Back to School News

For those of you who check in on us regularly, let me assure you that we are well, just extremely busy. I thought an update of the happenings was in order so here’s what we have been up to. Carey, who was my assistant extraordinaire, was promoted to Keystone Elementary’s new media specialist. With this new position came a lot more responsibility. I think she is really enjoying it and I know that she is doing a great job. 

I was given the go ahead to create a Parent Resource Room at our school (the PRR if you will).  With the help of some community-minded volunteers we turned an old book storage room into an inviting meeting place. Parents come to learn ways that they can be involved in their child’s education and are given activities and ideas to use at home.  Plans are already in the works for high school honor students to come over 4 days a week to conduct tutoring sessions with struggling students. The main goal of the PRR is to encourage parents to get involved and if they are not sure how to do it, the PRR gives them some tools to help make that happen.

The new mom’s class has met 3 times and our next meeting is in collaboration with the Safety Council. Each of the girls will be getting a new car seat and lessons on how to safely install them. The cost of the brand new seats is $20. The girls will pay half and Seeds of Grace will pay the other half.

As far as Book Bus goes we are back to our once a month schedule. The Melrose stop has become very popular. It’s no exaggeration to say we give over a 100 books away each time we’re there. We continue to enjoy our High Ridge route and are thinking of working out a plan to start servicing the McRae area too. We are having shelves made for our abundance of books. A sweet retired carpenter has made this his own project and we have received some monetary donations to help pay for materials.  

As I look back over the things that have transpired I am amazed by both what has been done and what is still left to do. I continue to pray that we will follow the blueprint that God has put before us. Carey and I marvel at how eager people are to help in many ways, yet we are still waiting on God to send us a few more folks who have the desire to make a commitment to this ministry. We continue to actively wait and confidently rest in the knowledge that He knows the big plan for what is in store.

Entrance to PRR (formerly Book Room)

It's amazing what a little paint and a lot of TLC can do.

Can you pick out the pinterest ideas and the dumpster finds?

Maybe It is Coming Together

For a long time, it has felt (I'm going to speak for Teri here too), like we were kinda doing this on our own. For a long time, there were only a handful of people who were helping us, and we had just a few wads of cash that people had donated. And, don't get us wrong, it was enough, we were lacking nothing...except patience. 

You see, we have been dreaming these enormous, crazy dreams for about two years now. We have moved painstakingly slow, or so it seemed to us. Now...

We have our SECOND mommy class planned for August 1.
The book bus has been in "business" for more than a year. 
We had a very encouraging conversation with the county manager this week. 
We changed our book bus schedule, and several High Ridge residents noticed. 
We received a check made out to Seeds of Grace, our first.
We have realized we need to get an image designed to use on letterhead, thank you notes, etc.
A small, quiet group of women have been working on a Seeds of Grace cookbook for us to give away to our book bus friends, and they hope to go to print in the next two weeks.
It may not be directly related, but it has still been part of our dream- there will be a parent resource room at KHES this year!

We still have lots of big dreams and many are unfulfilled, but we are moving! A big thank you to all of you who have faithfully prayed, dreamed with us, worked on some little/big task, donated time/money, and spread the word about what we are doing! Keep dreaming with us! It is starting to get exciting!

Sometimes It Takes 9 Months

It may take 9 months to have a baby, but it took us 9 months to put together a
baby class for young moms. It was definitely worth it, though. The four girls
that attended agreed and are excited to come back for the next gathering.
Episcopal Children's Services shared two DVDs that
touched on the importance of touch, conversation, reading and
basically interacting with your child. It encouraged young parents to turn off
the TV and put down their cell phone and spend time bonding and playing with
their newborn. The girls enjoyed the information that was shared as well as
snacks and a special gift bag for each of them. The class ended with some
conversation, and all the girls excited to meet again. We are excited too- not
just for the opportunity to teach, but to encourage and become a part of a
support system within our community both for these girls and their babies.

The "Moms to Be" were thrilled with their gift bags. Thanks to Suzie, Deb,
and Jenah for all their efforts to put them together.

Everyone loves a cupcake

One of our new moms and grandma to be!

Could You Help?

You know the mail carriers have their creed. Here is the Book Bus creed: Neither tropical storms, road construction or mud will keep the Book Bus from sharing books with eager readers! At least that was the case on Saturday.  We were a bit worried at the beginning of the week but by Thursday we knew it was a go. Not only did we do our six stops in High Ridge but we also added a Melrose stop at the apartments behind Melrose Elementary off SR 26. We were thrilled with the response of the residents and plan to make it a regular stop.

I am not able to find the words to describe to you the emotion that fills me when we pull up to our Book Stop and there are cars and people everywhere waiting on us! There are always words of appreciation, sometimes there are requests for certain authors or types of reading material. I feel safe in saying that Carey and I both believe that our Book Bus is “God driven” . I am amazed at all He has blessed us with over the past year and I don’t just mean books. The people we have met and the things we have learned are priceless.

There are a few things that we are in need of. The Bible says, “ Ask and you shall receive” so we’re asking. We have noticed that preschool and board books are very popular. We are always running low on these. We have recently been offering cookbooks which have been a big hit, but our supply is running low. We also had a specific request for Monster Truck books. I didn’t want to leave that out. If you have anything you would like to donate please contact Carey or Teri. Thank you for caring about and sharing  how God is using us in our community.

They came inspite of road blocks and construction!

Time out to read :)

Our Melrose Stop!

We are official!

So, I received our certificate of incorporation in the mail last week.

So, it's official, we are Seeds of Grace, Inc.

And...I use the word "so" way too much. Ha.

1,000

On our next book bus tour, we will have been driving down those dusty, dirt roads for a year.

We have more books in our closet than we can give way.

We are talking about expanding and wondering what's next for this adventure.

We have filed articles of incorporation and are looking at filing for federal non-profit status.

For the last few weeks, I have had at least one person a week tell me they are interested in volunteering.

And we have had more than 1,000 page views. I know some people get that much traffic in a day or even in an hour, but for me...it still seems like we ought to celebrate. It is a milestone.

We might not be big. We might not have any power or money to speak of.

But...we are moving, we are thinking, and God is using what seems so little to us.

We are grateful and excited about the movement we see!

Agriculture

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Storyline Conference and heard Donald Miller say,

"The spiritual life is like agriculture, not commercialism."

And today, I read these quotes...

Oscar Romero wrote, "It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts: it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is the Lord's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. No sermon says all that should be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplished the Church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. That is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted knowing they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that affects far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in that. This enables us to do something, and do it very, very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the Master Builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builder; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future that is not our own."

May we remember this as we plan, and write vision statements and business plans, and apply for 501c3. May we remember this as we watch families continue to disintegrate. May we remember this as we work and minister.