Then on Saturday Joel ran a teen activity for us.

Before heading out to the mission field, Joel was a Youth Pastor.  They did a football and foot activity.  About 6 of Dan’s wrestlers came out the activity and one or two brought a friend.  The whole group was a not calmer than Monday’s crowd.  I think it was because the wrestlers were afraid of Dan.  Paul, who runs the Monday program, says it was because the average age went up by 6 years.

The boys spent time playing football while the few girls did whatever.  Then we had a cookie bake off.  There were two teams and each team had to pick out 3 “cooks” and the rest of the team could stay and cheer them on.  Each team of cooks was headed up by a wrestler.  It was strange to see these boys get into cooking.  Anyway, both teams were both given what they needed or more and they had to figure out what amounts they needed to make a quarter batch of cookies. 

While some cooked and stayed inside (as it was chilly for NC), others went outside to play more football.  After the cookies were cooked we had 3 people eat and judge which team made the best cookie – team 2 won.

Once again I took my camera and tried it out.  The only thing is, I kept setting the settings wrong, so the photos weren’t that great, but I’ll show you some anyway.

(looks like the pastor and one of his wreslters are getting into it) 

(up, up, and away)

(Paul [in blue and kakii] takes on Ronny)

(let's see.....)

(lesson time)

(directions for cookie bake-off)

(team 2)

(team 1)

(Anna finding her own fun)

(3 judges - Lea, Frank, and Anna)

(team 2 wins!)

(even kneeling on his knees, Joel is the same height as Dan)

(Dan's wrestlers- Zack, TL, Robbie, Ramos, Aquian, coach Dan [Nate is missing])

(TL and Dan doing a head and arm)

(Ayden and Wyatt playing Battleship)

We moved to Burgaw, NC the end of June 2006.  By the middle of July I was teaching the 1-6^th grade Jr. Church.  I have taught at every church I have been in since college (one in MN, FL, and NY).  I love to teach.

Since then I have seen 24 children make professions of faith.  One of these was from substitute teaching in the Wednesday night class.  I am honored that the Lord has given me these 24 souls to take to Heaven with me.  I have told “my children” that the only thing they can take to Heaven with them are souls and that I’m honored that that Lord has given me some of them.

Even though I enjoy teaching I have often felt over my head with our Jr. Church group.  Our church runs a bus ministry and I can have 5-40 children.  Even with two helpers sometimes 40 is just too much for me.  We have had wonderful lady join the church months pasted and she is a school teacher and the children all love her. I was thinking of passing the group off to her, but she didn’t want to teach full-time.

Early spring we had another couple join our church.  They have worked with a bus ministry in their old church. 

So, we were joining to let them take Jr. Church and I was going to take the 1-3^rd grade Sunday school class.  We were about ready to do that when the lady who took Wednesday night for the summer, told me that she didn’t want to teach full-time (same lady I was thinking of giving Jr. Church to).

Anyway, the couple is taking Jr. Church and I’m going to take Wednesday night. 

We had planed on doing a Picture Day on September 16 and I had asked our Jewish lady to talk to the children 5-10 minutes about Jews.  The gentleman asked Dan when he was taking over and we decided the week after Picture Day.

So that meant September 9^th was my last teaching day.  I decided to do a big review since I knew I was changing classes and that the following week would be Picture Day.  My stomach was all in knots, because though I wanted someone more qualified then me to teach Jr. Church, I didn’t want to give up “my children.” 

After my family gets to church in the morning, I go to my room and set up and re-read my lesson one more time (to help calm nerves).  That morning though, since I was doing a big review I knelt beside the first pew and for several minutes I prayed.  I begged the Lord to give my one salvation for it was my last day teaching and there hadn’t been any made for awhile.  That I loved these children and I wanted them to know Him.  That this would be the last time I taught this group. 

I did my review, went through the Romans Road, and asked if any wanted to accept Christ to come to the front.  I didn’t have one – I had five come down. I had the others go outside and get on their bus or van and I talked to the five.

When I get a group of children I do this:

1. I ask them why they came.
2. I ask them if they have sinned.
3. I ask them what sin is.
4. I go through the plan of salvation (Romans Road).
5. I look each child in the eye and ask them if this is a decision they want to make for themselves, not because others or myself are there.
6. I then tell them that I’m going to lead them in prayer, but it isn’t my words they are repeating that saves them; it is their faith and belief in God.
7. I then lead them in prayer.
8. At the end I do several different things, depending on time.
   1. I tell them that if they meant it they are saved.
   2. That we are now brothers and sisters in Christ.
   3. That once saved always saved.  (I ask one if he/she went out and murdered someone would he/she still be his/her parents child.  [child says yes] I tell them it is the same with God.  That we will still be His children. But just like their parents don’t want them to murder anyone, God doesn’t either.)

I told the children on Sunday that I had something to tell them that wouldn’t be easy for me. I told that that I have been teaching them for a year and 2 or 3 months.  And that I loved them.

One girl looked shocked and asked if I was leaving.  I informed them that I’m not leaving the church, but Brother Ben would be teaching them and I would be teaching Wednesday nights.  I let them know if they wanted to see me that they needed to come on Wednesday.  One boy raised his hand and said that they are picked up on Wednesday.  I told him that we could maybe work on that.

