The Book Game

We went by a used goods store and found a trivia game on the Bible.  And it has beginner, intermediate, advanced and children's questions on the cards.  So we played with the kids.  We divided up the adults and kids and every other turn the kids answered the children's questions then the adults answered the advanced questions.  Great fun, and we all learned some things.  I thought I knew all about the book of Revelation, but I did not know that the angel who had the "Seal of the Living God" was from the EAST!  And Darlene did not know how old Ishmael was when he died.  We were on opposite teams, so I didn't have to admit that I didn't know it was 137 years either.  

It took me down memory lane.  I remember as a child that my grandmother had a deck of cards published by someone in Texas that had a Bible person's name at the top with 7 questions about that person.  There were maybe 300 cards.  My grandmother and I played many times and learned all the facts on those cards.  I could have klepped out of some courses when I went to ACU if they were doing that in the long ago.  But then I would have missed having Ferguson for Old Testament and Malherbe for New Testament and Tony for Life of Christ.  That would have been a great loss.  

It's no loss to do something similar with our grandkids.  

Picking up the Kids

One of our USA jobs is taking the grandkids to school in the morning.  That's after making a raspberry smoothie, toasting an English muffin and scrambling an egg, then sitting down to talk to them for a few minutes.  And there are three schools to drop them at, with careful timing.  So…yesterday one of the kids said, "Are you picking us up today instead of us riding the bus?" And I said, "Do you have a reason for picking you up?"  And the kid answered, "That way we get to see you quicker…"

Now that, I said, is a politic answer.  How can I say no?  It is great when our kids learn how to say just the right thing, in just the right way.  Of course, my heart is pretty soft where they are concerned.  Of course they got a pick-up in the afternoon.  They don't even have to pose the question that nicely.

2013

A few days ago our family had a sharing time before a meal, as we often do.  Our question was, "Did you accomplish what you wanted to in 2013?"  "No," was one answer, but I thought back over all that had happened in our family and at Made in the Streets last year.  And I could not think of anything we worked at that was not done, so my answer was, "yes."

A great unity and purpose was fulfilled in family life with a focus on the Spirit of Christ.  Good bonding has taken place, which was my goal.  We had a great experience with four grandkids, taking them on a Trans-Western Tour for two weeks.  We drove through Amarillo, visiting the Indian Museum.  We drove part of old Route 66 in Tucumcari and went in a curio shop shaped like a tepee.  We saw the painted desert and the petrified forest and the Grand Canyon.  We went to Sequoia National Forest and had a great experience with a little butterfly as well as seeing the biggest living thing.  We played on the beach at Malibu, visited friends and walked around Santa Barbara.  How great  it is to be the Grandad.

And at Made in the Streets we made great strides -- we graduated several who had come from the streets and they found jobs.  We built the last of the buildings we need to do the ministry at Kamulu. We gained ownership of blocks of land for future expansion and/or capitalization for the ministry.  We took in at Kamulu more than 20 from the streets.  We added stellar people to our ministry Team.  We had visitors from the USA who blessed us richly.  We learned a lot about solving problems and doing mediations and teaching stimulating lessons.  We worked our way through the Bible using "The Story" as our source.

I'm satisfied.

I have some new plans for 2014.  Tell you later.

Charles