A Good Day of Gardening

I work in a vineyard. 

So I am told. 

By Jesus.

To be honest, I don’t always love working in a vineyard.  Sometimes, I would prefer to be working in a fireworks stand. 

Wouldn’t that be fun?  All I would have to do is just light a match, and BOOM!  Lots of loud noise and beautiful, dramatic displays of light.  Everyone would “oooh” and “aaah,” and I could say, “Isn’t it amazing?  My God made all that!”  So easy.

Instead, I am apparently called to be a gardener. 

Here is why gardening is harder than working at a fireworks stand.  For one thing, you have to do a little more than light a match.  You have to, like, till soil and plant seeds and water and maintain and on and on… 

Also, you don’t get immediate results.  Fireworks are instant gratification.  You do something little and immediately get something big.  With gardening, you work and work and stare and stare at some dirt, and eventually…maybe…a little seedling pops up.  It’s definitely not as dramatic.

And yet, it is a miracle.  I’m not much of  a real life gardener (like, at all), so when Luke brought home a little cup of soil from Sunday school a few years back that ostensibly had a seed in it, I did not have high hopes.  Yet, for his sake, I put it in the windowsill, and we dutifully watered it daily.  Still, I was completely surprised when….wait for it…something grew!  It. was. amazing.  All you gardeners out there are thinking, “Yeah, genius, that’s what happens when you water a plant and give it sunlight.”  But still…it was still such a miracle.  I mean, how does water and sunlight make something green pop out of the soil?  That just doesn’t make sense.  And as much as we talk about things like photosynthesis (which, for me, obviously, is not much), do we really understand it?  Can we replicate that process on our own?  I don’t think we can.  We just trust that it happens and watch for the little plant to start miraculously growing out of the ground.  Amazing.

I’m going somewhere with this, I promise.  

As a worker in God’s vineyard, I spend a lot of time watering and tending and thinking deep down, “Is something really going to grow from all this?  I just don’t know if it is.”  And then sometimes, sometimes, the tiniest little shoot pops out of the ground, and I’m like, “Praise God!  It’s a miracle!”

And it is. 

Tuesday was such a day.  That morning, we went to the beach with the teens.  That in itself wasn’t a miracle, though it was fun:

No, the miracle was what happened while we were at the beach.  During that time, my cell group went—of their own volition—to the Lowcountry Orphan Relief to serve.  I couldn’t go b/c my kids are too young (LOR’s rule), and I didn’t have childcare.  But the fact that they wanted to get together, and wanted to serve God with their time is wonderful.  It represents a tiny shoot popping up out of the ground.  Thanks to Greg’s idea, I planted a seed called “cell group,” back in August, and it has been such a blessing to watch girls that barely knew each other to begin with end up voluntarily serving together…without me there.

Instead, one of their moms took them.  She volunteered, b/c, as she told me, “Ever since the Community Outreach Ministry started, I have felt a need to get involved, and I’d really like to check out the Orphan Relief.”  Again, a tiny plant.  Back in January, a seed was planted called, “Community Outreach Ministry.”  It’s goal was to get our church involved in the needs of our surrounding community in a tangible way.  It has been kind of a slow process, so to hear someone say, “I want to serve in this way,” is great.

Then that evening, another tiny plant made its debut in the wide world.  Haley, a member of my cell group, got baptized. 

The other members of my cell group baked a cake for her that afternoon and waited excitedly with my kids and some of their younger siblings:

Proud mama.

My cell group, minus Abby, who was out of town.

Afterward, we headed quickly back to our house, where we met 11 post-high school “kids” (some of whom are married, and are probably not to be considered kids anymore:)) for a Bible study, which was another blessing.  In fact, we had to send our intern on to our house with a key, b/c we were going to be a bit late.

While Greg explained how to get there, Luke took the opportunity to climb on Adam’s shoulders:

Anyway, I spent the day sitting in the warm soil of God’s vineyard, gaping in surprise and delight at all the little shoots of life that popped up around me.  It was amazing.  And watching them, a deep and obvious understanding permeated me, telling me that I did not do any of this!  I have no idea how a plant comes out of the ground!  But it is such an honor and privilege to be even the tiniest part of that process.  How gracious and loving God is to allow his helpless children to “help” him in His vineyard.  “Coincidentally,” we read 1 Cor. 3:6-7 at our Bible study that night, where Paul says, “What, after all, is Apollos?  And what is Paul?  Only servants…I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”

Thank you, God, for making these plants grow.  I know that they will last a lot longer than fireworks, and I pray that they will bear much fruit in your kingdom!

Impact 2011

I love “camp.”  And by camp, I don’t mean cabins and sleeping bags and outdoorsy-ness…necessarily.  I mean, I love the opportunity to essentially take a week off from regular life, and go to a place full of people you love and who love God.  I love getting to see old friends and bring new ones and to all get to worship God together.  I love having a whole week just focused on God, on growing closer to Him, and on expressing our love for Him.  It is awesome.  Truly, it’s a balm to my soul.

The physical experiences of camp differ:  for many at our church, that experience is found in the more rustic setting of Palmetto Bible camp, whereas I prefer my camp experience with air conditioning and an on-site Starbucks:).  What is similar (besides bad food, which seems to be universal) is the spiritual focus and the connection with our brothers and sisters.  It is always a great time. 

