50's Themed Junior/Senior Banquet - 2016

Our son is a Junior this year - the class that is in charge of decorating for the Junior/Senior Banquet. Several years ago, his class decided to do a 50's theme. They wanted something different that is usually done. (Sorry about this post being all messed up! I uploaded pictures a different way and can't figure out how to adjust the location!)
Some new class members moved in. Some moved away. The theme was voted on in early January of this year, and preparations were quickly made to make the 50's theme a reality. I had been planning it in my head the whole time, actually, just because I love the 50's and was looking forward to doing the theme; however, I had only bought a couple of things for the anticipated arrival of my son's Junior year. I didn't want to jump the gun! This banquet had a "party" feel....more like a step back in time to a simpler life. I think almost everyone felt that way about it. Just relaxing, even though the decorating (at times) wasn't so relaxing. In fact, a few things were quite stressful! But, it worked out. It always does. The only hiccup in the evening was that the very most classic cars that were coming to help transport the class members from one place to another, didn't get to come because of severe weather threats. They did bring old cars, so it worked out, but the 50's classics would have been even better. (One was still from the 50's.) My son served as Emcee for the event, being the President of the Junior class. He, along with a few others, sang some 50's songs. Then he announced the "game show" part of the program. That was really fun having the Juniors compete against the Seniors in a 1950's classic game show called, 'Beat the Clock'. It's about the same as our "Minute to Win It" games now, but the games aren't always a minutes. They were played with simple things, too, such as cups, string, balloons, dowel sticks, balls, and paper plates. It was lots of fun! We had a nearby drive in come with their food truck to cook classic cheeseburgers and fries for the meal. They were even excited! An old fashioned "candy buffet" was set up with 50's era candy stocked up. The candy was placed in the classic cardboard car centerpieces. That was lots of fun! Dessert was a sundae bar. Servers for the evening dressed in classic 50's attire and did a wonderful job making the evening fun and assisting with the games. The booth was borrowed from my nephew and made a perfect addition to the decor!  It was a wonderful evening! Lots of great memories were made! As Ronnie Milsap sings, "Lost in the 50's"....we were....just for that night.

Holy Fear

 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. Hebrews 11:7

Yesterday during worship the scripture above was read. The phrase "holy fear" stuck out to me because we don't usually think of fear being "holy".  And most of the time it's not holy.  

So what is holy fear?  What does this scripture mean? Is it being scared of God all of the time?  Certainly not!

Noah was warned that the whole world would be destroyed by flood, but even though he had never seen anything like that before, he believed God.  He believed that God could do what he said he was going to do.  Noah trusted God.  Noah had faith in God.  He had enough faith that he obeyed God.  

If Noah had only feared God, he might have run and hid. He might have worried so much about building the ark that it never would have been completed.  But his fear of the Lord was a holy fear. It was a respect for God - that God could do what He planned to do.  

A holy fear is a reverence for God for who He is.  When we truly learn to understand how to have a holy fear of God, only then do we realize just how much He loves us and can begin to love Him in the way He wants us to.  Only then will we obey Him.

Refiner's fire
My heart's one desire
Is to be holy
Set apart for You, Lord
I choose to be holy
Set apart for You, my Master
Ready to do Your will.

(Hallal Music)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
    all who follow his precepts have good understanding.

    To him belongs eternal praise. Psalm 111:10

Parents After God's Own Heart

Sometimes things on Facebook are amazing.  A few days ago, I shared a simple photo with a powerful, yet simple, message on our "Parents After God's Own Heart" page.  Occasionally we decide to "boost" a post, which means pay for it to be seen further.  A lot of the times it's just because we want more parents to see it to possibly help them or make them think. The majority of the ones we actually "boost", we don't even write ourselves, but we're not doing it for our selves or for our page, but strictly to help parents follow God more closely and to raise their families accordingly. 

This particular post, though, we didn't boost.  In a matter of minutes, that post spread like fire! It was kind of crazy, actually! (Even though it does have a good message!).  Last night I was updating Joe and the boys about how quickly it was spreading still.  Just for fun, every 10 minutes I would take a picture of the "likes", it's "reach" (meaning how many people saw the post from our page or shares of our page), plus actual shares.  IT WAS CRAZY!  In one 10 minutes it had gotten over 1,000 likes!  From 74,000 something "reached" at 9:30 p.m. last night to 110,310 at 9:03 a.m. this morning. There were 474 "likes" at 11:45 p.m. last night and 539 this morning...1,007 times it's been shared this morning and there were 823 last night at 11:45. There are 116 new followers of our page from that one post in just two days. We typically don't even pay attention to that!

I don't know if you care anything about this or not, but I just think about how the internet has changed our world - even how Facebook has changed our world.  Maybe that message is simple, but maybe/hopefully, it makes even one family re-adjust their priorities and make sure that God is front and center in their lives.  That's worth it to us.  

If more messages that focus on God, Jesus, and His truths spread that fast and impacted the lives of those who read it, just think of the changes we could see in our world!

TCH Homecoming 2016

The 92nd celebration of Tipton Children's Home was held in Saturday before Easter. The annual alumni homecoming theme was "A Harvest of Blessings ".

A few of us were in charge of decorating for the event. We began making plans immediately after last year's event, which makes it fun, but also easier!

There were carts and wheel barrels decorated in garden themes.

A special t-shirt quilt was given away.

I was able to use an old fence I had, which negates the old quote: "Throw it away if you haven't used it in a year." I hadn't used this in over 10 years, but I'm glad we had it, still!

Part of the decor included fruit and vegetable baskets. Afterwards the fruits and veggies were given to the cottages. A great way to use the decorations! 

The placemats had garden pictures from past years at TCH. 

I had the carpenter make these cute fruit/vegetable stands. We will get lots of use out of them!

It was fun using real grass and flowers for the decor! The kids really liked it!

One lady made this cute garden hose wreath!

It takes several days to decorate, then in a few hours it's over! That's the way big events are, isn't it? The memories are well worth it.

My kids and I did the desserts. We ordered the mini bug cookies on Etsy. I couldn't have done this job without my kiddos helping!

We also made dirt cake in mini terra cotta pot containers. One cottage made the candy flowers.

I love these seed packets I ordered on Etsy! She personalized them perfectly!

What a blessing to celebrate 92 years. We are thankful to those who came to Homecoming. We look forward to next year!