Fridays are all about HEAVEN. But, more than just a wonderful reunion of our hearts with God when we leave this life, Heaven is something we can experience, cultivate and welcome here and now! 

We are carriers of God's love, light and BLESSING into the world around us, like little pools or pockets of Heaven on Earth. It's all about changing our perspective, reorienting our hearts to God's will and His Way. On Friday we get a special gift this year to remind us that God's love changes our perspective. A Kaleidescope! As we watch the colors change and new shapes form, its captivating! We can know, as God's holy and chosen people, blessed with the immeasurable goodness of a loving Father, that no matter what comes our way, we have an unshakable hope that with God, nothing is wasted, nothing is too broken that it can't be remade into something beautiful. Through the valleys of challenge and heartache, we can trust in the heart of our Good God and know that He is working ALL THINGS together for good. Take sometime this summer to chat with your kiddos about the following bullet points! 

• What is the next blessing YOU can offer? 
  • Gratitude, kindness, love, care, compassion. 
  • This is a taste of Heaven HERE NOW! 
• God is trying to fit as much blessing into our lives as possible, what is our perspective? 
  • We all have UNLIMITED KINDNESS TO GIVE 
  • Generosity is the way of life. - think back to Thursday's Sustaining Spiritual Practices! 
• Blessings are often tied to REST and the Sabbath, not what we can DO for God. Think doing WITH rather than doing FOR.
• What stories in the Bible do we see this truth in....?
  
• What is your favorite way to spend time WITH God?

Our worship for the day comes from the songs

• -Keleidescope by Urban Rescue 
• -The Blessing by Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes

Together we are Kingdom Bringers! 
May the Lord BLESS you and KEEP you, make His face shine upon you and give you PEACE  ​<3

Being formed in the Image of God, carriers of His love, light and glory. We are uniquely designed to reflect Him into our world. Today we learned about the gentle formation of clay into pottery. We learned about the firing process and the ancient Japanese art form - Kintsugi. Clay can be reused 100000's of times as long as it isn't fired, but as soon as it has been through the refining fire, its precious, like glass. However, unlike glass, if it shatters, it can be made more valuable. The lord takes our broken pieces and uses them for good. It is truly a blessing that He is with us, for us, and working on our behalf for His glory! 

Thursday: The Blessing Expands

• Bless God - Welcome in His Presence. BARAK! 
  
• When we bless God it is actually His Presence, or our awareness of His presence, that increases within us. 
  
• Almost every prayer of the Jewish people started with “Blessed are You, our Lord.”
  
• Lesson on the 7 Hebrew words for praise that engage our WHOLE body as we worship (more than just when we sing songs at church/. Ask them what they think of when I say the word "Praise" -  Just like the Hebrew language has different words for different "love" it is also far more descriptive when it comes to the word "praise". Here are the 7 types of praise we talked about today: 
  
  • Yadah - surrendering and knowing God. This form of praise is like a child wanting to be picked up by a parent or grandparent. The comfort you feel in knowing the one who holds you! It often looks like both arms raised in the air. The song I sing to them here is "Surrender" by Hillsong
    
  • Todah - standing in agreement with God. Can be in His promises, His Character, or what He says of us. It's like a handshake! It often is a right hand raised or pressing forward. The song I referenced here was "King of my Heart" by Steffany Gretzinger and "One thing Remains" by Passion.
    
  • Barak - Bowing down before the King. This is a form of praise that comes when we are reverent! Psalm 8 and many others are a place where we can see this heart of praise "what is mankind that you are mindful of us." This often looks like kneeling. We talked about how small we feel when we look at the stars and we did an imagination session of what it would be like to walk into the Throne Room of the Kindest King. I'd say a good song for this one is "Here I am to worship"  by Hillsong
    
  • Shabak - to SHOUT! This can come from Halal, from fear, from anger, from sadness. A shabak is a holy roar. That is how we fight our battles. We see this is the story of Jericho, and any Psalm that says "shout to the Lord". 
    
  • Zamar - praise with instruments. Anytime you see in the Bible, praise the Lord with the harp, exalt him with the lyre, etc...  That is zamar, it's the most common form of worship we see in our churches. 
    
  • Halal - to be clamorously foolish the Lord. We shared the examples of King David running through the streets in the equivalent of his "underwear", and Mary washing Jesus' feet with her tears. A halal heart is about being undone and not caring about your prestige or image, but worshipping God with your whole heart! Halal is where we get our word for Hallelujah, and it can also mean spinning and twirling...
    
