Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je....

One of the greatest loves the Lord has blessed me with is the love of children. I've always loved mothering them, teaching them, mentoring them. I loved Jr. Church when I was needed there and I love my Sunday School class I have now.

My Sunday School class is made up of girls from ages 9-17. ( This is one of the necessities of a small church-we have lots of kids and not too many teachers!) We call ourselves "The King's Daughters". I feel very close to my girls. About 80% of my class comes in on the vans and come from broken homes. I marvel at these girls faithfulness in spite of having no one to wake them up and tell them to get ready for church. They rarely miss. Some of them have been with us since they were about 5 years of age.

This summer we had a camp theme. With the help of my dear sister Esther we transformed our Sunday School room into camp.

I took cardboard refrigerator boxes and made a false cabin front and taped it to the end of our tables. The girls were able to name their cabins after we divided them up. One cabin called themselves Joyful Gems and the other The King's Daughters. (wonder where they got that name?)

I took another table and made a roof and sides over it (with the help of white paint and refrigerator boxes) and turned it into the canteen. The table was covered with chips, pop, candy bars, and cokes and each one of them were given different points values.

Another table became our craft table. Outside the door a cardboard sign pointed to our door and said, "Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je" with an arrow.

The bulletin board was transformed into a scene with a mountain in the center, two cabins at the bottom on each side of the mountain and pictures of our girls heading up the path to the top of the mountain.

In my class the girls receive points for each of the following:

• Present-50 points




• Bible - 25 points




• Offering- 25 points




• Verse memorized- 50-100 points (extra if you know it when you walk in the door)




• Visitor-500 points




• Bible papers filled out-100 points per paper




• Bible reading chart filled out and returned-100 points

Each girl moved up the mountain as her points increased. The total points of each cabin were put on the top of the board on each side above their cabins.

The girls are given individual folders with a cabin glued to the front that has an attendance chart on it. They mark their own points (with Esther right there to help) and inside they keep their papers and Bible reading charts. Also inside they have an empty sandwich bag stapled to their folder. As they earn points they are given paper money to spend at the canteen. Each item in the canteen is marked with a point value. They run from 50 points for tiny candy bars to 500 points for the giant candy bar. Chips, theatre candy and pop are in between that. Based on how much they do they are able to spend money in the canteen at the end of class!

Sunday mornings were divided into careful time slots. Attendance-10 minutes. Announcements- 5 minutes Game and song time-10-15 minutes Lesson-15 minutes Canteen-5 minutes

Some mornings we had song contests, some mornings crafts, some morning we would go across the hall and play a cabin against cabin game of air hockey. We made up a camp song from our camp name -I'd-Ra-Ha-Je. (Have you figured out that it's the beginning letters of the song, "I'd Rather Have Jesus"? Esther came up with the name and I love it!

Here's our song to the tune of Jesus Loves Me!

I'd-Ra-Ha-Je that's my camp!

Come and join; you'll be a champ!

Learn of Jesus God's own Son,

Crafts and Games, come have some fun!

Chorus:

Camp I'd-Ra-Ha-Je (rah!)

Camp I'd-Ra-Ha-Je (rah!)

Camp I'd-Ra-Ha-Je (rah!)

The Camp that we all love!

We've had contests to see which cabin can sing it the loudest and they've made me laugh with their enthusiasm. I've watched the girls bring lots of visitors this quarter. We've had new girls that don't know the Lord as their Savior in attendance several times this quarter. It is good to see my girls trying to learn their verses.

Today when I announced that this was the last Sunday of our camp theme I was met with groans. You know it's a success when they don't want it to end. I assured them that they had nothing to fear--Sunday School class is about to become a fitness center! The canteen will now be a health shack, because we're about to start a new theme---"The Fitness Center"....can you imagine where I'm headed with this one?

Children always amaze me at how much they can learn when you come along side and encourage them, excite them and give them your full attention. I am counting on seeing these girls grow up and do great things for the Lord. I tell them often that I want everyone of them at my table at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let's give it our all as we minister--rather it's the nursery or a Sunday School class. It doesn't take much money--just a willingness to invest our hearts and lives into theirs!

Revival Week...

