It's Thursday

We have no Bible club today. I have felt kind of lost without having it to prepare for & then lead. But I have gotten several things accomplished today.

John has been finishing up the outside priming of the house. He had help when he was priming the front of the house but there is no help now. He was close to the end today. I kind of thought that it would be difficult...with him having to stand on the ladder & paint above his head. So stayed at home to be able to run out & hold the ladder for him. I was called upon a few times. Now just to get it painted. The weather is getting cooler. We are praying that the weather stays nice long enough for him to get it painted before winter sets in. I'm not an expert at home improvement projects...but I can't imagine it would be good to prime the house & then wait 4-6 months before painting. It would seem the primer would have to be put back up.

I have cleaned our dining room. That is the room in which we do our Bible study homework. Since our study is over until after Christmas, I decided to get it picked up in there. It looks a lot better than it has.

We also had a man come & give an estimate for putting in a heat pump. He did not give us any paperwork though. John had experience working with this company before (when he was in the electrical field). He & his fellow electrical workers were not very impressed with the company.

Tomorrow we go to a Girls Inc. regional meeting. It starts with breakfast. We'll have to leave early to come & be here at the house for another estimate. One of the companies which work on the camp's walk-in cooler also installs heat pumps. I had called them last week & they were to call me Monday to let me know what time they would be out to give us an estimate. They never called. I called them today & the lady said that when they had come out Friday (to do some cooler repair work) they had taken care of that. Well come to find out, the man who was going to do the estimate said he had been told we would call him.

Dave Ramsey's class is tomorrow evening & then Saturday. The first Saturday I have had off in a month. I am looking forward to being able to stay home.

1000 gifts #6

51. chatting online with a childhood friend
52. help with priming the exterior of the house
53. leftover lasagne for lunch
54. sunshine after several dreary, rainy and cold days
55. free chromatic tuner
56. hearing a niece's story of a raccoon in a tree
57. seeing & talking to my youngest sister while running errands
58. an evening at home
59. watching a 7 year old niece play soccer
60. hearing a 5 year old niece say she would take ballerina dancing

Bible Club Week 6

I was a little worried before arriving at Girls Inc. today. Last week we had to move book tables out of the way. They had had a book fair the Friday before (in the room in which we have Bible club). In wanting to make sure each girl received a book, they had left the books set up. They had plans to move them before we arrived but those plans were not realized. When we arrived last week, 2 teenagers were in the room giggling & reading books...the K-1 grade level reading books. We shooed them out so we could move the tables, put out the chairs & get our easel and flannel board set up. We didn't realize they were in there to move the things out of our way. We quickly got everything where we needed it. The tables which were loaded with books, we scooted to the back of the room & prayed the girls who sat closest to those books would pay attention to the story & not want to look at the books. (That would have been difficult for me as a child. I loved Sunday School Charlie & would really want to listen to the story but I also absolutely LOVED to read. Those books would have been a temptation.)

To help ease my fears, we made sure we arrived early. And I had nothing to worry about. All the books (except 1 box) were gone. The 2 tables on which the books had been were folded up & leaning against the couch. We moved them against the back wall & set up the room.

We had stopped today to get a Pal's tea. After setting up the room, John went out to the van to get the teas. As he was gone, Little J (who is so much like big sister, E) stopped in the room. I asked her if she were coming to Bible club today. "No," she said, "I'm going to the library". "Oh," I replied. "Do you like to read?" "Yes." "What is your favorite book?" "A Halloween book". And that gave me the question I would ask each girl before club began.

Between 16-18 girls came to club today. It was a little hard to keep count. Since today was the last Thursday of the month, the Girls Inc. activity leaders were continually coming in & calling out girls to receive their Character Counts awards for October. They like getting the awards. I do have to say though that Sunday School Charlie guarantees that they return to club very quickly.

As I went around the room today, I could remember most of the girls' names. I asked them if they were going to dress up for Halloween & what they were going to be. That was a good question because that was what they were talking about as they came in the room. Some of them have 2 different costumes. One for Girls Inc. party tomorrow & then one for their actual trick-or-treating.

