Buzz's Bunch 2017

This past Saturday we went to one of our favorite days all year-Buzz's Bunch at Virginia Tech!  I cannot even begin to describe how amazing this day is for our children that have special needs.  

This is our third year attending (maybe fourth) and each year it feels like coming home to a family reunion.  Dave was pretty happy to give Coach Buzz a good morning hug when we arrived.  We respect this guy so much as a coach and as a human being.  For someone who does not have a special needs child he just gets it.

We met Khadim Sy when he was a high schooler player in nearby Oak  Hill and now he is a star at VT (even if Coach Buzz gives him a hard time about his rebounding).  We are not sure how this is possible but this guy has grown over the summer.  He informed me he is now about 6'11.  His heart is as tall as he is and he is such a great guy.

David for some reason decided to talk some smack to Justin Robinson and he insisted to play him one-on-one:) We think the score was tied:)  These players truly get down on these kids level and enjoy them for who they are.  It is really an amazing thing to witness.  They are not doing it for show because there are only a handful of cameras around and none of them are media.

These guys are so sweet and kind to the campers-David got overwhelmed when it was time to go with his color group and a kind former player was there to hold his hand and get him where he needed to be.

Photo op with Ahmed Hill's jersey and the Hokie bird.

David may have Down Syndrome but this guy loves his basketball and he is a competitor.  He loved showing his skills off:)

Dude has skill and he also has watched enough NBA to try to be fancy:)  He also talks enough smack for a whole team!

Kyle had been gone all week to PGC basketball camp and Hope missed him so much.  Here she is literally hanging on to him for dear life!

Here are all the players laying hands on kids as Buzz prays for them.  I have to giggle looking at this picture because Caroline was also there that day and she has a huge crush on Chris Clark.  He is sitting right behind her and check our her expression!  She was one happy girl :)

Kyle and Caorline will be sophomores this year!  Where has the time gone?

Dave always finds the pretty ladies.....

This picture pretty much sums up the day for David.  Because of Buzz's Bunch David feels like these guys and the coaches are his family and best friends.  As he went down the autograph line he told each player how many points they were going to score each game.  He ended the line by telling Coach Buzz that he wanted the players and coaches to come to our house for a house party to eat pizza, play Xbox, and listen to Fetty Wap.

Coach Buzz and his players show their true character each August before the season ever begins.  They humble themselves to spend a Saturday with special needs children-many of whom do not get to participate in sports in a traditional way.  They bring their love and energy and meet our kids where they are.  As a parent my heart is full and thankful that Coach Buzz teaches his players that basketball can be used to intereact with and bless others.  He is one of our heroes!

July Photo Dump!

I am in total denial that we are close to the finish line of Summer 2017.  It has been a great but way busy-so busy that I am way behind on blogging.

After we left the mission trip with our youth they headed home to the mountains of Virginia, our family headed two hours to the beach to catch up with Kyle at his basketball tournament.  His Xplosion team was playing in a Big Shots tournament in Myrtle Beach and we missed the first half but we made it to the second half of the tourney.

Our family's attempt at a picture on the beach.  The boys do not love my photo ops all the time but the kids are growing and changing so fast that I insist:)

We enjoyed the beach-it has been years since I had been to Myrtle and Mike had never been!

I love vacations because it gives us time as a family to just be together and relax.  I have learned that time away together trumps new "stuff" anyday and we love traveling together.

Not sure why my boys look so angry, but they enjoyed playing in the ocean, the pool, the lazy river, and the putt putt course at our resort.

We also spent some time in a gym cheering on Kyle's Xplosion team playing in the 15u divison of Big Shots.  Amazingly these boys walked away winners!  It was drama-filled after some boys from DC were not happy our boys beat them and they had to be escorted out by the police twice.  Crazy!

Kyle's team does not look too intimidating but these boys can play some ball!

Kyle has grown so much as a player being on Team Xplosion and he loves every single minute of it.

Between basketball games, we loved watching this guy have a ball in the water.  He showed no fear which made us nervous.

We were thankful GG and Pops came to the beach with us.  We learned that Pops not only can find shark's teeth, but he is a master on the self checkout at the grocery store!  We ate well and rested a lot.  It was a great trip.

Between the mission trip and the beach vacation, we were gone for 10 days.  I was so excited to come home and enjoy the fruits of our garden.  We had great neighbors who watered and took care of our garden and we came home to a feast! This little 20x20 garden space has brought us such joy this summer and helped us really connect with our neighbors.  I never dreamed we would be so invested in this little garden.  Here is sweet Hope harvesting in her nightgown before getting ready for church this past Sunday.  She is my constant companion and whatever I am doing she jumps in whole-heartedly to be with me.  These are the days because very soon it will not be cool to wear her Ariel nightgown to the garden with Mom before 8:30a.m. on a Sunday morning.

This summer Kyle has played 29 basketball games between Xplosion and summer league with his school team. He has attended Virginia Tech's basketball camp earlier in the summer and this week he is at Eastern Mennonite at point guard college (PGC) to work on his basketball IQ and to learn how to be a leader on and off the court.  This kid loves the game of basketbal and has big goals and dreams.  We told him as long as he puts God and school first he can dream and pray big!  He has certainly put a lot of time and effort into his basketball game this summer.  

