A Fisher Of Men

Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
~Mark 1:17

Last week Micah attended VBS at a church close by to our home. Every year this little church does a wonderful program for the neighborhood kids. This year they had a luau theme and the kids surfed their way through God's word with stories, crafts, music and games. Micah had a blast considering he missed the VBS at the church we are members at this year.

The first day of VBS the church only had 11 kids register for their program. This completely broke their hearts, and mine as well. :0( This is a very small church with most, if not all the congregation comprised of widows/widowers, empty nesters and retirees, many of whom live in our neighborhood. My Mom had attended several of the women's studies at this church when she was living with us and really enjoyed her time spent there. Normally each year they may of 30-40kids from our surrounding neighborhood attend their VBS, and I think that is what they were expecting this time around as well. So the pastor asked the kids if they could make a list of friends to invite to the VBS program so they could hear the 'good news' they were spreading.

Micah came home that night and made a list of friends he wanted to call and invite. The next morning he made his phone calls and told his friends about the VBS or left messages for his buddies to come to the program. Out of the 6 friends he called, 2 came the next day(a brother and sister dual). Micah kept in prayer that the other 5 would accept his invitation to come, but in the end they either declined or were not able to attend. Micah never lost hope and still prayed they would change their minds anyway. It was so awesome watching him pray with zeal and excitement each night for his friends and for this church's VBS program.

During the closing ceremony on Friday, the church invited the parents to come during the last hour to tour the rooms and to hear what the kids had learned over the course of the week. During the chapel presentation Micah and another little boy were given a fish and a new Bible for bringing their friends with them to VBS. With that, the pastor spurred the two of them on to continue to be 'fishers of men' (hence the fish). I regrettably missed the presentation, but Soowan was their to witness this sweet moment. I wish I would of gone, but Amanda had had no nap that afternoon and I knew she was not going to sit still, nor quiet during the chapel time, so I opted to stay home with her. Sigh...

Micah came walking into the house with a a new Bible and tiny fishbowl with a betta fish swimming inside in tote. Micah was smiling ear to ear and quickly began telling me how and why he was given the fish and the Bible. A short while later he took the new Bible out of the box and began flipping through it's pages. He quickly noticed how some of the words were written in red print. He asked why this was and Soowan told him those are the passages in which Jesus spoke. Micah kept thumbing through his new Bible and exclaimed, "WOH! Jesus sure spoke a lot right here!" It turned out to be Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. TOO CUTE! Micah then started reading out loud to us The Beatitudes...

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
~Matthew 5:3-11

May we all live out loud the words written above. Amen!




In all honesty when I saw Micah's new fish the first thing I thought to myself is, "I sure hope we can keep this one alive." When Micah was a toddler and was obsessed with Elmo, we went through something like 8 Dorothy's. No matter how hard we tried we could not keep a goldfish alive. Rather pathetic, huh? So on Saturday morning we headed over to PetSmart to learn on how we could keep Moses alive (Micah named him Moses because he learned about him during VBS). Within 30 minutes our free fish turned out to be more like a $36, FREE fish. I think his new home looks a lot more appealing than the tiny bowl with fluorescent colored rocks that he came home in... Don't you think so?