The Generous Garden Project Field Trip

A few weeks ago our calendar held our last scheduled field trip of the school year.  I was excited for this opportunity for our kids to learn as well as serve at "The Generous Garden Project" but I wasn't completely sure what to expect.

We arrived at our scheduled time in a side parking lot of a small natural products store.  I was shocked as we saw what was tucked behind this spot we pass on a very regular basis.  Just blocks from our house this array of gardens, greenhouses, compost sites, chicken coops, beehives and  so much more is an amazing project that is working to fight hunger right here in our community.

GROW~GIVE~TEACH

As we began our time at the garden, Mr. Anthony (in orange) explained to us the plan.  70/30, that's the plan.  They give away 70% of produce grown to agencies in Greenville to feed the hungry.  The other 30% is sold to meet the cost it takes to keep the gardens growing. 

After a brief overview of the project we went to work.

Our younger kiddos went to the gardens to start weeding.

The older kids really dug in to separate and replant many many plants that were grown from seed and had become over crowded in their current containers. 

After sweating it out in the garden for a while it was time to tour and be educated.

We started in a regular greenhouse.

Perhaps my favorite was this aquaponic greenhouse.  Fish actually live under these plants that just hang in the water.  Once it is fully up and running this system pretty much takes care of itself while growing amazing organic produce. (Haleigh is getting a close  up look at the fish.)

The composting is really fascinating to me! There are several stages to the composting, but once it is in the final stage in the worm bins it is some of the finest fertilizer available, and the worms do most of the work!

 

One of the best parts of this "Generous Garden Project" is their desire to teach.  We learned about all these different ways to garden organically, sustainably, and easily.  We learned about aquaponics, greenhouses, worm compost, bees and even visited the chicken coop.  

It was a great day that inspired us to get our herbs planted and potentially a small vegetable garden. We are hoping to return to the Generous Garden to help harvest either as a group or just our family.  Its a great way to get our hands on and help those in our own community as we learn how to make healthy choices in gardening and serving.

What do you get...?

 when you have a three day weekend 

plus all these kids

 plus and obstacle coarse

 plus a waterfall hike

 

plus a lake with 

a rope swing

 a 100 foot water slide

 kayaks

 and canoes

 plus a movie night 

 plus Sunday morning worship focused on creating family mission statements

 plus family hikes

 plus more hiking

 plus lots of games

 plus a LOT of food

 plus a bonfire to wrap it all up?

A surprisingly great weekend, filled with sweet friends, lots of laughter, encouragement, memories and a plan to do it all again next year!!!

(Thanks Ben and Tracy for organizing such an amazing time!!  You all are the best!!)

Day 180 (but please dont' tell my girls :)

Two weeks ago I counted the official school days for the year to see if we were really as close as I thought we were.  We were actually a bit closer than I had earlier figured.  If we were to attend "Second Saturday" at Roper Mountain the following Saturday we could officially have day 180 in the book and be officially done!  But please don't tell my girls!  We have lightened up a lot.  There are just a few more math lessons for Haleigh to squeak out to complete her book.  Sophie is always willing to plug away a bit longer and I really couldn't let her stop while Haleigh is still going at it.  Then there is Mackenzie who will follow suit, if the girls are working in open math books you might as well just open her's too, even if she thinks it is just for fun.  It has been nice having a lighter load, a much more gentle schedule inside the house as the one outside the house seems to speed out of control with all the end of the year events.  

 

Our first end of the year event was probably one of the most special for me.  It was our Closing Ceremony for our co-op.  This was Mackenzie's first year to be part foundations and Sophie's last year.  My heart could almost burst at that reality!  But it is all good, actually it is all great! 

Sophie successfully attained "Memory Master" of all three cycles so she is stepping off the "Classical Conversations path" next year to explore her passion for drama and the arts before jumping into the Challenge program.  (She is already counting down the days for this new adventure to start.  I on the other hand am happy to soak up each and every summer day!)

 Haleigh also stepped up to the memory work challenge.  She attained Scripture Memory Master!! Exodus 20: 1-17!!!  We are so proud of her.  She did such a great job!!

Mackenzie loved every second of co-op this year.  Her tutor was her hero (and still is.)  Mackenzie  still sings random history songs throughout the day no matter where we are.  Her favorite is the Presidents song, even though she may skip a few here and there, within a week she has usually covered them all once.

I had the sweetest class of kids this year and I really do miss them already.  They taught me so much and made the year unforgettable. 

