His voice

One of the greatest things I have ever seen arrived today in the mail. The wonderful Anna Reynolds managed to somehow find a Jane Austen Devotional book. In case you don't know, a devotional book is a collection of entries so that you can read one a day and reflect on some scripture or a part of God's character or how faith in Christ affects daily life. The Jane Austen devotional pairs passages of Jane Austen books with scripture to help the reader "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus, who through his death and resurrection woos you with the declaration, 'Surely, you must know it was all for you.'" (The "Surely" line is something that Mr. Darcy says in Pride and Prejudice.) I am actually so excited to do a daily devotion now because I've never sen anything so wonderful as a Jane Austen devo book.

Week 3 ends tomorrow. This has been a really great week and a really challenging week in a number of ways. Unexpected situations come up that must be dealt with. The program team employs immense amounts of creativity in order to make sure that everything comes together. Given the threat of rain this week, we brainstormed normal activities and alternate activities for several days. We had to make calls about which we were going to do and then ensure that there was adequate time to prep for those activities. This afternoon, there was an absolute monsoon outside. That's fine. We set up a number of indoor stations for the hour so that kids could move from one indoor location to the next. I was manning a stations where kids decorated small fabric patches for our sail as it had gotten torn in the crash.

Then we were told that we needed to keep the kids inside indefinitely and not even let them move outside between stations because the storm was so bad. I got the really neat opportunity to read the kids stuck in my activity the story of Jesus calming the storm (I read it out of the Jesus Storybook Bible, which is my most favorite children's Bible of all time). You know the one: Jesus and the disciples get in a boat and set sail, Jesus falls asleep, a massive storm rolls in, the disciples lose their minds in fear and wake Jesus up, and Jesus calms the storm with a few words. I love the way this children's Bible put it because it says Jesus spoke:

"And the strangest thing happened... The wind and the waves recognized Jesus' voice.

(They had heard it before, of course - it was the same voice that made them, in the very beginning.)"

There us something so amazing and warm about the way that's written. Creation obeys the Lord because it recognizes His voice. Another leader helped me debrief it with the kids, so we talked about how God is bigger than our fears and how He is in control. It was a really awesome moment.

I can't believe Week 3 is over. This week went by so quickly. It's back to A Bug's Life next week. Who knows what new shenanigans the bugs will get into this week...