Whew! What a day! God is so good and already working in our hearts.
We left our church about 9:30 a.m and headed up the mountain. Girls traveled on Bekka's bus and the boys rode with Richard on our new bus, which is awesome. :) The kids were excited and ready to go.
As we headed to Newport, TN a HUGE storm came up really fast with a downpour of rain. It rained so fast that the roads were starting to have standing water. We retreated to Wendy's for lunch and relaxed, while we waited on the storm to pass. When it did, we loaded up for the second part of the trip. When we got into Pigeon Forge, we stopped to grab our groceries for the week. Shopping with 17 kids seemed like a disaster waiting to happen, however, it wasn't! The kids stuck together, got what they wanted while us old folks bought the groceries we needed. They all beat us to the front door at the meeting spot we agreed on. They jumped in and helped us unload everything onto the buses. Then we finished the climb to the mountain. What seemed like a simple climb, was anything but. We got to the address and were unsure of which road to take to get to our cabin. We ended up climbing up a VERY NARROW road, which led to cabins that were not ours. Trying to turn to large buses in a tiny hole proved to be stressful, however, Richard and I remained calm and were able to turn around and creeeeeeepppppp back down the mountain to make the correct turn! The kids were stressed, excited and a bundle of nerves. I reminded them that we were okay, we were safe and where it could have been a serious issue, God had his hands on us and was able to squeeze our bus through that narrow way and get us turned around to the right destination.
We unloaded the buses and didn't waste any time in getting settled into our rooms and supper going. Before we ate, we held our own vigil at 7 pm. for Mrs. Shaunda Camp, who we all love so much. We wanted to be a part of our church's vigil that was being held back home and we knew that praying along with them would draw us all close together. After filling up on pizza and lemonade, they grabbed their bibles, notebooks and pens for worship..
Tonight we jumped in to Psalm 23 and learned how the Lord is our shepherd and he is with us, ALWAYS. We talked about how we want to rest in him (lie in pastures), and let him lead us to still waters so that we can hear what he is trying to tell our hearts this week. We discussed how we are to go down paths of righteousness and to do his work, for his Glory. Then we moved to walking through the valley of the shadow of death (temptation) that God is there with us, fighting off the evil that is trying to consume us and take us in and lead us down paths that aren't righteous. We talked about how shepherds tend their flocks and when one sheep, just one goes astray, that the shepherd will go search for that sheep and lead them back to the flock. Jesus does the same thing for us!! He goes chasing after us, fighting off the world and all that tries to take us down and pulls us back to him, restores and makes us new. We finished up learning how sheep will have bugs will lay eggs in a sheep's nose, that hatch to be worms that will overtake their nose, eyes, ears and ultimately their brain. These worms are very painful for sheep and they will literally beat their head against a tree to relieve the pain and can ultimately die trying to do so. To prevent this, a shepherd will place an oil upon the sheep's head that prevents those worms from invading their nostrils, eyes and ears, which helps them have peace. Same concept for us in that we are tormented often by our thoughts, our worry, our anxiety and Satan will attack us through our thoughts. He will make us think less of ourselves and others. He will make us think we need to see and hear things we shouldn't that aren't Godly. Therefore, if we pray and ask him to anoint us, he pours his love over us, anoints our heads with his oil and it bring us peace, comfort and rest. We don't have to beat our heads trying to shake those bad thoughts, he can do it for us!
We closed with talking about God's goodness and mercy and how he sent Jesus to die upon the cross to save all of the lost sheep, US and that if we accept his gift, we can dwell in his house FOREVER!! How cool is that?!?! WE CAN REIGN WITH HIM, FOREVER!! Gets me excited just thinking about it.
Folks, worship was awesome tonight. I watched seventeen kids wrap their arms around each other and sing, What a Beautiful Name together in the sweetest of voices.
Tomorrow is going to be amazing. Keep praying us through, we can feel it and we are so excited to learn more!
We love you all. God is good. He is our shepherd and the view he has given us this week is one we will never forget.