I did tell them that I would come over sometimes after Brother Ben was done teaching and I would see them and talk with them.  That I wasn’t leaving them.

That night our Jewish lady, who had been teaching Wednesday night, told me that she thought what I said was sweet and she thought I was about to cry.   I told her that I was.  She said that if I started she would have joined.

After teaching them 14.5 months, I truly care for these children.  And I hope that this change is the best thing for them.  I truly want what is best for them. 

Jr. Girls’ Missionary Fellowship had been scheduled to a week earlier.  My husband had planned to take a trip and was going to leave on Monday the 24^th—he forgot about Jr. Girls.  So, since the children are on Easter Break here (well ok, they can’t say that because that is “religion” in the schools, but common on let’s face it, that is what they are on), I called the girls to see if you could move to the 17^th and since they weren’t in school we could start before 3:30 if they wanted.  So, we ended up having our monthly meeting at noon on the 17^th.  I only had two girls in attendance once again.  I was to have a third, but she called 30 minutes prior and said that she was too busy to come. 

Below is the lesson, my girls received:

Last month we learned about the need to witness.  God’s Word commands us over and over again, to tell others about Himself.  We learned that every Christian should want to know God’s Will for their life and that part of God’s Will is for no one to go to Hell.  Thus, part of God’s Will for our lives to tell people about Him.

Today we are going to look at a contrast.  A contrast is a comparison of things or ideas.  The contrast we are going to look at today is the love of the world and the love of the Father.  Though we can love many people and many things at the same time we are told that we can’t love the world and God at the same time.  God’s Word says in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”  It is a fact of life that you will love some people more than others.  You love your family more than your friends—or at least you better.  If you had two jobs, you would love one more.  Whenever there are two things being loved, one will get the greater love.

God tells us in the first half of Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world.”  If I was to take this toy and place material over it, the material would take the shape of the toy, but if I placed this book on the toy, the book remains in the same shape—it doesn’t conform.  Girls we shouldn’t be acting like the world.  We should not say the same things they say, we shouldn’t wear the same things, and we shouldn’t be listening to the same sounding music.  If you have to ask for your parents for something and you want it “because everyone else has it or is doing it” than that thing or event is of the world.  This is a tough thing to do, but God’s Word tells us not to conform, but it doesn’t stop there.

Not only are we not to conform to this world, but we aren’t to be friends with it.  James 4:4 says, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”  Enmity means hatred.  This verse says that friendship with the world is the same as being God’s enemy.  When we have a friendship with someone we want to be around the person and sometimes act the same way that they do – we want to please them.  However, God doesn’t want us to hang around the world and do worldly things, and He doesn’t want us to please it – He wants us to please Him instead.  He wants us to live like daughters of God, for we are if we are saved.

I John 2:15-16 adds to not conforming and not being friendly with the world – it tells us, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”    The world being spoken of here is the lust or desires of the flesh and the eyes and the pride of life.  We are to live in this world, but not live as the world. 

The contrast to conforming to, being friends with, and loving the world, is conforming to, being friends with, and loving God.    I John 5:3 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”   Grievous means to cause pain.  The only way to keep God’s commandments is to conform to them.  If you don’t follow them, you aren’t keeping them.  We have looked at the Ten Commandments and thus we now know what they say.  Are you willing to conform to them?  There are many other commandments in the Bible as well.  I had a teacher in college tell us, “It is easy being a Christian...if you don’t open your Bible.”  What she meant that reading God’s Word will challenge you to change your life and changing or conforming is not an easy thing to do.

Not only are we to conform to God, but we are to be His friend.  We should want to spend time with Him,  act like Him, and please Him.  Jesus wants to be our friends, John 14:14-15 says, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoeth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

We should also love God.  I John 4:19 says, “We love him, because he first loved us.”  We are to love Him.  We show our love to God by reading  His Word, praying to Him, attending church and Sunday school, by obeying His commandants, and by being His friend. 

Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”  Girls, we have to choose one.  We can’t conform to, be friendly with, and love this world and God at the same time.  There can only be one.  Which one do you want?  If you choose God, do you choose Him enough not to conform to this world, to be friendly with it, and not to love it?

Colossians 3:1-2 “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

On April the 15^th, my husband and I set up and held a Spring Treasure Hunt for our church children, their friends, and any child in the community.  This is the fourth one that we have put on since moving here 3.5 years ago.  A Spring Treasure Hunt is just an Easter Egg Hunt with a different name. 

In preparation for this fun event, I stuffed 218 plastic eggs with candy.  Each egg had 3-4 pieces of candy.  In the end I some left over and Dan said to leave it unstuffed so we could sort it out to those who found little.  Normally, I buy some of the candy while my husband buys the bulk of it.  This year I bought all of it.  As in years past, I also picked up some little awards.  The children so loved this idea the first year that I did it, that I have done it every since. 

