Light Up the Night Fest

Everyone had a great time at Light Up the Night Fest, October 31, 2012.
Games, prizes, hayrides, food, campfire...we were inside and out and all over the grounds at Grace Chapel, Benson.

Say "Jesus"!

Lining up for the costume contest to receive tickets to the concert.

Angels??? Sometimes, sometimes not!

And when we had all had too much fun already...Theresa remembered the pinata. Oh boy!

One of the Miles/Flaming twins actually broke the pumpkin and then the mad scramble to get a fair share.
It was a fun night for all. Laurel was the lead/go to/boss person and did an exceptional job...
Pastor Lupe stayed in the periphery and differed all questions to Laurel...

To view all the pictures in a slide show, see the home page of this blog, it is feeding on the top right side. Otherwise, here is the link to the Picasa album...
http://tinyurl.com/a8qaop6

Oh Hummingbird

"It is common for animals (even those like hummingbirds that have high energy needs) to forage for food until satiated, and then spend most of their time doing nothing, or at least nothing in particular. They seek to "satisfice" their needs rather than obtaining an optimal diet or habitat." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laziness

Humans, on the other hand...
Well, actually, humans aren't a lot more ambitious to work any harder than they have to than are most other things in nature...

http://christianwarriors.multiply.com/photos/album/9/pic#photo=25

"Extremely efficient predators have more free time and thus often appear more lazy than relatively inept predators that have little free time."

Most humans would rather lounge around in a hammock or take a "cat" nap...




Unless of course, it is something they are completely passionate about and/or find great pleasure in...

But even then...

...after exhausting all of the energy he is able, and all of the resources available to him...

"11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. "

Is it a call to give up and do nothing?

Is it a call to set our sights on truth?

What is it that is the ultimate fulfillment?

"12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep."

9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

"Every revelation of God that is made to us—is a revelation of beauty. Everywhere in nature, in the flower that blooms, in the bird that sings, in the dewdrop that sparkles, in the star that shines, in the sunset that burns with splendor—we see reflections of God's beauty." J. R. Miller

He has made everything beautiful in its time! Ecclesiastes 3:11

"Maturity is learning to endure the pain of deferred gratification, when reality requires it; thus, the Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud proposes that “an ego thus educated has become ‘reasonable’; it no longer lets itself be governed by the pleasure principle, but obeys the reality principle, which also, at bottom, seeks to obtain pleasure, but pleasure which is assured through taking account of reality, even though it is pleasure postponed and diminished”.^[3]

It's no use to fight it...

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

Among the famous sayings of the Church fathers none is better known than Augustine's, "Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee."

"But the beauty of the Lord in a human life, is not merely a heavenly yearning. It is intensely practical. It is more than religious sentimentality, more than devout feeling, more than holy aspiration. True spiritual longing draws the whole life upward with it. Joan of Arc said that her white standard was so victorious because she followed it herself. We must have our spiritual aspirations—but we must follow them ourselves if we would make our lives beautiful. True holiness does not make people unsuitable for living well in this world. It has its visions of Christ—but it brings them down to brighten its daily path and to become inspirations to beautiful living. It has its joyful emotions—but they become impulses to self-denial and patient work for the Master."

J. R. Miller http://gracegems.org/Miller/beauty_of_the_lord.htm

So we must continue the work of 
The Road Less Traveled

 
Summer Breeze, Seals and Croft

Freedom Fries and Stayin' Alive

What's in a name?

A lot.

Discord can happen by the slightest of offenses.

Controversy:  A dispute between sides holding opposing views; turned in an opposite direction.

It is not uncommon to have controversy.

Freedom fries was a word coined to offset the discord of opposing views over a war.

There are so many wars going on everywhere. Not just big wars and the threat of world war three, but wars in families, wars among siblings, wars on drugs, wars on poverty.

Mercy, mercy me.

Controversy. Imagine having a wine rack in the middle of a church community garden. As if that isn't enough to make people talk. And then start choosing sides?

But, because of the controversy over a war, a local liquor store decided to remove any reference to France; so Grace Chapel Community Garden was the fortunate recipient of a wire wine bottle display rack that resembles the Eiffel Tower.

We now have a cucumber plant growing at it's feet and hope it will support the growth upwards and off the ground to help keep pesky little critters from eating them before we can.