We then started Sunday School Charlie Mystery of the Golden Key. Charlie & Red have known each other for a year. They are planning on going to summer camp together. The day before they leave, they are fishing & Charlie catches a key chain with 15 keys. He takes those to camp with him. They eagerly meet the other boys & girls. One of the boys is named Muscle Mike. He doesn't want anything to do with Sunday School, VBS or anything like that. Charlie decided that maybe God wants him to be a missionary to Muscle Mike. One of the valued items at the camp is the treasure chest. It is an antique which has been brought from Germany. The camp registrar keeps the camp money in the treasure chest. It locks with a golden key. All the first day, Charlie keeps reminding himself of his memory verse. Matthew 5:44 tells us we are to love & pray for our enemies. Charlie is glad he doesn't have any enemies but prays that when he does, he will remember this verse and put it into practice. The girls were disappointed when the story ended. They all told me what they thought would happen over the next 4 weeks.

John came up & led them in a few songs - "Father Abraham", "12 Men Went to Spy on Canaan", "Let's Talk About Jesus, Let's Talk of His Love", the "Stop" & "Go" songs. And then one more which I cannot remember. While they were singing the last song, I set up the flannel board for our review game. Oh yes, it was "I'm a Missionary's Helper" (sung to the tune "I've Been Working on the Railroad)".

This game is called "Feeding Gilbert". It is also by Ed Dunlop. The girls were told to imagine they & a group of friends were meeting to celebrate their friend, Gilbert's birthday. They meet at Gilbert's favorite restaurant but Gilbert is late in arriving. They each decide to order something for Gilbert. The only problem they don't know what foods Gilbert really likes. I had John draw a card from a pile of 4. On this card are listed 5 foods. We kept these foods secret until the end. In the center of the board are 24 circles - each having a picture of a kid-friendly food on the front. In my hand, I held several cards. They were numbers. If a girl answered a question correctly, she came up front, drew a numbered card & then was able to choose that many food items from the board. Each food item had points on the back. I would remove the food from the board, tell them the points, and then put that food item on the side of the board we had designated for their team. 2 of the food items had super special on them. The girls got 1500 points for those and also got another turn. After each food item had been chosen, placed on the side for that team & John had totaled the points (& also told the girls which team had which points), he then looked at the card he had chosen. The first four items on that card brought 1000 extra points each for the team which had chosen that item. The last item (which was Gilbert's all-time favorite) brought 2000 points. The team which had been behind ended up winning because they chose more of the favorite foods. The girls loved the game.

That game took a few more minutes than usual so the girls were a little later in leaving. Fortunately, for us, the vans had not started leaving yet for the apartments. We gave them each 2 Tootsie Roll suckers. We purchased some more. The current special color/flavor is a light blue/blue raspberry. The girls were so excited to see that we had the suckers again. That is their all-time favorite treat.

Next week we will not have Bible club as the leaders are preparing for the regional Girls Inc. meeting. We will attend some of the meeting on Friday.

1000 gifts #5

41. viewing pictures from Germany
42. Saturdays (even if they're on Monday)
43. sleeping past 7 am
44. visiting my sister
45. seeing God's love expressed through other believers
46. trying a new (to us) restaurant with friends
47. a cousin's phone call
48. being able to share Wednesday leftovers with Mom & Dad
49. vacation day filled with encouragement
50. girls' excitement upon realizing it's Bible club day

Bible Club Week 5

I was excited to get to Bible Club today. It was the end of the first story of Sunday School Charlie - Missionary to Slocum Alley. I remember from being a young child listening to Aunt Evelyn tell the stories that I always looked forward to hearing how everything worked out in the end but also was disappointed that the story was ending. With our retreats having ended and no activities which will need the camp store until the spring, we took the remaining snack size 3 Musketeers & Twix bars from the camp store. By the time the camp store opens up, these candy bars will be stale.

I cannot tell you how many girls were at club today. The numbers really fluctuated today. Some of our regulars didn't come because they were going to art gallery. I am not sure what that is but they were excited about it. It seemed like the parents arrived earlier to get their children also. I know when club ended we had 5 girls left.

