VBS ideas

We just finished "Glow for Jesus" VBS. We had a good week and great kids. One of my favorite things from this week was that we used colored glow in the dark paint for our tshirts, so not only are they bright, but they GLOW too. The other is our snack for Moses and the Burning Bush.  We took broccoli and broke it into bite sized pieces then added matchstick carrots for the flames and a cracker or short pretzel for the trunk of our burning bush. The kids like them as long as we had ranch dressing on the side!

Maple syrup is like refined silver children's sermon

This past Sunday, I had children's sermon. For the beginning of March, I had to think for a little bit. I looked at what I had been doing most of the week. I had been boiling maple sap down into syrup. As I looked at a kettle, the verse from psalms kept coming to me, refined like silver. So I looked up the verse Psalms 66:10, "For you God, tested us; you refined us like silver." I started from this thought. I took to church with me, a maple syrup pan that happened to be empty, a small jar of maple syrup and some small pieces of bread for the children to drip and taste when we were done.

I had the children come forward, asked about their week and explained that I had been busy making maple syrup. I told them that a verse had come to me while I was working. Let's look at the verse Psalms 66:10-12. As we read through it, we looked at the " we went through fire and water and came to abundance."
First what does abundance mean? One little boy answered " a lot".  Exactly, it means that you would have a lot!  So when they refine silver, they heat it in the fire and remove all the junk. Well that is kind of what we do with the maple sap. We collect it, pour it through a filter to remove any dirt and then we put it in a pan and boil it. Just like the verse says about through the fire, we boil and boil and boil and boil. There is steam rolling, but when we are done we have abundance of maple syrup or at least something delicious! So we have taken the sap and heated it to "refine"  or purify it and converted it into maple syrup.

We need to remember that God will test us through problems or difficulties in life and by doing that he is "refining" us. He is taking out more and more bad things and making us more pure, more like him. So the next time you have syrup remember that God will work on us too, to
make us sweeter!
We closed in prayer and then I gave each child a piece of bread and let them dip it into the small jar of maple syrup and taste it.

Last Pinewood Derby

Today was an exciting day and a sad day, as Garrett participated in his last Pinewood Derby as a Cub Scout. It's hard to believe that he started with Cub Scouts 5 years ago and what all he has learned. We compared the cars from the past years and you can see the difficulty increase as this year he made a Indy car. He diligently sanded and cut, painted and prepared his car. His face beamed before we left for the race. Now he was competing against about 35 other cars this year and he didn't make the top 10 cars, but he knows that he did the work on the car. But even though he wasn't a trophy winner, he still learned al ot and had a lot of fun making his car this year.

Klondike weekend and Robert's Birthday

Last weekend was jammed pack! Robert turned 16 on Thursday! Wow how did that happen? I can't believe what a young man he is turning into. Then he got ready to leave for the State 4-H Leadership Weekend and Garrett and Gary prepared for the Klondike Scouting event.

We did then celebrate Robert's birthday with family when he got home on Sunday evening with cake and Ice cream. We also celebrated Andrew's bday from the beginning of the month that we hadn't celebrated

yet - So I guess it was birthday weekend!

Farm Show 2017

We once again traveled to the PA Farm Show in January. Robert showed a market goat again and Garrett entered his Small Engine project. Wyatt rode along in his wagon to take in the events. He found out that he really likes milkshakes and reaching into the pen with the goats.
Garrett placed 2nd with his tool display.

 Robert placed 8th and received a Master Showman Award.

We also got to take in Hershey Chocolate World and catch up with friends. It was a busy weekend but a lot of fun with family and friends.

Garrett's first Christmas Choir Concert

Garrett's first Choir concert. Band concert was first but wasn't able to get video of it. What a great job by these young musicians!

Christmas 2016

Christmas was a very busy time this year, but we got to get together with family and remember Christ's birth.

Operation Christmas Child

Robert Gary & I had the opportunity to serve with Operation Christmas Child with Andrea, Greg and McKenna at the Baltimore Distribution Center. WHat a great time of filling and checking shoeboxes, but knowing that God had specific children that they were to end up with.

Cub Scouts

This fall the Arrow of Light Cub Scouts worked on their Build It adventure and finished building a bridge for the Heavenly Gaites Farm. They also had a flag retirement ceremony and are preparing to crossover to Boy Scouts in March

!