From The Mouths of Children

Our friends Corey and Jordan wrote about the past work week.

If this and this don't grab your heart - get to a doctor - you might be dead.

Update:

This is from an e-mail that was sent out to a number of people, myself included:

“The group of believers were joined in their hearts, and they had the same spirit. No person in the group said that the things he had were his own. Instead, they shared everything. With great power the apostles were telling people that the Lord Jesus was truly raised from death. And God blessed all the believers very much. They all received the things they needed. Everyone that owned fields or houses sold them. They brought the money and gave it to the apostles. Then each person was given the things he needed.” Acts 4:32-35 (ICB, International Children’s Bible)

This was the passage of scripture we talked about for our bible lesson yesterday at the TKA (Team Kess Academy). We read it and we talked about how we have had the privilege to participate in this type of a community during the LEHM. The week was incredible because God made it that way, since the beginning of time. We participated in something that followed His design not just for The Church, but for communities as well. We also talked about the fact that it didn’t matter that not everyone who was there is necessarily a believer in the Gospel, God’s truth is still truth and everyone who was involved received his blessings whether they felt they were doing it for his glory or not. It was a beautiful example of how joyous work and community can be when we live within his creation according to his design, plans, and purposes. “Everyone received the things he needed”, the Linden family received an renovated home, the workers received both practical and tangible resources; but everyone also received the gifts of new friendships, encouragement, purpose, and hope because we were each surrounded by love and selflessness all week.

Also, for their Language Arts assignment yesterday the boys had to write a page about their experiences. Their assignment was to write a page explaining what “Annabelle’s Circle” is, describe what you did, what you liked and disliked about the work you did, what you learned by participating, and what you can continue to do as a part of Annabelle’s Circle. Jordan dictated his thoughts to me while I typed so that he didn’t get frustrated by trying to spell and punctuate. His thoughts can also be a bit random, so I did take some editing license by organizing his sentences into paragraphs that flow, but the thoughts/words are all his own. Their papers are precious…even though I bribed them a bit by telling them that they could skip their math lesson yesterday if they did their VERY best work on these papers. Writing is Corey’s least favorite subject, so engaging in one of his favorite pastimes (negotiation) provided the inspiration he needed to create a well thought out and well written work. I pray that they will bless you abundantly today.

One more thing…for anyone who’s reading this who hasn’t seen the home-video of everyone working at the Linden’s, it is a must-see and well worth the 4:30 minutes of viewing time. You can check it out at www.annabellescircle.com. It is posted on the entry for Day 8 of the project. Many people from the Linden’s various circles of friends traveled from out of town to come and help. One couple flew down from Seattle. Most of us had heard each others names through the Linden’s stories over the years, but most of us didn’t know really each other before the week began. But even more amazingly, there are many people in the video that don’t even know the Linden’s. They are friends of friends of friends, who came to help because they heard there was a need. And that anyone regardless of age or skill set was welcome to come and help. There were jobs for everyone. One shot on the video is of some teenage girls scraping paint off of a window frame. They are from a youth group that came on Memorial Day from an out-of-town church most of us had never heard of. Oh and the guy building the planter boxed in the back yard was a co-worker of one of Holly’s friends. He was the first person to show up on the first day of work to help out. He had never met the Linden’s until that morning. By the end of the week we were all friends. It was like a grown-up Agape camp experience, exhausting and beautiful and none of us wanted it to end.

Warmly,
Wendy