Today was such a neat day for our little family. We got to take part in a ministry of our church at Gospel Lakes in New Waverly, TX (North of Houston.) It is a place where children from the inner city can come and do fun outdoor activities like fishing, horse back riding, paddle boating, face painting, arts and crafts, etc. in a Christian atmosphere. They get to have lunch at the ranch and then hear a special message about Christ. Our church takes part in this twice a year, and today was our first time to go. We teamed up with another Life Group in our church to help serve, and it was an incredibly rewarding--and f un--experience.
We met the other Life Group at Cracker Barrel first thing this morning to have a yummy breakfast. I don't know about y'all, but Cracker Barrel always makes me feel at home (except for when I walk in and the first display I see is Aggie stuff instead of LSU--ha! That's OK...Aggies are good people.) We headed out to Gospel Lakes around 9 AM and the fun began! Some of us assisted with the different activity stations, and some of us worked in the kitchen and served lunch to the children and workers. I didn't venture much outside the kitchen because we had a lot of work to do! We put together quite a spread for the kiddos. My job was first to help make peanut butter sandwiches (I was the PB spreader) and second to assemble hot dogs. I think we assembled about 400 hot dogs!
I think my favorite thing that I heard from today was something that Kyle overheard at lunch. A little boy was sitting at the table beside him and Kyle heard him say, "This is the life." Today was almost more than I could take. In a good way.
I didn't hang around with Jacks, but Kyle snapped a few pictures of him throughout the day and even got a little video footage of him fishing. Our friend, Brandy, took some precious pictures of him horse back riding, so I will have to update and add those when I get them. Kyle said that he and Jacks headed over to help out at the fishing station first. Our friend Mr. Dave was sweet and was trying to show Jacks what to do. Of course he's in the "I do it by myself" stage, so I'm not sure how much assistance he accepted.
I know that Jacks probably thought that this was all about doing fun activities this time, but I'm thankful he was able to do it alongside children not as fortunate as he. I know that through the years he will learn to serve and show God's love to all kinds of people. I had a huge lump in my throat all day and to be honest almost bawled several times. Nothing thrills my heart more than serving with my family. I am feeling so humbled, blessed, and undeserving tonight. What a day. God is good.
Here are a few of the pictures and the video that Kyle got on his phone.
Waiting on a fish with Mr. Dave
With Daddy :)
First fish to catch! So excited!
Getting ready to ride a horse! (Check out his face painting--LSU! Geaux Tigers!)
Such a big boy.
Watermelon
This was right after we pulled out of the ranch...
And here is a little video footage of Jacks fishing. :)
Today has been quite a full day! After we got home, we all crashed before an evening full of FOOTBALL. I had a good feeling about the LSU/FLA game all day (speaking of being humble)...and although it was quite STRESSFUL at times, we came out on top. We were definitely going crazy over here. GEAUX TIGERS!!!
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