I remember Beth Moore saying once at a conference I attended that in order for something to be a miracle it doesn't necessarily have to be supernatural per say, it just has to happen at the exact right time...
This October has been filled with many happenings for us here at BGC.
We started the month out with homecomings and dances, and jumped right on into fall with carving pumpkins, birthday celebrations and preparing for Halloween fun.
Kroger so generously donated a small "pumpkin patch" where our kids could each pick a pumpkin and we could snap a few fall pics. We had such a good time scooping out the seeds and roasting them up, and it was neat to see the girls creative juices at work as they each made their very own Jack o' lantern masterpieces.
Our sweet Erin girl turned 13 this month. She is learning and growing and slowly but surely, though some days its harder to see it, we are making progress.
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| Birthday morning pancakes!! |
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| Inside Out Poster Gift |
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| Birthday girl!! |
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| Blowing out 13 candles! |
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| Birthday morning headed to school and showing off her gift, a Skelita doll. |
Our annual Heritage Banquet was this month too. It is a huge event that raises a very large percentage of our operating budget each year. The unofficial numbers are that we raised over 2M!
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| These plates went for $1,000.00 a piece!! |
It was held at the Hilton in downtown Houston and this year the guest speaker was Mr. Jeff Foxworthy!
The kids had all been practicing a few songs that they sang for those in attendance and they did a beautiful job of representing BGC.
Jeff spoke to the kids in a separate room before the event started and he could not have been more gracious or kind. He brought signed autograph pictures for each child and posed for a photograph with each cottage.
He spoke to the kids about endurance even in times of trouble, about never giving up on your dreams and about relying on God when you need help. I was so impressed with him and with his servant's heart.
The next night was our Thrill 'o Ween at BGC. Local churches came out and set up a little carnival for our kids in our gym.
It was such a good time to just cut loose and have some fun. The girls from Cottage 1 and our girls decided to dress up together as Super Heroes. My good friend Ms. Maria, who is the single in C1, helped us make the costumes. She is the most creative and crafty lady I know and I am so thankful to have her here to inspire me and help me use my creative energy in a positive way here with the girls.
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| Cat Woman, Skelita, The Hulk, Super Man, Kelly (too cool to dress up hahah), Spider Bug, and Robin |
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| Erin as her favorite Monster High Ghoul, Skelita |
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| Campbell with some of our fave C11 boys, Alton, Yoni and Tyler |
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| Regina from C1 really shows off Ms Maria's hard work at making these awesome costumes! |
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| Cutest Spider Bug ever!! |
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| Halloween Night Fun!! |
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| Trick or Treating!! |
The girls also made some pumpkin pies on Halloween during the day on Saturday and had such a good time making them and delivering them to some friends and neighbors!
If you have noticed that there are only 6 girls in most of these pics it is because our Senior, Billie, got to go on a hunting trip this past weekend with a few other BGC kids. She got 2 deer!
So proud of her!
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| Billie with one of her deer |
It s been a crazy full month filled with lots of activity, but this month has also been full of moments where the Holy Spirit seemed to blow through the doors of our little cottage with such force that it almost knocked us over. I almost had to pinch myself last night to make sure it was't a dream because the truth is that our time with Mr. Foxworthy was just one of the occurrences this month where God seemed to be speaking not only to the kids in our cottage, but to my own heart as well.
The very first Sunday that I spent with this cottage back in August, Erin, one of our most precious but also most challenging girls, asked me about getting baptized. I told her at that time that we would continue to talk about what it means to become a Christian and to be baptized. In the weeks and months that have followed she has asked numerous times of me and Cliff and our singles great questions about what it means to ask Jesus into your heart. Erin is a very special young lady who although she just turned 13, has the heart of a very young child in so many ways. She is an interesting mix of teenage hormones, and child like emotions, but the Holy Spirit has been at work in her life none the less. One Sunday a couple of weeks ago she leaned over to me and said, "Its time. I need to go forward and ask Jesus into my heart." I stood there beside her as she prayed with the lady at the front and I just wept for the gift that she was receiving into her heart and life. But little did I know how much the Lord would use this precious child and her decision to impact us all in the coming days!
That afternoon Erin shared with the girls that she had asked Jesus into her heart, and I just made a blanket statement that if any of the other girls in the cottage wanted to talk to me more about the decision she had made or what it meant, that they could come talk to me sometime later. In the next 48 hours four of the girls in our cottage sought me out at different times to talk to me about making similar decisions in their own heart. It wasn't this mass peer pressure kind of thing either, because while it was happening none of the others knew that any of their other cottage mates had talked to me.