His friend Ian also attended camp with him and they were not thrilled with my picture ideas but they did pose (without smiles of course).  We have all missed Pookie aroud here but we know he is being challenged and is learning lots about the game he loves.

We have about a week left to enjoy the lazy days of summer-we have certainly enjoyed our time together before reality sets in!

Our Week in Charleston

I have had on my "to do" for days now to blog about our mission trip week in Charleston.  I have amazing pictures to share and we certainly had a wonderful time, but after such a spiritual experience it is so hard to put into words how God showed up for all 47 of us. After listening to our youth share their experience in Charleston in worship this morning, I knew I was finally read to put it into words. 

Youth ministry is not easy.  At all.  But I feel like this is exactly where God has called me to be for this season of my life.  I love these kids and I feel so privileged to get a front row seat to what God is doing in their lives.

This was  David's first ever mission trip.  Here he is with Miss Mary -our church host.  She prayed with me several times over the phone before we arrived, prayed and met with our group each night after worship and she was awesome!!  She is also a talented worship leader and key board player:) David was able to go becaue Mike was able to take a week's vacation and go as well!  Last year Mike could not go because he was transitioning to his new job and I remember his coworkers told me that last year he was annoyed he was not with us.  Well this year Mike was on the trip!!!!!

This picture makes my heart leap for joy.  We never planned for Hope to go on this trip but God had a different plan and it was amazing to watch her little 8 year old heart worship and serve God.  We had two complete families with us and it was awesome.  These three girls under the age of 12 handled the late nights and very early mornings like seasoned pros.  Their bibles were open, their hearts were huge and they served God like the big kids.  She and I served at a daycamp in Charleston and we had such fun with the toddlers in the morning and the elementary kids in the afternoon.

This picture also touches my Momma heart.  Hope adores Kyle and looks up to him so much.  She loves basketball like Kyle.  She loves Lebron James because of Kyle and my prayer is that her brother will take advantage of her devotion and teach her about Jesus and serving others.  Kyle served at an apartment complex.  They offered kids in the housing projects a safe place to come and play games and connect with them in order to teach them about God.  Kyle's site was outside in the heat all day long.  

Each night we had worship with an amazing band and then a pastor would come preach.  It blessed my heart to see youth with their bibles open following along.  Hope forgot her bible one night and she asked Mike to find the scripture on his phone so she could follow along.

Joshua 24:15 says "as for me and my family we will serve the Lord" and I hope our children know that we are not perfect parents (way far from it) but we love them and we love our Lord.  It was such a blessing to serve together.  We as a family will forever have precious Charleston memories tucked in our hearts.

It was hot in Charleston and one day we were given a free afternoon to do something together as a group.We thought we would go to the beach with the kids during our 3.5 hours of free time to relax .  Well.... the kids had served so well and were so hot and tired they chose to stay on campus and nap, eat at a nearby mall, or swim.  I was such a proud youth leader that they realized this trip was about serving and not about playing on the beach.  I joked that even the pool was hot in Charleston!  We are mountain people and we are not used to the humidity and heat!

Hope corraling toddlers...

I felt so blessed that me and my girl got to spend the week together serving toddlers in Charleston.  I looked over one day and watched Hope put her little girl down for a nap and I almost starting weeping.  She talked so sweetly to her as she covered her up with her blanket and patted her back until she was asleep.

This trip was very emotional for this youth leader.  One night we had prayer stations placed around this beautiful reflecting pond outside of the chapel.  The youth had to write on the prayer wall who had helped them grow in their faith and also who they were praying for.  I allowed the youth to pray first and then I stepped up with Hope to write my names down of who had encouraged my faith along the way.  I then saw that several of our youth had written my name down.  I am teary now writing this.  I came undone.  Like snot flying kind of undone.

 To think that some of our youth put my name down as someone who has pointed them to Christ overwhelmed me.  No matter how much money we will ever make, what size house we have, what cars we  drive or what my bank statement says is nothing compared to seeing my name down on a prayer wall in sticky Charleston SC written by teeangers with colorful sharpies.  It made me realize that God has me right where he wants me.  Youth ministry is not glamourous, profitable or even easy but it is worth every single minute when you can show teens that in the middle of this crazy life there is a savior who is desperate to spend time with them.

This ole gal is not perfect and i have certainly had my fair share of screwups and made some bad decisions, but when I was 19 years old Jesus got a hold of me.  I got saved on a Sunday night at Calvary Baptist Church in Radford.  Since then life has thrown me some curve balls but I know who I belong to.  I desperately want our youth to see that I am not perfect but my Jesus is.  I am not always  faithful to Him but he is.  This song I got Saved is my new favorite song. It so perfectly sums up my night with Jesus back in 1995 ( I think).  I love the line "I've got Jesus how could I want more."  I want these youth to know that true success in life has nothing at all to do with world possessions but has to do with living a life that honors God and serves Him well.



Now you understand why it took me so long to blog about this trip.  This gal went there to show teens how to serve but got humbled when they made me remember that my job not to plan amazing outings. or feed them a lot, or all the other things that distract me in youth ministry.  My single and solitary job is to point them to God and let Him do the rest.  He is after all desperate to spend time with us all.