Thursday, January 05, 2006

Awesome God

It arrived!

The Awesome God CD for children came today and it has been playing non-stop. Before I give a review, I’d like to share a small story affirming the "awesomeness" of our God.

It all began in October, 2005. I am the leader for our club circle at Pioneer Girls, which has been a real "ride" this year. You see, our attendance went from ~50 girls last year, to close to 90 this year. To add to the importance of this ministry, almost 75% of the girls do not come from our church – many from no church background at all. This means a lot of them do not know who God is, who Jesus is, what God’s redemptive plan is for them, what Jesus did on the cross and through His perfect life, etc. At times, I was feeling overwhelmed with the burden of teaching accurately the things of God.

To add to the challenge, I have approximately 15 minutes in our opening to teach songs and 15 minutes to play games (then the girls head into small groups). So, naturally, my desire to teach biblical truths began to focus on the song time. I began praying for God to help me – thinking that He would inspire me, somehow, to write songs. The songs I was desiring, would teach of: 1) man’s depravity, 2) God’s Holiness, 3) Christ’s life and death and resurrection, 4) the character of God, 5) how we can know God… and of course, I wanted them to be fun musically. This truly felt like I was asking God for an incredible miracle, since I have only written one song (for my husband).

Then in November, the elder responsible for the spiritual care of the Pioneer Girls ministry approached me. He asked me if I had any prayer requests he could share with the elders to pray for. I told him about the things on my heart, adding my quest for "meaningful’ music to the list. A few weeks later, as I was Christmas shopping, I browsed through the children’s CDs at the local Christian bookstore. Nothing. Not what I was looking for, that is. Lots of nursery rhyme songs, adult worship songs sung by kids, bedtime lullabys, but nothing with real "teachability". I was again praying for God’s help and guidance.

December arrived and one day my husband came home to tell me he had placed my name on a list for a free children’s CD. One catch, though. I had to write a review on my blog about the CD. Sure, I thought. More of the same. But when I went to the website for the preview, I was amazed. I was staring at the screen… staring at a miracle. Here were the songs I was praying for. They had been around for a while, but the fact that my hubby "stumbled" upon this offer now, was clearly the hand of God giving me a precious gift.

We serve an Awesome God. My heart is encouraged by this CD, by the way it came to us, and by the opportunities we have to help the children in our lives know Him!

Tomorrow, I’ll write the review.

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