Saturday Smiles Once

Thursday night as I drove home from an organization meeting, I sat at a stop light with a van to my left and was also chatting to my father handsfree through the radio. I turned my head and got distracted as the person next to me appeared to recognize me. On second glance, I realized it was one of the youth from church and his mom. It brought a nice smile to my face to be recognized and acknowledged by one of the youth. I waved, he waved and assumingly explained to his mother who I was. I waved again as she glanced over as well. Then we were off down the street.

Now to the story of my weekend of smiles.....

Last weekend, God’s natural world surrounded me, the trees, the animals, the crisp air, the stars, the sun, and the people. What a fantastic way to spend a weekend in communion with nature and the church community.

The weekend provided families of my church and a neighboring church community the opportunity to get away and be with one another as a nuclear family and a church family. Though I ended up being the only single member family outside of two leaders, I never felt alone or without family. Many families adopted me into their activities and supported and encouraged me as I tried various activities. In the late evenings, all the young adults, including the leaders, hung out as our own family enjoying time together away from the youth.

I could not have asked for a better way to get to know the youth and their parents than spending a weekend out in nature praying and doing various activities together. I definitely left Sunday feeling welcomed into a new church family and having created new relationships with the parents and the youth.

Not only was it a great opportunity to build new relationships and extend the family, there were plenty of challenges and new experiences to be explored. Most of which made me smile though one was particularly frustrating, maybe next year.

Saturday Firsts
Participated in my first archery adventure with just a small bruise on the backside of my left elbow where the bow string caught my arm a couple times. Overall, my shot was not too bad once I figured it out, and I managed to hit the target.

The rock wall…..yes, this is the particularly frustrating activity, but for my first time, I am not going to be discouraged. In looking back, I see a lot of things that played havoc on this activity. I had recently done several miles of hiking and had my hiking boots on. My legs were turning to mush and even shaking underneath me. My feet are big enough that they really probably didn’t need big, heavy hiking boots to help them not stay on the climbing rocks. I did make it up the rope ladder to the wall and once had upwards movement but could not find the right handle and leg support to get any further. So after some frustrating moments, I came down not defeating the wall. There is always next year.

Sunday Firsts
One thing that I have wanted to do for many years is to go horseback riding though this was only around a small pin. Thanks to one of the mom’s sharing their tennis shoes, I did ride a horse not once but twice. The mom’s wanted to make sure there was a good picture of me riding, Bolt, and they were not happy with the first ones. Therefore, I road again. We did get into a trot on the back side of the pin for a bit. It was a lot of fun, and I definitely wouldn’t mind trying riding a horse again.

Other Weekend Smiles
Friends know that often you find me with a camera and that was definitely no different this weekend. I love capturing the random, unexpected pictures of people or the beauty of our surroundings. You catch so much feeling and personality. You see the light in their eyes, the exclamations in their smiles, and so much more. Then the opportunity to look back and remember the accomplishments, the fun, and the people you shared such an experience with. In looking back briefly at the pictures, some in particular definitely make me chuckle and laugh.

Casting the fishing line reminded me of my grandfather and going to his neighbor’s pond to fish or watching him scale the croppy for dinner. (Wishing my grandfather a very happy birthday yesterday!) Thanks to LB for reminding me how to cast my line. It was like riding a bicycle and came back pretty quickly.

Silly this may be…there was another family with the same last name as I though missing a letter. So when the leader did roll call of family’s last names, I just smiled when he hit their name knowing he was looking for them but actually feeling a part of a family though not actually mine. Though the first morning after sharing with the mom the commonality in our last names, she said something about when he called their name I too was included.

Prayer Activities
Saturday morning, we made family prayer jars to remind us to pray and to hold our prayers. Though my jar is not full of family prayers, the reminder of the jar to stop and pray for friendships, missionaries, leadership, family, love, happiness, joy, and to not fear “the Lord is my light and my salvation” Psalm 27:1 brings a smile to my face thinking of the wonderful time I had at Family Camp and all the great friends and family I have praying for me.

Sunday morning prayer, each family made two pieces of a quilt, what we were thankful for and what we are praying for. These quilt pieces are being put together to be hung in the youth space to remind us of what we are thankful for, what we are praying for, and the wonderful time we had together at family camp.

Who can argue with a weekend like this? What made you smile this week? How has God touched your life?

To read other Saturday Smiles, check out a Journal of Nobody's blog.