The first two years of our hunt I would place 8 pennies, 6 nickels, 4 dimes, and 2 quarters into the plastic eggs.  At the end of the hunt, the children would exchange their coin for an award that I had assigned that coin.  The pennies would be small objects and the objects would get bigger as you reached the two quarters.  The past two years, I still used the 6 pennies, but I used sports eggs for the other coin amounts (6 basketballs, 4 footballs, and 2 soccer balls).  The second year, I added a big gold egg and made that the grand prize.  The first two years of the golden egg the grand prize was a chocolate Easter bunny, this year it was a water ball sling shot.  The children just love getting the little awards.

Well, Saturday started out a little cloudy and chilly, but it was bright and warm before the children got here.  Dan had hidden the 218 plastic eggs as well as the hide-n-seek eggs and other individually wrapped candies.  (All the candy in the eggs was individually wrapped as well.)  I helped him hide a few, but he hid most of them by himself.  

After a quick lunch, we were at the church waiting for the children to come.  Knowing our attendance would be low, I walked to the front of the church to invite children to come.  The hunt was to begin at 1:30 and at 1:28, we had no one here.  I was bound and determined to have children since I had stuffed 218 eggs!  So, throwing my shyness away for a moment, I walked down to a little cul-de-sac where there are always children playing.  Sure enough there were some out and I walked up to a teenage looking gal and told her about the hunt.  The two men standing there asked me some questions and the children all said that they wanted to come.  I was sure they were coming, though they didn’t say that they would be.  I went back to asking children on the streets, but none of them wanted to come.

In the end we had ten children come, including 3 from the cul-de-sac.  The children all had a great time running over the church yard and sanctuary looking for candy, after a short devotional of course.  Every one of them went home with a bag full.  When it looks like the candy has all been gathered up, we head inside and have the children empty the plastic eggs of candy.  They keep all the candy; we keep all the plastic eggs and use them the next year.  I also ask for those who found pennies and exchanged them for an award, likewise the sports balls and the golden egg. 

In the end was missing two pennies.  So the children went out looking again.  They found and brought back about five more plastic eggs, but none of them had pennies.  After awhile everyone was tried of looking and went home, dragging their candy bags behind them.  When most of the children were gone, minus the child of Dan’s friend.  Dan looked the yard over while Paul and I talked to Dan’s wresting friend and wife, Dan came back twice with both hands full of candy.  The next day he found some more in the sanctuary, including one of my missing pennies.  The funny thing is that we have been known to find Easter candy in August! 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.  When I went down to the basement to get some plastic bags for the children to use to gather up candy, I noticed that there was a lot of water down there.  Knowing that the basement does collect some water during rain storms and we had had plenty of rain, it first I didn’t think much about it.  But when I saw how deep it was, I knew that wasn’t rain water.  Later that night, I went down to the basement to check it out and Dan followed me.  It was not a pretty sight and I found out why I had been smelling a smell in my house.  The sewer line had backed up and I had standing water and toilet paper in my basement.  With Easter the next day, I told Dan that I didn’t want to tell our church deacon.  The basement could wait another day.  

I’m running behind on my blog.  Let’s see if I can do some catching up.  The evening of March 26^th we had our monthly teen activity.  This month we did an old favorite—Sound Scavenger Hunt.  The teens really seem to enjoy this one.  However, do to school work; we only had five teens show up, 2 girls and 3 boys.  So, we split up into two teams—girls vs. boys.  Kathie (the mother of three of our teens, well ok, one is in college now) has been very faithful in bring her girls and their friends and is always willing to be a driver.  This was the first time that she was to drive that she didn’t have to.  Another adult came for the ride and for the fun and he ended up driving Kathie’s van, which allowed her just to have fun.  Anna and I rode along, but we sat in the van for most of the stops.  Another first was that Dan was able to drive.  He normally stayed at the church in case he was needed, but with only two teams and Dan got to drive.  Paul rode with him and the three boys. 

My team did a great job and Kathie’s girl kept saying that if the boys won she would be upset, because her team always came in second or last.  Both teams were to be back at the church around 6 PM, and my team cut it very close.  It wasn’t until we all piled into the church that we found out that the boys had given up after 30 minutes and went to Burger King for food.  Just like a bunch of boys!  Well, my team won!

I know, I know you want to know what on earth a Sound Scavenger Hunt is.  Each team is given a list of sounds with a point value assigned to each sound.  Each team gets a list and a tape recorder and they go around town taping the sounds that are on the list.  The team with the most points wins.

Here is the list we used two Sundays ago:

1. Chainsaw running  25
2. Dog barking  20
3. Beeping from heavy equipment or truck backing up  20
4. Someone on your team (not the leader) quoting John 3:16 (leader, please ensure that they aren’t looking and that they get it word perfect.)  10
5. Chicken clucking or rooster crowing  35
6. Cell phone ringer playing the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky  25
7. Baseball or football game  30
8. Airhorn (like fans would use at a basketball game)  20
9. Someone not on your team singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”  30
10. Everyone on your team, including the driver, singing, “Jesus Loves Me” (and I’d better hear all of you!)  15
11. Vehicle tires squealing  10
12. Snow blower running  25
13.  Door slamming  5
14. Oboe playing  30
15. Trumpet playing  20
16. Someone not on your team saying, “Hi, how are you?” in Arabic  45
17. Someone not on your team saying, “Hi, how are you?” in Mandarin  40
18. Someone not on your team saying, “Hi, how are you?” in Gaelic  50
19. Someone not on your team saying, “Hi, how are you?” in Russian  40
20. Turkey gobbling   50
21. Horse neighing   35
22. Goose honking   20
23. Pigeon calling  20
24. Police radio scanner  25
25. Balloon popping  20
26. Basketball bouncing  10
27. Someone on your team playing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on an instrument  25
28. Someone on your team saying, “Around the rough and rugged rock the ragged rascal ran” quickly three times in a row  20
29. Entry bell or chime from entering a store  10
30. Doorbell on a person’s house that plays a song  10
31. Someone belching  10
32. Hiss of a soft drink opening for the first time  10
33. A soft drink can being crushed by a person’s foot  10
34. Dial up modem trying to connect  15
35. Stapler stapling.

