It's the last day of summer break today, and as has been the theme of the summer, it rained. It rained A LOT. There has been this band of rain that just never ends, a long train of rain that keeps going by and by and by. It's like one of those never-ending trains out in the Midwest, one that just keeps moving by and doesn't seem to have any end in sight. Flash-flood warnings are in place, and a quick glance at the rain totals today show us at ten inches over for the year already. Also, the temperature this month has been remarkably cooler than usual.
Wonderfully, there hasn't really been so much of an effect on us personally. The rain cancelled one little squirt gun party for Mrs. Pam back in May, but that's it. All the camps that Madison has gone to, not one thing she's been to has been affected by the huge amount of rain this summer. It's another something to be very grateful for, indeed.
So what did we do today? Mommy and Madison were off looking for back to school items, a few last minute ones. The crowds out there are crazy, the shoppers something like you'd see just before Christmas.
Daddy was home for a tiny bit with Madison and Mommy, but the girls stayed home tonight, because tomorrow is the first day of school, and we were hoping for a good night's rest. With the rain falling outside, it's nice to go to sleep to. Tonight, we said our prayers and read from our ongoing series, and were off to sleep early.
Tonight's message was about "Soul Surfer," one Daddy was sort of cobbling together throughout the day. It turned out well, although it isn't identical to the earlier Soul Surfer message from a few years ago. Daddy chose this one to talk about as Madison just watched this movie recently, and as I close up for today, here are the notes showing what we talked about tonight at KidPak:
CUE SLIDE: “ALFINA FRESTA”
HOST: “No. Yet that’s what many of us feel tempted to do when life hands us lemons. When waves of bad news come crashing in, we have all kinds of reactions. I’ll be honest with you: when I was your age, my reaction was to give up. Yes, I was short. God made me that way. I still am. But I also had somewhat of a mental disorder, and guess what? I gave up. Why bother trying if you’re not going to be able to see anything in life? Everyone is always there first, bigger than life, and who are you anyway?”
CUE SLIDES BELOW: “JURASSIC PARK, INDIANA JONES, JUMANJI, LILO & STITCH, BLUE HAWAII
CUE SLIDE: “SOUL SURFER”
CUE SLIDE: BETHANY BEFORE 2003
CUE SLIDE: BETHANY AFTER 2003
CUE SLIDE: PERSPECTIVE
CUE SLIDE: WAVES
Wonderfully, there hasn't really been so much of an effect on us personally. The rain cancelled one little squirt gun party for Mrs. Pam back in May, but that's it. All the camps that Madison has gone to, not one thing she's been to has been affected by the huge amount of rain this summer. It's another something to be very grateful for, indeed.
So what did we do today? Mommy and Madison were off looking for back to school items, a few last minute ones. The crowds out there are crazy, the shoppers something like you'd see just before Christmas.
Daddy was home for a tiny bit with Madison and Mommy, but the girls stayed home tonight, because tomorrow is the first day of school, and we were hoping for a good night's rest. With the rain falling outside, it's nice to go to sleep to. Tonight, we said our prayers and read from our ongoing series, and were off to sleep early.
Tonight's message was about "Soul Surfer," one Daddy was sort of cobbling together throughout the day. It turned out well, although it isn't identical to the earlier Soul Surfer message from a few years ago. Daddy chose this one to talk about as Madison just watched this movie recently, and as I close up for today, here are the notes showing what we talked about tonight at KidPak:
“Rising Above It All”
CUE SLIDE: “Superflix”
HOST: “Well, we have one last wave of summer here before school starts, and it’s been a great summer for a lot of us. Some great things happened for us, and maybe some other things didn’t go exactly as planned, but that’s life – it ebbs and flows like the tide, good times and bad news both washing ashore from time to time.”
CUE SLIDE: “WRIGHT FLYER”
HOST: “It was over at a beach that the Wright Brothers had it all figured out. When invisible forces come against you, look up.”
CUE SLIDE: “WRIGHT FLYER POINTED UPWARD AS ARROWS OF WIND GO BENEATH”
HOST: “They pointed their airplane upward, above the force of wind. And they flew above it all.”
CUE SLIDE: “WRIGHT FYLER IN THE AIR”
HOST: “Today we’re going to talk about a few people that I think rose above it all. It all started for me with this young lady I heard for the first time this weekend.”
