Heart Hope by Olga

A couple of years ago, my grandson Will was given a small toy called a Bakugan. It was similar to a transformer since it starts out in a simple shape such as a sphere, triangle or cubes, but explodes opening into battle like creatures. He was super excited because his best friend, Elliot‘s older brother had a large collection and so Will thought they were “cool.”  Immediately upon tearing into the package he tried desperately to get the small round object to pop open but with no success. He brought it to me for assistance, because usually I’m pretty good at solving spatial challenges. I pushed and pulled and poked and prodded, but no success. I then took more serious measures, by inserting sharp objects and finally managed to pry the toy open. It seemed that there should be an easier way, if they were made for children.  Later we discovered that in the heap of packaging there was a solution for getting them open. It was quite simple. You basically placed the obj...

Who would have ever thought that Vacation Bible School could transform a family… after all it is just for kids. Our church offers a free program for anyone who would like to attend three hours a day for one week during the summer, therefore the church is overflowing with children whose parents want to have a place for them to go. While helping with registration for VBS at our church, we had a mom stop by the check in table and make the announcement that her family did not practice Christianity at home (well, that is the very reason that we open it up to anyone in the community who wants their child to attend, so yay!). The mother proceeded to tell us that she had grown up in a Christian home, but had gotten away from the church and that when she and her child went to church on Easter with her sister, she realized that her daughter knew nothing about Christianity when the child asked her mother why there was a “t” on the wall at the front of the sanctuary, which of course was the cross ...