We have yet to find a church in our new town and honestly we haven’t had time to seriously look with everything going on. Ryan has been back and forth, Tennessee to Michigan and back again a time or two, and I’m not going to a brand new church alone with 7 kids, Luke included. We’ve also had sick children off and on throughout the past few months and when one of us gets sick, it’s only a matter of time before all of us get sick. In Michigan we attended mega churches which can accommodate all of our children and not have us feeling like we’ve doubled the children’s ministry within 5 minutes of our arrival. Generally a mega church will also have some sort of set up for special needs kids like Luke; small town churches do not usually have something in place for these children. This week we made it a priority and visited the top church on our list and had a chance to sit down with the pastor who said that he would do everything possible to make his church work for our situation, including reaching out to his congregation in an effort to recruit some help for Luke. In the meantime, we had home church once again which has consisted of Ryan and I listening to a sermon from one of our favorite pastors on a podcast while our children watch a video (this weeks was on Jim Elliot, the missionary) and then doing some sort of activity to either reflect on a particular issue in the world or an activity to bless another person. This week we did both. They wrote letters to one of the grandparents and then we had them reflect on the question, “What does beans and rice mean to you?” I wanted to know what was going on their little hearts and minds concerning an issue I hoped was making an impact on them in one way or another. Here were some of their answers.
1. Tate – It means feeding people in need of food and water.
2. Mya – We are giving the orphanages the money that we would have spent on our big dinner.
3. Mabel – it’s because we were praying for those kids.
4. Caleb – It means helping people in need of things or helping starving children who don’t have any food or water.
5. Josh – Because we’re praying for the kids
6. Jada – Because the kids doesn’t have food or water.
I think they’ve got it!
My Take
Admittedly, beans and rice is not the tastiest dish in the world, and honestly I, the mother, the schemer of this fantastic, grand proposal probably had the biggest problem with this meal; it just ranked in regards to meal possibilities, very bland, lacking in flavor, and in need of a good dose of enhancing options such as a side of grilled asparagus or possibly a succulent rib eye steak. Sarcasm aside, I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to put things in my mouth that don’t taste good, a waste of calories in my opinion, but I will heavily indulge in a particular item if it tickles my taste buds, which plenty of foods do, so this entire exercise in humility proved to me how desperately I needed this lesson – probably more so than most of my family! I admit, VERY America and very self – indulgent. Lesson slowly taking shape in my heart.
Last night we also talked about where our first meal offering is going to go. We looked at the website samaritanspurse.org which has tangible options, with pictures, for the kids to choose from including: goats, chickens, donkeys, cows, clean water and other choices, all with the prices for each attached. The kids decided that our first purchase as a family is going to be a goat, a goat which costs $45, a goat which will be life changing for a particular family half way around the world and a goat that will only cost us a mere 3 weeks of beans and rice, what a deal.
Just keep livin!!
