A Grand Week

This last week was amazing. It began last Sunday with our evening kick off for VBS which went extremely well. Our biggest turn out yet, I think! Monday began with 18 kids in my First and Second grade VBS class. We had a great first day; they had so many great questions and genuine concerns. We created a canyon which we threw all our concerns into, come kids were dealing with divorce in their families, hurt knees and hearts, heart attacks in their families, and sadness that you wish kids would never have to face. But the truth is that there are so many families out there hurting, trying to run away from pain and illness. These kids had a real understanding for how hard life could be.... We learned that God cares about everything, even the little things like scraped knees and hurt feelings. And that we can always talk to Him about our feelings and concerns, and that he is always there to give us big hugs and peace in our hearts. I know that God was working on so many hearts this past week, including mine. The days that followed we gained 2 more kids, for a total of 20, and they all made it EVERY Single DAY!! No absences! What an amazing thing God accomplished. Last year I had 16 signed up but always had at least 1-2 absent! Nope, not this time, 20 every single day!! God kept us all fresh and ready and healthy and eager. Each day was better than the day before, and on our last day we prayed as a group and most of them showed such sincere interest, they admitted that they were sinners and had done things wrong in their lives, they raised their cute hands to admit the sin that was in their lives, believe in Christ as God's son who died and rose again on the Third Day, and to confess to E.D. and I that they wanted Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. It was amazing to watch their little hands go up, with their eyes closed and heads tucked to their chests. Our evening performance went great, they sung their little hearts out, and the kids that were in the Drama (Cayleb, Noah, Madison Wheeler and Tayah Tryon) as well as Mr. Jay did a fabulous job!! We all celebrated a great week with ice cream and smore bars.  Thursday, which was our last day as well as the evening of ouf final performance was also my Birthday. I couldn't have had a better day. Spending it with the kids and around all my church family and with my family was perfect :D

Charity Ann's Birthday was on Friday and it was perfect as well. What a great group of kids we had over for the day. They had such a great time, and even talked me into putting soap on the trampoline with water! What??!!  Lots of fun, and Charity Ann was glowing. 

Monday was also our Rank Test for Karate. We all tested, Cayleb and Charity Ann went for their Purple belts and passed, Noah went for first degree Green and I went for my Second degree of Green we both did great as well. It feels so good to be back into a martial art.... I missed it a lot. The kids seem to be enjoying it still, which is good because they are signed up for another year of it :P The best thing about our gym is it is so family friendly. We have amazing teachers, it's a Christian based Goju Kai  Freestyle Karate and they really love what they do.

Well, better go, gotta finish up dinner!!