above all that we ask

It was really neat to see God at work this week through Good News Club and AWANA. Today during Good News Club, Mrs Adams asked several questions about the previous weeks lesson and one of the kids basically quoted back to her the entire lesson. Kids are so talented! It’s amazing how they can sit there and seemingly NOT pay any attention to the lesson and then quote the whole thing back to you.

Last week in AWANA, we prayed that one of the clubber’s Dad would get a job. This week the same clubber requested prayer for her Dad as he had to pick between TWO job offers he had received.

Praise the LORD for answered prayer. Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.

Reaching Children

Before school started this year, our church was notified that several public schools would be willing to have Good News Clubs in their schools. Good News Clubs is a Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) out reach program. CEF’s goal is “to reach the largest people group . . . Children”. Good News Clubs are designed to be held in neighborhoods or in schools. According to Child Evangelism Fellowship:

The Supreme Court ruled in 2001 in Good News Clubs v. Milford Central School that Good News Clubs can meet in public schools after school hours on the same terms as other community groups.

I help with the Briarglen Public School Good News Club and today was our second meeting. We had between 15 and 20 elementary school kids. We start out with the kids signing in (because kids are not allowed to attend without written parental permission) and then we have a snack. After the snack, we file down the hallway to library where the kids sing songs and hear a Bible story. We also teach a Bible verse each week and play review games with the verses they learn. Then we have a short cliff hanging missionary story. At the end, the kids get prizes for being able to say the previous week’s memory verse.

This is a really good program for teaching unchurched kids about the Bible. All the stories are pre-planned and each one is designed to explain who each member of the God Head is, who Man is and what sin is and how it affects our relationship with God.

There are two families and two individuals who help with our Club. Each of us take turns with the different aspects of the club. For the first month, I am responsible for telling the missionary story and then I will switch and do something else. They say that a vast majority of Christians became Christians when they were kids. I hope that the Lord uses this Club to draw more kids to Him.

Brownie Experts

Wednesday’s are our busiest day of the week. We leave the house at 7:00am for work and we get home between 10:15 and 10:30pm. But even though it is a really long day for us, the last event of the day is worth it. After AWANA, we meet my two sisters (Dani and Lori) and their husbands at my Grandpa’s house for Brownies. We always walk into the house and smell the warm chocolaty sweetness of Brownies. My Grandpa Vandervort makes the brownies and he has tested and perfect the best brownies from a box. It’s so much fun when he finds a new brand of brownie mix and we HAVE TO compare which one is better. Though it’s a tough job everyone steps of to the plate and eats two brownies.

It’s a lot of fun to sit around and hear how each others week is going or bounce different ideas off each or ask each other for advice. Last night, Jon (my brother-in-law) was giving me some crash course information on HTML for my blog site. In the previous post, I had a lot of problems with the pictures. I think I posted and re-posted over 15 times. Hopefully, I will be able to insert pictures without so much trouble in the future.

Dount Shop or Hospital

Lori (my sister) had been experiencing short contractions every evening for about a week, but yesterday night was different. By early yesterday morning the pains shifted and by 7:00am Chris (Hagen) was headed to the hospital rather than the donut shop for cinnamon rolls.



Shortly before heading to the hospital, they started the phone chain . My mom called to tell me that Chris and Lori Hagen (my sister and brother-in-law) were headed to the hospital to give birth to Eva Rose.

Eva Rose was born at 1:00pm Spetember 17th, 2007,
weighed 5lb 15.7oz, is 18.5in long and has a full head of dark-dark hair. She is so tiny and precious. Praise the Lord for His wonderful little treasures.

Lori is doing great though very tired as she didn't have an epidural and had to do quite a bit of pushing.

It has begun . . .

I'm sitting here wondering, "what does one write as the first entry in a blog"? I suppose for starters I could explain why I have decided to blog.

July 2007, I was introduced to the blog world (or blogosphere as some call it) by a best friend who began blogging. She sent me the link to her site and I have come to check it quite regularly to see what new or ordinary things occur in her life. Before she started blogging, we would only call each other about once every six months. Now I feel that we stay much more connected and in touch with each other since she started blogging; and it has been alot of fun to read about her life experiences. So my first goal for this blog is that it would help me stay in contact with friends and family especially those who are not local.

Coming up with a name . . .

I struggled with a name for awhile because as the saying goes, "a flower by any other name wouldn't smell as sweet". So I thought if I didn't pick the right name the blog just wouldn't be right. Later, I decided it wasn't that big a deal. There were several blog names up for consideration but when I mentioned HITZ and Mrs to family members, everyone immediately said that was the one. Other nominees included:

• barHITZva
• ivoryz
• HITZablog
• HITZblog
• icHITZ
• blogHITZ - kind of a play on words because people want hitz on theirblog... he he
• HITZzz - ya know, like you're sleeping...

The above suggestions are by Jon Jackson (check out his cool websites) and I think they were all great suggestions. My personal favorite and the one I all most chose was blogHITZ . . . I liked the play on words.

Hitz and Misses or Hitz and Mrs suggestions came from Miriam Lofgren and I chose HITZ and Mrs because I like the double play on words.

• hit and miss will probably best describe how often I post something here, and
• it is a blog about HITZ (either our Hitz family or Chris) and the Mrs . . .me :)