      My team found the following ones:

1. Dog barking  20
2. Beeping from heavy equipment or truck backing up  20
3. Someone on your team (not the leader) quoting John 3:16 (leader, please ensure that they aren’t looking and that they get it word perfect.)  10
4. Cell phone ringer playing the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky  25
5. Airhorn (like fans would use at a basketball game)  20
6. Someone not on your team singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”  30
7. Everyone on your team, including the driver, singing, “Jesus Loves Me” (and I’d better hear all of you!)  15
8. Door slamming  5
9. Trumpet playing  20
10. Someone not on your team saying, “Hi, how are you?” in Russian  40
11. Goose honking   20
12. Police radio scanner  25
13. Balloon popping  20
14. Basketball bouncing  10
15. Someone on your team playing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on an instrument  25
16. Someone on your team saying, “Around the rough and rugged rock the ragged rascal ran” quickly three times in a row  20
17. Entry bell or chime from entering a store  10
18. Someone belching  10
19. Hiss of a soft drink opening for the first time  10
20. A soft drink can being crushed by a person’s foot  10

As always everyone had a great time and afterward we sat around talking and munching on munchies.  When everyone was gone, we came home and I started to prepare for Jr. Girls’ Missionary Fellowship the following day.  

            Monday was our Jr. Girls’ Missionary Fellowship.  We meet the last Monday of the month, most times.  I only had two girls come, but I can have up to eight if everyone comes at the same (which is yet to happen).  We started our meeting by signing Easter cards for each of the church missionaries.  We then had our lesson, decorated the church bulletin board for Easter, and had a few snacks.  The lesson they got on Monday is below.  To see the other lessons, click on the “youth work” category and find all the entries titled “Jr. Girls.”

            Last month we looked at the last six of the Ten Commandments.  The first four had to deal with our relationship with God, the last six deal with our relationship with others.  The fifth commandment is “honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth you.”  We learned that part of honor is obeying your parents the first time with a good attitude and always talking nicely to them and about them.  The sixth is “thou shalt not kill,” this one is pretty easy to understand—we aren’t to be killing people.  An exception to this would be our soldiers when they are sent by our country to protect us.  The seventh commandment is “thou shalt not commit adultery,” this means that married people should not sleep around with other people.  The next commandment is “thou shalt not steal” and we learned that if you take anything that is not yours, even an answer to a test question, it is considered stealing.  The ninth commandment is “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,” simply put this means that we are not to lie about others.  The very last of God’s Ten Commandments is “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”  The word “covet” means to want something that isn’t yours. 

            Today we are going to look at the need to witness.  Every Christian wants to know God’s Will, or at least they  should want to know.  The Bible, God’s Word, clearly points out over and over again part of God’s Will. 

            Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 

            Matthew 18:11 says, “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”

            Jesus’ purpose on this Earth was clear, He was to come and find the lost by providing a way for the lost.  This can be found in that famous verse of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Jesus’ sole purpose of being born on this Earth was to provide the way for everlasting life in Heaven.  But just being born wasn’t enough as Philippians 2:8 says, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” 

            Girls, part of God’s Will is for no one to die and go to Hell.  We saw that in Luke 19:10 and in Matthew 18:10, but look at another verse.  II Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  The end of the verse clearly tells us that God is not willing that any should perish and all come to repentance. 

            How do we know that we can have eternal life with God in Heaven? Look at Romans 10:13.  “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Jesus will not turn anyone down for salvation.  It doesn’t matter if the person is rich, poor, black, white, a murderer, old, or young.  He will turn down no one who truly believes in Him and what He did for them.

            This is where the importance of witnessing comes in.  Jesus has laid the foundation and He left us here on this Earth to tell others about him.  Look at Romans 10:14-15 with me.

            Romans 10:14 says, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?”  This is coming right after verse 13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  The Apostle Paul, who wrote this book with God’s inspiration, asks how can people call one someone they don’t believe in.  He continues on, “and show shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?”  If you have never heard something, you can’t believe in it.  If you were never taught that two plus two equals four, how could you believe that?  The lost people of the world can’t believe on Jesus Christ and call on Him, if they have never heard of Him.  So, how are they to hear? Paul continues once again, “and how shall they hear without a preacher?”  People can’t hear until they are told. The preacher here is referring to anyone telling others about Christ. 

