A Shield Around Me

Last Sunday there was AWANA about the Bible Home. I'll post more about that soon. But right now I just want to share about the worship time we had before going into full AWANA mode. Here's the deal. The Bible Home is a temporary shelter for 80 at risk children. There are 8 houses (10 children in each plus a substitute family). Every other weekend, the children go home to be with their families. This is very good and important since one of the main purposes of our ministries existence is to help restore families. On the other every other weekends, the children stay at the Bible Home and their parents can come and visit on Sunday afternoon. On those Sunday mornings, there is a small worship service for the children. During certain parts of the year, the post-singing time of the service becomes AWANA time. (AWANA is a really awesome evangelistic/Bible memorization program). So, last Sunday the worship time was really great. It is a powerful thing, to be there with 80 children who all come from HORRIBLE backgrounds, and sing with them about God's love, faithfulness and promises.

This past Sunday, a "new" song was introduced. It's called "You, Lord are a Shield around me." It's based on Psalm 3:3 "But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head." The lyrics say

You, Lord are a Shield around me. You lift up my head, you are my glory and strength. You, Lord are a shield around me. You prosper my ways and control my destiny, only you are a shield, Lord." I don't know what it was, but I just LOVED singing this song. It's easy, it's catchy, and of course, we learned adorable motions to it too. But what a rich, beautiful true promise we can cling to! No matter what we go through, God is there with us. The assistant director of the Bible Home and his wife led the song and explained how the Lord is a shield AROUND us. Not just in front of us, or on one side, but all around us on every side. That is so good to know! Yes, hard times come and we have to pass through some excruciatingly painful and difficult trials, but God is with us. God is in control and we can hide and rest in Him, knowing that He will lift up our heads once more. And the kids at the BH have been through that and they are finding their solace in God and it is just so beautiful!

You know in "Shout to the Lord" in English the last line says "nothing compares to the promise I have in you?" Well, in Spanish it says, "You give me incomparable promises, Lord." I like how the focus is more on the promises in Spanish than the lack of comparison available to them. Well, the recording/video we sing along with at the BH is really neat. It gives me the chills every time. Towards the end there is a break in the singing and children's voices start listing a whole bunch of God's promises, "God loves me," "God will take care of me," etc, etc, etc. God's Word is beautiful and powerful and TRUE and we can cling to it. The hard times will come. But God is still there, a shield around us. And that's something to sing about!