Patrick

Meet Patrick.  He's a huge stuffed animal that a family gave me with an equally huge box of candy one Valentine's Day.  He took up an entire chair in my office for a few weeks, then I decided that he was going to go  home with a different child each week, and have fun adventures with them.

He's been out to countless restaurants, the dentist, museums, on vacations all over the place, he's a great cuddler, but one thing that the kids know...Patrick doesn't like water.  They take good care of him.

These days, he's looking a little loved on, and not quite as big as he used to be.  That's just fine!  He's becoming the Velveteen Patrick!

So it was time for me to go on vacation a few weeks ago.  I packed Patrick along with all our luggage and gave him the trip of his lifetime!  He went to college, to the Air Force Academy and even fell off the side of a mountain on a hiking trip.  (Thank you Sam-my brother-for rescuing Patrick!)

NYC

My son is at NYC (Nazarene Youth Conference) in Louisville, KY this week.  He's there with 6500 other kids participating in service projects, f.u.n., workshops and service times.  He's having a great time!

I'm so excited for him...I remember my NYC...it was in Oaxtepec, Mexico.  Waaayyy back in 1983.  I hadn't really taken time to think about NYC in awhile, even though I was helping Landry get ready for much of last week.  I was prompted to think about it today though on facebook as NYC alums began posting "which-NYC-did-you-go-to" questions.

My NYC was an international event, so there were kids from all over the world there.  I made friends with some kids from Mexico, and one of the guys gave me this bookmark.  I hadn't thought about it in a very long time, but went to my bookshelf where I have an old Bible..and found this memento of NYC.  The students from Mexico were giving these away.  I've kept it all these years.  I'm not a pack rat, so I'm surprised!

The boy who gave it to me was trying to learn English, I was trying to learn Spanish, so for years afterwards, we wrote letters back and forth and would translate them.  Somewhere along the way, we lost touch.

I have fun memories of NYC like...
...we met a cab driver who would drive us into Mexico City a couple of times to shop. (where were our youth sponsors?)
...you had to time your curling iron time because there were electricity difficulties at the resort where we were staying, so you didn't want it to go out before you were done.
...making friends from all over the world.
...everyone had to bring a transister radio and you could tune to different frequencies to hear the services in different languages.
...it rained a lot, so during a service one night a girl went to sleep while leaning her elbows on her knees and fell forward into the mud under our feet.  (a ps to this story is that my freshman year of college, we were in the dorm telling funny stories, and I told the story of this girl...and she was one of the girls in the room! bwhahahahah)
...the last service where they called us out of the tent by district (like Houston district...SEO district, etc) and they'd say, "Southeast Oklahoma-go and make disciples", etc.  It was very powerful for me.
...we found the only restaurant on the resort that would serve ice in colas! We hit the jackpot!

I've been praying for my son that his NYC would be life changing like mine was.  So thankful that from the tweets and texts...God is working in his life.

10 Yrs of Ministry means 10 Yrs of Memories #10 Christmas Lights

Now this isn't particularly funny to others, but one of my favorite memories.

We have the G-R-E-A-T-E-S-T Staff at our church and have tons of funny, blessed memories over the time we've been here. 

We go to our District Ministers' Christmas Dinner each year, and one particular year we trecked out to East Texas for the evening.  It was comical at every turn, and the big finale was our drive-thru Christmas Light trip.  We pulled off the highway and were awed and inspired by millions of twinkling lights. It turned out to be pretty cheesy, a little hillbilly and we laughed the whole time.  Now each year, someone brings up the Christmas Light drive and we burst into laughter. 

My Friend Missy

I have a dear friend, Missy, who is going through preparations for a liver transplant.  Her husband is blogging about their journey, and this post is especially frank, insightful and inspirational all at the same time.  I thought I'd post the link here .

10 Yrs of Ministry Means 10 Yrs of Memories #9 Silas Praying

As I mentioned briefly in the previous post, prayer has been a huge part of what we do in Children's Ministry at our church.  One of my favorite stories is of Silas, who at the time was 5 years old.  We had passed out hearts to adults in the church on the first Sunday in February and asked them to write a prayer request on them.  Then each time we came to church during the month, the children would divide them up and pray for the requests.

Silas needed help reading the adult writing on the prayer hearts, so I had Kaylyn, a teenager sit with him and tell him what to pray.  She read the request to him and he'd close his eyes, pray, and then when he was finished he'd let her know.  He didn't rush through the prayers, and was very intent on praying over each reqeust.  It was so powerful.  When he got thorugh his stack of 6 or so prayers, he came to me and got more hearts, went back and sat in Kaylyn's lap once again and together they prayed through the stack of prayer hearts. 

Kaylyn had tears in her eyes, and I a huge lump in my throat as we experienced this precious time of prayer with Silas.

10 Yrs of Ministry Means 10 Yrs of Memories #8 Laughing with Kids

I love laughing with kids.  One of my favorite laughter memories is this one:  My ministry at DFC has been focused on prayer for the last 2 years.  It's been the most rewarding time I've had in ministry. 

In the beginning stages, I told the kids my own story of my "new name" and the incredible experience at a prayer conference.  I told them he could give them a new name too, and one of the little boys to me really quietly and said, "Ms. Mary, God gave me a new name too."  The boy told me about praying and hearing God speak to him.  He went on to say, "He gave Conner a new name too."  I said, "Really?  What is it?"  In all seriousness he looked up and said, "Wiggles-like-a-monkey."

It was really funny.  We had a laugh together.  One of my favorite things is making them laugh, or the kids working to make me laugh.  You gain immediate access into their hearts and minds, and draws teacher and student together in the most unique way.  It puts you on the same level for an instant.  It's just the best!

10 Yrs of Ministry Means 10 Yrs of Memories #7 Hot Air Balloon

I've had the fun/nerve-wracking/stressful/gratifying job of directing camps for our district children for several years.


One of the fun memories of that first year was the hot air balloon that we had for the kids to go up in.

They LOVED it!  I LOVED seeing them smile!