Katherine

This past weekend I had the opportunity to teach at a D-Now style retreat in Montgomery. It was at Vaughn Forest Baptist Church, which is one of the biggest churches in Montgomery. Um, HUGE. I know I don't always act like it, but I pretty much love these weekends. I participated in them every year while I was in youth group, and I remember learning so much from them and growing as a result. Also, the college students that led them had a distinct impact on my life. I had never before actually seen and interacted with college students that were living for the Lord. I'm not even sure I knew they existed. I was lucky enough to have some leaders several years in a row, so I was able to build a relationship with them. So, D-Now weekends have a special place in my heart. However, this one was a little different. This was for the children's ministry. Yep... I taught the 5th grade girls.

Forgive me while I digress a bit:
This is an age group that has always been, and will probably always be a little awkward for me. I think I almost get intimidated by kids of this age. Strange, I know. If I have known the child(ren) for a while, it's not awkward, and we can get along. If I DON'T know the kids I get really nervous. They're past the age where they think every older person is cool, but they're not quite to the age where it's a little easier to see past nerdiness. Does that make sense? I worry about my cool factor! I just have an irrational fear of 5th graders. I am fallen. Now back to the point of this post...

Friday night the children's minister informed me that we would have an extra girl in our group for the scavenger hunt the next day. He explained to me that Katherine is 16, but has Down Syndrome. So while she still participates in children's ministry activities, she can't participate in overnight events. Y'all, I started sweating. I don't know if I can explain the anxiety I had all night about this. I had to have church by myself in the bedroom that night. (P.S. Don't underestimate the amazingness of having your own bedroom during a D-Now. Thank you Jeremy!) But Katherine loves church, she loves being with people, and he really wanted her to be involved as much as possible. So, Saturday morning comes along. We walk into the church and basically go straight to the kitchen for lunch (hot dogs...yummy :). All of a sudden I feel someone grab my hand (and it wasn't gently!) I turned and looked down and Katherine's sweet face turned to me, gave me a HUGE smile, and she promptly introduced herself and started conversation. From then on I had a new best friend. She helped us in the scavenger hunt (that is, until her "stomach hurt"... I am told this is the key sign that she's tired of doing something :) Katherine sang her heart out during worship, and she giggled and played alongside the other girls. The time that we got to spend together was so sweet.

I went into the weekend with such pride in my heart. I never expected to learn anything from these girls, but they impacted me more than I can really explain on here. Katherine doesn't understand the ins and outs of being a Christian. She will never approach her relationship with Jesus through a theologian's eyes. She probably won't ever do much more than sing, but she will sing louder and with the sweetest heart than anyone else in the church. I think that she "gets" being a Christian more than I do most of the time. It's so amazing that her love and knowledge of Christ was never taught to her, but by the grace and sovereignty of God it is there. She was full of more joy than the majority of the Christians I am in contact with every day... and most definitely more than I fight to keep. I realized that I should no longer pity this girl, for she was made exactly this way for God's glory. I wish you could have seen her giving God his glory... Katherine is the lesson of a lifetime.

As for the other girls, they blew me away! If Katherine needed a hand, a friend, someone to talk to, they were there in a flash. They joked with her, talked with her, and included her in all they did. They even helped her smuggle 6 bags of Famous Amos cookies away in her pockets. I'm positive that I would not have been so selfless and loving as a 5th grader.

I hope that I don't easily forget Katherine's face as she sang to Jesus, or the other girls' faces as they started to think of scripture in a new way. It's so easy to get caught up in what we know... where we serve... which author we're reading. We often forget who we know, who we serve, and the original author of life. We could all learn a little something from Katherine.

The... Caroline Show?

Do you ever have those times where you just feel very conspicuous? I definitely just had one of those in Kroger. It was like everyone in a two mile radius was taking note of my awkwardness. And grocery shopping at Kroger happens to be one of those errands where I just want to disappear into the cereal boxes. Unfortunately, I'm not the same shape or color as Lucky Charms, so I had to keep myself distracted, so I started thinking about The Truman Show. It's that movie where Jim Carrey finds out his whole life is a TV show. Several years ago I was quite obsessed with this movie, and have wondered if that was my life since. Strange. I know. By the time I checked out, I had quite the "Truman" story planned out in my head. Naturally, the people in Kroger noticed me from TV! However, once I left the "set" of Kroger I realized that my life really isn't interesting enough to be a TV show.

Do you think people would watch your show?