Gotta Keep My Clothes On!

If we ever wondered about the benefits of sending our children to the worldview camp this past summer, we will wonder no more.  They have made some really neat connections with youth in the southern Ontario area.  These young adults get together sometimes weekly, depending on where they meet up, and off they go and street preach, handing out tracts, talking with people about their faith and where they stand with respect to eternity.

A couple summers ago we had some street preachers stay on our property for a few weeks using our place as their "headquarters" as they went around the area going different places day to day.  Each night they would come back and debrief with us about their experiences that day.  We asked them a lot of questions wondering if what they were doing was really effective, if it was the best way to evangelize, all the questions we'd ever wondered.  They just kept pointing us back to the gospels, to Paul the apostle, to the disciples, how they went out two by two or stood in the "streets" of the Old Testament shouting out the good news of Jesus Christ without fear.  We couldn't really argue.  I think as long as it is done respectfully and not shouting in people's faces, it can be a really good way, not the only way of course, but another thing that can make people think about their eternal destination. That was probably the beginning of the "bug" for my kids.  It got them thinking.  Then the camp equipped them and furthered the challenge to get out there.

My oldest son is getting more and more comfortable sharing his faith and got into many conversations with people that night.  That made me so happy to know he is actually engaging people in dialogue.  Over the last year or two they've also learned a lot about other people's faith so he would often start conversations that way, explaining what he knew about their faith.  I'm sure that would have caught the other people off guard as they were likely about to use that against him, that he didn't know what they believed, but he's beginning to learn how to diffuse people and get right to their main objections.  Really neat.  That was how they spent their Friday night.

Another week ahead....as the weather cools down, I get less and less excited about winter.  But Fall field trips are fun.  We enjoyed an apple picking day on Friday with the younger 4.  I love getting the chance to redo all the field trips I did with the older kids.  I feel like a grandma with all the young moms, but thankfully they include me and it is another chance to hang out with these neat women and their kids.  I see myself in all of them and love watching them and being around them.

As I go into the week ahead, I'm reminded in Nehemiah that it is a battle.  For me, it is a challenge to keep the kids excited about school, chores...all the menial stuff that just has to get done.  It is a challenge to stay positive when the kids are getting into little skirmishes seemingly all the time, When Nehemiah built the wall he had so many challenges, but he did not give up.  Instead, he just changed his game plan.  Chapter 4 says, "So we laboured at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out....neither I nor my brother nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes, each kept his weapon at his right hand."  That's it, can't take off my clothes!  I have to sleep with my "clothes on" and a "weapon at my side".  Isn't that it?  The battle is literally day and night, from the "break of dawn until the stars come out".  I don't find that depressing, but instead encouraging, to know Nehemiah just handled the stuff that came against him, didn't fuss about it, just did it.  Sleeping with a weapon is hardly convenient.  Sleeping with your clothes on is just another way of saying, "no time to get cozy" - always have to be ready for a fight!  My kids don't know I have a sword strapped to my leg under my clothes (ahhh...just kiddin).  But in a way I do!  I have to think that way, so I'm not caught off guard when my kids try to throw me off with their antics or life tries to stress me out.  So that's my new phrase for the week - keep your clothes on!