PRECIOUS STONES

Today I shadowed in the Special Needs ministry at my new church, called Precious Stones. I am getting to know everyone, and am honestly blown away by the level of ministry that takes place weekly in the Journey Kids section of my church. I was a shadow today, which means I helped and observed. *grin* You know me, I can't sit and watch!

I started out with the young kids, and loved it. I felt sort of at-home, as I'm used to little people. I met people and jumped right in. Of course, I can't share names, but I will say, I loved every moment with the younger kids. During that service, they also have a teen/adult class so I went over there too.

At first I felt sort of out of my element because I'm not used to that age, but immediately recognized one of them from Camp. Sure enough, the young man and his parents were there. His Dad even had on a Camp Barnabas shirt! *grin* God did that! *grin*

I won't mention names from this class either, as there are confidentiality rules, but, I will say that I found a couple new friends in the upper grade class too. One has a love for little matchbox type cars. We had fun playing with them. Of course, I went nuts because there were several from the Cars movie. He was non-verbal, but he smiled at me several times. I liked him, and look forward to being with him again. *grin*

We had about 15 minutes left, and I realized that one of the guys was signing. (I was too busy with the cars with my other friend to notice) I wound up signing with him, and his face kind of lit up when he realized I knew sign. To me, that was priceless, as I love those types of moments.

Of course, when it was all over, two of the younger ones came in and hugged me. *grin* One came in, in all honesty, because her parents were in there, but she walked over to me and hugged me. It was so cute! The other boy came in just to hug me, and I smiled.

After it was all over I talked with the amazing gal who is in charge of the program, and I honestly couldn't pick one or the other, so I told her to put me where she needs me. I told her I was willing to serve wherever she needed me. She appreciated that. *grin* I can only imagine trying to manage all those volunteers. *grin*

Karen stated last week that she thought this chapter I would really bloom. I agree with her on that. *grin*

In case you're wondering, yes, I went to church service first and LOVED it too. I am going to have to start making some decisions though, as my Sunday School meets during first service. *grin* I'll be honest, I like having to make this sort of decision though. Being in a church this size gives me so many opportunities! I'm at home!!! *grin*

*grin*
Life.
Is.
Awesome!