-Bekka
We left our church about 9:30 a.m and headed up the mountain. Girls traveled on Bekka's bus and the boys rode with Richard on our new bus, which is awesome. :) The kids were excited and ready to go.
As we headed to Newport, TN a HUGE storm came up really fast with a downpour of rain. It rained so fast that the roads were starting to have standing water. We retreated to Wendy's for lunch and relaxed, while we waited on the storm to pass. When it did, we loaded up for the second part of the trip. When we got into Pigeon Forge, we stopped to grab our groceries for the week. Shopping with 17 kids seemed like a disaster waiting to happen, however, it wasn't! The kids stuck together, got what they wanted while us old folks bought the groceries we needed. They all beat us to the front door at the meeting spot we agreed on. They jumped in and helped us unload everything onto the buses. Then we finished the climb to the mountain. What seemed like a simple climb, was anything but. We got to the address and were unsure of which road to take to get to our cabin. We ended up climbing up a VERY NARROW road, which led to cabins that were not ours. Trying to turn to large buses in a tiny hole proved to be stressful, however, Richard and I remained calm and were able to turn around and creeeeeeepppppp back down the mountain to make the correct turn! The kids were stressed, excited and a bundle of nerves. I reminded them that we were okay, we were safe and where it could have been a serious issue, God had his hands on us and was able to squeeze our bus through that narrow way and get us turned around to the right destination.
We unloaded the buses and didn't waste any time in getting settled into our rooms and supper going. Before we ate, we held our own vigil at 7 pm. for Mrs. Shaunda Camp, who we all love so much. We wanted to be a part of our church's vigil that was being held back home and we knew that praying along with them would draw us all close together. After filling up on pizza and lemonade, they grabbed their bibles, notebooks and pens for worship..
Tonight we jumped in to Psalm 23 and learned how the Lord is our shepherd and he is with us, ALWAYS. We talked about how we want to rest in him (lie in pastures), and let him lead us to still waters so that we can hear what he is trying to tell our hearts this week. We discussed how we are to go down paths of righteousness and to do his work, for his Glory. Then we moved to walking through the valley of the shadow of death (temptation) that God is there with us, fighting off the evil that is trying to consume us and take us in and lead us down paths that aren't righteous. We talked about how shepherds tend their flocks and when one sheep, just one goes astray, that the shepherd will go search for that sheep and lead them back to the flock. Jesus does the same thing for us!! He goes chasing after us, fighting off the world and all that tries to take us down and pulls us back to him, restores and makes us new. We finished up learning how sheep will have bugs will lay eggs in a sheep's nose, that hatch to be worms that will overtake their nose, eyes, ears and ultimately their brain. These worms are very painful for sheep and they will literally beat their head against a tree to relieve the pain and can ultimately die trying to do so. To prevent this, a shepherd will place an oil upon the sheep's head that prevents those worms from invading their nostrils, eyes and ears, which helps them have peace. Same concept for us in that we are tormented often by our thoughts, our worry, our anxiety and Satan will attack us through our thoughts. He will make us think less of ourselves and others. He will make us think we need to see and hear things we shouldn't that aren't Godly. Therefore, if we pray and ask him to anoint us, he pours his love over us, anoints our heads with his oil and it bring us peace, comfort and rest. We don't have to beat our heads trying to shake those bad thoughts, he can do it for us!
We closed with talking about God's goodness and mercy and how he sent Jesus to die upon the cross to save all of the lost sheep, US and that if we accept his gift, we can dwell in his house FOREVER!! How cool is that?!?! WE CAN REIGN WITH HIM, FOREVER!! Gets me excited just thinking about it.
Folks, worship was awesome tonight. I watched seventeen kids wrap their arms around each other and sing, What a Beautiful Name together in the sweetest of voices.
Tomorrow is going to be amazing. Keep praying us through, we can feel it and we are so excited to learn more!
We love you all. God is good. He is our shepherd and the view he has given us this week is one we will never forget.
-Bekka
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