            Verse 15 continues the thought, “And how shall they preach, except they be sent?”  Many people believe this refers to missionaries because of the word “sent.”  But this only applies to missionaries in the sense that it applies to every Christian in the world.  We have all been “sent” to tell others about God, to witness.  Our command to tell others is the same one that missionaries love to use as well, Matthew 28:29-30, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.  Amen.”  We find this sending again in Mark 16:15, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  The word “gospel” refers to Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection—the good news of salvation. 

            Girls if you want to know God’s Will you will have to read His Word and pray to Him.  You will have to learn of Him.  Today you have already learned part of His Will, now what are you going to do about it?  If God could have His way everyone on Earth would be going to Heaven at the end of their life, but God did not want to be a dictator.  He wants people to love Him because they want to, not because they have to.  So, God gave them a free will to choose Him or to deny Him.  Jesus provided the way to Heaven and it is our job to tell others about the way.  We need to witness to fulfill our part of God’s Will of no one going to Hell. 

            Yesterday was another Jr. Girls’ Missionary Fellowship meeting, of which I run.  I was asked three years ago to take this and at first I wanted nothing to do with it, though I did take it.  I have taught Sunday School classes, but I had no idea what do to for a missionary fellowship.  I had never heard of a missionary fellowship for 4^th-12^th graders.  But, hey, why not?  It is never too early to learn about missionaries and how to live for God.  Well, the first season (Sept. to June), I started teaching them from the book Missions on the Move in the Local Church by Marjorie Collins and Carl Blackburn.  I also gave some object lessons, taking objects that the girls would have on hand and showed them how to lead someone to Christ.  The second year (last year) we went trough some chapters in the book Prayer: Asking and Receiving by John R. Rice.  This year, I started over with some of the lessons from the first season, since I have a new set of girls.  This year’s lessons are on here on this blog, you will have to go to the “Youth Work” category to find them. 

            Anyway last month I taught on the first four of the Ten Commandments.  I decided to go ahead and finish teaching on the last six.  Below is yesterday’s lesson.

            Last month we had a very difficult lesson to swallow as we looked at the first four of the Ten Commandments, the ones that deal with our relationship with God.  The first was “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” meaning that nothing should come first on our lives, but God in Heaven.  If you put anything in front of Him, it is your god.  Second, was “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or the likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.,” meaning that we should not give worship to anything that it handmade—only God in Heaven deserves our worship.  The third commandment was, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain,” meaning that we should only use God’s  name with we are either taking directly to Him or about Him, but never in an off way manner.  God says that there are no excuses.  The last commandment we looked at was, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” meaning that we are to only work six days a week and rest on the seventh.  We should also be with God’s people.  During the lesson I had you write down your gods and asked you take the list home and try to work on removing one of them each week.  I hope that you have been doing that. 

            This month we are going to look at the other six commandments, the ones that help us know how to deal with people.  Everyone open your Bibles to Exodus 20.  The fifth commandment is found in verse 12: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth you.”  God tells us in His Word that we are to honor our parents.  Part of honoring them is obeying them and part of obeying them is obeying them the first time.  I know that this isn’t an easy thing to do, but we are commanded to do it.  But honoring them is more than just obeying them; it is obeying them with a good spirit not complaining and grumbling.  Ouch, now that makes this commandment even harder.  But there is still more.  Honoring includes not only how you talk to your parents, but how you talk about them.  You need to speak honorably or nicely about your parents in front of others, along with speaking honorably to your parents when you talk to them. 

            The sixth commandment is found in verse 13, “Thou shalt not kill.”  This one is pretty easy to understand.  We aren’t to kill or murder people.  Sometimes there are accidents and people are killed, but God’s Word here is referring to murder.  We aren’t to purposely go out and take someone else’s life.  God takes human life very seriously and He demanded that if any human murders another, than his life should be taken—today we call this capital punishment.  We find God’s command to do so in, Genesis 9:6 which reads, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man”.  The other exception to this would be in time of war – it is okay for soldiers to kill enemies while trying to protect their country.

            Please look at verse 14 for the seventh commandment which is, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  God tells us in the Bible that marriage is a blessed thing, a holy thing.  Adultery is when a man or a woman has marital relations with someone other then their spouse. 

            The eight commandment is found in verse 15, “Thou shalt not steal.”  Normally when we think of stealing we thing of shoplifting something from a store.  But stealing is broader than that—it is taking anything that doesn’t belong to you.  If your mom says that you can’t have a cookie from the cookie jar and you take one, you are both disobeying and stealing.  When at school you look on your neighbor’s paper and write down the his or her answer, you are stealing.  We are commanded not to steal, or not to take anything that doesn’t belong to us.

            Verse 16 has the ninth commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”  What the Bible means by “false witness” is lying.  Remember the story about the Good Samaritan, the one when a man is jumped and beat up by robbers and two men walked by him without helping and then finally a Samaritan man helped him?  Well, the lesson behind that story is that everyone is our neighbor, so we aren’t to be lying about anyone. 

            The last of God’s Ten Commandments is found in verse 17, “Thou shat not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.”  “Covet” means to want something that isn’t yours.  We are to be happy for others who get new things.  We shouldn’t be jealous of what our friends, family, schoolmates, and neighbors have.  It isn’t necessarily wrong to want things and to get things, but it is wrong to want what others have. 

