Happy Birthday Aaron!!

Aaron with Joshea. She just made him this "Happy Birthday" card.

We're playing "signs". It's a really cool group game. (I'm sitting behind the guy in the middle so you cannot see me :)

Joshea and I were playing connect-four

Emily playing Manacala with Mrs. LajeanaMs. Joetta playing Manacala with Willie.

Aaron and Joshua playing chess.


Emily and I had a "surprise" birthday party for Aaron. It was a surprise not so surprise because 1. Emmy has a surprise party every year for him and 2. the night before we ended up telling him about it. It was real fun . At first we were all playing different games and then some of the Starrs boys came over and we played group games. More later.

Nija and cupcakes

Nija and Anna

Nija , Shanique , and Anna

Emily and Shanique mixing up cupcakes

Nija melting chocalateHere sister try the chocolate. It is good!

Here are a few pictures of making cupcakes with Nija and Shanique for Nija's birthday.

God's will is plain. We are to love Him and people. But when it comes to loving people, we hedge. Jesus says, " Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" ( John 15:13) People say, " Sure, I'm willing to die for you." But are we willing to live for our neighbor? - John M. Perkins

I read a bumper sticker that read , "Jesus died for you are you willing to live for Him"

Young Disicples

girls painting

Unique

Forget how to spell her name?

More, Girls painting

Nija building with blocks

Emily helping Trinity put together a Bible verse at Young Disciples

Brianna on the other side putting the same verse together - it's a race.

Young Disciples is one of my favorite parts of being here. Young Disciples is a Bible Study for children ages 6-12 from kids from here in the 'hood.

Last week , twelve kids came. I'm not talking about 12 "homeschool " kids but 12 hurting, needing attention kids. This last week I could see a clear connection between the kids behavior and home life. The ones with relativly "stable" homes vs. not at all.
Children are easy to reach out to because all they want to attention. So they are easier to connect with but I'ld say that is generally true anywhere.

The last few weeks Emily has been teaching them about ways of praising God. So far they have learned about : lifting hands, shouting, kneeing, singing, instruments ... I love Emily's Kids. ( I noticed I have pictures of only girls - it makes it look like we only have girls come. But we do have boys to.)

Dare 2 Share

Here is the theme of the conference.
Jonathan practicing witnessing with Aaron.

Milton looking on.

Carica and myself (my "first" friend here)

6,000 teenagers and youth pastors

The first weekend here RXN went to this huge D2S conference. This conference was geared to encouraging youth to share their faith.The theme was "InVinsible" about putting on the full armor of God as written in Eph. 6 . About 6,000 attended ( youth and leaders) ... We had 13 tickets. The first night we had 1o teens come from RXN. The next day on 3 came. The kids around here just go with whatever is going on at the time , never mind the planning ahead. Emily didn't know how many were coming until she went to pick-up kids ...2 of the 3 that did come the second day were ones that did have to plan because they were spending the night. I learned a lot about the kids hanging out with them.

A lot of stuff at this conference was culture shock to me and wasn't something I would choose for myself. For instance, the music was so LOUD I couldn't even hear myself ; there was lights flashing all sorts of colors all over ; and what gets me the most was the head singer ( a man ) looked like a woman ... I think a man should look like a MAN and a women like a women. ( Well, I'm sure you agree too)

Anyhow, to look on the bright side, I did like how they made people get out of their "comfort zone" ... One time the speaker asked everyone that had a cell phone to lift it up. Lots of people did. Then on the spot everyone who could was asked to call a friend who wasn't a Christian and talk with them about God. The night before we had all thought of a person we would commit to sharing our faith with - that was the person we were supposed to call.

All the different group were also assigned to neighborhoods to collect cans for Salvation Army and most importantly witness. We kinda cheated and went to our own 'hood. It was a great opportunity to talk with and pray for the neighbors. Emily and Aaron were pleased with the opportunities we had.

quote

The wise man accepts Christ today;
the foolish puts it off till tomorrow.
-William Borden