CUE SLIDE: “ALFINA FRESTA”
HOST: “Her name is Alfina Fresta, and I saw a video of her this weekend that was just inspirational. You see, she was born with cerebral palsy. She has no control over what her limbs will do, her legs and her arms. I looked at her in a video, and I looked with such pity. This is a girl who is limited, I thought, someone who won’t be able to do much with her life.”
HOST: “I am happy to report that I was wrong, and I’ll show you what I mean in just a little bit. This reminds me of this past weekend, when we were talking about Auggie Pullman. Remember him?”
CUE SLIDE: AUGGIE PULLMAN
HOST: “He was born differently, but he didn’t do the thing that most of us are tempted to do. What’s that, you ask? Most of us are tempted to blame God for making us this way, and use that as an excuse to not do anything at all. To give up! But Auggie, Alfina, the Wright Brothers… they all have one thing in common: they didn’t sit around blaming God. They got up, and did the best they could with what they had.”
CUE SLIDE: “OCEAN WAVES”
HOST: “Before we go any further, I want to talk to you about someone in the Bible who was also born a bit differently. Let me read from the Bible here:”
CUE SLIDE: “LUKE 19:1-3”
HOST: “Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man named Zacchaeus lived there. He was a chief tax collector and was very rich. 3 Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was. But he was a short man. He could not see Jesus because of the crowd.”
CUE SLIDE: WAVES
HOST: “And that’s the end, right? He said, ‘God, you created me this way. You created me so small and pathetic and you know what? You made a real loser. Good job! I’m going home!’ Is that what he said?”
Let audience respond.
HOST: “No. Yet that’s what many of us feel tempted to do when life hands us lemons. When waves of bad news come crashing in, we have all kinds of reactions. I’ll be honest with you: when I was your age, my reaction was to give up. Yes, I was short. God made me that way. I still am. But I also had somewhat of a mental disorder, and guess what? I gave up. Why bother trying if you’re not going to be able to see anything in life? Everyone is always there first, bigger than life, and who are you anyway?”
HOST: “This brings me to another person who found the waves crashing down on them in a bad way. She was asking God this same exact question, ‘Why am I this way? Why did you let this happen?’”
HOST: “Last week, my daughter was wanting to watch a movie, and I was just not in the mood for it because I knew it would be hard to watch at first. This movie takes place on Kauai, which is an island in Hawaii, and yes, that’s the island where Bart and Christine just returned from… welcome back, by the way!”
CUE SLIDES BELOW: “JURASSIC PARK, INDIANA JONES, JUMANJI, LILO & STITCH, BLUE HAWAII
HOST: “They filmed a whole lot of amazing movies here, from Jurassic Park to Indiana Jones to Jumanji. The movie Lilo and Stitch takes place here. And so does one of my favorites, Blue Hawaii.”
HOST: “But one of the best is also a true story of something that actually happened here on this island. It’s the movie Soul Surfer.”
CUE SLIDE: “SOUL SURFER”
HOST: “This is the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a skilled surfer ready to take on the world. But on October 1st, 2003, she was surfing and practicing for an upcoming championship. And that’s when her whole world changed.”
CUE SLIDE: BETHANY BEFORE 2003
HOST: “It was Shark Week last week, and I’m not entirely sure if this is something Bethany Hamilton’s family celebrates so much. She was out surfing with a friend, when suddenly she was attacked by a shark. It bit her arm completely off.”
CUE SLIDE: BETHANY AFTER 2003
HOST: “Where do you even go from here? I mean, this changes everything. Here’s a clip from the movie Soul Surfer, where Bethany drops all her nice answers about the situation, and gets honest about how she feels.”
CUE CLIP #1: PERSPECTIVE
CUE SLIDE: PERSPECTIVE
HOST: “The truth is this: we don’tknow God’s plan completely, and we don’t have all the answers. And like Bethany, I think it would be okay to be tempted to think that this completely ruins your life, ruins your chances at surfing ever again, of course, let alone winning anything. But there’s this inspirational fighting spirit still inside her. Listen to what she says in this clip here.”
CUE CLIP #2: I CAN DO ALL THINGS
HOST: “She still wants to surf. And her dad tells her straight up: You can do all things. That’s from the Bible, in case you missed it.”