            This concludes our look at the Ten Commandments.  God wants us to live for Him and to live like Christ, but there is no way we can do that until we know what His Word says about how we should live. 

               Last night was our third “Bigger and Better” teen activity.  “Bigger and Better” is an activity that Dan learned and participated in while he was a youth in his church’s youth group.  This is how this little game works.  The teens are divided into teams and each team is then assigned to an adult driver.  The drivers are handed a toothpick and the whole group is given an amount of time.  We were given about an hour and a half. 

            I helped Dan divide the teams and then the three drivers (of which I was one) were handed their toothpicks and the teens and the drivers headed out to their cars.

            What?  You want to know what the toothpicks are for?  Did I forget to tell you?  I’m so sorry.

            Ok, the toothpick.  Each team is allowed to go to either friend’s homes or retail stores.  What they do is trade the toothpick up for something that is bigger and better.  They then take what they received and go to another location and trade their new item for something bigger and better.  You do this until you have to get back to the church and the team who brings back the biggest and best object wins.  Who decides what is the biggest and the best?  Well, Dan was our judge, so anyone who is not on a team can judge the items.  What comes of the items?  Those are donated to the church for its use.

            Dan told the teens before we left that the biggest thing he and his team brought back was a box of 300 kites and a 3 day, 2 night stay in a nice hotel.  So, the pastor and his wife had a nice little retreat.  Another year a group brought back a set of 4 new tires and those were given to the next church missionary who came through and needed a new set. 

            So, anyway, we got into our cars and pulled out.  The children are to tell us where to go and we as drivers aren’t to help unless the group gets stuck.  The first place my group went was to one of their friends and they traded the toothpick for two containers of apple juice.  Then we went to a bakery and they traded the apple juice of a quart of milk.  After the bakery, they went to a store or two, but they couldn’t help them. Then they wanted to go to the .99 plus store and there they traded their milk for a trashcan lid that was pink and had a pig’s face on it.

          While my group was in there another group pulled up and ran into the store.  My group came back and asked if they could go to the nail saloon and I told them the could.  The tore off running and the other group shortly after came running up to their car, carrying a quart of milk—the milk my group just traded in.  I thought that hilarious. 

        Well, the nail saloon didn’t want the pig head trashcan lid, but they did my group a free manicure.  Then they went to a local ice cream parlor and traded the free manicure in for a children’s Nemo activity rider!  I couldn’t believe it.  And they still had the trashcan lid.  After that we tried two or three places with no luck.  The group wanted to go down to a strip mall area where there were many stores.  On the way there we stopped at the local fire station.  They said that they had many things that were bigger, but not better. But the looked around and the kids ended up trading the pig head trash can lid for a chair.  So, now they have a chair and a Nemo activity rider. 

         We parked in the strip mall area and took our spoil our of the car and went into a Quizzno’s store, but they couldn’t help us.  The manager did point to one of his workers and told us (jokingly) that we could take him, but his worker said that he wasn’t better.  Then we went to another ice cream parlor, but there was only one worker there and he was busy—slowly.  We got tired of waiting and left.  Seeing that most of the stores in the strip mall was already closed we returned our spoil to the car and pilled in.  Did I mention yet, that it was a chilling night?  Well, we went across the street to Subway, but they couldn’t help us. 

            Then we went to another strip mall and entered CVS.  The manger said that they didn’t do things like that at the local level only on the corporate and that could take some time.  Our next stop was at Blockbuster, but we had no luck there, except the lady laughed at us—I think more out of confusion of trying to understand what we were doing.  A local grocery store was our next stop and the manager asked, “I know your mom, don’t I?”  He was pointing to one of my girls behind me and she told him that her mom came in often.  The he wanted to help us, he couldn’t and the guy who could had left an hour earlier.  So, we continued to lug our chair and toy around, wondering what people were thing, and went to a car lube/wash.  Once again the guy couldn’t help us because the guy who could had already left.  Both places told us that if we came back the next day, we would get something—but we didn’t have until the next day. 

            Seeing that all the big wigs had gone home for the night, we went to local houses to finish up our trip.  We went to one of the girl’s uncle’s, but he wasn’t there.  We then went to her friend’s house, but she only had a box of children’s books.  The girl asked me what they should do.  I told her it was up to them, but I thought what they had was bigger and better than that.  A moment later, my three children were piled back into my car with their chair and children’s rider.  Out of time, we went back to the church, but went to my neighbor’s house first to see if he had anything for us.  He didn’t have anything.  He said he had a TV, but he was throwing it out because it didn’t work and he didn’t think we wanted that. So, we crossed the street and entered the church. 

            I felt for sure that we had won.  This was bigger and better than anything that was brought back to the church the first two times we had played.  Imagine my disappointment and surprise when I found out that one of the groups, the only one with a truck, brought back a working washer machine!  And the other group, the one that got our milk, was offered a working dryer, but they just couldn’t get it to fit into the mini-van.  They did bring a paper shredder though.  Our little toy, looked so small in comparison.  Oh, well, my group had a good time.  Though it was more fun when we could trade up.  They just got too big, too fast.

