Looking at the world through rose (hill) colored glasses

Rose Hill, Iowa. Population 168. Driving into town, you're greeted by the remnants of a burnt trailer. The town does not seem, at first glance, to have much to offer. But God lives here.

Earlier this summer, if you pulled up to the White Oak Venue around lunch time, you'd see some of God's family there serving lunch. These volunteers brought the (wholly secular) summer lunch program to their community. But many of them are also involved in other ways to serve here in this community hub- Bible study, an addiction recovery support group, and a weekly after school program for youth. This is an outreach of New Hope in neighboring Oskaloosa (which deserves to have its story told as well- check them out here, this is another amazing place where God works.) Since it was summer and the after school program was no longer in session, they wanted a way to continue to connect with the kids. Spencer had helped me out with VBS in years past, so he asked MUMM to come help out. This is exactly what we do. They'd never done VBS here before, and Spencer asked if we had to have a minimum number of kids. Recalling lots of small beginnings, I said if we had one kid we'd do Bible school.

Bonnie and I want this band to come with us everywhere we do VBS. 

Well, we had two kids the first day, another day we found the "one kid" statement a reality, one day we were joined by a family of three, another day we invited in two from outside where they were patronizing the only pop machine in town. So seven kids, never all at once. But if there's one thing I've learned in my years in this ministry, it's that it isn't about the numbers. When you have two kids, you can spend the first half hour playing and talking before jumping in to programming. You can all have an instrument during a musical jam session. You can get to know each other much better, and kids will share things with you. For example, one day we did a worry prayer. I asked them if they wanted to share worries they were scared about before we prayed about them.

Answers I was expecting: The dark. Grades. Bees. Fitting in at school.
Answers I got: Custody. Jail. My soul and demons.

These kids are thinkers. And this is how God works- through conversations, through small moments spent on big ideas. There is a fantastic group of kingdom people planting seeds in Rose Hill. Pray for the gardeners. Pray for the garden.

We took our crayon resist art to the great outdoors. 

Just behind the concrete slab were some lilies to consider. Beautiful blooms take time.