Brandie prayed the sinner's prayer with me that very same Sunday that Erin did, and after talking about and praying over it for a few weeks, Rhonda prayed that same prayer with me this past Sunday night. The other two girls, Kelly and Brianna, know that they have asked Jesus into their hearts and they are praying about following through with believer's baptism.
Truly its been a, "and a little child shall lead them" kind of month.
But in the process I have been so convicted of not being worthy. This past Sunday the sermon that Pastor Curtis preached was so good and I sat there so thankful that God had assigned us such a great church to attend.(If you remember from previous posts BGC has assigned each cottage a church to attend that supports us throughout the year in various things.) I was so convicted by the sermon of how I needed to really focus on being a Godly example of womanhood to the girls God has put in my care. As I sat there I remembered something Beth Moore had said in a conference I attended several years ago. She said that we ought to pray and speak scripture constantly over our children. I began immediately to pray that the Lord would help me to be as Godly and virtuous as Beth, to be the kind of mother that is so invested in Jesus and His Holy Word that it spills forth from my mouth on a regular basis because it is in my heart. I felt renewed by sermon's end, but also, unworthy.
Rhonda leaned over to me and said she was going forward for prayer (this was before she would pray to receive Jesus later that night and the Holy Spirit was working on her).
I stood there just in awe of what God was doing in our cottage despite us and I prayed for Rhonda who was speaking to someone behind me that I could not see, I prayed for all the girls and for my own influence over them, but also for my own relationship with Jesus to be renewed.
When the final note of the invitation had been sung and we turned to leave, at the back of the church standing by the door and smiling directly at me, was Beth Moore!! I was in shock! Was it really her?!? It couldn't be! I know I probably stared too long but as I walked by she patted me on the back, and y'all I swear I could feel the Holy Spirit in her touch.
I got to the car and I was in tears. I mean I know its dumb. She is just a woman, but she is a woman who's Bible studies over the years have helped shape me into the woman I am today. I couldn't believe it! I was just praying that God would help me be a Godly woman like her, and all the while she was right behind me!! I really couldn't believe it. I asked the girls if they saw her and they didn't know who she was. (Going to remedy that soon!!) So I showed them a picture and said, Ok, am I crazy or was this woman standing at the back of the church. Rhonda immediately piped up and said, Oh yes, that's the woman who prayed with me, she said her name was Beth!!
I just wept and the girls thought I was crazy I know, but a few Google searches later and I discovered that Pastor Curtis, who I have grown to love over the past few months, is Beth Moore's son in law and she now attends that church whenever she is in town!
Remember what I said at the beginning of this post about miracles? This was a miracle of sorts to me. A message from God that He knows my exact needs even before I know I need them, and He is working out the details of showing me how much He loves me even before I put all the pieces together.
After the initial shock wore off, I began to feel the Holy Spirit's pressing once again. She is just a woman. A woman who can stand at the back of a crowded church and many there won't recognize her. But she has allowed herself to be used by God in a mighty and powerful way!! I know he has used her my life, and it is my prayer that He can use me in the same way in the life of this cottage of girls who I am now convinced have been made for great and mighty things to come!!
Prayer Requests:
Pray for Rhonda, Erin and Brandie as they will be baptized on Nov 15th.
Pray for the various families that they represent who could possibly also be impacted by their decision.
Pray for Brianna and Kelly as they decide still if this is the right time for them to follow through in believer's baptism.
Pray for Billie and Selam, I have not yet had the opportunity to speak to them one on one about their own personal relationship with the Lord, and while I believe that both feel that they have made this decision at some point I am praying for a chance to talk to them about what it means to them now.
Pray for Cliff and me as we try our best to minister to these girls in this whirlwind that the Holy Spirit has filled our cottage with. Pray that we will also be renewed in our own relationships with Him in the process and that that would spill out onto the girls and Bug on a regular basis.
Pray for me as I decide on a Bible Study to begin as a cottage.
Pray for various things that are going on in the families of the girls, everything from illnesses to new prison sentences have effected the lives of our girls families recently and it can be so hard for them to bear all the weight on their young shoulders.
I will close this post with pics and a short video of Bug on Sunday night. Brianna got invited to a birthday party at a skating rink and I took Bug and Rhonda with me. I could not be more proud of my little skater! He did so well and had a great time! Makes this mommy's heart proud to see her son got some of her skating-love genes.
If you know me, and my childhood filled with Sunday nights skating at the church gym, this seemed like such a fitting end to our weekend. Again it shows me God is in the details. While He is working in powerful ways in the lives of our girls, He's also working in Bug's life, giving him wonderful opportunities to learn and grow.
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