This is the Day...

This is the day the LORD has made! Yes, and this is the day my DH returns from the Dominican Republic and my DS returns from Mexico. Both served people living in poverty.

Mike, part of a team of 38, accompanied 10 at-risk teens on their journey to serve people in poverty greater than their own. It was an adventure which took planning, patience, and perseverance as these teens prepared with passports and packing. Several had not been out of the city, others had never stepped foot on a plane. They return this afternoon. Can't wait to see them!

My DS, a student leader with his youth group, has been gone for 2 weeks. His adventure began as a 24-hour trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he attended training to build water purifiers. From Aqua Clara, he boarded a plane, headed back to Orlando, into a Centra Care for an ear infection and joined the Mexico team, already on the first day of their journey (what a quick 36 hours that was!) Team Mexico departed Orlando headed to Chihuahua to build water purifiers for the poverty-stricken people of the Brickyard. I have followed their blog, but can't wait to hear the stories face-to-face!

So, my children are more than excited, kind of like soda pop which has been shaken, ready to explode. We'll tidy the house, make it smell sweet (remember, it is the girls here at home...and DS #2 who has been an amazing help with yard work and upkeep), and prepare for excitement beyond the midnight hour (DS's plane lands at 11:00). The girls already told me they are not going to bed until everyone is back home.

This is the day the LORD has made! We wait eagerly for it to unfold. What does GOD have planned for this day He prepared for YOU?

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Every wonder if a Saint Patrick ever existed? Or, if he did, what made him so famous? We asked the same questions and today we found our answers while reading Saint Patrick by Ann Tompert. Saint Patrick was one of the most famous and beloved saints, born during the fourth century in southwest Britian. His mission was to take Christianity to the Irish people. One of his greatest tools of evangelism was the three-leafed clover, the shammrock, with which he explained the Trinity. Now the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick is the reason we celebrate Saint Patrick's Day.

Author Ann Tompert uses information from Saint Patrick's letter "Confession" to answer the many questions children (and their parents) have about the saint. The picture book was selected by Booklist as one of the top ten religious books for children in 1998. Ms. Tompert has written a bookshelf full of children's books including two other titles we have enjoyed.

Saint Nicholas by Ann Tompert

Saint Valentine by Ann Tompert

Today as we read Saint Patrick and Saint Nicholas, we compared the saints, their missions, the locations of their homelands and their journeys. We used a globe to track the saint's travels. We discussed the similarities and differences between the saints and subtracted their birthdates to find out how far apart they were born. If we had clover in our yard, we would have wandered outside to pick some. We settled for cutting out a few we had traced on green construction paper. The shammrock shape is symmetrical, in case you wondered. I also went online to find out more about the author's personal story, as many times the life of the author brings depth to his/her writing. By the end of our reading, we had been emersed in the stories of two saints that impacted world history and answered questions about why we celebrate a current event, Saint Patrick's Day.

http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/birthbios/brthpage/01jan/1-11tompert.html

http://www.boydsmillspress.com/contributors/contributors/tompert_ann.html

Biographies: Stories about People

"Today Benjamin West is remembered because he was the father of American painting; and many like to think of him as the only American ever to become President of the Royal Academy of England. But I like to remember him as a boy who wanted so very much to paint that he dug his colors out of the earth and made his brushes from his cat's tail."

Marguerite Henry

Biography is my favorite genre. Several of my children would tell you biography is their favorite genre, too. What is it about people stories, stories that allow us to peek into the pages of one's life?

We are relational beings, created to be in relationship with others. So, when we pick up a book that invites us into the lives of others, we read as fast as we can, trying to learn more about the person. Such has been the case with one of our recent reading adventures, Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin by Marguerite Henry.

My children and I traveled back to eighteenth-century Pennsylvania to grow up alongside Benjamin West, who eventually became the Father of American Painting. We faced his challenges as a Quaker boy passionate about painting, a forbidden venue in his time and community. Benjamin, determined to use his artistic talent, enlists the help of Grimalkin, his coal-black companion. The author's writing style invited us into the plot with her descriptive language and well-structured story line. In fact, by the end of the story, we knew Benjamin West, feeling his frustrations, his joys and his triumphs.

Not only did we come to know Benjamin, but we also came face to face with the Quaker faith and the people who followed these beliefs. Our reading led to profitable conversations and additional research. Having grown up in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, I was familiar with Quakers and what they believed, but this was my children's' first introduction. It was an accurate, historical introduction, one which allowed us to "live" history in eighteenth-century southeast Pennsylvania.

I highly recommend this book, written by an award-winning author who is known for her fictional animal stories as well as her juvenile non-fiction. We read Benjamin West aloud to three of our four youngest, a pre-kindergartner, a second grader and a fifth grader, all whom begged for me to turn the pages and read on. The book could be read independently by children ages 8-12.

For more information about Benjamin West:

Read The Boy Who Loved to Draw by Barbara Brenner

What Shall We Give Our Children?

Mike, I and the boys have been reading and discussing Leap Over a Wall by Eugene H. Peterson. The book chronicles and ponders the various aspects of David’s life. Interestingly there is a chapter entitled Imagination: David and Goliath. This chapter is all about the power of stories. Of course, this chapter grabbed my attention, because I know stories influence and change people’s lives, not to mention the generations that follow. And so it is with the story of David and Goliath.

Many of us, whether churched or unchurched, know the details of this empowering story. David, a small shepherd boy, collects five smooth stones, tucks them in his pouch and sets out to face the giant Philistine. An enormous feat which takes God-sized courage. David looks in the face of the giant, the adversary, and with a slingshot, claims the victory.

As we grow, this story grows with us. We realize as years and accompanying experiences move us through life how powerful this story really is. It is not just this story which impacts our lives, but all stories, the good and the not-so-good. “Stories don’t stay put; they grow and deepen.”1

One of the greatest gifts I give my children is a heart and mind full of stories, stories which were read, told or listened to. Stories from the Bible, stories from yesteryear, stories from my childhood, stories of the present and stories of the future; all will allow my children to discover, to explore, to ponder, to work out the relationship of good and evil, love and hate. The stories I give to them shape their being and help form in them a “God-dominated imagination”.2

I cannot underestimate the power of stories in the lives of my children. They, like me, will reference the stories when they need courage and hope, faith and encouragement. I must decide which stories I will present to them to open, to read or to listen to.

All quotations from the reference below.
Reference: Leap Over a Wall, Eugene H. Peterson, 1997