Recently, we were blessed to have good friends of ours come stay for the week.  Sarah & Rachel Cooney have been in our lives for nearly 10  years now (as well as the rest of their wonderful family), and we couldn’t imagine not knowing them!  It has been a joy to watch them grow into beautiful, Godly women, who devote so much of their time and energy to other young women & teens. Amidst their busy lives, they came to CT (braving the possibility of seeing Mr. Black Bear) just to hang with us!!!

Hours of freeze tag, capture the flag, soccer, frisbee, dress up, coloring, games of miniature golf, ice cream, Oreos, and more!  They even gave our girls adorable hair cuts (extra bonus that they are both professional hair dressers)!!! Clearly also fashion experts—just check out those fabulous glasses they are wearing in the pictures below!

When all was said and done, at the end of a super long day of play, these great friends still weren’t done.  I had shared with them my goal of getting the ENTIRE school year planned, organized, and sorted into bins before September rolled around. So, each evening they helped me copy, print, sort, and bind up notebooks to go with each of our upcoming Wisdom Books.  There were so many papers, that we lost count night after night.  So I decided to add it all up just to see how much AMAZING hard work they did. They spiral bound 36 notebooks for our Wisdom Book Units,  as well as 18 handwriting/ABC notebooks for our younger ones to use every month of the year!  That’s a lot of spiral binding!!!  I printed out my monthly calendar plans for each, grabbed related books off the shelf, and stuffed the bins. THANK YOU RACHEL & SARAH for being such AMAZING servants and friends. Our school year is planned till the end of the year! Wow- I set the goal, but I truly didn’t think I would reach it- Thank you for helping me—what a gift!

HOME SCHOOLING FAMILIES : If you are a home schooler and currently use “lap books” or something similar—might I suggest to you checking out one of my FAVORITE sites Notebooking Pages.  It takes any unit or theme you can think of to learn about (from handwriting to presidents to ancient China) and sets it into pre-formatted pages. You could put them in a 3 ring or spiral bind them. I like binding them so they take up less space and lay FLAT on their work space.  So as your kids are learning, note taking, writing, whatever- they can learn to organize all their work.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE – did I say LOVE – these pages.  They help me teach one topic to a LARGE variety of learning styles and abilities. Their site has LOTS of free down loads so you can sample.  Of course being a lover of organized things, I bought the whole set. Check it out www.notebookingpage.com

Enjoy!  

Any one here in  Simsbury, CT knows about “Day Camp”, but for those of you far away, let us share with you a little slice of heaven here at our church we call “Marketplace Day Camp”.

Months of preparation, prayer and persistence culminates in one week every August. This is no VBS people—this is colossal!  The property here at The Barn undergoes a metamorphosis of sorts.  Tents are pitched, costumes, adorned, Drama teams practice, Jesus acquired (yes- we have Jesus visit on site!!!)Artisan tents set up, Tribes assembled, songs rehearsed, and so much more. It is a week set back in Biblical times where the kids experience what it would be like to live with Jesus, walk the streets with those He knew, make things with “local artisans” just as they did when Jesus was there. 

Now of course there are a few “modern” amenities added in. Like, chocolate covered pretzels and popsicles for snack, a giant water slip and slide, microphones for the worship team, inflatable bouncers at a picnic, to name a few.

This beautiful week was here long before the Martins arrived. It is the vision of the church to reach the community. We are just blessed to join in the celebration! Every year it grows, more kids come, more adults serve, hundreds (yes hundreds) of Jr. & Sr. High kids volunteer a week of their lives, and kids leave transformed. In the past couple years it has grown to bring in ANY kid, with ANY disability or challenge- so,  many more volunteers come (sometimes giving up a week of work) just to work one on one with a child who needs something extra. We have sooooo many pictures, but here are the ones that I know I am able to share with permission from their families—or because I know them personally.

I have expressed many times the challenge to fathers to lead their family in daily family devotions. I know this is a challenge and I also know that most men in the church are not doing this. There are many reasons men are intimidated when it comes to taking on the spiritual leadership of their homes, but I do not want to get into that at this time. What I want to do is to share with you, men, how I lead our family devotional time each evening in hopes that it will encourage you to lead your family as well.

When we began doing family devotions it was awkward and challenging. I was uncomfortable, not communicating well with the kids, and they were not enjoying sitting for long. I decided we would read through a book of the Bible. We would gather together after dinner was cleaned up and read a passage. I would ask questions, trying to be practical and help them understand how the passage related to their lives. It was challenging, but we were struggling through it together. We would follow that time with prayer, and then we would work on a passage we were memorizing together.

This process often took an hour, which we learned was way too much. I wanted this to be a priority, but I needed to be more realistic. I needed to find ways to allow the kids to be more engaged, have more fun, and shorten our time without sacrificing what I wanted to accomplish. I needed to be creative, which is not my strong suite.

Jill helped a lot with all of this, giving me ideas, helping me communicate with the kids and encouraging their participation. We began to act out passages, being silly at times, trying to make the time together more interesting. Over the winter, when it got dark early, we were reading through Mark and came to the transfiguration. To try to capture the light shining from Jesus we turned off the lights and put on silly glasses that were painted with glow-in-the-dark paint. Is this what Jesus looked like? They knew it wasn’t, but they remember that night, and they remember that story. We are currently reading through Genesis and are in the middle of the Joseph story. Different children are reading the different characters in the story. When Pharaoh chooses Joseph to lead the nation he places his ring, a robe, and a gold chain on Joseph. So the person reading Pharaoh’s lines did the same to the person reading Joseph’s lines. She put a ring, a multi-colored towel, and a…oops, I forgot to get a necklace…oh well, on her brother. They remember the story.

