B, G and J Day: What We're Good At

Haven't had one of these in a while.

B: This Sunday was especially busy.  We hosted a pizza-party potluck at the church immediately following the Cubbies meeting.  The event was fun, and as Bryan and I are trying to create more opportunities to get to know our volunteers, the party served its purpose.

[It has been pretty neat to see how Bryan and I work as a team in these circumstances.  Bryan does nearly all of the set-up, nearly all of the take-down, and nearly all of the details administration.

I do all of the talking.  And some trouble-shooting during the actual club meeting.  And all of the e-mail writing to parents and leaders.  But mostly: the talking.  The joking around.  The chit-chatting.  The finding-out-how-you're-doing. . .

I'm really good at my job.

And because I'm an extrovert whose batteries charge up with human interaction, I really like my job.]

It was 7:30 by the time we got home from the pizza party.  We got the kids in bed by 8:00.  We were positively wiped out--Bryan from all the work and I, from. . .well, I'm not sure why I should have been tired.

We watched a movie together.  (Knight and Day, which was a very fun movie with a great plot--not at all sure why it tanked at the box office.)

By 10:30, we were both in bed and talking about the day. About the party.  How things went.  About the ministry.  About what we might do differently.

At 11:15 there was a pause in our conversation, and Bryan let an enormous lion-yawn out and asked, "So, are you ready to pray now?" 

I said, "Oh!  Are you ready to go to sleep?"

He blinked up his heavy lids and nodded.

"Were you ready to go to sleep 45 minutes ago?"

He kind of nodded again.

"Then why have we been talking all this time?"

He half-smiled and said, "It's after a party.  I knew I would need to talk you down." 

What a helpful guy.




G:

Speaking of AWANA, every year, we do an adopt-a-club fund-raiser.  The children in AWANA (from pre-K through high school) earn money to give to children in Zimbabwe so they can have an AWANA club, too.

Every year, the Cubbies bring in the most money.  This is not because they earn the most.  It's because their parents put all their loose change into a jar for the better part of the year and change adds up.

By the time children are in Sparks (e.g. K-2nd grade), parents figure the children should be earning the money for their collection jars.  Historically, they've never earned more than the Cubbies' parents drop wantonly. 

(The other levels are technically in the competition to bring in the most.  But their enrollment numbers are nowhere near as big as the younger levels.) 

So. 

Gemma really wants the Sparks to win this year.  She currently has $42.25 in her jar.  I do not know how she's gotten that much.  Something about that girl's efforts to earn money just. . .multiplies.  It's weird.

Every day, she asks me for a job to do to "earn money for adopt-a-club," and I think of something.  And pay her a quarter here, a quarter there. 

The other day she got the bright idea to hunt up loose change all over the house.  She checked couch cushions, nooks, crannies.  She got down on her belly and made a sweep under the washing machine, where she found a dime.

And she found a "strange black thing."  She showed it to me.

Hooray!  It was the remote control to my camera!  I thought I had lost it on the mountain where I broke my ankle over two years ago.  This was the last place I'd used it, and having not seen it since, I figured it fell out of my pocket as I lay, howling, and that it was long gone. 

I high-fived Gemma and thanked her.  This was truly a great find.  Did I pay her any reward money?  Well.  No.  She had already found a dime.




J:

Still enamored with Star Wars.

I've decided to start making hay out of it.  For instance, I challenged them both with the question, "Darth Vader is very powerful and everyone fears him.  But whose slave is he?"

They were both stumped. 

Until I reminded them that he calls the Emporer "Master," and he does the Emporer's bidding.  He was a slave to him. 

This rocked their world a little. 

And then came the hay:  "People think that they want to be free of what God says is right and good and they think they can live how they want to and by what they think is right and good.  But, really, every person has a master, and if the master isn't God, then their master is sin, and they are a slave to it." 

We'll find out later whether they get that. 

On a different day, Star Wars again came up in our conversation.  Joshua had a question about midi-chlorians, of which Annikan Skywalker had an astoundingly high concentration in his blood stream.  Midi-chlorians, those under 60 plus Helen may know, are the biological presence of the Force.

When I saw this in Episode I for the first time, I found it very satisfying.  Finally: the Force explained.    It did not correspond to a Biblical view of spiritual reality, but why should that bother me?  Star Wars was never meant to be a Christian allegory. 

I pointed out to the kids, "The interesting thing about Star Wars is that a lot of the parts of it are just like what we know is true from the Bible.  But some things are different.  For instance, in Star Wars, everyone is born as a good person and people on the Dark Side are those who have chosen to go to the Dark Side.  But what does the Bible say about all people?"

Answer:  All have sinned.  All.  Have sinned. 

"And that's why everyone needs a Savior."  Long pause.  "Can you think of anything else that's different?"


Long pause. 

Josh was ready with one: "In the Bible, no one has 4 arms like General Grievous."