Sunday Mornin' Dance Party

Let me start this post by saying that we have some of the most incredible people in the world volunteering in our kids lives in UpStreet. Our small group leaders are hero's of the biggest sort and they never cease to amaze me, especially when the challenges of working with kids could give them them a reason to quit and just walk away...but they dont. It pays off in the lives of our kids every week and I cant thank them enough.

Last week in our 2nd-3rd grade girls group (led by Linda Helms) we had a young lady give her life to Jesus. This isn't an abnormal event, but the kids reaction to it was; and it had a big impact on me personally. I was standing with our small group director observing the groups when one of Linda's girls came running up excitedly saying "Carrie* wants to get saved, come on!" Since this is the ultimate reason we exist of course I was excited too. The girls in the group, about 7 total, were all gathered around Carrie encouraging her to move ahead with her decision. I asked Carrie if she was ready but it was clear Carrie felt more comfortable talking to Ms Linda than to me...which is exactly why we have small group leaders! Carrie and Ms Linda moved to a private spot to talk while the rest of the girls and I prayed for Carrie to take the steps and ask Jesus into her heart. And she did. When Carrie returned and told the group they immediately burst into screams and sounds only 7 and 8 year old girls can make! They were SO EXCITED! They wanted to have a dance party to celebrate, so we all went back into the UpStreet theatre to do the Cupid Shuffle and the ChaCha Slide...mainstays of all UpStreet dance parties. It was awesome!

It hit me that we should all dance like that when a kid, or anyone else, receives Christ as their Savior. We hold parades for championship teams, parties for turning a year older, and celebrations for completing school...but we don't celebrate salvation's quite as intensely. I learned from a small group of young girls that it should be. Great job Linda, you've got an awesome group of young ladies!

God Bless!!!

Mobility

This is a test. It is only a test. If this was an actual post there would be way less errors. But this is way cool if it works...Im posting from my HTC Desire (shameless plug for Alltel here).
Im sure there will be bugs to work out, as well as learning how to type on thid tiny little keyboard, but in the end I think itd gonna rock. We'll see I guess. -J

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Kindness

This months virtue in UpStreet is Kindness-Showing others they are valuable by how you treat them.

I think, in my house at least, kindness has the greatest impact on everyone. When my kids are kind to each other then their mother is happy. If I am kind to everyone then their mother is happy. If the kids are kind to their mother then their mother is happy. Are you seeing a pattern here? If momma's happy everyones happy. Okay I know I totally stole that but I couldn't resist.

Anyway, kindness is one virtue that can change an entire mood! A kind word or a random act of kindness could make someones day...even if you never know it. Jesus never said be nice when your happy, or when someones nice to you. He said treat others the way YOU want to be treated first. Being kind to one another is simply acknowledging that everyone is important to God, so they should be important to you also. Try it...be nice. You won't regret it!