            This was my first group to actually go to businesses to trade up.  I guess one of them had done this same activity with her own church. 

            The third meeting for the Jr. Girl’s Missionary Fellowship as on November 28^th.  I spent the whole morning preparing.  I took down the blue fabric from the church bulletin boards and place up green on one and red on the other.  After tracing the manger scene onto paper and then opaque sheets the night before, I traced new, larger pictures.  Then I put the new patterns on black fabric and cut them out.  I got tired of the little black paper figures that didn’t take up much of the board space, plus they always stuck together with the double stick tape.  I also prepared Christmas cards for the girls to sign for the church missionaries.  And I baked PCC Muffins. (Recipe: PCC Muffins)

            I had a wonderful attendance of six girls, one more than my first meeting high.  Instead of doing pill envelopes, every girl signed 21 Christmas cards.   Then we had our lesson, which was the second part of last months.  The last ten items to pray specifically for missionaries are: fruitfulness in service, health of soul and body, heart of love for all men, patience with others, proficiency in use of languages, protection from Satanic attack, safety in travel, support adequate for needs, understanding of culture, and wisdom to maintain finances.  (For the first nine, please read Jr. Girls’ Missionary).  After the lesson, the girls decorated both church bulletin boards and then ate the PCC muffins.  Before leaving we discussed our Christmas party in December.

            Normally our teen actives are Friday evenings or Saturday afternoons/evenings, but last night we tried a different time.  Many churches in New York City do not hold a Sunday night service, probably because many of the people are too worldly to attend.  (Side note: when we first moved here, we had no idea what to do with ourselves since we no longer had neither a Sunday night service nor a Thursday night visitation.  My husband and I were very active in our Florida church.  We’re active here; too, they just have less to be active in.) So, we held our first teen activity on a Sunday night.  We had five girls show up and five guys show up.  We even had a first time visitor who was brought by a couple of new kids in the church.  It’s nice to see kids get involved.  Well, last night we had a “Build Your Own Pizza Night.”  We bought pre-cooked crusts, sauce, cheese, and a few toppings (not many since plain, boring cheese pizza is the favorite of the island).  When the teens shifted through the doors, Dan and Paul had Janga games for them to play with.  I then headed toward the kitchen and started to sauce up crusts and placing some cheese upon the sauce.  I called two people back at a time and each person topped half of the pizza the way they wanted it.  While their pizza was in the oven cooking, I prepared for and called the next two.  It was a nice, calm meeting.  Many of our meetings lately have been high spirited and it was kind of nice just to get together and gang out.  When everyone was full, the girls had to go home and do school work and the boys went out and played basketball in the dark with the aid of only one flood night. 

Due to the awful holiday (not sure why it’s called a holiday) of Halloween, we held Jr. Girls’ Missionary Fellowship on the 24^th.  I only had two girls in attendance, five less than the month before.  Knowing that the one girl had a lot of home work to do and seeing I was still struggling with a cold, I kept the meeting short.  We did not do pill envelopes and we jumped right into the lesson.

I gave a one sentence review of what we learned the month prior and stated that we should support our missionaries by giving money and praying for them.  I told the girls that there are several people who pray like this, “Lord, please bless Your missionaries, Amen.” I informed the girls that we should pray for them in specific ways.  I gave each of the girls a bookmark that I had made.  On one side of the bookmark is a list of the missionaries South Baptist Church supports and where each missionary is located (example: “Rev. and Mrs. Smith—Brazil”).  On the other side of the bookmark there is a list of specific things to pray for.  There are 19 items and I went through the first 9.  I took the items and explained them further, so each girl knew what they meant.  The 9 we covered on the 24^th were: attitude of servant hood, boldness in preaching, children at school, compatibility with fellow workers, courage in danger, discipline in devotion life, filling with the Holy Spirit, and flexibility in relationships.  Next month we will finish with: fruitfulness, health, heart of love for all men, patience, proficiency, protection, safety, support, understanding, and wisdom. 

            Last night was our October teen event.  Paul had a new idea for us, so we gave it a go.  The teens had a Feeding Frenzy.  We had a total of 10 youth present and two mothers who stayed.  We had three drivers, and thus three teams.  The object was to go to pre-selected restaurants, buy an item off the menu, and eat it.  The first team to make all seven stops and bring a chocolate covered, cream filled donut back to the church to Pastor Dan (my husband) won. 

            Here is the assignment list:

1. Wendy’s – a side salad of your choice
2. Taco Bell (NOT at the mall) – 2 hard tacos and Mountain Dew Blast (or regular Mountain Dew if they don’t have the Mountain Dew Blast)
3. Cajun place in food court of the mall – small bourbon chicken (don’t have to get combo)
4. Any pizzeria – 1 slice of any type pizza with ranch dressing in every bite
5. Any Chinese restaurant – food item containing some water dweller other than shrimp
6. Eggers – each person must sample 1 flavor they have never tried before, and of those flavors the team must eat a 1-scoop cone.
7. Dunkin’ Donuts – bring back chocolate covered, cream filled donut to Pastor Dan (don’t have to eat anything there – just get the donut and get it back here.  This stop may be made at any time, but the donut must be delivered after all other assignments are complete.)

