www.helpoutyourneighbor.com

Tuesday evening I had the opportunity to attend a town hall meeting at Perkiomen Valley Township. One of our faithful volunteers is fighting a battle reminiscent of David and Goliath. Her parent's land is being taken from them under the covering of "imminent domain". They are not being offered fair market value for their property, but more importantly, they don't want to move or sell the land.

Laura Dietrich is not only trying to help fight for her parents' rights, she is also helping fight for her father's life who is ill with brain cancer. Laura and her family need our prayer support as well as our actions. Please visit www.helpoutyourneighbor.com and help Laura and her parents in this battle.

Back to School

I am a sucker for the back to school season. I love this time of year; school buses on the road, kids at bus stops, new back packs, the smell of new crayons, you get the idea. Even before I had children, seeing kids at the bus stop put a smile on my face. Now that I have children of my own, I still feel that same excitement but there's a twist.

Sending Emma to school 4 years ago for the first time just about sent me over the edge. The thought of someone else being responsible for my baby during the day, teaching her lessons, making sure she remained safe, keeping her from getting her feelings hurt... This did not sit well with me and I moped around feeling quite sorry for myself for days. She was thrilled and thrived in the school environment and slowly I came around too. What other choice did I have?

Well, fast forward a few years and it is now Ethan's turn. I felt very confident that I wouldn't be effected in the same way. He is a boy and I had been through it before, so the night before school when I turned into a crazy whirling tornado I was taken by surprise. As I was packing enough lunch for him to last a week and making sure all of his forms were in his bookbag for the 5th time, my husband looked over at me and laughed out loud. I knew what I was doing and I was not happy. I sat on my couch and had a good cry.

New beginnings, as exciting as they are can be very painful too. That's where I feel we are in Valley Kids. We are entering a new beginning. As our church continues to grow it is exciting and awesome, but at the same time painful. We need more volunteers and people are use to doing things certain ways, change is difficult but the benefits are huge and the rewards immense!

God gave each of us this incredible gift and the coolest part is, we can give it away as many times as we want and it never runs out. I look forward to sharing the exciting plans for the upcoming year in Valley Kids this weekend, Sept. 7th at 1:00pm. I hope you will join us as we explore the year ahead. It's going to be a great one!