Week of June 25

He prayed, O Lord, God of Israel, there is not a God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your promises and show unfailing love to all who obey you and are eager to do your will. 2 Chronicles 6:14

This is our verse for the week. I have grown to really love it. What a great reminder of who God is, what He expects from us and the rewards for obeying and seeking Him. I pray that this verse will stay in the kids’ hearts long after this summer is over.

Another very busy week, another week of seeing God work.
This week we studied about Noah and his obedience to God even when things didn’t make sense to him. So of course we had our own issues of disobedience with a couple of the kids. They ended up missing some great blessings and hopefully learned some powerful lessons. Unfortunately, it seems that we have to learn these lessons several times before we actually apply them to our lives.

One of the highlights of my week was spending time with little Jada. She has this way of cracking us all up. I took half the kids to Evan Almighty while the other kids went to Bright Lights. After the movie there was great opportunities to talk about the lessons in the movie and Noah again. We were talking about listening to and obeying God. One the kids asked how we can hear God. I said by reading the Bible, praying and just being quiet and listening. That a lot of times when we go to do something there is this little voice inside us that says don’t do that it is wrong, or go do that it is right. Then I asked if they ever heard that little voice. Most the kids said yes and then gave examples. Jada pipes in and says, well the only little voice I ever hear is my little baby sister talking. It was so precious and so funny. She was so serious.
And then at other moments like after we read the Noah story, she looked very disinterested and I wondered if she was getting any of it. Later we were having sort of a pop quiz and her hand went up almost every time. And she was right too. She has a super memory for a 5 year old. We really love having her in the ministry.

Iyisha and Dominique will be leaving us already, going back home to Kansas. I talked to their aunt and it was really clear why God brought the girls to the ministry even if it is for such a short time. The girls have very strict religious families back home, and when they come here they are put in a neighborhood with a lot of new challenges, freedom and temptations. I believe God brought Obasi into their lives to remind them that He is still with them even when they are not at home. To do the right thing even if you have the freedom to do the wrong thing. I think of all the kids that have moved lately and how much I worry about them. This week through Iyisha and Dominique God reminded me that He follows His little ones around and sees to it that they are taken care of.

On Thursday, I took Iyisha, Dominique and Pierrie fishing. Fishing always sounds like such a good idea at first. But then you get these city kids who have never fished before. They don’t know how to bait the hook, cast the pole or take the fish off. And what’s more they want to catch a fish but they don’t want to learn how to bait the hook or take the fish off. So I spend most of my time baiting the hook and taking off fish, never really getting to cast my pole into the waters. This has been my third time fishing this year, and every time I can’t help but chuckle at the “ Be fishers of men” comparison in the Bible. Fishing for men or fishing for fish at first can seem so exciting and so fun, but if you really become serious about either one you find that the fun soon turns into hard work. Both require a lot of patience to finally catch a fish. Some fish will just play with the hook and leave and others will bite hook, line and sinker. People are like that too, some just want to play with you and pick your brain about God, not really intending to follow Him. And others will follow. Being a fisherman is one thing and teaching someone to be a fisherman is a whole other game. Here at Obasi our goal is to raise up kids who become fisher of men. But first you have to teach them, and just like teaching someone to fish can be a difficult task, so can teaching them to be a witness. I can go on with this analogy for pages, but I think you get my drift. The conclusion I have come to through all this fishing is, that God is so smart, to even invent the analogy in the first place. Second don’t give up on fish or people, it takes patience, trial and error, getting dirty, but the catch is so worth every minute.
For Craft this week we made flying doves. We learned that doves are very special in the Bible and that doves can sip water all other birds have to lap it up or catch it in their beaks.

The kids wrote their own puppet skit this week about disobeying Mom and Chocolate cake. They tried it out on us, it was really good.

Laura Mach has been doing a great job of incorporating creative snacks with our weekly lesson. This week she reminded us that for Noah to Obey God he must of really trusted God. So she said this week I am going to blindfold you and give you different food items. Do you trust me to give you items that will make a good snack. Iyisha says I trust you Laura you always give us great snacks. So they were blindfolded and she handed out some blue whip cream ( for the ocean) a banana for the ark, so pudding, animal crackers and gummy animals. The kids took off their blindfolds and ate their delicious snacks. Then at the other end of the table Laura’s daughter Jessie was sitting with a bowl of scraps and a disappointed look on her face. Laura reminded us that Satan wants us to trust him to, a lot of times he makes some big promises just like God. Except God keeps his promises and Satan hands us a bowl of scraps that we can’t eat.

Three Dog Day.

While at Mrs. B's the kids got to try out the trampoline.

Mrs. B even showed us a trick or two. You go Girl!

Iyisha catches a fish.

Dominique was quite the trooper, catching a lot of fish and helping us when our lines got snagged on rocks.

Savanah came for a while and got her very first fish ever.

Savanah, Dez and Icky after Icky shows off his rocket at Bright Lights Rocket Class. He had a BLAST. Several blasts actually.

Savanah gets her award at Bright Lights cooking class. Dez, and Jameca went also and they cooked up some great foods and brought home a wonderful cookbook so in the future they can whip up some snacks for us.

Thank you so much for the scholarships so that four of our kids could come to your program. They had so much fun and learned a lot too.

Icky has been doing a lot of running this week. Getting ready for the Lincoln Run and Cornhusker State Games. This was my favorite moment he passes a lady in a scooter on the bike path.