Expressions: August 2007

25 August 2007

flames

taken with a Nikon D50 on July 18, 2007 by jls
See more at fourpointedstar.smugmug.com

I took "Expressions of and Reflections on God's Beautiful Colors in Creation" out of my title. I still will post photos of God's beauty in creation, but I intend to also post other photos that I take. I also plan on writing posts.
Oh, and there might be photos of a baby too. (Ok, so the site might be overrun with them...but I digress.)

21 days.

Wow. It's been three weeks since I last posted, and it's been four weeks since I last posted regularly. You can say it: I've been a slacker. But I do have to say that in those four weeks I've taken less than 20% my normal number of photos. It's been a little busy here in the Smith home.
But...
I did enter six photos in a contest. Shannon's employer (Ministry Health Care, a regional hospital system) publishes a calendar each year. Any employee is allowed to submit photos for the calendar, and this year the theme was "Color." I submitted these:

Bumblebee Moth

Searching for Sunlight

Outstretched

Family Photo

Up Close and Personal

Fireworks

I picked them out in 20 minutes on the day that they were due. That afternoon I remembered that the theme was color. Oops. That goose family? Not very colorful. Neither is the Bumblebee Moth.
They did like "Fireworks" enough to make it the November photo. :) I'm happy.

04 August 2007

"It's a Jungle Out There!" :: VBS 2007 - Part II

This time it's not VBS 2007 anymore.

VBS is done and what a week it was. I just have to tell the story because it thrills me so much!

It was mostly our (Shannon & I and Dad & Mom McMillen) responsibility to plan for VBS. The program that we chose allowed all of the children to stay upstairs all the time. I told several people that I was expecting 13 kids total. We have 6 or 7 kids each week in Jr. Church (which Shannon and I teach); I figured that doubling that number would be great, and I wasn't alone in my opinion. So we ordered 24 kid "jungle" hats and 12 adult "jungle" hats. My faith is so small.
Last Sunday morning, Pastor (my father in law) announced that he was praying for 30 kids to come to VBS. Monday night came and we had 27 kids! Uh, oh! I didn't plan for that many kids!
We made some changes for Tuesday and assumed that the number of kids would go down; we're realists after all. (Just kidding, I guess that I just didn't believe that God would really work.) Tuesday night, somewhere between 34 and 37 kids showed up - some of the leaders can't count and we never did find out which ones. :) Wednesday was our "down" night - only 24 or 25 kids. Thursday - 36 kids and Friday we had an astronomical 43 kids! That's more than we have in church on some Sunday nights!!!
What's more; we had an offering contest for Bearing Precious Seed in Appleton. Jim Hoffman, the director of BPS, was coming on Friday night to talk to the kids; so we were telling the kids that their money was going toward printing Bibles. They really got into the contest and brought $213! That's incredible!
O ye of little faith! (Matthew 14: 25-33)
We are so excited at the possibilities of ministering to all of the families. Every night the kids heard a clear presentation of the Gospel; and for the kids that didn't have a Bible, we gave them a "John & Romans" to take home.

Anyway, this coming week Shannon and I are helping a missionary couple prepare a video presentation, PowerPoint presentation, display board, and possibly website of their work; but I do plan on taking photos.

And, yes, this is a "photography" blog, but I figured that you can read about my awesome God as well as look at photos of His creation. :)
Speaking of which - this is a spider that I "shot" tonight on the way home from Merrill.