Day 63– Aug 31, 2005, Wednesday: Sign language

We started the day with worship with the kids. I was really not in the mood to chase the kids around while we sing and worship. I think God knew this and sent us all up to the dance studio. We had a great time with the families worshipping through sign language. I know what you’re thinking…I’ve never done this either. It was cool though. The kids teacher (Mary) has danced for 15 years and she taught us the sign language to the song “You are Beautiful my Sweet Sweet Song” I think it’s by Third Day. I’m not a dancer, but it was fun. Then after that the kids all said their memory verses that they have learned in class. They used sign language with them also.

For lecture today we had Connie Kline. She is an awesome lady. One of her kids (Jaimie) is here on our staff. She is a nurse and a home maker, so it was great for Ruth to relate. This lady is into the Bible. She is just amazing. She’s just packed with “little nuggets” of wisdom. She talks faster than anyone I have ever heard, so it is quite a challenge for many of the people with English as their 2^nd language. She has arranged a special hand signal with them to tell her to slow down when she gets excited.

After lunch we had Dudley come speak for about an hour. You don’t meet too many people named Dudley. What a great name. He had a tough job of allowing people to ask questions and bring up fears about outreach. He is the king of outreach apparently because he had a lot of cool answers. There are lots of people that feel like “who am I to share?” or “what if I say the wrong thing?” or “what if I pray for God to heal someone and they aren’t healed?”. All stuff that I wouldn’t be real excited to answer in front of a hundred people. The short answers are : God’s child with Jesus authority; God can work even through our mistakes; and God does the healing, it’s up to you to pray for it and let Him decide. Doesn’t it sound so simple when you hear it that way? Lord give me the faith to follow your heart in these situations!

Then I mowed and we all jumped in the pool. It felt so good. Tonite we actually had the night off, so we hung out at the ark park with all of our friends and had coffee. These are the times I will most remember when I look back on this Lecture Phase.