 When Paul read off the pizza with the ranch dressing all the girls said: Ewww, Yuck, Gugh, etc. 

The game rules were:

1. Obey the law!  Remember your testimony!  All cars must obey all traffic laws.  Teams must be polite to the workers at the places they go and to other patrons.
2. The first team to eat the assigned items at all of the assigned places and deliver a chocolate covered, cream filled doughnut from Dunkin’ Donuts to Pastor Dan wins the competition.
3. The list may be done in any order, except that the doughnut must be delivered last.
4. The entire team (including the driver) must go into the place and sit down to eat the item.  Eating cannot begin until all are seated.  No one may get up until the item is finished.
5. Team members can share items, but each team member must participate in eating at least two items.
6. The driver must eat at least one complete item alone.

      My team consisted of a college driver and two high school sophomores.  When they found out that I could help them eat the items, they asked me if I liked fish.  I told them that I did and I got volunteered to do the Chinese stop.  The girls were telling me that all the Taco Bells had closed down; one girl called her family to see if there was any open on the island. I suggested to call information, so they did and we found on the other side of the island.  The first place we headed to was the mall and there we got the bourbon chicken.  Since it was not stated that we could not get the Wendy’s salad from the mall, we got that, too.  Also since we could get our pizza anywhere, we purchased a slice at the mall.  So, we got 3 out of 7 items in one spot.  We looked at the Chinese place there, but they had no seafood.  So, the food was eaten and we headed to the other side of the island to Taco Bell.  On the way there, we passed a Dunkin Donuts and purchased our donut to take back to the church.  We also passed an Eggers on the way, so we stopped by to eat our ice cream.  The girls order a scoop of coffee ice cream.  I tried a bite, but since I don’t like coffee, it was all theirs.  After ice cream we continued toward Taco Bell, while our order was being made, the driver and I found a Chinese restaurant across the street.  The only two items were scallops in garlic sauce or lobster chow mien.  Since it was cheaper and I knew I’d like it better we got the lobster.  The four of us sat down and I did my best to eat it very quickly.  It was so hot though there was no quick eating.  The driver tried some of the lobster and ate it.  We decided that as long as we ate the lobster, we filled our qualifications. So, the lobster was eaten and I ate the rest in the car.  The good thing is I found something else I like to eat at Chinese restaurants. 

We were the last group back to the church, but we were the only group to find Taco Bell, so we won.  Paul and Dan were both thinking of using a different Taco Bell, but they did not know that it had closed.   The girls who ate the pizza with the ranch dressing, found it very tasty. 

Everyone had great fun and all would like to do it again. 

               Well, the paining is finally done.  Ron, Dan, and I have now painted the bedroom, the trim around the living room, the kitchen, and the entrance way.  The kitchen cabinets are looking much better, but only half are done.  The paint to spray them made me dizzy and nauseous today and it made Ron sick as well.  We are both felling better now.  We still have some furniture to move into the apartment and we need to find a box spring, but otherwise we are ready for Paul to show up tomorrow morning.

            I had to cut and run shortly before we finished the entrance way, because I had Jr. Girls’ Missionary Fellowship.  It is for 4^th-12^th graders and they learn about missions.  The group meets once a month from 3:15 to 4:30-5:00.  We make pill envelopes to mail to three hospitals overseas, have a lesson, decorate the bulletin board at the front of the church, and have some snacks.  I had two 4^th graders, two 6^th graders, and one 8^th grader today.  That was a good crowd.  I was pleased.  Three of them were first timers.  I hope that they learned about what missionaries do and why they do it and hope they had a good time.  Not only did I describe briefly what a missionary is, why we have them, what they do, but I also taught them the difference between a missionary and a witness.  I told them that everyone should be witnesses, but missionaries are people who witness for God full-time.  We should all be a witness to those in our Jerusalem (Tottenville) and to those in our Judea (Staten Island), that fewer of them would be witnesses in their Samaria, and that even few would be witnesses to the uttermost part of the earth ((Acts 1:8)).

All of you mathematicians out there, what does 99 degree weather, latex, sponges, and a tarp equal?

            Soaked teens and a watered yard. 

            No, really; it does.

            On Saturday the 13^th, we held our Third Annual Water Games Day for the church teens.  Unlike last year, I think the teens won.  Last year, God won.  Yes, He sure did!  It poured on us last year; but not this year, no indeed we were melting in the heat and were waiting for the water.  The teens had an “egg toss” with water balloons—latex.  They were divided up in two teams and each team had bucket filled with water at one end and an empty bucket on the other end.  They had to fill the empty bucket with water by only using a sponge that was passed over their heads.  After several different games which all included water, we brought out the trap.  This was sprawled out on the ground, dish detergent was spread all over it, and then it was hosed down.  It was time for – human bowling.  That’s right, human bowling.  The teens took a running start and slid on the tarp and tried to knock down as many cones as possible while hoping to end up in the swimming pool at the end.  

            By the end we had ten soaked children, a soaked leader, a damp helper (no thanks to my toddler), and a watered yard (which was much needed).  After taking all the pictures of the fun, I jumped into the pool just to get hosed down by Anna.