Friday, April 29, 2011

Secret Church

Last Friday night I was one of 50,000 other people who sat under the teaching of David Platt from The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama.  It blew my  mind.  It was 6 hours of teaching from the Bible about the Bible using the Bible.  There wasn't a lot of cute stories, just scripture and tons of it.

As a result I've been using the very first secret church (from 2006) in the house with the ladies and they are loving it.  It's all available free online, complete with study guides and videos.  I just wanted to give a shout out to a ministry that is doing great things and to make other more aware of it's existence. If you have the time, check it out.  You will learn something from it.  (If you dig around long enough you can also find a place to donate to those that are having to rebuild after this week's storms.)

So here it is:  http://www.disciplemakingintl.org/  just go to the resource library and they'll take care of you.

If you want to learn more about David Platt (he has also written a few books) and the ministry of The Church at Brook Hills you can go here:  http://www.brookhills.org/

In the words of Levar Burton, don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself,

Mel C

Monday, April 25, 2011

Got Any Ideas?

We are going through a lot of administrative transitions at work right now, which means that my job title has changed.  I am now responsible for the curriculum for our students.  The ladies are adults and our main focus in the classroom is to teach them how to study the Bible, live addiction free lives for God, to be whole and complete in their identity with out other people's approval, how to be Godly wives/mothers/women, and just over all how to live and be sober (you know, the little stuff).  We have around 15 hours of class a week and I am looking for some new material.

I am really looking for great, cheap, and easy to use resources to teach our students how to live financially healthy, how to have a balanced life-style, what to look for in a church home, how to manage and run a household, some really great in depth Bible studies, etc.  Pretty much any topic you can imagine is open for use.

I am also just looking for some great teaching resources (videos, short lessons, activities, etc.) to use in devotions/chapel time.

Please, please, please let me know if you have any suggestions.  I would love to look into them and have some help diving into this whole "mess."  I'm really excited to see what we can come up with.

The most exciting thing about this?  I am using the things I learned in college on a regular basis.  I never expected to actually use the curriculum stuff I had to learn to get my education degree.  Turns out that teaching isn't just for the classroom any more! (Which I've known for some time, I just wanted to make sure that you all were aware of it.)

Thanks for the help,

Mel C

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

I went grocery shopping with my parents last Friday night.

I know it's an interesting way for a 26 year old to spend their Friday night, but it's tradition that the whole family goes grocery shopping on Fridays.  It was that way when I was growing up and will probably stay that way unless my father really does retire at some point and they start going to senior citizen day at Kroger or something like that.

I wouldn't have life any other way for my family, it's predictable and consistent (except for the weeks where there is a community festivity of some sort and random holidays or birthdays)

Friday night trips mean one thing in my life; Mom will buy whatever I slip into the cart, sometimes with out knowing it.  When I was in college this was a sweet deal for me, I had no money so I would cash out all my lose change for gas money and go home so my family could provide me with groceries for the next month.  When my sister left for college a few years later she began to follow in that tradition.  It's been fun to watch my parents do this for us.  As I've gotten older I've stopped putting stuff into the cart because I'm 26, my parents should not be buying my groceries (unless it's a birthday gift type thing, which was a great gift that I loved receiving).  But I digress...

This past Friday I slipped 3 things into the cart; shampoo, conditioner, and the one, the only...



PEEPS
These bad boys are golden, just fantastic and 10 of them officially became mine.... Needless to say I've had 3 this morning.... I'm so glad that I don't buy this junk for myself, but I'm so thankful that my Mommy will buy them if I ask her too!  Yea for sugar coated Marshmallows!

Here's to all my Peeps!

Mel C