Little Ones

Nursery duty isn't one of my favorite jobs in the world. Nevertheless, once a month my Dad and I volunteer as nursery workers at our church. I have to say I had quite the revelation this morning. It was a busy day in the nursery: five little kids, which is a large group for our church. Four of them could walk, three of them had to have the toys others had, one was so tired he kept crying, and one just wanted to be read to. I finally ended up rocking the tired one to sleep. As I was holding him, I could only watch helplessly as toys got stolen, smaller kids got pushed by bigger ones, and general mayhem happened. But as I was watching, I realized that working in the nursery is more than just a job, it's a ministry. 

These kids most likely won't remember Dad and I taking care of them in the nursery, but they will grow up subconsciously knowing that they were loved. Each child I get to love on in the nursery will eventually grow up. As they grow, I get the chance to lead them, mentor them, and help them. The relationships I start in the nursery may someday lead to being able to teach one of those kids the gospel. This realization stunned me. What I am doing with these babies and toddlers is important! 

I would encourage you, if you have the opportunity, to get involved with kids. Even if you're uncomfortable with babies, there's older kids you can work with. Always keep in mind that every single child is loved by God. You have the chance to impact the next generation. How can you do so positively? 

STEP Advanced Pictures

Here are the pictures I said I would put up of STEP Advanced! I hope you enjoy them. 

My amazingly talented (or silly?) friends improvising a way to tape the edges of the ceiling so we could paint. This was at a house in LA that we went to in order to help with finishing clean-up from Hurricane Isaac last summer. 

I finally made it to the top of the left side of our 40 foot climbing tower! I've been trying to do that for three years now! =)

My amazing team: Mikki, Hope, me, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Megan. This is after a ten+ mile hike and building a shelter. So yes, we are messy. ;)

A gorgeous sunrise. This wasn't during Advanced, but it was the day after, so it counts, right?

Ocean Waves and Sandcastles

Today I got to enjoy a absolutely gorgeous time on the beach with my cousins. It's kind of interesting, because there's a fairly big age difference. There's Elijah (19), me (17), Mikayla (11), Irene (8), and Chloe (6). Chloe, and I wave-jumped for a while. In other words, as the waves rolled in to shore, we would jump over them. When she deemed the waves too small, she would tug me in deeper. If the waves got bigger, she would run screaming for shore. Her giggles are really contagious. 

When I wasn't wave-jumping with her, Mikayla and I were attempting to figure out how to make a castle moat hold water. She got creative and started using kelp to line the moat, but even that only minimally slowed the water loss. But we had fun with it anyways. During our toils, we even found a small sand crab! 

Finally, we decided the moat was a lost cause. So we did cartwheels, back walkovers, and round-offs in the shallow water. (Clarification: I did cartwheels, while Mikayla, my superstar gymnast, did the walkovers and round-offs.) Then, I'm not sure how it started, but somehow we ended up in a mud war. We alternated between throwing wet sand at each other and splashing each other with the ocean water. It was a blast! 

So I got to enjoy being a carefree kid for a while longer. I know that as I'm moving on in life, I'm going to have to start making decisions on my own and being responsible. With that in mind, I've lived this summer acting as much like a kid as possible. So sometimes it's good to loosen up and act like a kid! 

Adventures in Advanced

This past month, I've been attending a program called STEP Advanced. STEP stands for Skills Training in Emergency Preparedness. I attended the basic program two years ago, and this year I went through the Advanced program. 

It was a very good time of drawing closer to God through quiet times, group devotions, and classes. STEP focuses more on physical skills, while Advanced focuses more on spiritual disciplines and leadership skills. While I was at Advanced, I got to make many new friends, and deepen older friendships. Later, I'll put up pictures, so you can have a small flavor of what happened. 

I think the two most important things I learned during this month were: (1) lean on God for strength, not my friends; and (2) when you're feeling down in the dumps, encouraging other people helps. Another thing I (re)learned is that leadership isn't as easy as it seems. One of our topics during group meetings was leadership qualities. It was really neat to hear about them, and then watch the leaders actually live them out. My hope is to go back to do leadership next year, and be able to give back some. 

May you have a blessed day!