Powerstar - Vol. 1

My youngest brother, Cliff, has autism.  He is something special, he can create anything out of construction paper and glue and writes tons of comics and stories.  A while back he asked me to help him with his stories, a series of comic book adventures about a character he created called "Powerstar".  She is a reporter named Victoria when she isn't fighting crime.

I started this endeavor all wrong, I was trying to edit and make it perfect and it was taking forever.  So I gave it another try and went about it differently, I only took out a few redundant things and those few things that made no sense or that made it flow a little better.  It really made the story sound so much like my brother, it made me laugh typing it...I could see the story coming to life just a if Cliff was telling me the tale himself.  Cliff's birthday was coming up and I wanted to get it finished for him and surprise him.  I printed it and took one of his Powerstar drawings and made a nifty comic book looking cover.  I also scanned his senior picture because that's the best one I had and it looked "author" like and wrote a little blurb on the last page about him.  I invited my family for dinner to celebrate Cliff's birthday and to give him his gift.  I took a little video of him while he was opening it.

He was delighted!  Yea!  Of course he talked about it all evening but the best part for me was when he told me "I'm proud of you, Christy".  It was really sweet.  Obviously he wants me to do some more stories for him which is fine, I will be honored.  James heard him saying to himself "I knew they wouldn't let me down" and that made me smile.

What boredom looks like

A happy paper bag face

A sad paper bag face

And add a nose...

Cameron, still a kid, love it!

Aqui' Estoy Rendido

Aqui' Estoy Rendido is Spanish for the praise and worship song "Here I am to Worship".  We attended church here tonight at Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana (Hispanic Baptist Church in Sedalia, MO), what an experience!  Let me back up a bit...we have been attending church at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Sedalia and this morning Pastor Efrain E. Baeza N. from Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana (PIBH) brought the message, his niece was the translator, it was a great message about "The War of the Christian".  Tonight, Pastor Chris Guffey (Cornerstone's Pastor) preached at PIBH.  The bulletin was in Spanish, of course, and the hymnals, everything!  PIBH's pastor's niece interpreted once again.  They had some of the praise and worship songs in English on the screen, sometimes we sang the Spanish words instead, it was awesome.  The pastor baptized two new Christians, the interpreter translated them telling their testimonies.  We also sang "Victory in Jesus" "Victoria en Cristo".

Pastor Chris got up to preach and the interpreter then switched to translating English to Spanish.  The message was about Jesus' prayer for us before He went to the cross.  John 17:20-23 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, they they may be one just as We are one: I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me."  He spoke of how we should be united, united as believers, no matter our ethnicity, denomination, whatever the differences may be.  The gospel unites us!  How do my actions affect the gospel?

I am so thankful to have gotten this opportunity to worship with these believers, what a blessing for our family.  It really opened my eyes to bigger things...

Eres Santo = You are Holy!

A Hillbilly Good Time

A few years ago my husband built a "potato gun".  This consists of PVC pipe and a BBQ ignitor thingy.  The ammo...potatoes, the eh, gun powder....Aqua Net hairspray, yes they still make it, you know as well as I do old ladies don't like change and the stuff holds.

 Simply shove a potato in the end you want it to come out, spray the hairspray in the other end, screw on the lid and hit the button.  KaWow!  Out comes the potato, everyone cheers and we do it again.  This is actually quite the powerful weapon, we've put a hole in our burn barrel.  Why?  For fun, of course!  And whenever someone comes over, either a friend of one of the boys' or a local youth pastor, it doesn't seem to matter, the potato "cannon" shows itself.  Cameron recently came upon some new ammo....walnuts, we have a couple walnut trees in our yard, they work great and they're freeeeeee, even better, and probably more dangerous.  Christian timed several shots straight up in the air and they all came in around 11 seconds before hitting the ground.  Pretty impressive, huh?  Oh, it's just a little something real people do for fun or from boredom, either way the menfolk in my family love it and that's good enough for me.

Football is more than the cookies

Warsaw High School football is a big deal.  I have been attending games since 1988...yes, for over 20 years.  I have witnessed teenage boys cry over a heart breaking loss and rejoice over winning a State Championship.  WHS football is legendary.  Coach Morrow is in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame for coaching.  I have seen him yell at players and break down and bawl talking about Jesus.  I've sung the National Anthem there and so has Christian with the Madrigal Singers.  I recalled when he was little and we were at an away game getting ready to walk across a parking lot, I reached for his hand and he looked up at me matter-of-factly and said, "Mom! I am in Kindergarten!"  The boys didn't watch too much of the games then, they mostly played in the grass with other children, having their own football game.  The crowds that gather are large, they fill up the bleachers and stand and watch next to the field halfway around the track.  WHS football is one of our favorite pasttimes. 



 Tonight was Homecoming!  The booster club sells brown bag specials with your choice of brats, hot dogs, or burgers along with a bag of chips, soda or water, and a homemade cookie.  Yummy!  We are always at the games early, I mean early, we have our spot, top row of the bleachers close to the speaker where we set up our bleacher seats and where I lay out my blanket to save seats for James' parents.  The speaker is loud, way too loud before the game starts.  They play the same songs they played when I was in high school..."Welcome to the Jungle", "Hells Bells".  I do not like these songs anymore!  But we endure it for the love of the game.  Madrigal Singers sang the National Anthem tonight, I could clearly hear Christian (that's so cool), and it sounded great!


Christian singing, he's the one in the white t-shirt

 

The players storming the field, ripping through the "Beat the Mustangs Banner"

They're holding hands.....aw, sweet

The game was good, we won 40 - 30.  The season hasn't been like most, our record is 3 - 3, there have been some injuries and other mishaps but we are still hopeful for the playoffs. 

I took this before our last home game.