Faith - It's a Vivas Thing!

Jun 07 2009

Photoless Moments

I did not even take one picture this weekend. And that’s a shame…because I had so many photo opportunities!

There was the Josh Stevens Foundation event. Isa rode a pony. We rode a train. We had ice cream, snow cones and hot dogs. There was a balloon release. There were smiles and tears. I did not take a capture a single moment.

There was our youth summer kick-off party. Lots of photo moments. Forgot to bring my camera in. And you know what’s worse? I made my poor husband find it and bring it to me. My bad. I did get to visit and ate an amazing chili dog!

There was the dog climbing up on the outside table and trying to get in through the window. Definitely a photo moment, but I was still mad at her for breaking into the house and invading the trash.

There was my youngest daughter singing in church this morning. “The Wise Man Builds His House Upon the Rock”….Nope, didn’t capture that one either. My husband managed to record it on video though. He’s such a good man.

I’m a photo nerd. I love to take pictures. I have tons and tons of them. Really, I do. But, I was a total slacker this weekend. I hope my memory stays in tact if I’m going to start missing my photo opportunities!

At any rate, here’s the photo moment my husband managed to capture!

May 31 2009

Whirlwind of a Weekend!

On Friday, we had a soccer tournament. So we did this:

Ok, well, B-Boo did that, while we did this:

Since it was my niece's birthday, we also did this:

and this

On Saturday, it was our anniversary, but we were too busy doing this,

so celebrating was out of the picture….literally!

She gets pushy, doesn't she?

And finally, today was our Children's Choir Concert, so we ended it on these! The top video is of the Smart One having a ball being silly with "I Am Free!" (He's the long haired one, 2nd from the left.) The bottom video is the Drama Queen singing "Everlasting God"

May 26 2009

Compassion

Last week was not a fun week. Sunday was slightly difficult. It was a morning where I just wanted to be able to sit and worship in church and not have to deal with any life. Just Worship and Praise. Instead, by the time Worship came, I was a little distracted and trying hard to relax and let it be.

I sat next to a friend who knew just why I was feeling this way. And just when I thought I'd been *given the freedom button* to have one hour of peace, I was given a dose of reality; a reminder of my current life situation, one that I won't be free of anytime soon. There was to be no break for me on any day of this week. And it really stunk to high heaven!

I guess you could say I had a bit of a bad attitude. I *should* be able to come to church and worship without having to deal with this stuff, right? Isn't it enough that I have to deal with it day in and day out with no end in sight? Isn't it enough that my family is working so hard while it seems like another is on vacation? Obviously, my head and heart were not in the right place by the time I sat down to worship. And God was not about to let me get away with my pity party on this Sunday morning either. As I sat back down, the following words filled the screen.

"Everyone needs Compassion.
The kindness of a Savior."

Conviction, cutting right to the heart, reminding me of what my Savior has done for me. And that it's not all about me. And that this is not my church, this is His church. And that the other woman sitting next to me needed compassion today….and the kindness of a Savior. And that He had mercy on me, and I should have mercy with her. I looked at my friend sitting to my right. We both knew at that moment that God was speaking to me through this song; through Worship in His church. And in that moment, I was finally able to truly Worship and experience the peace that I desperately needed.

Everyone needs compassion,

Love that's never failing;

Let mercy fall on me.

Everyone needs forgiveness,

The kindness of a Saviour;

The Hope of nations.

Saviour, He can move the mountains,

My God is Mighty to save,

He is Mighty to save.

Forever, Author of salvation,

He rose and conquered the grave,

Jesus conquered the grave.

So take me as You find me,

All my fears and failures,

Fill my life again.

I give my life to follow

Everything I believe in,

Now I surrender.

My Saviour, He can move the mountains,

My God is Mighty to save,

He is Mighty to save.

Forever, Author of salvation,

He rose and conquered the grave,

Jesus conquered the grave.

Shine your light and let the whole world see,

We're singing for the glory of the risen King…Jesus (x2)

My Saviour, He can move the mountains,

My God is Mighty to save,

He is Mighty to save.

Forever, Author of salvation,

He rose and conquered the grave,

Jesus conquered the grave.

My Saviour, you can move the mountains,

You are mighty to save,

You are mighty to save.

Forever, Author of Salvation,

You rose and conquered the grave,

Yes, you conquered the grave

Shine your light and let the whole world see,

We're singing for the glory of the risen King…Jesus

May 18 2009

Whirlwind of a week!

It's been one of those weeks. The type that totally exhausts you, but in a good way. After a week many appointments and months of planning this weekend, my mental status took a dive on Thursday. As always, God is gracious and has given me those amazing friends through whom He likes to show just how much He cares. My house was a disaster. A group of teenage girls were about to join us for the weekend. And we were about to spend an amazing weekend with 51 teenagers, some amazing adults, fabulous speakers, and an awesome band, Seraph.

Friday, three wonderful friends showed up at my house to whip it into shape! We dusted, scrubbed, vacuumed and windexed. And when I had to leave for yet another appointment, they stayed behind, took care of my kids and finished my house! A few hours later, I came home to a sparkling clean house. What a relief!

This sooooooooooo allowed me to have a fabulous, nonrelaxing, stressfulfree time with the 46 teens that showed up for our D-Now weekend!

Highlights of the weekend include:

Losing to 3 of the 4 high school boys that bowled against me. But hey….compared to the other 40+ bowlers I think I did ok.

A diabetic teen drinking sneaking a RedBull before going to bed.

Being awoken at 3:30 am because above teen has a high blood sugar count.

Having my wonderful hubby deal with the diabetic teen at 3:30 am!

Having my wonderful hubby deal with the cockroach in the tub at 7:30 am so that another teen could take a shower. (My 4 year old nephew offered to deal with it, but because he called it a beetle, she felt bad and couldn't let him touch it since he really didn't know it was a cockroach and not a beetle…or a ladbybug.)

Scavenger hunt! That was a blast, especially when we wanted to help a lady put her groceries away at the grocery store. She thought we were crazy…so much so that she told us we were scaring her! We finally convinced her that we were just some great church-going teenagers trying to be helpful and win a scavenger hunt so she relented and even asked if there was anything else she could help us with!

Seraph was an AWESOME band, as always! They don't just lead a great worship, they also hang with us!

Oh..and the Gorilla beats the man beats the gun tie you die song was crazy fun!

Sean and Natalie…what an amazing heart for missions and ministry.

And now? Well, I'll admit that I'm pretty exhausted, but it's a good exhaustion! Now, if only I could get everybody in bed by 8:00 pm, that'd be great!

May 12 2009

Laughable Moment #11

Four year olds are fun…or not. Ok, they are.

Last night as I was putting my nephew to bed he started talking. He likes to talk.

He talked about Jesus.

He talked about Jesus being in Heaven.

He talked about us getting wings and flying to Heaven and being with Jesus…and then he talked about us falling out of the clouds.

He talked about how big God is and is He big like a giant.

He talked about Jesus living in our hearts.

He talked about a big house. I wanted it to be purple. He said he wanted it to be blue. We both decided it could have pink, too.

And then we went to pray. He paused and said, "Aunt Hope, my tummy hurts."

Pause.

"Aunt Hope, maybe it's Jesus trying to get out of my heart."

I replied, "Maybe it's Jesus trying to get into your heart."

He said it didn't really hurt that much and so we prayed.

As I moved over to get up and walk out of the room, he asked me one simple question.

"Aunt Hope, are you getting old again?"

I'm seriously starting to get a complex about my age!