Today was Hannah-Grace’s last day of dance for this cycle. She will start dancing again beginning in January. Today was also the one and only day when the instructors would allow the parents to actually sit in the room and watch them dance. After several of the girls would suddenly bolt and ran back and forth, and back and forth to their parents, I understand the restriction.

In the next round of dance we will have our first recital – I’ll let you know how it goes. But for now Hannah-Grace loves to put on her pink tutu, pink dance shoes, pink dance outfit, pink Cinderella backpack, pink, pink, pink, …. (you get the idea). Her face lights up when it is time to go and to be only three she shows great potential. (I know all parents say that about their children, especially daddies about their little girls.) She wants to get married, and asks Jesus to bring her a special boy soon. I am in the background praying the exact opposite – Lord let it be many, many years from now. I want to hold on the pink ponies and dance lesson Saturdays as long as I can. In a house where the guys outnumber the girls (4-2), Hannah-Grace is all girl, and that’s ok with daddy.

Today was the second annual Gingerbread House Building morning. We had well over 80 people to attend and it was a wonderful morning. Everything went very smoothly, and Karine planned everything exceptionally well. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped to make this a wonderful time for families. There were several requests from people from the community asking, “Are you guys doing this next year?” We had several families that even returned from last year.

Our goal was simply to give families in the community and in our church an opportunity to have fun with their family. So everyone went home with their very own Gingerbread House, smiles on their faces, and a little gift from us. I wanted to give people another entrance to our church other than a Sunday morning worship service.

I also didn’t want to hog all the fun, so Craig G. got to wear the Gingerbread Man outfit. He looks pretty snappy in a giant green bow tie. Our volunteers were outfitted in brown felt aprons, complete with red buttons – very festive. All of my children had a sugar rush at some time during the two hours, and they all crashed in the car on the way home.

I know that there are much larger churches, and far busier pastors than I, but this past weekend was very busy. It’s the end of Monday and I am still pretty tired. Friday evening was the Kris Kringle Parade in downtown Frederick. Saturday was Respite, and this event had two additional hours than normal. Sunday we have our normal two services, there were the regular afternoon meetings, and I attended youth Sunday night. You could say, “Drew, that’s why buy you get the big bucks!”

Yes, perhaps, but there were several people from Daybreak who don’t get any compensation for this high level of involvement. They believe in what we are trying to accomplish so much that they are willing to serve at this level of sacrifice and commitment. I know of one person who came from work, served pretty much the whole weekend and then went back to work on Monday. This person’s weekend had to only have been a blur.

I am so blessed and thankful to be a leader of a church where so many people understand that there is more to life than being compensated or getting personal gain from service. Daybreak people understand that there are eternal issues in everything that we do, especially as a church. This past weekend was a time of physical exertion and eternal kingdom growth. Both seem to go hand-in-hand.

When it comes to ministry, numbers aren’t everything. There are times when I have been able to minister to one small child, or young person that truly means more to me than when I have been able to preach before hundreds. But increased numbers do sometimes indicate that you are being effective at what you are doing, or that you have identified a need that you can attempt to help with. Today at our Respite ministry we had over 200 people involved. This was the largest one so far. We partnered with several churches, community groups, and various individuals who helped to make this massive event a huge success. With special needs children you need just about one-to-one attention. We had some special Christmas events this year like licensed beauticians/hairstylists who cut the children’s hair and Brody the therapy dog (who is a huge malamute).

I want to thank the two Kims (they know who they are) for being the organizational superstars behind this ministry. They met with close to twelve new families that were apart of this event. They took the registrations, organized the volunteers, and pulled it all together (and they made it look easy!) I would also like to thank all the volunteers from all over Frederick who helped today – we truly couldn’t do it without you.

I was very encouraged that a church from another county visited our Respite simply for the purpose of taking notes. They had heard of what we do, and had felt led by God to begin such a ministry themselves. Daybreak’s Respite ministry cannot get too much larger led by volunteers and located where we are. There is really no need for it to continue to grow larger. While the need is greater, (we did have a waiting list) it is my prayer that other churches will get the vision for beginning their own Respite Ministry, thus multiplying the impact. It looks like God may be answering our prayer in this way.

When I found out that I was going to be the one to wear the Gingerbread Man costume for the Frederick County Khris Kringle parade I was not all that enthused. It was difficult to put on, it was difficult to move around, and when we got to our group’s location it was very difficult to put on. I couldn’t see and it was terrible hot. But when we walked across the parking lot of the Delaplaine Visual Arts Center we walked passed hundreds of kids.

There were at least twenty kids who immediately ran up to me and started to hug me. Others smiled and waved from a distant. Then something changed in my heart. Pastor scrooge’s heart got two sizes larger. I discovered that whenever children (and many adults) saw me they smiled and many even cheered.

As we walked down the streets of Frederick I gave children high five’s and ran back and forth from one side of the street to another. I gave hugs, patted children on the head, and even petted a dog (which is very dangerous for a gingerbread man). By the half way mark I was drenched in sweat, but I was having the time of my life. I knew what it was like to be “the chicken.” (www.famouschicken.com)

There was another thing that brought joy to my heart other than the smiles of children. The children from our own church handed out over 800 cards advertising our Gingerbread House Building Fun Morning at our church. That’s a lot of cards! They were wonderful.