The Elephant

Hello All,

Can you believe I actually am posting a day early!?!? I know!

So I don't have any pictures of the new theme for Mo Kids, but they are coming soon, I swear!

But, I do have some funny elephant pictures. Many of you know that I am very creative, but just not good at channeling that creativity into any sort of paper medium... ie: I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler!

But, I recently had to do an activity where we shaped clay to represent a feeling. The feeling that I was instructed to portray was fear. So, I started shaping and low and behold: I created an elephant! I think I may actually be onto something here... maybe even considering a pottery class. So it will be ash trays for all for Christmas! :-)

Now, we can make all the jokes we want... white elephant gifts, etc. But the coolest thing for me was to realize that fear is indeed my elephant. It is always present and yet rarely do I want to acknowledge it. It is indeed my proverbial elephant in the corner of the room that no one wants to talk about. I hate admitting that I am afraid or that I really don't know what the heck I am doing most of the time. Great thing is that is where faith comes in. I don't know and I often times will bungle it up.. but He knows and He knows no fear. I know that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it and I keep thinking of Joshua and Caleb when they were sent into the strange land to scout it out and report back. All the other spies said no way, they are too big, too powerful, etc. Joshua and Caleb said, fear not! We can do this! Unfortunately, the leaders let the "they" drown out the truth.

So, whatever you are facing... fear not! You can do this! I'll encourage you and you can encourage me and together we will take care of our elephant!

On a side note: Yes, I kept the elephant and yes it was the only thing that turned into something cool. My other feeling was sadness. I attempted to shape an armadillo in honor of Texas and my peeps back home. It however looked more like a fat cow than anything.

Church Update:

We had 420 attend this past week! I had 90 kids in the Mo Kids area and I have received 4 new volunteer applications. Thank you Jesus! We are dying back there! We also did our first baby dedication. We had 4 families participate. It was such a neat experience to be a part of.

I also have a couple of neat stories to share about two of the kids. One of the little girls, she is 6, came to church this past week and her mom told me about her act of service. Little girl insisted that she would carry in all the groceries for her mom because Ms. Jessica taught her that Super Servants Super serve! Melts my heart to hear that!

I also had a little girl bring me a picture that she colored at home. She saved her Spiderman sticker that I gave her 5 weeks ago! And, she drew me a picture that says "I Love Mosaic Kids" and Ms. Jessica is the best Bible teacher. Me?!? Me: who is such a mess and has a past that makes a great lifetime movie? Me: whose family isn't perfect and whose faith isn't always that strong? Not because of me, but because of Jesus! We are all broken and it is amazing what the Master Artist can piece together to create something beautiful. We just have to allow the Artist to shape us.

Thank you for your prayer and your support. We love you guys and love that we are on this journey with you!

Love,

Jessica

PS: Yes, I got to go to Target on Saturday and buy new shoes! We even ate real Italian food. What a GREAT day!