SBO: Gadgets and Gizmos

After serving at SBO Jr, Grant could not wait for his week at SBO!! Grant loves being involved at church, in any way possible. He knows a lot of the staff and leaders around the church, so its definitely one of his very happy places to be! His favorite part is the pre-show, the time that people are arriving and checking into their groups. They do lots of cool skits and videos, so we always had to make sure we were there by 8:45 so we didn't miss any of it!!

I love that they do worship at the beginning and then go right into the storytelling. This year, they story revolved around this man who was trying to fix these robots because they were broken, just like we are broken. There is only one thing that can fix us and that is Jesus!  Grant had a small part in one day of the storytelling, so that was super fun for him!

 His favorite intern at church was playing one of the robots and loved getting his picture with them one day! Look at that smile on Grant- pure joy!!

If you ask Grant what is favorite memory of SBO would be, he has two. This video being one of them. On the last day, during his favorite song, Rising Up, they gave all the kids this glow sticks and during the most exiting part of the song, the smoke machines blew and hundreds of balloons fell from the ceiling. In Grant's words, "it was EPIC!"

There is one other memory Grant has that he will remember FOREVER...(stay tuned in another post)

Grant is a Believer

Something Levi and I have always prayed for was that our kids learn to the love the Lord at some point throughout their life. That they understand the importance of putting their salvation in Jesus. That they learn to live their life for the Lord. 

Since the boys have been old enough to understand, I've tried my best teaching them about Jesus. Reading them Bible stories. Memorizing certain scriptures. Doing Bible studies with them.  I can do all that til I'm blue in the face, but God is ultimately the one that opens their heart to understanding it all. And thats exactly what happened to Grant during his week at SBO. While I feel the he has believed in God and put his faith in Jesus for a while now, this week it all truly "clicked" for him and he 100% knew it and believed it. 

When I picked him up from the 4th day of SBO, his teacher mentioned that she and Grant had been talking about accepting Jesus as your Savior and she said he was stirring over what it all meant. When we came home to have lunch, I could tell he was struggling with his thoughts and feelings, so I dropped what I was doing so we could talk it out. He started getting choked up because he feared he wasn't going to Heaven. I asked him if he knew how to get to Heaven, and he said, "By believing in Jesus." I asked him if he believed in Jesus, and he said, "Yes!" And I told him that he had nothing to be scared of because it sounds like he would be going to Heaven someday. Oh, the look of relief on his face was priceless! He said, "I have always believed in Jesus, but I didn't really know what that all meant until just now." We talked through the ABC prayer (admit, believe, confess). And right there in our kitchen, Grant knowingly became a follower of Jesus. He was so happy! He made me text so many people so they could hear his good news! 

That night, when Levi got home from work, he and Grant went out to dinner and Grant picked out his very own Bible. He was so proud of it and was just beaming from ear to ear. 

Just a few months prior, Grant was reciting a scripture passage during our Christmas service, and he read these words "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12-13. It gave me chills when he read those words aloud months ago, but to know those words are now describing Grant is the best feeling! Thank you God!

SBO Jr: Gadgets and Gizmos

One of our favorite things in the summer is SBO!!!! We look forward to it all year long and we knew this year would not disappoint!! Wyatt was attending SBO Jr. and Grant was volunteering as a song leader and sites helper. I was planning on volunteering as well, but we were hosting swimming lessons at our house during that time, so I felt I needed to be there. But when I dropped the boys off each morning, I got sucked in to the all AMAZING things happening! I loved watching Grant help lead worship and I loved watching Wyatt dance and sing praises!! This years theme was Gadgets and Gizmos, with the memory verse being Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know this full well." What an amazing truth to learn! It's always a fabulous week of fun and love for Jesus!!!

Grant was a song leader on stage, so that was so neat to see him be a part of the action!

SBOjr/SBO

Our church has an amazing summer camp called SBO (Summer Break Out). This year, with Grant entering into 2nd grade, he moved on up to the big kid SBO, while Wyatt still attended SBOjr. Since Grant and I were going to be free while Wyatt was at camp, we decided to serve at SBOjr together. Grant was so excited to be a volunteer to help "the little kids" out. He takes his new 2nd grade status pretty seriously ;-)  We had a volunteer meeting in May to help us prepare and know our roles! We were going to be helping in a craft room and taking pictures for the craft project. It felt great having Grant helping alongside me and other adults and really getting in there and helping the little kids with their project! It was so fun getting to share that special time with him! Wyatt loved his camp and had a great week! Sadly, because I was helping, I didn't get a single picture of Wyatt attending camp. I did snap a few pictures at the end of the week dinner though, of him singing and dancing to his songs!

 Grant has kind of made a name for himself down in the kids worship area on church evenings. He loves to participate and his worship pastor asked him to have a role in one of the openings days of SBO. He was asked to play young Jesus. Of course, he was thrilled!! We even had to do a weekend practice, which he thought was super awesome! He even found his name on the banner in the entry!

 To say that their camp is extraordinary is really an understatement. The way they tell the gospel is just moving to anyone who hears it! And to see Grant be a part in it just made my heart so happy!

But the fun and games they do are equally as awesome!! Such an amazing thing to witness and to have my kids be a part of!!!

 Grant is already thinking about being a song leader/actioneer for SBOjr next year and can't wait for his turn at camp again!!! 

SBOjr

We don't have a whole lot scheduled for the summer, but one thing I HAD to include on our to-do list was SBOjr at our church. Summer Break Out Jr. is their equivalent to VBS. Their theme was The Amazing Race, with their emphasis being on our lives being an "amazing race" when we follow Jesus. The week was focused on learning about the love of Jesus! They learned about the two missions groups the church was sponsoring. One was to Brazil, and Wyatt wore his Brasil shirt Levi brought home from one of his deployments. He felt pretty cool wearing something actually from Brazil!!!  They both just had a great time and learned alot!! I didn't snap any pictures during the week, darnit!! But on the evening of the last day, they had a program where they sang the songs they learned and recited their memory verse for the week, 1 John 3:18- "Dear Children, Let us not love with word or speech, but with actions and truth." 

 I had the perfect seat to see both my fellas! Grant was front and center on the bottom row, but got moved back to the second row since he was taller than the other kids. Darn!! But Wyatt was front and center on the top row!

 There is just something about hearing little voices singing praises to the Lord that makes me kinda teary!! I loved this shot of Wyatt!! 

We are already excited for SBO next year!!!