It has been such a nice weekend...

I turned a year older on Saturday. I was able to spend some time with my family. My mom made a wonderful "bring-me-back-to-childhood" dinner Saturday night of roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, bread, green beans, corn. Homemade from scratch Angel birthday cake and Peach and Vanilla homemade ice cream. I was able to share this with both my brothers, Lisa, James, my Mom, and both my kids. I missed Lex but he was in Paso Robles at a motorcycle "thing". He did have a big bouquet of flowers waiting for me at my Mom's house, though. Very smart of him. :)

Who could ask for anything more? Family, a wonderful meal, laughter, thought provoking conversation.

Sunday was a very good morning. One of my favorite things was the end when 20 kids ages Kindergarten - 6th grade surrounded the congregation with buckets. The church was told of the Impact Ministries in Houston who are ministering to 20,000+ people who have come from New Orleans. During our closing song, they would have an opportunity to drop their donation for the Hurricane Katrina victims into the bucket of a child and we would make sure it was sent to the proper place.

The Elders prayed, and we started our closing song. Sometimes people hesitate when they are asked to leave their seat to do something during the assembly. But in the words of Ashley, "It looked like somebody kicked an ant hill!"

From the stage, we saw the whole church move in all different directions. It was amazing. I had to quit looking because, of course, it made me cry. The kids smiled and said thank you...the adults bent down to the kids and chatted with them. Some people gave more than once because it was important to them to give in specific buckets, and others came from far across the auditorium to the child that they happened to have a relationship with. It was absolutely beautiful.

My favorite was Wes Schmidt who is now unable to walk without assistance. He has a "scooter" (quite powerful and with a mighty horn for honking), he didn't send anyone else with his donation...he scooted down that aisle and people parted like the mighty sea. Put his donation into the bucket, smiled and chatted with the sweet boy, (Zachary Pafford), and then turned that thing around and headed back to his spot.

I heard later of a young boy who knew this donation opportunity was coming. He told his mom he wanted to get some money out of his piggy bank. He is 1st grade. He had $10 in change in his bank...his mom asked how much of that he wanted to give. He asked if God would think it was o.k. if he gave $7. "Do you think it would be o.k. if I kept $3?"

The even cooler thing about that story is that I happened to watch this boy walk down to give his coins. He didn't hesitate. Walked with determination, dropped his change into the metal bucket (what a sound that made!), and then ran back to his seat literally dancing, singing, and jumping up and down as he joined in the singing of "A New Anointing". His joy of giving was overflowing.

We raised over $10,000 for those folks.

I know it's a tiny sum of what is needed. But our folks experienced relationship, joy, fellowship, and goodness as they gave.

God is so good to us.