I am so thankful for our CC community and all the sweet families that made it such a special place to meet each Monday.  

I am also so very thankful for the encouragement and support we get from Mark.  He celebrates our accomplishments well, whether they are the daily victories or when big goals that take weeks or months are met.  When I am tired or questioning my abilities he is nothing but solid as a rock and reassuring that we are doing what God has asked our family to do. 

So blessed, so thankful, so excited for summer!!

Mother's Day, Taking Time to Stop

 Many Sundays, even though I know we should just be, stop all the "to do - ing" and observe a bit of Sabbath  I usually plow on through, taking advantage of the "school-less" hours to catch up with some of the many things I didn't get to during the week.  But not today!  Today it almost feels wrong to plow on through.  

Mark had to work today so we just chilled.  The sink full of dirty dishes,  no less than four baskets of laundry wait to be folded and then there is a school room that you really can barely walk into let alone teach or learn in, but stop we did.  After church we headed to Your Pie (Haleigh can eat a whole meal without any prep on my part) after a quick stop by Whole Foods we headed to the back yard to play and laugh.  We played croquet for a while, until the neighbor kids started peering through the fence to see if the girls could shift their attention to the gathering group of cul-de-sac friends.

Then I sat, in the sun with a dish of mango sorbet and looked at pictures from the past year and smiled.  The echos of laughter from the neighborhood kids playing and the sweet memories spurred by the pictures took turns gaining my attention.  Here are some of the pics that made me smile the most on this sweet Mother's Day that forced a Sabbath and time to look back and be oh so thankful for my three precious gifts!   

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!  I hope your day was sweet and I pray you will have a Sabbath (forced or not) soon to reflect on all of your blessings!  

Divine Appointments - I Had Heard of These...

If I had to give the next leg of our journey a big idea title it would be Divine Appointments!

In our training, talking to people who had been on these trips, my own husband, all had shared about "divine appointments."  I believed they could happen.  I assumed they would happen for some people on this trip.  I never expected to experience them so obvious, so personal, so many, so... divine.

On Wednesday and Thursday we were stationed in a different barrio.  Wednesday we were were to have Corey DeVivo, the artist, with us again.  We headed down the street to the point the pastor had picked out for us.  Corey opened his bag and began setting up.  The corner was at a very busy intersection.  There was some hesitancy about setting up there due to the amount of traffic and little room for people to gather.  Within about a minute the decision was made to move to a park across the street and down about thirty yards.  In those sixty seconds of starting to set up a man pulled over and asked us what was going on.  My team had the opportunity to tell him who we were and why we were there.  Cars were literally pulling around this guy still sitting on his motorcycle. He said he just really felt like he was "supposed" to pull over and talk to us.  We talked for a bit and shared the gospel with him.  He prayed right there, on his motorcycle, side of the road, cars pulling around him and all!  When we were done speaking with him the rest team had already moved down the street to set up in the park.  The timing of all  that was pretty amazing!  A great way to start the day!

As the sun beat down we spoke to many in the park several were receptive, some were just polite listeners.  As we were looking around for someone to share with we saw a young man/kid about 17 on his dirt bike.  He had pulled up to an old man who was fixing shoes.  It looked like he was gluing the souls of shoes back on.  This kid had stopped to pick up his shoes.  My translator asked if we could share my story with him.  He just said he needed money.  I told him we could share with him something so much more important than money.  He said he would listen and I began to share my testimony.  As I did, he stopped us, "I knew Jesus when I was young and studied about Him.  Then my sister died and I am separated from Him."  What could I say to this kid?  The Holy Spirit led me to tell him that Jesus loves him as many ways as I could express it.  His face softened and then the question came, "Why do people keep telling me Jesus loves me?"  We told him that God was pursuing his heart and wanted him to know he was loved.  This kid looked me square in the eyes and asked. "Why would you come all the way here from North America just to tell me God loves me?  That's wild."  I got to share with him that a wild part was that we had been praying for his heart for quite some time and that people back home were praying his heart as we were there.  I told him the wild part to me was that God had been pursuing my heart about making this trip for years and that God would let me be part of sharing with him that God loves him so much!  Before we came full circle to ask him if we could pray with him this kid was asking us if he could please pray with us.  It was an awesome divine appointment! 

