A Review of Shalom

Well, our last meeting was good. Rachel was with me and the girls got to listen to the CD's from Mandy. They thought it was so neat to be able to sing the songs as if a guitar were there and everything! Again it was request after request for songs!! LOL

We had sort of a fun night on Wednesday as well. I read the girls a couple of Mandy's blog posts so they could hear what her life was like in Singapore. We also sang a long time, had a short review of last week's lesson and then played Apples to Apples. We hadn't just played a game in a long time so that was kind of fun. It was a good night because we had 8 girls there. A great number!! Everyone was very well behaved too. :)

Next week we are going to be getting into some very serious subject matter: Life and Death. How should we view them as Christians? I am hoping it goes well. The Lord is still doing awesome things in Lake Andes.

Praise to the King!

Heidi

Shalom

Tonight we had a very interesting lesson about Shalom. I learned from this lesson as much as the girls did I think. Shalom not only means "Peace" (that is what I always thought of it as) and the absence of conflict, but it means harmony, completeness. It means all is well in our relationships with individuals, communities and God. When we sin we break Shalom because sin destroys relationships (with God and people.)

We also learned about justice -the world's view of justice and God's view of justice. God's idea of justice is ultimately Shalom restored. We shouldn't take revenge when we are wronged, and when we wrong someone we must take responsibility for our actions, show remorse, seek forgiveness and reconcile the relationship that was hurt because of the sin.

At first tonight, I wondered if any of the information was soaking into these girls' heads at all. There was a lot of goofing around, chattering and giggling during the lesson. Even some behavior that I did not think was so acceptable. At the end of the lesson I told the girls I would not be rewarding any points because of how they acted. Well, the girls who misbehaved came up to me after the lesson and very humbly apologized to me. I could tell they truly meant it. I was very proud of them for doing that. (They WERE listening after all!!! ) Some of the other girls followed suit and apologized as well. Wow. Shalom restored.

I continue to be amazed at the growth I see in the girls. (Even though some days are better than others LOL.) And I really want to thank Ruth and Julia for coming and helping me out! Of course everyone loved having Julia around...what a sweetie!! :P

Until next time...
Heidi

While We Were Yet Sinners

Tonight we had 5 girls attend youth group. Laurel, Aurora, Clarice, Shenah, and Amanda all came and weathered the bitter cold to learn about the Lord. I am so thankful for the faithfulness of our "regulars". They are such a joy! I am happy that our newcomer, Laurel, was able to come tonight, too. I think she enjoyed herself. She was waiting outside for us when we came to pick her up.

This week our lesson was all about our savior Jesus. We've learned about the human condition and how we are all sinful inherently, and now we see why we needed Jesus to die for us.

I really enjoyed the videos tonight. The first video we watched was a montage of images of Jesus paying the price for us on the cross. After the video, each girl was to draw or write down what came to mind after seeing the images. We then talked again about the fall of man, reading from Genesis. The last video was called "Friend". It was a very deep video portraying a prisoner on death row who is about to be executed. You then see a prison guard taking the prisoner to the execution. The prison guard swaps places with the prisoner--the prisoner is saved and the guard is executed. The whole point of the video was based on Romans 5:6-8. What kind of friend would be willing to take your place in death? One already has - Christ.

We really discussed the lesson in depth tonight which I thought was great. Normally our sessions are over at 8pm or a little after, but when we finally finished the lesson it was 8:45!

Singing was not the same without Mandy on guitar. Rachel was also there tonight (but she forgot her guitar). She added nice harmony which was great. Hot chocolate and oreos (the usual) were also enjoyed by all.

Next time we have group I want to engage the girls in some clean up activity for our room. It severly needs to be de-cluttered and cleaned. But I love the coziness of the place...I wonder if there is anywhere I can move that pool table to. Hmmm...

Well, blessings to all! It was nice to see the girls again. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve them.

"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:7-8