Ummm...

This week some of the kids went on a school field trip - to the city water treatment plant. They really enjoyed themselves and were excited about what they had learned. Here is an example:

D.J. - Miss Heather, we had so much fun at the water treatment plant today!

Heather - what did you learn?

D.J. - we saw where the dirty water comes in and they add the chemicals to it to make it clean.

(there were further graphic details that I shall omit for our sensitive readers!)

Heather - wow...was it smelly?

D.J. - only on the outside. We learned that if your water tastes like chlorine, that's how you know it's healthy for you.

Meet Me In the Hood...it's goin' down...

So here in J.T. Williams at the PlayHouse, we're a safe place for kids to come after they get off the schoolbus, to do homework, play games, hop online and read. We have small groups, do Church together and altogether anticipate basketball season. We enjoy spending time with the kids of this neighborhood, and they're pretty fond of us too.

In fact, this week while Rob's been offsite and I've been flying solo over there, it got to be snacktime and I didn't have enough of any one thing to offer. Those of you who have/work with kids will nod your heads with me when I say you have to give everyone the same amount of the same thing, otherwise, there will be drama.

:-)

So there's this box of candy on top of the fridge that they've been salivating over for a while now, but I think Rob is saving it for something special. Everyday, however, the kids ask me "can I get one of those?" with their hopeful little eyes and best "I won't tell - it'll be our little secret" faces on...but I know what'll happen, so I say "Nope, here's some applesauce instead of candy. Enjoy." Cuz I know that if I gave in to one of those cherubic faces, as soon as that candy was in their hot little hand, they'd be calling it from the rooftops (perhaps literally - these kids have no fear, and no proper playground) that they have something no one else has.

*Sigh*

In particular, one of the big boys - 15yrs old, 320lbs, 6'5 - wanted him some candy. He gave me the googly eyes and the boyish grin, but I stood firm.

" You know that if I gave this to you and the others found out that I would be shot in the street!"

I was mostly joking of course.

His facial expression became dead serious. He looked me square in the eye, and in a sober voice he said:

"Miss Heather, ain't nothing going to happen to you. All of us, we've got your back."

You know? I believed him...and I'm grateful.

So fast forward to MUCH later that night, I was working late at the PlayHouse preparing it for an Advisory Board walk-through the following day. I had been home to bring our two large dogs back with me - so that they wouldn't be lonely (don't cringe Steve!) and knowing that it wouldn't hurt to have the extra backup late in the evening hours.

So I'm working away, enjoying myself and my 96.1FM when I heard something i hadn't heard in a while - a gunshot. Now...this is how I know I've been gone too long. Curiousity directed my legs over to the front window where the dogs where barking like crazy, and I looked out.

I looked out into the dark night from a lit room. *sigh* I'm so...well...anyways.

I didn't see anything, and as there was no screaming I went back to my work (don't cringe Rob!)

As I was finishing up my projects a short while later and packing up the dogs in the minivan, I heard a couple of voices down in the street. I could just barely make out two young men (twentysomething) talking with a woman in a car. The woman's voice was familiar - one of my kid's mom. She comes up to the PlayHouse from time to time to chat with us and check online to see if her current boyfriends has any warrants out for his arrest (yeah - you can do that online here, it's crazy and helpful) I didn't pay them any attention, but my ears perked up when I heard her say to the two men:

"No no, you just stop all that talk she's the pastor, and just leave her be. I'm sure she didn't see nuthin and anyway all y'all shouldn't be messin' around down here with no guns anyhow, so you just put those things away, and don't you mess with her or you'll have a problem with me and everybody else 'round here. Now go on, git."

What a beautiful gift, to know that I've been accepted as a part of a family that takes care of one another, and watches each other's backs. That's something I've experienced in a number of "rough & dangerous" neighborhoods.

There is a shield of protection that exists for me here , that's harder to find within the 'safety' of the walls of church community. Folks there will take you out with gossip, backstabbing, jealousy, factions and the like and the brother or sister who will stop someone short and call them to account when they're spreading that kind of mess about the pastor, the worship leader and everybody else is a rarity.

I still lean on my personal revelation and spiritual belief that when I'm in the place that God wants me to be, right in His Will - wherever that is geographically - it's the SAFEST place to be, cuz He's got my back, and so do the scariest people in the 'hood.

Amen to that.

Cookin' Up Somethin' Good...

we've been baking crazy at the PlayHouse lately, and it's been delicious! The kids are getting pretty good and they're having a blast. It's no "Christina's Cakes" but it's a start!

OOps.

Okay, let's try that again. Here's the video that goes with our last post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt995uv4f6s

2 Beautiful Church Experiences in One Day...

It was a small crowd today at my Chapel Service at the Centre (small crowd is my way of saying me and two other people!) Regardless, I heard something that I'm going to ponder for a time.

In discussing life at the shelter with over 200 other women & their children, my friend (a young mother of 2 children in her 28th week of pregnancy) said this:

"Around here, I try to stay focused on where I'm going and what I'm doing and also to have patience. There can be so much drama with all these women, but drama brings confusion, and when you're confused you're blind and you can't see where you're at or where you're going and then you're stuck."

