Unnoticed Desert

I feel like the last few weeks have been busier than normal. After camp was over we had Angee come visit us for two weeks. Angee is going to be the tour leader for the Nkomazi Choir from South Africa, which is going to tour the UK. It was so nice having her...a breath of fresh air...maybe I'm partial because she had no problem taking goofy picture with me. A week into her visit Marci our Choir Manager flew in, she traveled with us as well. I think the children enjoy it when we have visitors.


Monday of last week 18 of the kids and some of the chaperones borded a plane aroud 6:30 am to head to LA. Here they sang with Chris Daughtry on the Ellen show. I however stayed in Calgary with 8 of the kids and Terese. I was okay with that...it meant I got to sleep in instead of wake up at 4 in the morning. I got to sleep in and party for a couple of days...Terse and I took the kids to the zoo, Calgary tower (which is like the ball in downtown Dallas), to Chili's, Olympic Park (this is where they filmed the movie Cool Runnings so we were able to see the bobsled used in the movie) and we went and saw Horton Hears a Who...I like that movie. We also watched the other kids preform on the Ellen show...I think we all enjoyed ourselves.


Today we arrived back in Calgary at the Church we will sing in tomorrow. It's quite a big church, they have a Saturday evening service. The band that would lead worship was in the middle of soundcheck when I went into the sanctuary. I had an idea...what if we could stay and go to church. I have not been to church, fellowshiped with anyone...truly fellowshiped/worshiped with anyone in 7 months. I said something to Jenny who relayed it to the detail person at the church. Being on the road is like being in the middle of a desert (at least right now it is). I thought I saw a watering hole...but it was a mirage...Jenny asked the Detail person who in turn asked someone else and when the verdict reached me it was...it would not work out. I was so bummed...I walked out to the bus just to get my stuff and on the way to the bus just began to cry. I had not realised how much I miss fellowship, true fellowship...and it hit me hard today. I really miss music...funny how you can miss music when you are traveling with a choir. I miss the raw, heartfelt...music worship...I long for this...this is the real reason I wanted to stay for the service and being told no was a blow. I'm not sure why I am writting all this for the world to read...maybe so you can pray for me...maybe so I can vent. Either way there it is.


We watched the Prince of Egypt on our bus ride today (it was a long ride) after the movie a few of the kids had questions. "Auntie is this a real story?" "Auntie who killed all those babies?" We were able to talk about the story of Moses...I showed them where it was in Exodus...I think that really interested some of them. Before the movie Jackie was asking me a lot of questions about Jesus and who buried him, etc... So we got to talk about Old Testament sacrifice, Jesus' blood being shed as the ultimate sacrifice...all this with an 8 year old. "Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young" While watching the Prince of Egypt I began thinking about the story of Moses and the Bible in general.


We take Bible stories and put them on a child's level which is not a bad thing but as we grow we need to be able to see the entire story. When we are young we dring milk as we grow older we began to eat meat. The story of Moses, Noah, Samson and Delilah, Ester, Ruth, etc...are all stories we learn as children among many others. Truly stop and think about those stories though....Noah - the Lord wipes out the entire population of the earth because of how wicked it has become. He does save Noah's family because of their faithfulness and 2 of each kind of animal because he does not want to destroy the earth completly. Everything else however dies! I don't think it was an easy death either. Moses...He is picked up by the Pharoh's wife...is raised in the palace...has a brother...builds relationships. One day somehow he finds out he is not really a Prince he is a Hebrew, the ones who were slaves. He kills a man and flees. Then after getting comfortable in his new life the Lord tells him I want you to go back and confront Pharoh (your brother) and tell him to let my people go. Now think about this...your brother or sister has run away and years later returns...do you not want to rejoice and sit down and talk with them. Moses enters the palace Pharoh doesn't know what to think...then instead of being able to reunite with his brother he has to confront him and basically become his enemy. Ruth not only does her husband die, her husbands brother dies as well, her mother-in-law is a widow...and now she has to make a choice leave her mother-in-law and return to her people or stay with her mother-in-law and take on her customs and all. She decides to stay with her mother-in-law, which is the will of God and the Lord blesses her...but think about leaving all your loved ones to go to a strange new land. The Bible is not a children's book and yet it is. The Bible is the greatest love story ever told, it is full of Romance as well as war, sacrafice, loyalty, devotion, it is also a history book...it is truly a book of life...A book we take for granted as just a book...but it is living and written by God! I think maybe I should read it more...could be one reason it feels like a desert.