From:
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 9:26 PM
To:
Subject: Prayer Update 8/8/06 Children's Seminars
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Dear Family
and Friends,
As I think
back to some experiences that have had a very significant impact on my life as
a young man growing up, I would have to say that teaching at Children's Institutes would
rank high on that list.
I remember
first hearing about the "Children's Institute" at our annual
home-schooling conference in
Whatever my
expectations were, God had something special in store for me at this seminar.
As am seeing more and more, it is not so much the particular program or
opportunity, but the people who are leading it that God often uses to make a
difference in the lives of those involved.
I saw
something different In "Mr. Ryan" and "Miss Gina". They
were young people too, just a few years older than I was, but they had a love
for the Lord and a passion for investing in the lives of others. This wasn't
just a week of watching children, but a chance to impact lives for eternity as
we poured all of our strength and energy into conveying Biblical truths to the
children on our teams.
Suddenly
"ministry" was not just some distant thing that only parents and some
of those older students could be involved in, but something that I could also
have a part in. There were exciting stories in the Large Group assembly, and
songs that we would long remember, but we also saw deeper things, the reality
of spiritual warfare, and seeing God answer specific prayer.
After that
week I could hardly wait for the next seminar, and in the following years we
taught in as many Children's Institutes as schedule and travel permitted. From
every seminar we brought back special memories, and I could share story after
story of how we saw God's hand at work in these brief but intense weeks of
ministry.
Returning
to our farm this summer, I remember thinking that it would be neat to be
involved in a Children's Institute again, if there was one held in our area. I
checked the IBLP website, and discovered that there actually was one scheduled in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I thought it was interesting timing that the very
next day, we received a call from a friend who was
coordinating the children's seminar, asking if David or I would be available to
tell the stories for the "Large Group" assemblies.
David was
already scheduled to help lead a group of backyard Bible clubs that week, so I
was given the opportunity to help with the Children's Program. As always, it
was a week of intensive energy output, but a tremendous blessing for us as
Rachelle, Sarah and I joined about seven other young people to work with the
twenty children that registered for the seminar.
Probably
the greatest lesson that I believe the Lord was teaching me through the week
was to let Him work through me,
instead of me trying to work
for Him. The words of John 15 kept coming to mind, "without me ye can do
nothing." Instead of coming well prepared with all the stories that I
would be sharing, I realized that it was me
that God wanted to prepare. Lasting fruit would come, not through my abilities,
but as God was able to use me as a tool to accomplish His work.
I know that
I have a long way to go in fully internalizing this truth, but it was neat to
see how the Lord often used the stories that I felt the least prepared for to
have the greatest impact on the students. God delights in using our weaknesses
to show His strength, so that the excellency of the
power would be of Him and not of us. (See I Corinthians 2:1-5, II
Corinthians 4:7)
One
interesting example took place on Tuesday night as I was telling a story about
the Ten Commandments. To illustrate the impossibility of keep all the
commandments on our own, I had a volunteer carefully hold ten raw eggs as I
explained each of the Ten Commandments. Jeff was dressed for the occasion, but
the suspense continued to rise as he precariously tried to balance each new
egg.
Finally
reaching the appropriate moment in the story, I asked Jeff if he had ever told
a lie. After his admission, I stepped back, and gently whacked one of the
eggs balancing on his collar. Somehow, the egg didn't break. I reached
over and squeezed the egg very hard. Still nothing happened. Recalling the
physics of an eggshell, I applied extra pressure with my thumb, trying to crack
the unyielding shell.
Splat!!!
Something hit my face with an uncalculated accuracy that took me completely by
surprise. I couldn't even see out of my left eye as I reached for the paper bag
where, just before the story, I had put some extra napkins. Taking off my
glasses and trying to wipe the egg off my face and hair, I used the moment to
explain how when we sin, it doesn't just affect us, it also affects other
people. One of the teachers later shared that for him, this unplanned
analogy was the most significant message of the whole night!
These days
were not without opposition, however, and I found it interesting how many
unexpected challenges we faced through the week. The family that was heading up
the children's program had been anticipating a move, but ended up needing to
move out of their house on the very week of the seminar. Another family that
had two daughters teaching had a grandmother who's failing health suddenly took
a turn for the worse, and she passed away on Friday morning.
Another day
found us faced with an interesting situation as a curious passerby inquired about
what we were doing and proceeded to engage some of the teachers in a
rather loud debate about the existence of God. Thankfully, she was willing to
go with me to another room where after some patient listening and gentle
answers she left quite cordially.
Rather than
bringing discouragement, these things actually made me even more excited about
the work we were involved in. God gave us grace for every challenge, and
responding to this grace brings joy as we see the Lord working out His purpose
through each situation.
On Thursday
we were teaching about God's love, and our response in
times of suffering. I felt that this might be a neat opportunity to share about
God's love and faithfulness to our family over the past months with Isaac's Homegoing last November. The "story" went a
little longer than I had planned, and I remember praying afterwards that the
Lord would still use it somehow.
In terms of
human ability, it wasn't one of my best stories that week, and I remember one
little boy asking during the story, "Are you almost done?" It
was a deeper message, and a little harder to make interesting and exciting for
the younger children. But it was this story that the Lord seemed to use to make
an impact in the lives of some of the students.
Finding me
on one of the seminar breaks on Saturday, a father asked more about my family.
I learned that they had heard of our family, and had been praying for us, but
it was through this story at the Children's Program that his daughters
made the connection that "Mr. Adam" was a part of that family.