Well as you remember Charlie had been clinging for his life onto a small shrub/bush trying to keep Red from drowning. Charlie as he's slipping...slipping...slipping, calls out for help. His dad happens to be at the Bend looking for his fishing rod & is able to save Charlie & Red. When the truth comes out about the fishing rod, Charlie gives his father the $2.13 (still in his pocket) for Red's share of the fishing rod. Charlie promises his father that he will pay the rest from his allowance. At supper, Charlie's dad says he isn't going to use the money given him to purchase a fishing rod. Instead he's going to purchase Red a Bible. And maybe Red will accept Charlie's invitation to attend Vacation Bible School. Red does accept and Charlie is excited to get on the VBS bus Monday morning. But when the bus stops at Slocum Alley, Red is nowhere to be seen. Charlie is disappointed & tried to find every way possible to get out of VBS. When Charlie finds out that the pastor offered Red a ride to church & Red has decided VBS isn't that bad, Charlie is excited. Red does accept the Lord as his Savior & Charlie & Red both agree to do whatever or go wherever the Lord sends them.

The girls were clinging on to every word that I said. And just as I remember being they were a little disappointed that this story was over. But excited at the promise of the next Sunday School Charlie story. John then came up & led them in singing, "1-2-3 Jesus loves me", "Jesus Loves Even Me", "12 Men Went to Spy on Canaan" (by request), "Did You Ever Talk to God Above" and then "Stop and Let Me Tell You" and "Go & Tell the Story" (those last 2 were also by request).

After the songs, we played a game called Gone Fishing. Also taken from the book "Mouse on a Mission" by Ed Dunlop. I had put 2 boats on either side of the flannel board. In the center were about 24 different colored fish. When a child answered the question correctly, she was allowed to come up to the board & pull a card (from the stack I was holding). That card told them how many fish they could choose (either 1, 2 or 3). We put the fish they chose under their boat. At the end of the game, I pulled the fish from under each boat. Points were on the back of the fish. We added those points & then we added the points. There was only a 3 point difference between the 2 teams - 43 t0 46.

One funny thing that happened is that during the singing, the CEO of Girls Inc. came to Bible Club looking for one of the girls who had been paged numerous times. Her mother was here. I kept thinking to myself (as she was paged) that she had been one of the girls called to go to the Art Gallery. So when the CEO told me she was looking for this girl, I said I believe I heard her called for the Art Gallery. She was so thankful I had remembered hearing her name. I think they were beginning to wonder where she was. She is a very faithful Bible club attender.

Upon entering Girls, Inc., we are required to sign in. I remove a notebook from a shelf on the wall, sign our names what time we entered, what we are doing, where we are located. When we exit, we are to sign ourselves out - which is just writing down what time we leave. The CEO & activities director were both at the front desk. So I kind of reviewed with them the next few weeks. Next week they will offer club but the next Thursday (11/6), there will be no club. I don't think they will be open. That weekend is the regional Girls Inc. "meeting". It runs Friday - Sunday (?). It is here in Kingsport. They will be closed the following Monday - which I'm sure is for them to recuperate from their busy meeting. The CEO asked us if we would like to attend the meeting on Friday as their guest. She said they were wanting to have as many of their activities represented as possible. We are looking forward to attending that meeting to hear more about this program.

After Bible club we stopped at Office Depot to get a toner for the fax machine. I have only purchased one toner right after it was given to us. We had been told the toner was not working so went ahead & purchased a new one. The past 2 things which have been faxed to us have only come 1/2. The first one I just thought it was the other fax machine. Then when it came that way from a totally different machine/area, I decided to look into purchasing a cartridge. Office Depot was currently out. They did carry the item - or so I thought she said but when I asked her if they would be getting an order in soon, she said she thought they would but I could just go online & order one myself. She gave me the model # & everything. So I may order it from the company directly. (I didn't tell the lady I knew the manager...I wonder if she would not have been so eager for me to order it myself).

I am now home. John has gone out again. He's helping a man from church with a job he is doing this evening. I hope to get at least one load of laundry done.

A glimpse into the not too far past

I hope you take the time to view this video. This is the info I got with the video:

1945...as interpreted by Kseniya Simonova, the 24 year old winner of Ukraine's GotTalent 2009. Using sand on a light table, she masterfully interpretsGermany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

1000 gifts #4

31. a week off from Girls Inc.
32. year round dumpster
33. getting to the office supply store before they closed
34. fellowship with friends before Wednesday evening service
35. farm fresh eggs
36. smell of wood smoke
37. Sunday lunch with family & friends
38. marzipan from Germany
39. parents' love
40. encouragement from an aunt