Sunday School & talking to Strangers

For those of you who do and don't know much about our baby, let's just say that Mark and I were blessed with a "good one". She is the most happy, content, just go with the flow child and I give all the glory of that to God!!

Yesterday, we were in the Crowley Celebrate Freedom parade and our church had a float that was promoting our VBS this year. We are doing Outrigger Island and it has a Hawaiin theme. Here is a picture of Calloway and I on the float.

Here is a picture of Calloway and Mrs. Barbara, one of her Sunday School teachers. She loves Mrs. Barbara and Mrs. Barbara LOVES her! It is such a wonderful feeling to take her out of her car seat on Sunday mornings and say to her, "Do you wanna go to Sunday School and see Mrs. Barbara?" and watch her get the biggest smile on her face and start kicking her little legs like crazy! Normally when I pick her up after church is over they have put a little flyer in her diaper bag that tells me how well she ate, if she slept and if so for how long, and then it tells me what they learned that day. For instance, a couple of weeks her little tag said that they learned that God made mommies and daddies and that they thanked God for each baby's mommy and daddy. I often say to Calloway when I am holding her or putting her to bed that "Mommy loves Calloway. Daddy loves Calloway. and Jesus loves Calloway!" but what an awesome concept to think about the love that we have for our children and to know there is no comparison to how deep the Father's love is for us. And to know that she is learning about God's love and creation at the age of 6 months.

I pray that Mark and I can grow a baby that is not only healthy physically but also spiritually! I want to raise her in God's word and teach her about Jesus and my biggest prayer is that she too will come to know Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. Please pray for Mark and I as we journey to be godly christian parents and that we will strive to do our best daily living in the word and as an example for Calloway AND for others around us to see.

Here are a few other pics of Calloway from church this morning.

I teach Children's Church every other month and this morning the lesson was about following God's direction for our lives and how little Samuel kept hearing God's voice but he didn't know who was speaking to him at first. How many times is God calling our name and we don't know who is calling us or we ignore i? Our Sunday School lesson the past 2weeks has been somewhat on Evangelism and why (most) Christians today are not "motivated" about sharing the gospel or actively participating in some kind of reaching out. Well, we discussed how christians are afraid of rejection. How many times have we heard God's voice calling us or telling us to talk to so-and-so at the grocery store or in the mall or wherever/whenever and we have ignored or chosen not to act upon His calling to us all because we were afraid of how that person would respond to us. I pray that we not hide our Light (Christ) inside us but that we go out and show it to the world around us.

I would like to challenge or encourage you to try the following or choose to act just once upon a calling that God may give to you. You may be surprised at what happens! Back last summer, Mark was taking an Evangelism class at the Seminary and part of one of their assignments was to go in public and witness to x number of people. Well, Mark and these 2 other people from his class decided to go to the mall together and do their assignment at the mall. Well, Mark said that one of the guy's wife was coming and would I like to go. I said sure and we went one afternoon. Well, let me tell you!!!! I was very afraid of being rejected but I mustered some "here-it-goes" and off I went to talk to a lady who was about in her 40's sitting on a bench in the mall. ** By the way it does help if you have a very simple tract in your hand or an Evangicube or some type of witnessing aide/material. I sat down and asked the lady how she was and she noticed I was pregnant and we began talking about that. I eventually asked her if she went to church anywhere and she said that she didn't because she hadn't found one here that she like since she had moved here about 5 years earlier. Well, that told me that at least she was interested at one point. I then asked her if she believed Jesus was the son of God and that he died on the cross for our sins, and so forth. She said yes! Then I said that's great! And I told her that part of being a christian is belonging to the body of Christ and how important it was to fellowship with other believers in some capacity. I encouraged her to go "church hunting" again and give it a try. I then asked her if I could pray for her and she said yes. I just prayed that the Lord would direct her to a church where she could serve Him and that He would bless her and her family. Then I told her that I hoped she would have a great day and she had the biggest smile on her face.

Now I am not saying that your experience will go as well as mine did but I hope that it encourages you to give it a try. Not all experiences are good, we talked with one guy who was wearing a "Wicken" symbol around his neck and that was quite an interesting conversation. We did at least plant a seed or maybe just till the ground but we give him a track anyway.

I'd love to hear from you....let me know about your experience.