I went to bed this morning shortly after midnight with my Facebook account and my cell phone going off with birthday wishes from family members and friends.  It was nice to say the least.  Then, when I woke up this morning, much more of the same.  So much so that I had to change the setting on my phone to “Quiet” instead of “Vibrate”!

Then we proceeded with our painting projects at Redeemer Church.  We are almost finished.  We completely finished the nursery, and are 95% finished on room #2, and 90% on room #3.  Our students are working so hard, it makes me proud!

Today as I was scrubbing floors and painting, I thought to myself how unusual this birthday was for me.  What 49 year old man plans to spend his birthday like this?  But the more I thought about it, the more I saw what a great privilege it was for me to serve the next generation of children who would be hearing the gospel, maybe for the very first time, in these rooms that we were painting.  I thought about this:

  • The magnetic paint that we put in the children’s room would soon hold “masterpieces” painted by children trying to capture the wonder of a Bible story that they heard in Sunday School.
  • The baby blue walls that were painted in the nursery would remind infants of the beautiful blue sky that the Creator painted for them.
  • The “green wall” that we painted in the older children’s room would be used to shoot some incredible videos that would inspire children to live the greatest adventure of all, a life sold out for God!

When our work at Redeemer Church was through today, we ended our day at the Cheese Cake Factory.  It was such a joy to sit around a table with 8 students and Tam to enjoy a good laugh, good food, and of course…Cheese Cake.  Maybe my birthday was not so unusual after all.

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