When we pray, each child has a journal. The ones who cannot read have a picture journal. Each one has a day and they lead us in prayer. We are also able to give them updates on how God is answering prayer, which encourages them in their prayers all the more. It is a powerful lesson for all of us, and a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness.

We also do Scripture memory. We have changed the way we do this recently, and it is working great. I found a simple Scripture memory system that I introduced to the family that takes just a few minutes each day and allows passages to stick quickly and be repeated often. To learn more about that you can go to http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/.

You may read this article and still be intimidated. I want to encourage you to simply try something. You don’t have to do all of this. Just start with something. We now take about 40 minutes for all of this. It is an investment that pays dividends every day. Our children are hiding God’s Word in their hearts, they are experiencing God answering prayer, and they are learning how the Scriptures apply to their lives. These are critical life-long lessons for all of us. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6). Start training, men.

Twenty years from now, what is your desire for your children?  Is it for them to “grow up”, get a degree, have some amazing job?  OR do you desire MORE for your children? We do.  We ask ourselves regularly, “What will this build in them?” or “How will this shape them?”  We desire for our children to grow in Godly character and in deep relationship with God.  We desire for them to know how much they are loved and chosen, so that they will be able to love others more freely.  We make family choices based on these desires.  We plan vacations around them.  We choose topics for homeschooling around them.  We even plan field trips around them.

We, like every parent on earth, are very aware that parenting is a refiner’s fire.  God uses children, as well as many other life circumstances, to teach us where we need to grow.  As our children model our words, actions, emotions, responses, we are held accountable to a higher standard every day!  There is nothing like a child mimicking your attitude to put you in your place with God!!!  Sometimes you don’t even need to be a parent yet-  just an older sibling.

Last month we spent learning about the process of refining metals and making glass.  We learned how metals are purified multiple times to increase their value, how sand is turned into glass, and how we, as Christians, are refined throughout life.

We went to a local artist workshop on making glass.  He was a wonderful host to our family and took time to teach each child the process of glass making. He even gave us a tour of the historical church where his studio is located.  At the end, he allowed us to stay extra and watch him work on a project.  We decided to split up the family and we will do a second visit in a few months.  Since there was a 2000 degree furnace involved- we thought that was a wise choice for our family!  In the end, we came home with BEAUTIFUL stained glass flowers to give as a present to Nauna and Nat for their recent wedding. 

We can’t wait to go back with the rest of the kids.  In the meantime, we have no doubt that God will continue to supply us with our own personal “furnace” to refine us day by day!

About 10 years ago, my younger sister, Suzanne, introduced me to a new friend of hers.  They met through work related activities.  Suzanne was serving with Young Life Capernaum in Baltimore and Terri was a mom connected to the ministry through her children.  At the time, Suzanne introduced us because (hopefully I quote this correctly) “You guys are like the same person! You HAVE to meet her!”.  Of course back then, Sean and I had just little Jacob, so ONLY GOD KNEW just how much alike we really were!!!

Jim and Terri are the overly blessed parents to 10 beautiful children.  Their family is designed by God and He built it through birth and adoption.  Over the years, God had shaped their hearts, minds, and lives to willingly answer, “Here I am Lord, send me”, I will go where you lead me”.  I am sure if you asked them 40 years ago if they thought they would have ten kids, some adopted with varying special needs, they would have said- No Way! That’s Crazy! Who us? Really?

They have walked where we currently walk.  They have survived the “Diaper years”, but they are still “in the thick of it” since parenting never ends, especially when you have been blessed with kids who have special needs.  Their “baby” is a teenager now and their oldest is a pastor in WV.  We of course can finally say we have a child in the “double digits” (our oldest is 10yrs) and diapers… well, they keep coming around here!

When we first met, Sean and I had NO IDEA we would end up so much like them!!!  We have  built a friendship over the years.  A bonding of “common hearts” for encouragement, insight, Godly wisdom, laughter, an understanding ear, and did I mention laughter- we really need that one! Of course there was also, trampoline jumping, swinging, girly stuff, piano duets with Isaac and Jacob, hikes, running around outside, cookouts that became cook-INs, trips to the fire house, celebrations at church with Beyond Capernaum, and a little much needed “man therapy” for the dads- construction! The dads spent time at their church checking out the site!–as they are building a very large addition.

This past week our families gathered together for what is becoming our annual “Palooza” time of fun, encouragement, bonding, and unsaid reminders of why our families look the way they do. Everything God designs is beautiful!  Just look at creation.  Your family, our families, are no exception.  They are created by God and for God’s glory.  Keeping that perspective is ever important as we raise our children in the “day to day”. God is sovereign and He does not make mistakes!!!  Every child is a blessing from God—sometimes we just have to shift our vision…off of ourselves, and to God’s glory.

There are always moments in life that God uses to give us perspective.  This speaks for it self.  Please take 4 minutes to watch.  Just to give you an “update”, this was filmed a couple years ago, and they now have adopted 3 more children into their home.

Perspective.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV8BUp5xp6U