a dream

I'm not one to get worked up over dreams. In fact, I hardly ever dream at least that I can remember. Except for on Tuesday night. Have you ever had a dream that seems so real that you wake up feeling like you're still in the dream? 

What I can remember is this.

I was looking up at the sky. I was all alone in this open area, but I knew where I was. I was in Haiti. I look at the ground and I'm standing in a muddy area in the middle of this tent village. I look to my right and I see these babies lying in the mud. I instantly scoop them up and take them to grassy land. I clean them somehow and look back. When I look back, I am amazed. I see women with children just flooding to where I was. They're speaking to me, but I can't understand. I do know that they trust me because they are handing me their children left and right. I'm cleaning them up and taking them to grassy land. Doing all that I can do to keep up with all the children. Then I wake up.

When I wake up, it's like I'm still there. Half asleep, I am feeling around for the children. 

Now, like I said, I'm not one to think much of dreams.  But this one has me tore up! What does it mean? Does it mean anything? I just don't know. I go back to sleep and that's that.

I'm reading through Psalms right now. On Wednesday morning, I opened my Bible to this:  

Psalm 10:14b You won't let them down: orphans won't be orphans forever.

What I'm Reading.

 

Making Your Children's Ministry the Best Hour of Every Kid's Week.

By Sue Miller

It's a great book. Her ministry started from nothing. I mean nothing. They met in a movie theater where she had to clean up popcorn every Sunday Morning. So, far here are some things that have stuck out to me.

-When a leader lives out the vision in front of volunteers, they will serve with passion, enthusiasm, and commitment.

-Ministry fills up volunteers who serve in the right places; they leave each Sunday feeling energized rather than exhausted.

-Serving teams in children's ministry might be the only place people will experience community.

-Never consider letting current circumstances dictate compromise or settling for ministry to be done "good enough."

-If done well, the best hour will impact the way they live the other 167 hours each week-and even change the rest of their lives.

-Ever volunteer needs to understand how their role fits in the big picture of the church, and believe that reaching lost kids and teaching all kids makes a difference.

-To see kingdom potential means believing ever child might someday serve Jesus: this increases the urgency of children's ministry

-How many families stop attending church because the struggle to get the kids to go isn't worth the effort?

-No matter how lost a person is, he still cares for his children. If a child wants to come back to church because he had a great time, they'll come back.

-The older a person gets. the less likely it is for him or her to start a relationship with Christ: urgency of children's ministry

-Get better every year, get better every Sunday. An unresponsive kids' ministry is on a path toward obsolescence and irrelevance. It will actually become less effective in reaching real kids.

-A clear mission-one that leads to clear-cut results-is the starting point for making any children's ministry the best hour of ever kid's week. When a mission is stated well, everyone in and around the ministry knows what they will collectively strive to accomplish. Get it right and ministry potential knows no limits.

-Children are more likely to exhibit a matter-of-fact faith in Jesus, than we adults who are skeptical of anything we can't experience with our five senses.

-Imagine a generation of kids growing up expecting God to save people through the local church.

-Our kids' faith should cause them to change from the inside out- not because of a bunch of rules but because they want to.

This is great stuff! I'm excited to keep reading!