Summer Reach

Well, it's that time of year.

The time where you figure out all the fun things you are going to do for the summer.

Vacations. Water Parks. Garage Sales. Pool Parties.

The kids and I were making our list of things to do over the summer, when one of them asked if we could clean up at the park like we did last week. (Our church helps clean up the city one Sunday out of the year).

It got me thinking.

What other things could we do to make our summer count.

And the ideas just started to roll in.

Here's the challenge:
What can your family do this summer to make an impact? To reach out?

You might even have a family team meeting to come up with a larger project you can all work on together... or it might just be some simpler things here and there.

I don't want to teach my kids to share... I want them to be generous.

I don't want them to be kind... I want them to love.

To quote my lovely sister, "they do what they see."

What can you have your kids SEE and DO this summer that will change their worldview?

Any other fun Summer Reach ideas you have thought of? Post them here!
Here is one of my favorite blogs to get some more ideas.

El Roi

There is a name for God, El Roi, which means "the God who sees me."

It's only mentioned once in the Bible by a women named Hagar.

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her:
“You are the God who sees me” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me."

{Genesis 16:13} 

I've been really studying this name of God out and the more I search, the more in awe of God I am. He sees me.... that's powerful. I wanted to use something simple to show my kids that the Lord is constantly watching them... that He always sees them- not to evoke fear of messing up, but to build confidence in a Creator who loves.

We took some painters tape  and made a road on the ground. Then we took all of the stuff we had around the house and made a little city (bridges from our train table, picnic table from our dollhouse, Animals from our jungle, etc). It was so much fun finding stuff to put in our city... we had a zoo, a construction site, a Monster Truck show... all sorts of stuff. After we were playing for awhile, I had the kids get up on the couch and look down at the city. 

Do you see everything?

Do you know what's going on?

They came to the conclusion that since they were big and because they made the city themselves, they knew everything that was happening. I loved the tie in with our Heavenly Father! Such a successful hands-on Bible story... one that challenged me as well! 

The kids LOVE playing with our city and there are even talks of adding a hospital, a castle and a real-live ant farm! Here are some links to some more awesome ideas for your El Roi playtime.... here, here and here

Or you could make it super easy on yourself and get this.

If you are nervous about the inside... just use chalk outside on a nice day.