"I just want you to know," he told me, "that your testimony had
a real impact on my children."
Pastor
Tillman asked me a little later if I could share a testimony with the people at
the church on Sunday. Many of them had heard of our family, and had been
praying for us, and he thought it would be encouraging for them to hear a
report of what God has been doing in our lives. How this all got coordinated
with the rest of my family was a story in itself, but the next morning all
eleven of us were lined up in a row for the morning service at
Last minute
plans the night before had worked out for us to stay in the Cities at my Aunt's
house for the evening, but by the time we arrived at church the next morning, I
still didn't have an outline of what I was planning to share. Now, just to
clarify, preparation is good and important, and something that we should do
when we are able to. But in this case, I believe that God wanted to stretch my
faith. I remember praying, "Lord, you worked through the stories at the CI
even when I was unprepared, please give me the words to share here."
When I got
up to share, I still didn't have an outline, but the Lord enabled me to give
what seemed to be a clear testimony of what God has been doing in our lives
over these past months. I certainly can't take any credit for it, but it seems
like God touched hearts through that message of His faithfulness and lovingkindness to our family.
Back on the
home front, we have also seen a significant answer to prayer. After a
couple months of serious drought, we received some good rain last week.
Derrick's cornfields have improved dramatically, even in the past week, with
the much-needed moisture.
The dry
spell was not only dry, it was often very hot. In an older farmhouse without
air conditioning, nights can be very long as you try to sleep with
temperatures in the 80s or 90s. I remember sitting at my desk one day last
week, and noticing that it was 95 degrees inside.
But our faithful
God who never forgets His children had a very special surprise in store for us.
That evening, some dear friends drove into our driveway and backed up their
pickup truck to our porch. In the back of the truck were two window air
conditioning units! They helped us install the units in two of the
bedrooms, and for the first time in many weeks my parents were able to go to
sleep in a cool room.
That
evening also marked a significant day for our farm. Our ailing barn had been
damaged in high winds several years ago, and the trusses were sagging badly.
Built in 1932, the old dairy barn still had a lot of aesthetic appeal, but
the cost of repair and straightening the structure far outweighed its
current usefulness.
Watching
the coming storm from our bedroom window that night, there was a terrific
thunderclap, and Derrick exclaimed, "that just hit our barn!"
The old glass insulated lightning rods performed their duty, but the
waterlogged roof dropped about eight feet. By morning the north wall had
given way, and the roof collapsed into the barnyard.
Looking
back, I was amazed at how this worked out. It fell in such a way that we were
able to recover the antique copulas from the roof, which we hope to sell. If
the barn had fallen to the south, it could have possibly damaged the
wooden south wall and shed which was to house 50 young pigs, scheduled to
arrive the next morning. But falling to the north, the primary weight was
taken by a concrete block wall, and the floor joists remained unhurt.
We are
grateful that it happened while we were home, and that no one was hurt in the
process. Even the animals escaped injury. On Saturday we had a "family
work day" and started disassembling and cleaning up the fallen ruins. I
enjoyed the chance to get outside and work on a family project together. The
Lord blessed us with nice weather, safety, and good progress on the project.
This week I
am also preparing to fly to
Praise
Points:
- Thank you so much for praying for us as Rachelle, Sarah
and I taught at the Children's Program in
- I also want to say a big thank you on behalf of David
and the others that served with the Heritage Ministry Team, leading two
weeks of Bible Clubs in
- Thanks for praying for rain! It was a blessing to
receive several inches of rain last week. Derrick's crops would not have
lasted much longer without it.
Prayer
Requests:
- Please pray for the
Monday
- Accepting God's perfect design for us.
Tuesday
- My response to authority.
Wednesday
- Responsibility, clear conscience. *Important night
Thursday
- God's love for us, purpose in suffering. *I may share about Isaac
Saturday
- Generosity, gratefulness, joyfulness.
Pictures:
A total of
twenty children came to the Children's Program, and were
divided
into three teams for the small group teaching time.
A smile
from one of our students.
I think I
would have been scared too, from the looks of this guy! But
our
"David" (Left) didn't seem afraid to face "Goliath" in our
skit.
Our prayers
were answered as we watched the clouds
moving in
to bring the much-needed rain.
That night
our aging barn roof collapsed under the wind
and rain.
Our whole
family gathered on Saturday for a family
work day to
start cleaning up the debris.
You can
see many more new pictures on the
Prayer Update section our family
website, including many from the CI and our barn cleanup project.
Useful
Link:
A few weeks
ago a friend asked if I knew of a good program for viewing slide shows of
pictures. After a few minutes of searching on the Internet I ran across a free
program called the FastStone
Image Viewer. I continue to be amazed at the features this program has, and
I would recommend it to anyone who deals with digital photos. It works great
for resizing and viewing pictures, and has some good slide show options, in
addition to a full set of image enhancing tools. (No, they don't pay me to write this, I was just very impressed with the
program.)
Thank you
for praying for us! I know that you will also share in the reward of what God
is doing in and through our lives, and our Father who sees in secret will
reward you openly. (Matthew
6:6)
I also want
to mention here, please don't feel guilty if you are getting these updates and
might not be praying for us regularly. While we are grateful for the prayers of
many, we also want to share with others what is happening in our lives and we
just appreciate the fact that you are interested in hearing from our family.
In Christ,
- Adam
Family
Website ~ http://cadlinx.com/wallerfamily
"And
let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint
not." - Galatians 6:9
If for any
reason you would prefer not to receive these e-mails, just reply with
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to you, just let me know and I can put you on the regular list. - Adam