Sabbath Thoughts

I love Sundays. I've said it before and you'll hear me say it a hundred more times probably. We concluded our six week unified theme at church today with a sermon entitled, "Take Christ to the Nations." As a result, I've been thinking a lot today about those people who have no access to the gospel whatsoever. The metronome Pastor Jay had on the stage keeps echoing in my mind too. I need sermons like this to keep me missions focused. I was just telling Ciaran on the phone this afternoon that my passion for missions has been clouded out by teaching and school and lots of other frivolous, "cushy," typical American concerns. It was awesome to have God use Pastor Jay to remind me of my responsibility to pray and support our missionaries who are working to reach the least-reached peoples of the world with the gospel. A couple also spoke in church today who are just about ready to leave to minister in Southeast Asia. A daughter of theirs (whom I absolutely adore!) is in the preschool classroom I serve in and as I played with her today, I found myself praying for her, her family and the people they are going to serve in Southeast Asia, more fervently than I've prayed in a long time...partly because I'm going to miss this dear little girl so much (I know I'm going to bawl my eyes out when I have to say good-bye to her), but also because I understand how truly amazing it is that God is equipping this dear family to leave the area, their family, their friends, all to serve our awesome Savior and bring glory to His name! Our God is so awesome, I love the way He works!

So as I was sabbathing this afternoon, those are some of the thoughts and prayers that I was working through with the Lord. I also got to enjoy some quality time with my brother and my mom before heading back to church this evening. It was a thoroughly refreshing afternoon.

Then tonight...wow....so much fun!!! I was helping out with childcare for our Celebration Service tonight and there were 25 kids between the ages of really little babies to Pre-K and there was me, one other older lady and two eighth graders to care for them (don't worry, we had reinforcements come in later once the word got out about how many kids we had!). It was a bit overwhelming at first, but a ton of my preschoolers were there with their siblings so it helped a bit because I knew them. Mrs. Loomis stayed and helped too once she saw how many kids there were. What an awesome way to conclude my Sabbath, having a blast with a ton of kids, being all crazy and silly and enjoying the day that the Lord has blessed us with. Ahhh, reflecting on my day here for my blog has been so much fun. I should do this more often. I'm going to fall asleep tonight with lips overflowing in thanksgiving to God for the life He has blessed me with...I truly could not ask for more. I hope each and every one of you is having a truly blessed Sabbath as well. Night!