Amanda and the dragon

Most of you grew up hearing one of the most gifted storytellers of our lifetime....Mrs. Sandy! That's right! You probably took her for granted, Sunday after Sunday, as she tirelessly brought the stories of the Bible and God's love for you to life in terms that your elementary-aged mind could understand!! Well, we thought it would be a great idea to invite her out to the Teen House and have her tell us another story on Wednesday, January 22!! She told us the story of Amanda who had been told to keep an eye out for dragon eggs, and anytime she found one she was to bring it to the Caretaker and NEVER keep it. But one day Amanda kept the dragon and hid it, allowing it to hatch and grow, and grow, and GROW until before long Amanda was having to lie and change her habits and her way of life to keep it hidden! We were spellbound as Mrs. Sandy explained that the dragon represented sin that we allow into our hearts and lives which soon takes root and continues to do so until we turn it over to God, our Caretaker!! Awesome! Some of my favorite comments from you all afterwards were, "Since I hadn't grown up with Mrs. Sandy, I was like, 'Um, is there a teenaged version of this story? But 2 minutes into it she HAD me! And I was like, 'Hey', I know where she is going with that dragon thing!'. Another one said, "Wow! It took me back IMMEDIATELY in time, and she told it JUST like she used to!! It rocked! And she gave us candy afterwards, too!!"

Thanks, Mrs. Sandy, for the valuable lessons AND for the candy!! We love you!!

[Note: Kids who liked this lesson will also like "Larry Boy & the Fib AND Larry Boy and The Rumor Weed" from Veggie Tales! :-) ]

Ghosts of Christmas past!!

I just happened to have come across a pile of some old pics from a Christmas program about 6-7 years ago. The kids pictured below apparently had not saved enough of their allowance to pay the fee required to keep me from posting their pics here. See anybody ya know? :-) [If I were you I'd start saving my allowance!]

"Give Me Your Eyes"

Hey! Do ya recognize this guy on YouTube?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfOHtwYUaJ4

Volunteering with Blue Santa!!

"Operation Blue Santa" is the name given to the effort by our local Austin Police Department to collect, wrap, and deliver as many presents as possible and deliver them by Christmastime to those families who may not be able to provide gifts of their own. We are given sooooo much at Christmas time (and all year around, for that matter) and it is ALWAYS good to give something back, especially to those who may not be getting what they need, much less what they WANT. So we loaded up the vans (thanks Pastor Randall and Sandy for loaning us yours!) and headed over to Blue Santa headquarters for some serious gift wrapping!! It was awesome, and as you can tell, it wasn't just the gifts that were being wrapped!!!