As I stated above, Olive, Valor, and I always have a little prayer season with our Hallelujah parties when Dan is gone. This time, we went through the YWAM Core beliefs. It was so cool how, just like during the 21 day fast and prayer with our team, God met us everyday in such a real meaningful way revealing who He is to each of my children. It was such a joy to see them experience God!
For example, on our first worship night, I allowed Olive and Valor to choose one calm-down toy to fidget with, thinking it would help them focus. Well, they both started to be so distracted by the toys that I knew I had to try to re-engage them somehow to worship. Instead of taking the toys, I asked them to just focus on the toy and what they liked about it; to view it from different angles and discover new things about it in their observations They really got into it and shared excitingly about what they were discovering. I then was able to use this as an analogy to worshiping God. We need to just stare at God and see him from different angles to discover new parts of who He is. Then, as we discover new things, our natural response will be to worship Him! So we just spent time looking at God. When I asked my kids what God was saying, Valor said, "God is a good, good Father". (Of course, it was the first day Dan was gone, and Olive and Valor were missing Daddy.) During our discussion and worship time, Valor had a revelation that He had two good Daddies; one on earth and one in Heaven, so we worshiped to the song Good, Good Father.
Another God moment happened when our worship topic was "witnessing". Even though I had not planned for witness day to be on the day we were visiting a non-Christian friend, God took this opportunity to create a teachable moment for Olive and Valor. This friend, who is not a believer, shared how she sees "light and good vibes" from my children. The children heard that comment. Later that day, I was able to build on this comment to explain that this is what it means to bring witness , model Jesus and share Him with others.
The pictures on this page are of other friends that we visited that week. Zora, pictured below, is one of Valor's best friends at school, and she is also in swimming classes with us.
The last story I would like to share occurred on the day we focused on the YWAM core value of service. Before our evening prayer/worship time, Valor asked Olive to read him a book, and she said, "Yes". This time though, Olive and Valor did it in the dark with glow sticks and a flashlight. Valor willingly volunteered to hold the flashlight while Olive read. All of this happened without my involvement before our "prayer meeting". Later, during worship, I was able to speak into service from their own experience: Olive reading to Valor and Valor holding the flashlight. It was a wonderful "Mom moment" to speak life into them about how they were already serving each other naturally.
These are just three examples of how God met my children every night through YWAM Core beliefs, and gave them real experiences of how, as a family, we want to walk these out in our lives.
Here are some pictures of other fun activities we did when Daddy was in Costa Rica.
Field trip with Valor
In October, Jamaica has a national holiday, called Hero Day, celebrating the 7 people who have helped shape Jamaica to be the Nation it is now. At school, the children learn about each one and what they did. Many of these faces are on Jamaican money and posted at schools all around the island. The students also learn about more current heroes, or famous people, like Bob Marley and Usian Bolt. Here is a good website sharing the heros of Jamaiaca if you are interested in learning more. During this week, the kids can dress up in traditional Jamaican clothes celebrating the holiday. Below, the photos are of Olive and Valor on traditional, Bandana outfit day. Valor is modeling a Usian Bolt pose that is so common for a young Jamaican boys to do! And he did this on his own. :)
During this 3 day holiday from school, our kiddos were so excited to do some art and crafts!! Grandma Ruiz, Carole's mom in Chicago, has blessed us with a subscription to Highlight magazine. She receives them in the United States, and then she will mail them to Jamaica or save them for summer to give us to bring back to Jamaica. Olive has read these magazines over and over many times during our years in Jamaica, and Valor, just recently, became excited about reading these magazines. This fall, they began asking to do some some of the arts and crafts in these magazines. One day on break, we just looked through all the magazines to find all the crafts we wanted to do; then we had to filter through to see which materials we could get in Jamaica! The first day of holiday we went to the store to get all the materials we did not already have at home to do the chosen crafts. Over the 5 days, including 2 days on the weekend, we did 10 crafts! They were so fun! Yes, I, Carole, was in FULL Mommy mode, and it was so refreshing. Enjoy some pictures of the activities we did together.
Finding all of the activities the kids wanted to do!
Snacks with a Face
Hamburgers and Lemonade for their New Costa Rica Monkeys
They created a restaurant for their monkeys to enjoy!
Olive even made a swing for her monkey.
Shaggy Dog Craft
Leaf Animals
Yes, we ventured out in the hot Jamaican sun with our umbrellas protection to collect leaves for making some animals. Olive made a bird.
Monster Craft
Olive carefully cut out all the materials needed for a paper soccer game!
A little more technical and science- oriented of a craft, when Daddy got home, he helped make boats for the kiddos! They worked as they tried them out in baths after a day of getting messy.
Daddy also made a box car for Valor!
Thank you, Grandma Ruiz, for all of the art and craft fun from the Highlight magazines!
We had so much FUN!!!
