Sunday, July 24, 2005
So today...and this summer...
[vent] I don't have much against VBS, having taught and attended them throughout the years. I have witnessed a few kids saved and boredom mostly kept at bay. It's not really the subject. Today as I visited some friends' church, they discussed how their VBS went the week before, and how everything was still good even though only nine boys attended. I sat there and agreed, but as they started giving out certificates to all the tons of people that had worked to make VBS happen, I was greatly saddened.
This summer has been very hard in that my sisters and I haven't been able to get ANY clubs in our town. And this isn't like Hat Creek, peoples! From having dogs (no, they don't even bite kids!) to working on their house (does that kind of work ever end?), the excuses ever more abound. At only 1 hour a day for five days, 5-day clubs take almost no effort! Party Clubs are even better at only 1 1/2 hours for one day! Yet no one is willing to put forth the effort to host one.
Foreign missions is so over emphasized today that Christians have lost sight of those lost in sin around them. Not that going overseas is wrong, but ignoring the neighbor next door is not right! We've come to believe that unless we're eating boiled grasshoppers in Cambodia, we're not missionaries. The truth is that all believers are called to preach the Gospel to everyone--"As you go, preach." Included is the annoying guy down the street who always wants to borrow everything to the bratty teenager running the gas station to the stuck up lady at the PTA meetings. Yes, this is part of everyday life!
Back to my area. Seeing such a lack of hospitality has been very frustrating. (Dismiss the pictures of us being closeted homeschoolers who know no one outside of our immediate family especially boys 'cause that would just be bad and wrong, so no wonder we couldn't find hostesses. That was a joke, and we're known as the family that knows everyone around even though we don't.) The irony is that so many are willing to do a little in their church to receive public recognition and praise, but few are willing to put their money where their mouth is and reach out to their neighborhoods. [/vent]
This didn't come out exactly how my brain processed it. The latter is much clearer, thankfully! So feel free to ask me about anything!
On this note, please pray for my 5-day clubs this week. My family is going to be doing a lot of traveling back and forth to nearby towns, so weariness will probably abound. I know that God is going to work mightily, though, so I am just excitedly waiting to see it!
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This summer has been very hard in that my sisters and I haven't been able to get ANY clubs in our town. And this isn't like Hat Creek, peoples! From having dogs (no, they don't even bite kids!) to working on their house (does that kind of work ever end?), the excuses ever more abound. At only 1 hour a day for five days, 5-day clubs take almost no effort! Party Clubs are even better at only 1 1/2 hours for one day! Yet no one is willing to put forth the effort to host one.
Foreign missions is so over emphasized today that Christians have lost sight of those lost in sin around them. Not that going overseas is wrong, but ignoring the neighbor next door is not right! We've come to believe that unless we're eating boiled grasshoppers in Cambodia, we're not missionaries. The truth is that all believers are called to preach the Gospel to everyone--"As you go, preach." Included is the annoying guy down the street who always wants to borrow everything to the bratty teenager running the gas station to the stuck up lady at the PTA meetings. Yes, this is part of everyday life!
Back to my area. Seeing such a lack of hospitality has been very frustrating. (Dismiss the pictures of us being closeted homeschoolers who know no one outside of our immediate family especially boys 'cause that would just be bad and wrong, so no wonder we couldn't find hostesses. That was a joke, and we're known as the family that knows everyone around even though we don't.) The irony is that so many are willing to do a little in their church to receive public recognition and praise, but few are willing to put their money where their mouth is and reach out to their neighborhoods. [/vent]
This didn't come out exactly how my brain processed it. The latter is much clearer, thankfully! So feel free to ask me about anything!
On this note, please pray for my 5-day clubs this week. My family is going to be doing a lot of traveling back and forth to nearby towns, so weariness will probably abound. I know that God is going to work mightily, though, so I am just excitedly waiting to see it!
