For several years, I have dreamed things I have only shared with my husband. Would they ever happen? I love the story of Joseph because he had dreams when he was a teenager and they didn’t happen until much later in his life.

Some of the dreams God gave me are becoming reality.

If you do anything in children’s ministry with video you should download Handbrake. It works best in Mac OS and is easiest to use, but can used in PC. Elevate doesn’t offer Mp4 so we convert each lesson in Mp4 and load the files in Media Shout. The whole service runs extremely smooth. Instead of relying on a DVD player we can use the cues of Media Shout and can easily go back to a previous cue.

Thanks to Carolyn Mejia for making this process work. I had been working on it, but couldn’t get it quite down. It takes between 10-15 min to convert 1 lesson to Mp4.

When I look in my closet and see how many pairs of shoes I have, it seems unfathomable that someone would have none. What if my children’s shoes were worn out and their feet were cold in the winter or they had to walk barefoot every day? How would I feel? It makes my heart ache to know there are people around the world who walk in unsafe environments without shoes.

Soles4Souls is a charity in Nashville, Tennessee they have one mission: to get shoes to people who need them. Over 300 million people in the world walk in unsafe conditions and have no shoes.  What can we do to help?

Go here 50000shoes.com $5.00 buys not one, but two pairs of shoes. That’s a bargain!

The Goal is 50,000 shoes in 50 days! It would be great to share at Christmas how you donated a pair of shoes for a friend or family member. I would be honored to get a card that said “My present to you this year was to give people without shoes a pair”.

You can pass the word on to your friends through blog or email. Spread the word and let people know how to make a difference in someone’s life.

$5.00 + 3 clicks + 2 minutes= 2 pairs of shoes to someone who needs them.

You can win the opportunity to hand deliver your shoes on one of the trips to Mexico!

If you haven’t heard there are many children in the world who are going hungry. Paige has decided to make a difference. She came up with a plan and has entered the AMEX members project. Bryan told her he would dance to any song she wanted if she won, but Bryan decided to step it up and do it now.

Go vote to help hungry malnourished children around the world. Post the video and banner below to spread the word. Let’s help make a difference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Today started with a major database glitch figured it out (WOOHOO!!!)

• Working on VBS when it is soooo cold outside. Hard to think about wearing shorts.

• Kid’s ROCK t-shirts look great on all my staff. Final shirts should be in next week.

• I will finally know where my office is because Megan ordered letters for my name plate. It will be blank no longer.

• Can’t believe my kids have a half of day of school on Thursday!  Not sure what I am going to do yet. Guess I better figure that one out.

• Planning, planning and more planning for the year. I have so many projects I want to do. Trying to budget all of them for the next year. Maybe I can find something else to sell that I am not using.

I am dreaming big for this year. When I close my eyes I can visualize it. I am ready to step out and begin to see it happen.

Adam and I decided it was time for his training wheels to come off. They probably needed to come off for a long time ago. Especially, since all I had to do was put his helmet on, balance him on the bike and let go of his shirt as he rode down the driveway. No major wipe outs as he managed to catch himself before he hit the ground. A few times around the cul de sac and he was a pro.

 After dinner it was a game of speed Scrabble with Bryan and Gabriel. I did horrible. I blame it on the tablecloth. I wanted to take it off and play on the glass, but an unnamed party didn’t think it was necessary. I think it was a distraction to me I usually do pretty well. Oh well, I still had fun playing.

Monday afternoon I was standing in my kitchen watching two black birds in my backyard trying to take food from one another and defending what they already had and God spoke to me. “You have dreamed of this for years and you are going to let negative influences take it away from you. This is what you have wanted. Don’t let others take your dream from you.”

I couldn’t believe it. God spoke to me through two black birds in my backyard.