Usually I go up for Senior Impact, but this year, four of my five cell group girls were going to Junior, so I went up with them:

 

It was  a great weekend, and two of our Jr. High kids (really, three, but more on that later) made the decision to give their lives to Christ.  I have pictures of one of the baptisms, and cannot find it right now, which alarms me.  But…just trust me that it happened:). 

After Jr. Impact, I went back to Macon to see my babies, but Greg stayed for Senior and experienced more awesomeness:

He reported that our group took some big steps toward honesty and unity, which is so exciting to hear.  In the meantime, I spent most of my week enjoying Gaga’s pool and the lake and various family friends who came to visit.  We didn’t spend all our time in the pool, though, which is the subject of the next post….

Aaannnnddd…the rest of June

Whew!  I kind of dropped off a blogging cliff there for a couple of weeks.  Between travel, lack of internet access, and being separated from my pictures at various times, I fell behind.  Never fear:  I’m hoping to catch up!

My last blog was about Tuesday, June 14.  On Wednesday, I packed, cleaned, and took care of sick Anna (we think she got dehydrated from our beach day), and then on Thursday, we headed to Macon with a group of Jr. Highers.  Like last year, the plan was to spend the afternoon having fun at my mom’s house, and then head to Nashville for Impact the next morning.  And like last year, we had a great time!

Needless to say, that inner tube did not survive the day.

While the big kids goofed off, the little ones had fun…

…and made some huge leaps in swimming skills:

By the end of the day, they were both jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side all by themselves!  They also swam well both under and over water!

While Luke and Anna were working on those skills, we took the older kids jetskiing and to jump off the Noe’s dock.

Bethany got to drive the boat…

…while we took the jet ski.  I told the girls, “We probably will not flip off, but just in case we do, be sure to grab your glasses.”  Annnndd…then we flipped off.  And I did not grab my glasses.  And neither did Emma.  Oops.  Farewell, sunglasses!

After returning from the Noes’ dock, we had dinner:

And after that, the kids went tubing!

Afterward, they were thoroughly worn out, yet excited about going to IMPACT the next day!

Hangin’ with the Cool Kids

One perk of growing up as children of a youth minister is that my kids get to spend so much time with teens who spoil them!  My wonderful cell group spent the night on Friday, and Luke and Anna thought that they were the coolest kids ever b/c they got to play games with teenagers.  (Well, teens and almost-teens:)).  First, we played Guesstures, and sweet Hannah offered to help Anna play a few rounds:

Preparing the cards.

Doing some planning….and….GO!

Chicken!

Sleeping pill!

Tree!

Nose!  (This one was from the next round, which is why they are in different positions.  You can also see evidence of Anna’s amazing card-drawing abilities.)

Luke was too shy to participate in Guesstures, but he did enjoy a game of Catchphrase right before bed:

I love how he started to get in on the intensity of the game!  Since he can’t read, of course, he couldn’t describe the words, but he did guess one time.  I was describing the “cake” part of “carrot cake,” and I said, “It’s something round that you bake that has icing on it,” and Luke yelled out, “A donut!  With icing on it!”  Even though it wasn’t right, he was soooo proud that he participated!:)

Needless to say, both of my kids went to bed thinking that they were pretty awesome, b/c they got to hang out and play games with “the teens”!

I Love My Cell Group!

In the youth ministry at our church, cell groups are small groups of teens who meet together every Wednesday night during the school year.  I feel the need to explain that, b/c outside of that context, a "cell group" sounds like:

--a terrorist unit

--my friends from prison

--some kind of biological term

But no, my cell group is not any of those things; it is instead comprised of Emma, Hannah, and Bethany, three wonderful girls who are rising 7th graders.  We will start meeting together in the fall, and we are taking advantage of the summer months to get to know each other.

First, we went out to eat and shop one evening.  Then, they helped me do "Games" in VBS:

On Wednesday night of VBS, they all came home with us afterwards and spent the night.  We rented a movie, popped popcorn, and made our own pizzas:

The next day, we went to the beach:

I have some adorable pics of them swinging Anna, but I'll avoid posting too many bathing suit pictures on the internet:).  I will show you this, though:

That splash is from two dolphins, a mom and a baby.  They were playing with each other just a few feet from where the girls were standing in the ocean.  The dolphins hung around for quite some time, and it was so fun to watch them!

It was hard to get pictures of them.  This was the best I could do.  You could see almost their whole body coming up out of the water, though!

We had a picnic lunch on the beach, played in and around a tide pool, looked for shells, and then headed home.  We showered, got changed, and then went out to eat and to shop some more before VBS that night.  I loved that they were all so sweet to my kids:

We had a lot of fun together, but the best thing that happened that day was that one of them, Hannah, got baptized!  Afterwards, Emma came and gave her a hug:

As I was snapping the picture, another friend, Hannah Kate, was running to get in, along with Hannah's little sister:

And as I was snapping that picture, Hannah Kate's little brother, Jason, was running to get in the picture:

All three pictures turned out so well that I had to post them all:).  This is truly such a great group of kids, and I cannot wait until they are all in the youth group!

Plus, I am especially looking forward to getting to know my cell group even better this year and getting to be there for them throughout their high school years!