  • Tehila - Tehila is spontaneous song! This can come at any time but is a gift to US because we put into words revelation from the Holy Spirit about the goodness of God and his Creation! Tehilla is To-Heal-Us, because we often go into Tehilla when we are deepest into His wisdom and His presence, this is where we are in the secret place and having revelation from the Spirit of God! The best part of Tehilla is that this will be our native language in Heaven! This will be our unending new song! 
    

Wednesday: The Blessing Within 

• The SUSTAINER of the Blessing. God is NEAR. As near as the breath in our lungs. The very thing keeping us alive. - You can live 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, but only minutes without breath. 
  
• An ARMY of blessing - God of Angel armies - help them to see. 
  
  • We are all filled with the Holy Spirit, and we can learn to listen - LOVE. 
    
  • God’s presence with us 24/7 
    
  • Sustainable living - more than just composting and eating healthy, this is a way to be sustained, to be nourished, to be blessed and BE a blessing. 
    
• He calls us His friends, He walks with us, and His plans have been good from the beginning
  
• He delights in us declaring all the blessings He has given to us. 
  

• Fruit of the Spirit: 
  
  • Love: Strawberry- All of the other "fruit of the spirit" is based in Love. What does it look like to be loving and how do we see that all the other qualities a person can muster are nothing if it's not from a place of love (1 Cor 13:1-7). God Himself IS love and that when we are connected to him, of course we would be loving and show love - like our strawberries are connected to the vine, and they all produce delicious fruit. Discuss how it feels to be loved and to love someone or something. Love "reaches out" - like the runners of the strawberry plant. Love is patient, kind, forgiving, slow to anger, not easily offended, (1 Corinthians 13:7-11). Love is shown/felt in family, in marriage, in Jesus, animals, the Holy Spirit, and friendship. Love is something to be ON DISPLAY (like the seeds that cover the outside of the strawberry) It is the Love of God that makes us resilient, and the blessing of God’s love and favor are present even when we are going through something hard or painful. We can trust that God loves us and is for us. 
    
  • Joy: Orange - our orange is bright, energizing, and juicy, much like joy. Joy is protective, joy is fragrant, and an atmosphere changer and it is the Joy of the Lord that is our Strength. This one brought some good depth today as we talked about the fact that the peel, though it smells amazing and squirts the delicious smell all over (it is the fragrant part), it is actually incredibly bitter. Jus like in our “Be Attitudes of Matthew 5, the hardest parts of life often illuminate the depth of Gods blessings all the more. THIS IS WHERE THE BOOM HAPPENED - The hard and bitter parts of our lives, like grief, sorrow and pain, when peeled back and dug deep into, REVEAL the glorious sweetness of Joy. Joy is an atmosphere changer, but Joy requires us to enter into our deepest toughest most bitter places in order to come through with compassion and awareness. Joy is so much more than happiness, it is knowing that at the core of it all, there is resurrection hope for the here and now. Wow. We talked about how Joy and Sadness (much like the movie inside out) have to coexist. It is when the grief and joy harmonize that we are made strong. 
    
  • Peace: Peach - Oh the fun revelations and Ah-Ha moments here! As we examined the peach, its soft and comforting outside, the juicy sweet inside and the armored pit deep within, we noted that our peace brings comfort, sweetness to our responses, and protection to our souls. WOW! The peach pit is amorous, and the PEACE of God, which passes all understanding GUARDS our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 7-9) The soft seed within the pit is our heart and mind and Jesus is like the amorous pit guarding against any lie, accusation, or attack of the enemy who would love to distract, destroy and diminish us. We will relate back to this when we talk about the blessings from Balaam (a wild story anchored in the truth of God’s POWERFUL blessing for us. 
    
  • Patience: Banana - The Lord is patient with us (each of us) and he is SO gracious and slow to anger. He wants everyone to know him, and he is patient with those of us that know him as well. (2 Peter 3:8-9) I shared my prayer with this fruit for my Daddy to know Jesus, and we talked about how long God will wait for people to make all things new, because he doesn't want anyone to be without him.
    
  • Kindness: Kiwi - As we examined our Kiwi, we noted that the sweet part is in the center, and the sour part is the green outsides, yet the seeds have these connected pockets of sweet juicy goodness that extend into the sour. Our kindness is rooted in the sweetness and the kindness of God towards us and our own stories. As we experience the Kindness of God our lives are transformed, and we are able to reach out and into the lives of others bringing sweetness into the sour world around us. It is actually kindness that leads us to repentance and heals us! We learned that we could bring sweetness/kindness into any sour situation. We talked about the woman at the well, and the woman caught in the act of adultery here as examples of Jesus' kindness, towards those in sin and those exercising their righteousness in harsh and unloving ways. 
    