Wow...sounds a lot like how to have victory over a scheme of the enemy.

On a different note, Rob had the kids re-enact the parable of the Good Samaritan - I only caught the last bit on film, it's too bad, because the kids really got into the part where the traveler is waylaid in the 'cut', his money gets stolen and has the tar beaten out of him...

I just had to post about this beautiful experience I had yesterday afternoon. I've been spending part of my time down at the Centre of Hope here in Charlotte, The Salvation Army's women & children's shelter as the chaplain. I'm really enjoying it and yesterday was just fuel for the fire.

Generally twice a month I show a movie - there's a monstrous tv in the Chapel - and with it being a rainy, grey day yesterday it was just right to stay in where it's warm, eat some popcorn and watch some Madea (the unofficial african-american matriarch of the south). The movies have a strong Gospel thrust, with some soulful Gospel and of course - a lotta humour.

ANYways, in the last scene, which you can watch here it just got so powerful in the chapel, and Holy Spirit just came down on us, and all the women started to sing, spontaneously in a deep, deep way, from that deep, deep place that exists in a woman when she's walked through the Valley of Baca and has places of brokenness that only the Lord can touch.

It was beautiful - man, I love Holy Spirit. She's the best.

In The Abiding

In my daily reading, I came across these words from Oswald Chambers:

"All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations." Matthew 28:18-20

"He (Christ) does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go; He simply says - "Go ye therefore and teach all nations."
Go on the revelation of My sovereignty;
teach and preach out of a living experience of Me." OC

Love it, love it, love it!

It is a demanding text, and I love a challenge. In those words I read that I MUST be having a LIVING and ever-evolving daily experience of Christ to be able to teach, preach and especially LIVE powerfully & effectively for the Kingdom of God.

So what kind of living experience can I testify to?

I don't mind being real with y'all, my Christian life has been a series of seasons - ranging from a forward surge in passion, purpose and precision, followed/preceded by seasons of pause, leaning in more closely to the Divine and often times of "whoa. slow down Dad, I need to stop and take this all in."

I'm not ashamed or embarassed about that, it's been my process. It has been my relationship with the Eternal maturing over time as He shows Himself faithful, compassionate, no-nonsense and adventuresome.

I've been married coming up 5 years this May. Even though I knew Rob before we were in marriage covenant, I've discovered over the years - as the emotions of our wedding day fade -that there are depths to him, and to me and to the two of us together that were hidden to my understanding beforehand. That is to say that as we grow in knowing each other in the everyday, experiencing 'life together' I know him more, and come to know myself more as well.

I've been a Salvation Army Soldier coming up 8 years this June. Even though I knew God before we were in covenant, I've discovered over the years - as the emotions from the night I got saved fade - that there are depths to Him and to me and to the two of us together that were hidden to my understanding beforehand. That is to say that as I grow in knowing Him more, in the everyday circumstances, experiencing 'life together', I know Him more, and come to know myself more as well.

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you..." - that is the way to keep going in our personal lives." OC

When my husband and I spend time with one another in a quality way - giving one another our full attention, listening carefully, and making ourselves available to one another, it strengthens and safeguards our marriage relationship.

In the same way, when I am feeling 'far' from the Lord (plunk in whatever imagery you like - dry, lukewarm, stale, stalled) I take myself aside to a quiet place and firmly, earnestly ask the question, "am I abiding?"

Today, beloved of God, I am.

*quotes drawn from 'My Utmost for His Highest' Oswald Chambers, October 14th

Let Them Eat Cake! (then send them outside to play)

We decided to do some baking at the PlayHouse this week, in fact, there was a group of boys that were begging to bake a cake. The rest of us were hankerin' to eat some cake, so it was a win-win situation. (!) We did a bit of improv (note the 'cake pan') but in the end, not only was the cake delicious (chocoate with chocolate icing) but it was just what the rest of the kids needed - more sugar. haha. No seriously - shortly after chowing down on cake (with a double layer of frosting) the entire Playhouse erupted in a serious, take-no-prisoners pillow fight. It was all fun and games until someone hit Miss Heather up the side of the head with a super-bouncy-ball.

Interestingly, I was chatting with one of the guys about baking and his viewpoint about it was: "Why not just go to the store and buy a cake already made, then you don't have to do all this work?"

My response? I think baking is fun because of the satisfaction that comes in creating something from nothing and inviting other to join in eating whatever I've made. And let's not forget the whole 'licking the bowl' thing. I really really dig that...

It's nice to just have some fun though, I'll think we'll bake every week.

sorry it's sideways. i'm technomalogically challenged.

Loving That Sunshine

One of the things that I love about living in the South, is that in mid-October I can hang my laundry on the clothesline in the backyard and they'll be dry within the hour.

That's a beautiful thing.

I've got a t-shirt on my line that mysteriously appeared in my van this past week, so I thought what the heck? and I threw it in the wash...I wonder though, how it got there, and who it belongs to?