It is so hard to know which ministry or which "project" to join...when there is so much need and so much hurt in this world...I feel overwhelmed sometimes just thinking about it...but the only thing I know to do is when an opportunity comes up, pray about it and join God where he is ALWAYS working if that is what he's leading me to do. One of the most frequent questions I get asked when someone finds out that we home school is what about socialization and do I keep my kids away from everyone that is different than we are....I believe homeschooling (for us at least) does the complete opposite...it has propelled us to be around people that are a LOT different than we are, it has caused us to think outside the box, meet new and different people of all colors, races, and ages and learn that life is about a lot more than serving ourselves. One of the local home school moms read about the Good news project that was taking place at a temporary housing neighborhood for previously homeless families. The after school program was completely open to anyone coming to help the kids with homework, serve them, play with them, do projects, share Jesus....really anything we wanted. A couple of the home school families go out there pretty often...we planned a cookie party for the kids during the first week in December. When they got off the bus, there we all were waiting on them to come in and do a craft, decorate and eat cookies. We provided materials and food and just played! I'm going to be quite frank here....we were 5 white families...they were all mostly African American and I LOVE WHAT COMES NEXT.....we all mixed and blended and started having fun! Our kids were amazing...we had all discussed with them that they were not there to serve themselves but to serve others, lend a hand, be a friends...and boy did they step up from cleaning the tables, toting crafts to and from the drying racks, handing out items, sweeping the floor, getting to know the kids, and being a friend....even our youngest boys ages 5 and 6 were taking the kids' wet crafts and organizing them on the drying racks with names and such...it was a blessing to watch! They all got done and everyone, even the white kids :) went to play on the playground....the playground in the middle of the "projects"....I say this with a grin because I'm trying to make a point...if my kids were in school, on "our" side of town or in a private school....doing their daily routine...I'm not sure I would have every thought to do this....or even allowed it! Now Emily prays for the little girl that she met there....one of the girls couldn't get enough of mommy time from my friends and I. They wanted to keep my friends books and Emily and her friend Lauren were trying to read to the younger kids ...it was just great fun that would normally be so "unusual" if John and I had not taken this road...Emily now has a wonderful idea and the other mommies are on board..We were all struck that there were no books there. Emily's idea was to have a mobile book check out system for the kids in the after school program. The 5 families that want to join us all are in a book club together and see each other fairly frequently....we thought we would each gather extra books and each Friday take them with us to the neighborhood to let the kids browse through and check out....the next week..a different family will go and do the same and the kids can return the books to whichever family is there. Prizes will be handed out to the ones that are consistent with returning books. Emily's thought is that it will encourage them to read and be fun to get to check out new books each week. John called it a traveling book mobile like in the movie Kit Kittredge. How cool is that....our book club taking books to others! We also adopted a family from there for the holidays and bought presents for them. We had a mom and 2 girls. John and the kids took the gifts to them last Monday. Today, on Christmas, we received a picture of our "family" opening their gifts!
Pine cone craft!
Emily and J.D. were in a hymns and harmony class learning to read music from the hymnal and learning to sing in harmony..at the end of their 4 week class, they went to a nursing home and sang 4-5 songs to the residents. I cried like a baby looking at those people enjoying the music....it was so sad and so joyful all the same. The kids did such a wonderful job and sounded beautiful. Afterwards the events director for the nursing home led the residents in singing "You are my Sunshine" to our kids...again, sobbing from my mom and I!
Emily and My Dad participated in the Singing Christmas Tree again this year. Emily was up front singing and dancing, which I'm finding is where she enjoys being....so weird since neither John nor I like to be in front of people. They did a great job and we got to invite our new neighbors...they came and really enjoyed it! Now they are texting John and bringing gifts to my kids all the time...they are now our adopted grandparents! It really is a beautiful sight....and we are blessed to have some wonderful musicians in our church...I think there were close to 1,000 people there each night!
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