The Quest Goes On!

     Another service of "The Quest" continues, as today we focused on the Dead Sea Scrolls.  It was a neat little message tied to our theme of adventure and archeology:

     In 1947, a young boy adventurer on a quest for fun had discovered something in a cave that stunned the world:  The Dead Sea Scrolls.  Wrapped up and placed in jars of clay, these words from the Bible were handwritten a few thousand years ago, before Jesus was even born in Bethlehem. 
    The significance of this discovery was this:  reading these scrolls, archeologists discovered that over the course of 2,000 years, the Word of God had not changed one bit.  It remained the same, to the letter, as what we read in our Bibles today. 
     To think, these scrolls had remained in jar of clay, buried in a cave, just waiting to be unearthed.  Fortunately, they were discovered – and the Word was shared with the world once more.

     Around a hundred years after the Dead Sea Scrolls were first hidden in a cave in Qumran, the Apostle Paul wrote something interesting.  He wrote in the book of 2 Corinthians that we ourselves are all simple jars of clay.  He added that like the ones found by this young boy, we contain gifts, treasures and the unchanging Word of God. 
     The question is, will you keep these hidden and buried away for years and years?  Or will you share them with the world?

    It was a fun morning for Madison and the other kids.  She takes so many notes, and shares them with Pastor Lance and the rest of the staff.  She goes to two services, so as usual, there's the double portion that goes to those kids of staff members and volunteers.  But she also sees the process each morning. She's mentioned this before, but she said one thing she might want to do when she grows up is become a children's pastor.  Just that very thought is sweet, isn't it?

    Daddy saw the Dead Sea Scrolls one time.  This was at the conclusion of one of the greatest trips you could ever go on.  All of Israel is simply amazing - a wonderful place.  Anyway, this was one of the last things I got to do - see the Dead Sea Scrolls in that museum.  It was pretty awesome to see, and quite a reverent place.  Only… the museum these scrolls is housed in… looks like a big serving of Cool Whip.

    I wrote a post card back to Mommy - we were dating at the time.  It had this image above on the front, so Daddy wrote her and told her that today we visited Israel's famous Cool Whip Museum.  And then I went on to describe the wonders of Cool Whip, and all the individual exhibits inside.

    Our tour guide was amazingly unimpressed.  "This is what you think of our country?"

     Yes, that was awkward!  Anyway, the rest of the day was a bit more subdued - we got home, ate and did some serious relaxing.  The weather cleared out this morning, after another amazing downpour.  We've gotten a huge amount of rain lately, including some flash flooding this morning.  So much water, and nowhere to put it!

    But the rest of the afternoon was dry, and subsequently hotter too.  We had plans to do this or that, but we did actually have a full day yesterday. So all that said, we stayed at home and reviewed a bit of homework, played some games and of course read some more from our books.  Madison really looks forward to reading time at night.  And also, she looks forward to the hide-and-seek game.  Daddy comes up the stairs to wish her a goodnight with the standard reading/praying before bed - but always part of the routine is the hide-and-seek.  Madison will leave false clues, like closing the bathroom door and leaving the light on.  Or stuffing a pillow under the blanket of her bed, as if she's hiding there.  And of course, Daddy has to fall for it all, because Madison is squeezed into the linen closet down the hall - or in tonight's case, she was in a clothes hamper.  She jumps out and shouts:  "BOO!"

     Daddy gets scared - it's all part of the routine!