CUE SLIDE: “PHILIPPIANS 4:13 NIV”
HOST: “ Philippians 4:13 tells us we can do all things through Him who gives us strength.”
CUE SLIDE: WAVES
HOST: “Yeah, you may look at a small man like Zaccheaus as nothing, or a one-armed surfer as unable to do much, or someone with cerebral palsy as really limited. But with God, all things are possible.”
HOST: “It’s all up to you. When challenges hit, it’s all up to you. What will you do? Sure, you need time to think, time to heal, time to pray. But there comes a time where you get up, and rise to the challenge. Let’s see an actual news report to see what Bethany was up to once she starting trying to win again.”
CUE CLIP #3: BETHANY WINNING
CUE SLIDE: BETHANY SURFING
HOST: “She’s a winner on the waves, but she’s got a ministry that helps others too. She’s changing lives. Her life has exploded in directions that would have never been possible before, and she’s making a positive incredible impact on people’s lives, helping thousands of people all over the world. Did you see her in ‘Dolphin Tale 2’? Her impact is staggering. God used that, used her, and there’s a great quote at the end of this movie, and I’m going to share it with you now.”
CUE CLIP #4: WOULD YOU CHANGE THINGS IF YOU COULD?
CUE SLIDE: WAVES
HOST: “It’s a beautiful story, all of it true. I’m glad my daughter made me watch that movie again, because I was inspired. And then I saw this video of this girl the next day, Alfina Fresta?”
CUE SLIDE: “ALFINA”
HOST: “Remember her? She has cerebral palsy. She’s been probably told she’s not going to be able to do too much with her life. But God gave her a gift, and I don’t think anything is going to stop her.”
HOST: “Remember her? She has cerebral palsy. She’s been probably told she’s not going to be able to do too much with her life. But God gave her a gift, and I don’t think anything is going to stop her.”
CUE CLIP #5: ALFINA
HOST: “This was stunning to me. Because I prejudged her. But God had a wonderful surprise for us all, and I know this isn’t the last time we’ll hear this incredible voice. You see, it’s all up to you. Give up? Or rise up to the challenge.”
HOST: “We talked about Zacchaeus earlier. He was made short. But you know something? Instead of giving up and going home and blaming God for making him that way, he did something different. He rose up. Let’s look at how his story ends.”
CUE SLIDE: “LUKE 19:4-6”
HOST: “So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree. He wanted to see Jesus, who was coming that way. Jesus reached the spot where Zacchaeus was. He looked up and said, ‘Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay at your house today.’ So Zacchaeus came down at once and welcomed him gladly.”
CUE SLIDE: WAVES
HOST: “The amazing thing about this story is that nobody knows who all those other people were that got to see Jesus that day. Zacchaeus’ name is in the bible forever, because he rose up to the challenge. And let me tell you something. As of this moment, my mind is blank when it comes to the names of any other famous surfers out there. The only surfer’s name I know – and I’m not alone in this – is Bethany Hamilton. And opera singers? You guessed it. I have no clue who can sing opera, but I know this Alfina girl is amazing.”
HOST: “The point is this: don’t ever let yourself feel limited in any way. Whatever waves come crashing in, good or bad, you’ve got an incredible mighty God who is with you every step of the way. The seashore has many grains of sand, but God’s thoughts towards you are even greater in number. His love for you is deeper and farther across than any ocean. No matter what you look or feel like, He is with you, ready to help you rise up and walk over those waves with Him.”
HOST: “Let us pray.”
CUE SLIDE: WAVES
HOST: “The amazing thing about this story is that nobody knows who all those other people were that got to see Jesus that day. Zacchaeus’ name is in the bible forever, because he rose up to the challenge. And let me tell you something. As of this moment, my mind is blank when it comes to the names of any other famous surfers out there. The only surfer’s name I know – and I’m not alone in this – is Bethany Hamilton. And opera singers? You guessed it. I have no clue who can sing opera, but I know this Alfina girl is amazing.”
HOST: “The point is this: don’t ever let yourself feel limited in any way. Whatever waves come crashing in, good or bad, you’ve got an incredible mighty God who is with you every step of the way. The seashore has many grains of sand, but God’s thoughts towards you are even greater in number. His love for you is deeper and farther across than any ocean. No matter what you look or feel like, He is with you, ready to help you rise up and walk over those waves with Him.”
HOST: “Let us pray.”
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