that blond hair!

When Greg laid down in the grass, the kids immediate jumped on him:

Then, Greg suggested Luke work on riding his bike, and after a few successful trips through the grass, we moved the operation to the street. Luke had a great, determined attitude about the whole endeavor and so ended up celebrating a little “independence day” of his own:

Anna was determined to get in on the action, even though she had a flat tire, and even though we had accidentally run over her helmet a few weeks ago!

Then, we went inside and did dishes as the kids worked puzzles. When it got a little darker, we lit the rest of the sparklers:

Greg and I tried to do that cool thing where you spell and draw stuff with sparklers, but all we got was a V:

…and a half of a heart.

So that was pretty much a fail…but we cracked ourselves up trying.

Once it got all the way dark, our neighborhood’s fireworks show started, and miracle of miracles, our kids wanted to watch it! Just in case, we watched it from Luke’s bedroom this year, b/c he still doesn’t love loud noises. But to our surprise, they both were ALL for it, and gave us some hope that next year, we can actually venture outside to watch a fireworks show. Wow—first the beach and then fireworks! We are breaking all kinds of fear barriers here lately!

By that time, it was way past bedtime, and as Luke went to sleep, he pronounced that today was the best day of his life.

Good times.

And then, even though it was too late to be starting a movie, Greg and I stayed up and watched Independence Day. It still holds up, by the way. It is ridiculously gripping. And also, ridiculous. But also, really good!

In closing, I wanted to let you know that I have discovered the usefulness of “labels” and have been labeling my blogs appropriately. I am a little miffed at all my blogger friends who did not let me in on this obvious truth back when I was trying to link all my blogs to similar blogs from past years. (Not really, but I do feel like a dork.) So now, you can click on the label at the bottom of this post and see all the past 4th of July blogs. You know, just in case you want to explore that history:). Plus, all of the labels can be found at the bottom of this page. Really, it will probably be useful only to me and maybe my mom, but I did want to share that I finally get what labels are:).

Happy 4th of July!