Prison Lessons and FUN

We put on our orange, prison attire, and studied stories about Paul, in Ephesians chapter 3, while we were at church camp.  The theme was "I'm a Lifer."  A prisoner of Christ.  This theme came from Youth Frameworks, which seems to have special gift for reaching youth.

I learned so much during the adult lesson time.  The kids were in their own classes, so I was not having to keep track of them.  I could really listen and absorb the teaching that way.  It seemed so personal, of course.  (Most of the sermons and church lessons seem so personal to me these days.)  

Usually, when a person is struggling with why do bad things happen to good people, they are encouraged to look at Job, who was a righteous man who suffered horrible things at no fault of his own. But, that very question came up during our lessons at church camp, and we were studying Acts.  Chapter 16 of Acts, tells the story of Paul and Silas, and their experience of being wrongfully thrown in jail.  The teacher of our class, pointed out that Paul and Silas were doing what they were suppose to be doing.  They were not in the wrong place at the wrong time.  They were exactly where God told them to be, doing exactly what God told them to do.  Yet, they were wrongfully accused, wrongfully beaten, and wrongfully thrown into jail.  

In the end of the story, the jailer...and his household....came to know Jesus as Savior, because Paul of Silas were faithful and obedient to God.  It is a beautiful story.  The camp teacher explained that sometimes things have to happen to get us where we need to be, to do what God wants us to do.  He went on to say,

"It is not about you!"

Considering the circumstances of my life right now, it was shocking to hear those words.

I am so sick of hearing "it takes two to tango" or "there are two sides to every story" or "I will pray that you both have a change of heart."  There is usually this assumption that I have had a role that helped cause our broken family circumstances.  I have searched my life over, and I just cannot see a way that I could have done anything to change this outcome.  I am not suggesting I am perfect.  I just did not provoke the circumstance.  It is frustrating to be blamed for something that I cannot control.  I was really becoming discouraged...

Until that lesson at church camp.  Paul and Silas were joyful in their suffering, and continued to praise God.  They were not wallowing in self pity, or questioning where did they go wrong.  They were not questioning their faith because so many horrible things were wrongly happening to them.  They were praying and singing praises to God, to the extent that the other prisoners heard them. 

I know exactly what I do when bad things wrongfully happen to me.  I complain.  I feel woe.  I breakdown and cry about the unfairness of it all.  I question my worth.  I question my faith.  I question myself about what do I keep doing wrong to deserve this?  

I would do well to remember:  "It's not about you!"

It is not about me.

The teacher went on to explain, "It is not all going to work out for your personal benefit."

Whoah!  That hit me like a ton of bricks.

I do not know when or where I started to believe that if I was a faithful Christian, that God would bless me on my terms.  Life would work out well.  I would be healthy, wealthy, and have good things come my way.  That has not been my experience at all.  Quite the opposite.  It seems the more I grow in my faith, the more I face trials and crisis.  Looking at it from my own benefit, it is not fair!  But, looking at my experiences with eternity in mind, I am able to see that it is not about me.  It is not personal.

Ironically, those are the exact words my husband told me, repeatedly, when he moved out.

"It is not personal."

It took me 7 months to accept that the current circumstances of my life are not personal.  And, no matter how faithful I am.  No matter how much I pray.  No matter how much I try.  There is no guarantee that things are going to work out for my personal benefit.    

After I absorbed that lesson for a while, I started to question, "What now?"  What does God want from me then?  Where do I go from here?

Of course, the teacher made another comment that resonated with me.  He advised to start with what we know, and let God lead to the next thing.  Start with what I know.  Well, that takes the pressure off...  

That has really helped me get a better perspective in the weeks since church camp.  Of course, our Pastor decided to start a sermon series about growing spiritually.  My how convenient!  (But, that is another post for another day).  

  

There are not too many people who can wear bright orange and look good in it.  But, it sure made it easier to keep track of the kids.

I spent a lot of time keeping track of the kids.  They had a blast going and doing all of the fun activities at church camp.  Jersey #1 and Jersey #3 surprised me by going off the zip line.  That thing is 75 feet in the air!  Yikes!  There is so much fun to be had at church camp:

We Had Some Fun Too

Our mission trip was not all work.  We had some fun too.

There was a mechanical bull....

and Native dancers....

...who inspired walking with water bottles on the head...

Creatures were found...

Hiking through a desert canyon...

All the world's a jungle gym...

Granny sent each kid with a bath salt/bubble set.  Jersey #3 had a spider man set that was a "secret lab" with test tubes of bath salts that made the water bubble.  The kids had a blast playing with their sets in the tub.  I was pleased to let them use these items in the hotel bathtub, instead of having to clean up that mess at home!

The fun didn't stop when the mission trip ended.  Just minutes after we returned home, Jersey #3 lost a tooth!

Growing

I do not know what happened to my sense of time.

I have 3 weeks of wonderful pictures and stories to share.

But, I just could not find a minute to stop and put them into a blog post.

Life has been a whirlwind lately.

At one point, I was walking across a yard and I looked up at the sky, and specifically spoke to God to make sure he understood that I did not think I was equipped to handle all that was on my plate right now.  I suggested a more relaxing time instead.  I was pretty sure I had nothing left to give.  

And that was when the growing started.

Growing closer to God.

Growing stronger in my Faith.

Growing more confident in myself.

Growing more patient in my purpose.

The outcome of growth is so wonderful, but the process is so challenging.

