Let the Little Children Come

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Matthew 19:14

The kids and I are back from the mission trip and I have many pictures to share. We had a wonderful week ministering to children in the South Texas Valley. We were about 20 miles from the Mexico border. In the mornings we drove to Lyford, a town about 30 miles from our hotel and, with our team, conducted Vacation Bible School at a small church there. The church's congregation is dwindling and aging, so they just can't do VBS themselves; but, there are many precious children in the surrounding neighborhood, and we were privileged to get to share about God's love with them. In the evenings we drove to San Benito, another town about 30 minutes from our hotel. We met more precious children there and conducted VBS there as well. Here are some pictures of some of the children we worked with:








On Friday, we finished up in the morning and had the rest of the day free. A group of us went to the beach at South Padre Island, about an hour's drive. Our kids had never seen the ocean, so we didn't want to pass up this opportunity, when we were so close. We went to a public beach and it wasn't the most pristine, clean place, but it had waves and sand, so you know the kids were happy!




Camden loved playing in the waves:

Cullen getting buried in the sand:

Kenna loved finding little creatures in the sand:

God provided for us in so many ways this week. One of the most amazing being safety and health for our entire group. Other than a few minor injuries (Cullen got his first bee sting and a couple of scrapes), we all stayed well and safe - amazing considering all we did and all the time we spent driving. Which brings me to another huge praise. My friend Karen and I rode together in her SUV with our six kids. On the way home we calculated that we spent over 30 hours in the car together during the week - our kids got along beautifully and Karen and I never ran out of things to talk about (that probably doesn't surprise those of you who know me well!). I am really proud of my kids and the way they went with the flow of things and kept positive attitudes all week. So, here are a couple of car pictures. Last Sunday morning, bright eyed and ready to leave:




And Saturday afternoon on the way home:

I have to end with this last picture. After all that time in the car all week and 11 hours to get home Saturday, we got to our house and unloaded all our stuff from Karen's car, dumping it all by our front door. A little while later I wondered where Cullen and Camden were - I found them playing by the front door - Camden sitting in his car seat!