Courageous Joy

SUNDAY - AUGUST 6TH - DAY FOUR CONT.

We have been enjoying meeting the girls' friends. To continue with Sunday....

The graduation was moving. Frankly, it gives one great hope for this generation. It began with the MC worship team. Bre sang in that as well. The worship was authentic. Loud - but real. :::snort::: Certainly not louder than our student band at the contemporary service on base. I'm getting such an excitement about this generation - interacting with the students on base and now these MC students. Bre also was one of the "up front" spots in a human video they did.

MC is all about challenging students to go beyond their comfort levels. Krista, due to her dyslexia and speech problems, has always shied away from the spotlight. We were surprised to hear that she'd been told on Saturday that they wanted her to give her testimony about what God had done in her life this year. She was near the end of the program. It was awesome to be able to witness the change in her demeanor. She was poised - her voice was strong and sure....clearly enunciated and no stuttering at all. She got up to speak and kids began yelling, "Krista" and "Go Krista". She read from a "Dear God" letter she had written and from her journal. By this point in the service (which lasted two hours) I was in the back with Stacia. The other young Mom back there with me said, "Wow - she's very authentic and transparent isn't she? She's laying it all out there". She shared how she was lacking joy and drained when she began MC....and how she was having a hard time trusting God for various things due to some incidents the last few years. One of them had to do with family. She shared how impossible it seemed to trust God with us and that she was sure that He was going to allow one of us to die. "Afterall You've allowed loved babies in our family to die". By this time I was tearing up - as were several others. She stopped to control her emotions and several of the students began to shout encouragment to her. It was MOVING to see the support and love they have developed for each other. They certainly weren't a team 10 months ago. LOL She went on that now she has learned that she can trust a loving God with her family and the lives of her family. This is huge for Krista and will be put to the test as Mike deploys in a few weeks. When she was done the place was filled with clapping and THEN Josiah stood up.....and all the other children and Mike stood up. I can't even explain how amazing it was to watch the boys give their sister a Standing Ovation - and it moved quite a few others as well.

Now to brag a bit: Out of the 16 students; 4 graduated with "diplomas of excellence". Bre and Krista both earned one. Krista WOULD have graduated as the valedictorian but she told us she bombed the WRITTEN Scripture test....over 300 verses. She mixed some words up (quite common with dyslexia) and wrote things like "all" instead of "every". They grade hard. {g} Her other grades were so good that she was still able to earn the diploma of excellence and Bre graduated with the top honors.

The girls went out to Lance's home for a final time together. There are only 5 of the students coming back for Second year. We'll meet them tomorrow afternoon. Mike suggested they spend the night at the hotel with us tomorrow so that we can get our 4:30 a.m. start out of here. Poor Bre. She seemed to stagger when hearing this - the poor girl earned THIRTEEN Barbara clubs this year. Simply put this means she's LATE to classes. She stays up until 2 a.m. - always has - and then is dragging in the a.m. If you are late you earn a "Barbara club" and you get to come in early and clean with Barbara, the church janitor. She was tops in earned Barbara clubs as well.

As we were walking back to the hotel, all sorts of cars/trucks with flashing lights and sirens went past. Zander was on Mike's back. His eyes got huge and he said, "Oopsey, We're in VERY BIG TROUBLE, now!" :::snort::::

Back at the hotel we discovered that the pool was being drained. It seems that one of the lights had broken and glass was everywhere. They hoped to have it fixed by midnight. We were glad we were nowhere near the hotel when this happened.

Not sure what we are doing Monday.....