In the past 3 weeks, I took the kids on a mission trip to the Navajo Nation.  We spent the following week at church camp.  We made a visit to Granny & PawPaw's house over the weekend, and also visited my sister's house to attend a swim party to celebrate my nephew's birthdays.  The 3rd week was spent in various acts of service to others, a little fun for ourselves, and a giant leap into a new career for me.  We made one final summer visit to Granny & PawPaw's house for the weekend.  Now, we are safely home again.

Yes, I am tired.  Fatigued is a good word for it.  But, the good news is that I am not drained.  I am physically tired from all that travel and service.  But, I am also rejuvenated deep within.  It is an odd response for such a busy time.

I have a houseful of clutter....laundry, dishes, suitcases, oh my! Spoiled-tired kids, and we are completely off our routine.  

But, for the first time in years, I have a strong sense of priority in life, WITHOUT being in the midst of a crisis, allowing me to see with such clarity.  

   

This is NOT a vacation!

The kids and I are on a mission trip.

The running joke on this trip is for the adults to remind each other that This is NOT a Vacation!  It comes from a line in the mission handbook that explains that we are here to work and to serve, and should conduct ourselves accordingly.  We are not on vacation.

So many things go wrong.  Yet so many other things go right.  So, it becomes this huge character building experience.  Patience.  Grace.  Self control.  Kindness.  Love.  All are needed at a time like this.

The goal of a mission trip is to spread the love of Christ to folks who may not have the opportunity to experience it often, if at all.  But, other wonderful things happen in addition to that main goal.  I find that I am affected greatly as well.  

Six years ago, when Jersey #3 was just a baby, The Referee and I took our family on this same mission trip.  It is neat to have the ability to do this with a young family.  So many things went outside of the plan.  One of the vehicles in our caravan broke down part way there, throwing our schedule completely off for the day.  The 2nd day, elections removed our ability to use the building we were scheduled to use.  Then, a truck got stuck in the mud and had to be pulled out.  It was a wild, adventurous time.  

I learned a very valuable lesson, during that trip, about how Christians handle adversity.  Regardless of the level of stress and mess that occurred during that trip, the folks we were with had the most amazing attitudes.  They were not angry, or cussing, or complaining about the circumstances.  They were joking, and brainstorming ways to get through it and keep moving forward.  

So, when things started to go awry during this mission trip, I was reminded to keep a good humor about things, brainstorm new solutions, and to keep moving forward, with the top priority in mind.

15 miles outside our destination, the interstate traffic came to a dead halt.  While we sat around, Jersey #5 needed to use the restroom.  He exited the van with determination, dropped his shorts to his ankles, mooned an entire fleet of semi trucks, and watered the asphalt.  According to my friend in the vehicle behind me, the semi truck driver in the lane beside her, started laughing so hard she thought he would have a heart attack.  Jersey #5 was a sight to see, and he entertained a crowd of stalled travelers.  

  I had assumed that the traffic halt was caused by a terrible accident.  When traffic finally moved forward, we discovered that the road was actually blocked due to a flash flood that caused a mud slide across the interstate.  The area was still pretty muddy and wet as we drove through it, even though the rain had passed.  

We made it to our destination.  The kids were pretty excited because we were staying at a hotel with a swimming pool.

Then, we learned that the hotel was doing some remodeling.  The pool was broken.  The lobby restrooms were out of order.  The washing machine was out of order.  Most of the vending machines were unplugged.  Plus, our mission team was spread out in hotel rooms at all sides and levels of the hotel.

Clearly, this was NOT a vacation.

The mission work itself has been a wonderful experience.  We are enjoying meeting and reaching many, many folks every day.  I have been looking forward to what each day will bring when we arrive at the mission field.

I was not prepared for what came my way today.

We were driving toward our mission destination, when Jersey #4 announced she had to throw up, followed by two seconds, and then a huge puking episode.

She is not one to complain about feeling sick, so I had no clue that she was ill.  I was caught completely off guard.

As my mind raced to figure out what to do next, I realized that God had it all under control already.  My mission trip teammate had decided to drive her vehicle today, just in case she needed to return to town before the group.  I was able to contact her to pull over on the side of the road.  We moved my older kids and all the craft supplies to her van, and she continued on her way to the location.  I took my youngest two kids and returned to the hotel to get Jersey #4 cleaned up.

I had originally planned to return as soon as I had her all cleaned up and on her feet again.  

Instead, I returned to the hotel to discover that the room key had been deactivated.  I had to go to the front lobby to get it re-keyed.  By the time I returned to the room, Jersey #4 ended up emptying the rest of the contents of her belly onto the rock landscaping in front of the room.  We just did not have time to get inside to the bathroom, and the lobby restrooms were out of order.

Clearly, this is NOT a vacation!

I got her all cleaned up in the bathtub, and resting on the bed (where the maid had removed the sheets, but had not made up the beds yet).  Then, I went to work getting my van cleaned out and getting her booster seat cleaned up.  

This is when I was reminded that the hotel washing machine was out of order.

This is NOT a vacation!

I hand-washed her vomit clothes and her car seat cover in the bathtub, and set them outside the room door to dry.

Instead of returning to the mission program to "serve," I hung out in the hotel room, watching my sick princess sleep.

Thankfully, she woke up in the early evening, feeling much better.  She was able to hold down apple juice, and later eat some simple foods.  We re-joined our group for a brief fellowship, and Jersey #4 was able to wander around outdoors and play a little.  She is on the mend.

I have no idea what to expect for tomorrow.

Because, this is NOT a Vacation!