  • Goodness: Mango - The Mango pit is HUGE! We can know and trust that God is GOOD all the time, and all the time God is GOOD. When we allow God's goodness to settle in our hearts and we operate out of doing good to others, then the core of our actions is without fault, and we can stand protected against false accusations. Jesus was good, to the CORE, and when we choose to follow him and follow his ways, we, though misunderstood, abused or hurt, can always know that He works all things for our Good and His glory (Romans 8:28-29). One friend even shared how God was good even in all the discipline that he has given us as we learn to walk in His ways! Wow
    
  • Faithfulness: Blackberries - Faithfulness is an attribute of God that he gives us to produce in our lives as well, this fruit is a gift that brings us a return. When we are faithful with the little things we are entrusted with more! What a gift! We may be able to count how many seeds are on a blackberry, but we can't even begin to understand how many black berries come from one blackberry bush in its lifetime! Talk about multiplication! He who began the good works in each of us is FAITHFUL to bring them to full completion. 
    
  • Gentleness: Apple - Though apples are our toughest fruit of our lesson, they are easily bruised on the inside. When we consider all the difficulties of life, bullying, rejection, and pain, it's easy to get bruised, however, the gift of gentleness allows our hearts to stay tender and be gentle to others who are hurting. The servant king did not tolerate those who chose evil, but gently healed, corrected, and administered his lovingkindness to them. We talked about how we do not have to tolerate or subject ourselves to bullies, or even be nice to them, but that our gentle yet clear and settled responses can be transformational for our heart and theirs. When people hurt our feelings, it is gentleness that we need to respond with, and gentleness that we need to bring back to those we have hurt. 
    
  • Self-control: Cherries - This lesson we included the fact that self-control leads to freedom. God's commands are our conditions to freedom, being a free people does not mean doing whatever we want whenever we want, in reality that is just straight chaos, but we serve a loving God, who is not in the business of controlling his beloved, but in fact offering them freedom through obedience. When we learn to practice self- control, we are actually practicing the greatest commandment... "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself." We practice self-care and self-love when we practice self-control and in turn, we learn to love others well though how we care for ourselves.
    
• What do you believe you have to give?
  
  • Pizza dough example - portion of dough is what is rolled out. When we are aware of the abundant blessings of God, we are far more willing and able to share those blessings with others.  
    
  • Widow at the temple - she wasn't held captive by her lack 
    
    • Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” John 6:38
      

Learning to walk in the way of Love requires us to follow someone…. Matthew 11:28-29
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a REAL REST. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” 

Our Worship to go with today was 
Thrive - Casting Crowns
He's Crazy about you - Tauren Wells 
Rebel - Anne Wilson (By request of the kiddos!)

• Tuesday's are FULL of provision. We talk all about what it means to be provided for and how we can reflect the heart of the Father as we provide well for the animals, friends, family and things that God has blessed us with. 
  
  God has blessed His Creatures, and He has blessed us with the ability to care for them!
  •  We share our favorite animal memories and look for the blessing of God within these memories
  • We acknowledge the ways we have learned to care for animals on the farm and the ways we can learn to care well.
  • We talk about what we all need, and yet how God meets our needs differently
• Matthew 5:3-12 - Our verse for the year, reminds us that God's blessing is found EVERYWHERE.
  • “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
    This is such a deep concept, but it is so fun to see kiddos grasp the truth that to be poor in spirit really means to live like Jesus, following the greatest commandments - loving God and loving others and ourselves well.  
  • Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 
    God is near to the brokenhearted, I love how your kiddos shared their deep concern for rejoicing with those who rejoice and being sad with those who are sad. Again, reflecting God's love to others. We can comfort others when we allow ourselves to be comforted by God, we can learn to give the comfort we have received away to others. 
    
  • Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
    ​I loved seeing this verse click today as we talked about what it meant to be meek. Not weak but humble. The faithful and gentle saints of God will one day inherit the new Heaven and the new earth. 
    
  • Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.
  • We talked about the importance of seeking after righteousness and how when we look for God's handiwork we see more of His goodness all around. 
  • Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.
    
  • God's mercies are new every morning, and it is such a blessing! We can respond by being merciful as well. 
  • Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 
  • Often times, a childlike faith will in fact see more of God in the details of life than a life that is consumed with worry, striving, or evil. 
    
  • Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 
  • With this part of the verse we talked about the difference between being a peaceMAKER and a peaceKEEPER. It is one thing to "keep the peace" and it is a very different thing to MAKE peace. One requires humility and boldness; the other is simply an attempt to be nice and not rock the boat. We are called to be bold and humble as we bring the peace of the Kingdom to our world.
  • Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. 
  • Bullying, being hurt, being taunted. No one wants these things in their life but look at the disciples of Jesus and how they suffered for the truth, for bringing love and unity to a world so divided. Surely, they brought the kingdom of God near, and surely, they lived in the reward of that kindness. 
  • Blessed are YOU when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 
  • Great is our reward when we are "offensive" to others as light is offensive to the eyes that have been in deep darkness. Its brightness isn't bad; it only brings awareness to the eyes and then illuminates wonderful things. To see a friend and a beloved child of God come to know the truth of God is a huge reward, and it is so worth the trail.
• Later in the sermon on the Mount (Jesus’ most FAMOUS talk which we should take seriously! All that he says and asks of us in these passages is to become like Him - its a process.) He talks about worry. As we watch the animals here on the farm, we don't see any of the animals stuck in worry. Specifically, Jesus uses the example of the “birds of the air”. As we watch our feathery friends soar and glide, we see their carefree nature in their daily life. Provided for. We are too. And we can trust that even in the “Be attitudes” we are provided for with blessings that far outweighs any of the suffering. HOW WILD IS THAT?!
• The tricky part of faith is trusting this truth even when we don't feel it. Think of the disciples who suffered for the truth of Jesus’ life giving work on the Cross. They KNEW it was true, and so they were unshakable in their declarations of the truth. 
• We discuss the truth of knowing that our heavenly father knows what we need even before we ask. 
• We talk about providing for our animals and how there are specific ways to care for their specific needs
• I enjoy sharing the blessings of today and more miraculous stories of God providing here on the farm. From the timing of God bringing our animals to the farm, our care, and even special donations that have come at the perfect time: hay, mobile grazing fences, a new pony and more! It is fun to hear how your kids have seen God provide for them as well. Ask them! 

• We cover several stories of God's Miraculous Act of Blessing/Provision:
  • Abraham
  • Isaac
  • Jacob
  • Joseph
  • Israel
  • Balaam - Read parts from Numbers 23-35
  • David - God with him and strengthening him/preparing him to lead
    • The Psalms
  • Elijah 1 Kings 17 - Fed by the ravens  and by a widow - recall the blessing in John 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 
  • Jesus - giving us full access into the family of God through His blessing. - The Cross
• We discussed nutrition as we covered Feeds and Food Labels 
  • We learned the 6 essential nutrients AND 6 spiritual disciplines
    • Fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, water
    • Prayer, Praise/Gratitude, Sabbath, Silence/solitude, Fellowship, Generosity. 
      • Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” John 6:38
    • Help your kiddos to think of activities that have spiritual “nutrition” and the appropriate amounts of “nutrients” Some examples below:
      • Church
      • Youth Group or bible studies
      • Jumping on the trampoline with friends of by yourself
      • Going for a hike/ bike ride
      • Learning to do a quiet time
      • Serving with your parents
      • Thinking of friends first
      • Practicing being generous with our words, our time and our talents.
  • For more fun Food Parts enjoy asking them about the plants/ veggies in your meals for the next few days! You can also as them what is in the food they are eating and discussing what our bodies need. 
    

Many blessing to you and your families! 

Our worship today: 
Canyons - Cory Asbury

Same God - Elevation Worship

Counting My Blessings ' Speh Schlueter - This is such a fun new addition to our Camp Worship. The message I love in this song is even if we were to TRY to count our blessings, we can't count that high. There are endless blessings for the children of God, and as we count, we become more aware of His goodness!

The Maker ' Chris August - This is the OG song of Camp. 11 years ago, as I was driving and praying, I asked God for the perfect song to represent all that I wanted kiddos to know in Camp and this song came out the next day! Perfect timing Papa! This song reminds our hearts that we were on the Father's heart when He was creating! We see Him in the details, in the beauty and the pain. His love energizes us and makes us come to life. The most amazing part of the song, in my opinion is the reminder that the same hands who formed all of creation were nailed to the cross to pay the ransom for our hearts. Jesus loves us so much that he causes the sun to rise, he makes the most eye-catching sun sets, he gives us all the good things we have, and yet he couldn't imagine heaven without us. So, he came for us. Oh, Praise GOD!