I just got back from about 10 days with my daughter, her husband and 6 children. We're all rejoicing over the safe birth of Elisha Maclaren who weighed in at 8 lbs! During those 10 days my oldest daughter Niki and her husband Brian brought home their newly adopted son, Evan Michael. He weighed in at a mere 4 lb. and 11 oz!
I feel so blessed by the Lord. We now have 17 grandchildren! Those grandbabies are a joy all in themselves.
Alicia needed mom more than ever with this baby because of her paralysis that hit her on March 12th of this year. She ended up having a C-section with several complications. Her hospital stay was 8 days and she had to come home to a hospital bed and home health care. That wasn't what we had all hoped and prayed for but the Lord knows and we trust Him completely.
I thought I was doing pretty good with keeping up with a houseful of little ones, but when I came home the adrenalin must have cooled off and I felt like I could sleep for a week! Our revival was beginning on Sunday and my flesh was dreading the activity level of a revival week.
However, the Lord took care of that by just one day of being under some good preaching. This morning was especially good and Brother Donnie was preaching on "I Remember" and going over things that Christians need to take back that we have given up.
One of his points was "I Remember when the Lord's Day was the Lord's. He talked about how at one time in America Sunday belonged to the Lord and it was a holy-day in our lives not a holiday. He mentioned the "blue law" being in place. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law
My mind went back to when I was a girl and nothing was open on a Sunday. If you'd forgotten something at the grocery or hadn't filled the gas tank you were just out of luck. Everything was closed. I even remember in the small towns of Indiana when I was a girl every business closed on Wednesday at noon so the people who worked could be in prayer meeting on Wednesday night.
We've come a long, long way from that. Instead of Sunday being the day we put on our best and go to the house of the Lord we find people at WalMart or sporting events or eating at their favorite restaurant/bar.
I think we need to ask ourselves what we want our children to remember. At our house we have a large Sunday dinner. I want my children to remember coming home from church and walking into a house with the wonderful smell of a delicious meal. I want them to remember a table full of people talking about the message and what happened at church that morning. I want them to remember having preachers and missionaries around our Sunday dinner table.
I want our children to remember that Sunday was a day that we were in the house of God at the appointed times and that it was a joy to be there--not a burden to complain about. As more and more churches are making it "convenient" and "comfortable" for the people by shifting times and schedules so that people can serve other "gods" it only makes sense that the professing Christian appears more and more worldly and shallow.
I want our children to remember that Christ had the preeminince in our household and that everything on the schedule was pushed out of the way to see to it that we never forsook the assembling of ourselves together outside of a real emergency.
This week we took our children to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati as we came home from our daughter's house. There is a quote there on the wall that says this: "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." -Martin Luther
From the first time I read that quote it has made a great impact on me. If we're going to have revival we must take back what we've given away and we must take a stand on the issues of our day without apology or intimidation.
For myself, today was a day of renewed commitment to the Lord to not lower the flag on keeping Sunday a day totally set aside for the Lord. It's the least I can do after what He's done for me.

Saturday night in a pastor's home...

Dear Daughters,

It's Saturday night in the pastor's home. Time to get all those last minute chores for Sunday tidied up. All the clothes are pressed, the last load of laundry is washed, folded and put away and the baskets are empty, (well, almost!) and the treats for mom's Sunday School class are sitting on the breakfast bar, (tomorrow is yummy fall cupcakes with an orange cream cheese topping). Usually dinner is precooked and in the refrigerator but tomorrow's schedule is a little different, and now mom is going to spend just a little time for herself before bedtime.
Saturday's can be a pressure cooker day for the pastor's family. Satan knows that and tries his best to get us at odds with one another. After years in the ministry you learn not to let him have his way by using you as a pawn in his wicked plans. There are days I'm right in the middle of falling into his trap and it hits me what's going on. Those are the days I have to march in and apologize for allowing myself to yield to the flesh and hinder the Holy Spirit's work in our lives and ministry.
My husband preached a message not too long ago on how to pray for your pastor. May I encourage you to bow your head and pray for your pastor right now. The man of God carries a heavy burden if he's doing what he's called to do. Weekends are when his mind is a whirl of all that he hopes to accomplish on Sunday, his message being just what the Lord wants, and his mind is on his church members and how they are doing. He's hoping for visitors and fruit from his visits during the week. He's praying everyone will be in their places on Sunday to sit at the spiritual dinner table.
Here's the outline to "How to Pray For Your Pastor". Mine's written in the back of my Bible so I can hold the precious man of God I live with up to the Lord faithfully and as I should.

I. Pray for his Protection (II Thess. 3:2)
A. From unreasonable men.
B. From wicked men (I Tim. 1:18-20, II tim. 2:15-18, II Tim. 4:14,15, II Tim. 3: 1-9)
II. Pray for his Personal Walk (Heb. 13:8)
A. That he always does the right thing.
B. That his provisions are met. Pray that his every need is met. (spiritual, emotional, and
physical needs)
III. Pray for him to Have a Profitable Ministry (Heb. 13:17,18)
A. A profitable ministry concerning his flock
1. people that follow
2. people that understand pastoral leadership
B. A profitable ministry concerning getting the gospel out, (Col. 4:3,4, Acts 14:27) and
that he will give the word in power. (Col. 3:4, Eph. 5:18,19)
C. A profitable ministry with the word of God having free course. (II Thess. 3:1)

Because I've spent most of my life in a pastor's home I know the burdens that they carry. When my husband took his first pastorate I remember how overwhelming the responsibility seemed to him at the time. He took his job very, very seriously before the Lord.
Today in a time when many churches are lowering the bar to try to draw in new members or keep those that don't want qualifications for service put on them it takes a man with a firm determination to please His Saviour above all else to take the pressures of leadership. How thankful I am for a husband I can look up too because his first priority is to please His
Saviour above all else.
If you have such a pastor tell him so. I've read in several places that this month is supposed to be the month you show your appreciation to your pastor. Do it! Be faithful, be grateful, and express your thanks to your pastor for being there for you.
Get to bed dear ones so your fresh on the Lord's day!

Love,

Mom