Next was a personal appointment for me.  It was nearing time to head back to the church for lunch and the sun had thinned the crowds.  Nayib and I were looking at the art Corey had drawn.  She asked, "What do you see in this picture?"  As I looked closer I was so moved.  All that we had seen the past two and a half days was heavy.  Many times I wanted to cry out "Why?", "How do they get out from under all this," the burden was about too much.  As Nayib and I stood there it was like the Holy Spirit said look closer.  We clearly saw the two paths, one leading to hell and one to heaven, there was a choice... got it.  The cross is the only way... got it.  Then "look closer!"  The folks on the path to hell have packs and are weighed down.  The folks on the path to Heaven are already praising and light.  "BUT LOOK CLOSER!"  there are little burden packs at the foot of the cross from the people on the path to Heaven. 

It was as if Jesus whispered, "I've got it!  Leave your burdens here, at my cross.  I can handle it, I already have handled it!"  Wow!  Thank you Jesus!!!

So many inspiring people from the youngest and fearless. 

 This precious little girl shared the cube as many times and to as many people as would listen.  Many times it was kids she would target, but adults were not out of her zone.  She has passion for Jesus and He has a mighty little warrior on His side!

To the oldest.

.

Mr. Warren was on our team.  I told him he is one of my heros.  He has a farm in Pennsylvania.  He grows organic produce.  He fell off his roof a few years ago and broke several bones punctured his lung, the list goes on and on.  He loves Jesus and the Columbian people so much he is still taking trips providing materials, smiling, laughing and praising the Lord as he serves.  Amazing!! 

(Mark told him if I ever run away he is sure I would end up on a corner of Mr. Warren's farm!)

Wednesday after lunch we returned to the door to door pattern.  Most folks would pull back the curtain and speak to us through the barred windows. 

 

Mark had an opportunity to watch full on as God answered the prayers of the man on the right, in the brown shirt.  He is a pastor that had recently moved into this barrio to plant a church.  He lived in the upstairs apartment and was planting a church right there.  He had been praying God would put him in contact with a pastor to work with, reach out to.  Well, the national with Mark was a pastor that was going to help in the church we were planting, AND as they were talking Mark heard the pastor from the mother church right outside the door.  Next thing you know all three pastors were sharing contact information, plans and prayer!

Again, so many faces to remember!  I wish I could have taken hundreds of pictures.  I so badly want to remember the moments, the faces...

 

This gentleman, he was working construction and stopped to speak with us.  Once he heard the gospel story, he knew he wanted to received Christ as his Rescuer.  He was so excited! As I placed my hand on his shoulder as he prayed he was a bit embarrassed about being so sweaty.  It really didn't matter, it was kind of sweet.  I pray for him now as "the sweaty little construction man."  God knows exactly who I mean, and I can't help but smile every time I think of him.

On the last day the question was posed to me, "If you could rewind to five minutes of this trip and relive it, what would it be?"  With little hesitation I was able to describe and mentally go back to the moment that occurred about five minutes before this picture was taken. 

It was about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon.  We were about to head back to the church and I saw this man.  He had been watching us make our way down his street.  I could not walk away merely hoping we would be back tomorrow with an opportunity share with him.  As we walked over and began telling him who we were and asking if I could share my testimony he straight out said, "I don't like religion, Catholic, Christian... I don't like religion."

"Well, I don't want to talk to you about religion, I want to talk to you about Jesus.  May I?"  He said yes and gathered his family.  As we began to share I was taken back by the expressions on his face.  Each turn of the cube to show a picture of the next step of the gospel story also turned his expression, he drew me in more and more.  When I got to the part about Jesus raising from the tomb after three days he said, "He just went up to Heaven, poof, in a bright cloud of light right."

"No!" I told him how He walked and talked with different people, at least 500 saw Him, He invited one of His disciples to touch His wounds...

Oh would I have liked to snap a picture in that second.  He was amazed and excited like nothing I had ever seen before.  "This, this that you are telling me is so beautiful!" 

By the time we were done the whole family had prayed to receive Christ.  The wife and I were crying, the man was teary.  It was beautiful!!

At the end of the two days in barrio number two we commissioned the pastor and the national team.  We passed on the contacts of all those we spoke to that made a profession of faith, asked for prayer, or asked for a visit. 

It was hard to walk out of the church to get in the van that last day of evangelizing. When would I get to do this again?  How can I go back to regular life?  There was a new hunger.  I never expected to be one that would just stand and look around to see who God was leading me to share His gospel with.  What do I do with all I have seen?  All the faces I want to remember?  All the dominoes I wanted to follow up with and see if they were as changed as I was?