Grace Chapel has been being blessed from all directions. Sometimes it can seem that the struggle will be uphill forever. But then all of a sudden a corner is turned and the struggle becomes delight. New, good things are happening with every turn from there. Friends of members, friends of friends of members and just members of the community at large are showing up with gifts and offerings. Angels are appearing.

Recently Grace Chapel was given the gift of a park model mobile building. It was a lot of work making it ready to move and then to move it.
Pastor Lupe told the donor, "Sure, we'd love to have it. Sure we can move it within two weeks."
Then he wondered, "How are we ever going to do all that?!"

Angels.

Suddenly there was help to ready it. And from nowhere came a young man with a truck that seemed too small to do the job but got it done, indeed he did.

Angel.

One Angel striped the purple paint off the new church doors, another dressed them up with a cross, refinished them and put them up for us all to walk through.

Are we blessed or what?

Then, as if that all isn't enough, Dana of Dana's Upholstery in Benson, Master Gardener, friend of a member, member of the community at large, donated all kinds of her Heirloom, green-house, personally hand-started plantings and offered up all kinds of friendly advice for how to get the garden growing.

Sometimes it's almost more than we can keep up with. Almost more joy than we can keep to ourselves.

But we are NOT complainin', mind you!

And we know that once we empty our blessings back out to our friends and the community that we love, we will have an empty cup that can be filled up again.

And that's just exactly how we like it.

We don't prefer controversy. We don't like turning in opposite directions. We like having Pot Blessed gatherings and sharing our thoughts peacefully and harmoniously in our laugh-a-minute Wednesday night home meetings. We want to share what we have and care about our friends and sometimes even our enemies.

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" Matthew 5:44

So thank you all for loving us back and giving us the things that you have. We are feeling encouraged and seeing the growth that we hope will result in blessings back to you.

Now, if we can just keep all those lovely plants alive.

Calling all green-thumbed Angels!

Flower Girls and Busy Boys

So we left off with Where The Boys Are.. and wondered where they were headed..

Sometime back, Pastor Lupe was explaining about acquiring these plastic drums and had come up with an exciting way to convert them into planters that would be self-watering..

The first thing was to cut a section off of the top that would be used to suspend within the lower section.

Using an electric saw, he and the boys cut the section off, then drilled holes in it and secured it to the bottom part and then painted it gray...

Now it was time for the Girls to have some fun...

But, first he sent the younger boys off to collect rocks out of the previously tilled plot that will soon be growing green things...

And he sent the older boys off to do their studies, out under the trees..














Then he got hold of the toilet paper roofing fabric that will be used to poke down into the holes the boys drilled so it can wick water up into the soil that will be planted with flowers...



"What does it mean, wick?" asked the girls.

"Does anyone have any sharp scissors?" Pastor Lupe asked the girls.


So someone ran and got a pair and then Pastor Lupe poked the "wicking" fabric down into the holes while Mrs. Diaz explained the process of water wicking up the fabric; capillary action..capillarity, the ability of a liquid to flow in narrow spaces without the assistance of, and in opposition to external forces like gravity.

"Okay, now put the dirt in."

"Good teamwork, girls. Now smooth it out."

"Now it's time to really have fun, go get the flowers."...

 

Everybody got involved and everybody was having fun...

 

"Let's put the ones that will trail down, up front where they will spill over the edge."

Waiting for a turn to plant...

"There, that's it. We're done." 

 

"Not so fast, we have to water..."

"See, the water goes in here and will wick up the fabric and wet the soil and water the plants."

"Oh, that's why you cut the angle at the bottom of the pipe!"

"So the water could flow out at the bottom and fill the drum."

"Oh!"

"There it comes, I can see it, can you see it?"











"Well, if you can't see it, here, maybe you can feel it!"

Right about then, the boys started to filter back and the girls lost interest as girls will do when there are boys about...

So the camera lady went off with the younger boys to see what they had done and the older boys went out with her too and started to cut limbs to clear the walk and to explain what the younger boys had done..

 

 

"Wow! the picture lady said. "Wow, that looks great! You guys did all that? Wow!"

They were all pretty proud of themselves, as well they should be after all that good work.

Now, what next, we must wonder, will they have to do with this?....
Stay tuned again, it will surely happen soon...

Pastor Lupe knows, but he's not telling, except for the camera lady and she's not talkin' either!

What do you think it will eventually be?
You're invited to come and see.

Pot Blessed every third Sunday...

Mmmm, num, num!

...and then there are these things too..

There's just no end to having fun.