WATS Day Picture

Isn't this the cutest picture!? This was obviously early on WATS Day since the yellow gloves and the white t-shirt are both still clean. I threw the gloves away and the t-shirt will never be the same!

This is Madilyn and Abbie and their Sunday School teacher all together. Connie (their teacher) was working at the house next door and they were so excited to see her.

A little extra: Abbie keeps her Sunday School teachers in stitches. Every Sunday they tell me of some crazy/funny/darnedest thing she had said during class. A couple of weeks ago they were learning about King Saul - that he was very tall and good-looking. Abbie piped up with, "He was hot." Cracked them up. Yep, that's my daughter.

WATS Is Over - For Now.....

Whew! WATS is semi-completed! I'm a little disappointed to report that we were unable to paint our nice man's house. The rain came. Rain doesn't come very often to Abilene so we have to be thankful for every drop. Thank you, Father God, for every drop. We were able to throw away 5 pick-up trucks loads of trash and limbs and scrape lots of paint! The kids were out with a saw on a 10-foot pole attempting to saw some dead branches. It was lightening. I made them stop. They informed me that some daddy (I don't know which one) had told them to do it. Mommies, eternally the bad guys.

At 6:00 we had our Celebration Service - I think we were celebrating the fact that we were still standing. Some of weren't. We got to sing the new songs I had posted about and the song "Rising" that we sang several times yesterday. Our kids pictures were on the big screen. I looked over at Abbie (I was sitting with the Praise Team) and she was sleeping. Ahh. I wanted so badly to get up and pick her up. When I finally was able to, she was extra grumpy. She was ready for her own bed!

I'm looking forward to going back next week to finish the job! Sarah can even come since she isn't taking any pictures!

More WATS

WATS - We Are The Sermon Day! Amy asked me what WATS stood for and there you are. It's our chance to get out into Abilene and be a sermon. Instead of one man talking from the pulpit, it's hundreds of members working all over town. We been doing this for 3(?) years now and my family looks forward to it every year. Last year our team (which is mainly our Shepherding Group with friends added) worked at 2 houses. This year we will be at one house scrapping and painting. We are helping out a widower with 2 grown daughters and a grandson (I'm pretty sure) living with him. Things have gotten out of hand for this elderly gentleman.

Last year was great. Our kids (all of them in our group) loved working for these people. Of course, our kids don't understand why anyone would live without taking out their trash but they worked without comment. We did talk to Kenny and Abbie about civic responsibility and that not everyone has the same kind of upbringing that they do. It's eye-opening for them.

If you're on our team this year, wear closed toe shoes and try to bring some gloves. Maybe even some to throw out when we're done. (Target Dollar Spot) Another video for you that we will be singing on Sunday night - I don't think we'll be this rocking.....

Salt and Light

You know, WATS Day is coming up at the end of April. I read this article and it made me think of WATS Day. How willing are we to get into someone else's life? Would we (I) want to be this ladies friend? Or even just someone who comes over and helps her clean? What about taking responsibility for her car? Just one of them?

I don't know what I would do. This story made me want to go over there with trash bags, rubber gloves, and a few other people to at least make the trash go away. She lives faraway from here but there have to be people like this in Abilene. I think of Jim's grandaddy that had newspapers stacked up at the door. How easy it would have been to haul them off. Then there was Tammy's grandmother, whose house I had the privilege of helping to clean.

This morning Phil talked again about us being salt and light (Matthew 5:13-14) Oh, don't we want to be salt! Don't we want to get out of our comfort zones and change our world! Don't we want to shed some light in the dark! Don't we want to be more than just church-goers!

Father, we pray that You make us salt in a tasteless, Godless world. We ask you to make our hearts see the lost as your children looking for Home. May we this week be a light in the darkness of sin. Lead us to teach our children to be light, too. Forgive our past of looking to just ourselves and our own little world. Let us see those around us as you see them.