For my parents

[Spoiler alert: the author of this blog is out of the habit of writing. Continue at your own peril.]

It's been a while since I've had any pictures on Mom and Dad's fridge. So I thought I'd help them out a bit. Here we go...

Summers hold many memories. Sunflowers blooming, crickets chirping, grasshoppers spitting, June-bugs squishing, etc. Basically, summer means bugs.

But it can also mean clubs. (Who says I'm not poetic?) Many long years ago, a friend and I taught 5-Day Clubs together. We worked with boys, girls, and Snuggles puppets. Y'know: "Go ye into all the preach the Gospel to EVERY creature."



CEF taught me many things. The number one thing I learned was to trust God. The number two thing was not to get your yarn stuck in your Bible zipper. The number three thing was not to let seven-year-olds pelt you with cold, soggy sponges while your hostess laughs at you. The number four thing I learned was that I could be very long-winded (but you don't believe that, do you?).

Each year God ministered to my soul through the kids I worked with. He showed me that even a shy, stick-in-the mud person like me could share Jesus' love.

I wish you could meet the kids. There was one girl who introduced herself by saying, "I'm weird." When I told her I was weird, too, we became good friends on the spot. Then there was the boy, Javier, who wanted to say his verse so bad that he'd work on it all the time we were in the bus. Then there was the girl who wanted to volunteer her friend to "get saved"! Then there was the child who prayed that Mary Slessor, our missionary, would live until the next day so we could hear what happened to her in the story!

I love teaching kids (usually), and I love singing about Christ. One thing I did miss during my CEF summers, though, was physical exertion. You don't usually build up too much of a sweat, even when you've packed your bag to the brim with Bibles, songs, puppets, bandaids, Aspirin, and TUMS (some items sold separately).

This summer, I embarked with five people from my lab on a 5K journey. I quickly learned that it's much more impressive to give distances in kilometers, because it sounds so much longer. I mean, what sounds longer: 5K or 3.1 miles? See what I mean?

So five of us ran it, and five of us survived. Given that track record, we might just try it again next year.



Given the look on my face, though, I might be asking myself -- WHY?

After viewing pictures such as the one posted above, I began asking myself other questions, such as "WHY NOT?" That's how I decided to get some plastic surgery done.

Now, thanks to Dr. Nife's expertise, I find that my face is much more... flexible.



So, whether your summer involves CEF, physical exertion, or plastic surgery, I hope that you'll do it all for the glory of God. For in Him we live, and move, and have our Being.