Coralyn played a few of the games and then wanted to go to the school playground. We walked around a bit before that though and were able to talk with quite a few of Lawrence's students and some of their parents. Over half of the students from Lawrence's class were at the Kickoff, as well as some former students who made sure to find Mr. Young and say hi. I think they might have been more excited to see Coralyn and Kellah! Lawrence brainwashes his students, you see. Whenever he says 'Sarah,' they have to respond, "We love Sarah!" And if he mentions 'Coralyn,' they are trained to answer "Ahhhh!" If 'Kellah' is brought up, then his students are programmed to reply, "Giiigiiigiii" in a baby talk voice.
A few parents even came up to Lawrence, thanking him for inviting their son/daughter to Ponca this past summer. One family even commented that their son had told them, "I don't care what we are doing next summer, I am going to be at Ponca no matter what!" I got goosebumps just writing that. I love how God confirms that we are right where He wants us and that He is using us to make a difference in these kids' lives.
In fact, the whole time that we were there, I couldn't help but think how we were surrounded by our "mission field." All these kiddos, and their families, need Jesus!!! More than that even, they need to be discipled and mentored so that as they grow up, they will know what it means to truly KNOW Jesus and what it practically looks like to live for Him BOLDLY and PASSIONATELY day in and day out. Being at the school in the midst of all the students, my desire to move into the neighborhood/community only intensified.
God is so awesome! He knows the longings of our hearts and works to fulfill them, as they are in accord with His plans and purposes for us. From the beginning, we have known that selling our house and moving into the Kellybrook area will have to be totally and completely of God. Our first major hurdle to even getting our house on the market is the need for a new roof. Given that we have been counting pennies to pay our regular bills each month, we don't really have an extra $5,000 set aside to just up and put a new roof on the house. Now that I am working again, we were going to start putting money aside and save up to pay for the roof, though. A friend from church is a roofer and came over earlier this summer to give us an estimate. We knew that we could trust him to give us a fair price and do a good job as well. However, we would have to wait and wait and wait before we could actually hire him. I let him know our situation and said I would contact him when we had the money.
Well, a week or two later we headed off to Ponca Bible Camp. I jokingly prayed to God that it would be totally amazing if we got back from camp and a new roof was already on the house. I guess God has a good sense of humor. No, the roof wasn't redone when we got home. BUT, about a month ago, Hunter Cline (a "kid" we have watched grow up at Ponca) sent me a text saying that he was going to come up and roof our house. I didn't doubt for a second that Hunter could do a fabulous job, as he works construction and does roofing too. However, Hunter is just a college freshmen, and there was no way he could afford all the materials and such on his own. I asked how much he was going to need us to pay him. "Just a place to stay and food to eat," was his answer, letting me know that the cost of the roof had been taken care of already! Say what?!!!
Today, I went to the Post Office to sign for the check Hunter sent in the mail. The money should pay for all the supplies that we (well, Hunter really) will need to put a new roof on the house.
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