Sunday Worship #4

Yesterday during worship service, we shared Psalms 139 with the girls at My Refuge House. Through this passage, the girls were reminded that:

- God knows everything about you. He will never leave you.
- God made you and is crazy about you and delights in you.
- He knows every chapter in your life - from beginning to end.
- He knows all your anxious thoughts because He knows your heart.

We placed some objects (some toy items that belong to our kids) on a small table and had the girls, staff, and my family select an item and share a thought. This is what each girl (first initial) selected and shared:

- T: princess fairy tale book - "I like happy endings."
- J: play cell phone: "so I can call my family - I miss them."
- T: map - "I want to travel."
- H: baby doll - "I miss my little brother."
- J: baby doll - "I have a baby brother whom I have never met."
- R: play cell phone: "call my mother - I miss her."
- S: play cell phone: "I want to call my auntie."
- H: baby doll - "I want a baby brother."
- Hana: sand - "I wan to go the beach."
- Sei: sand - "I want to make a mountain and castle."
- Megumi: photo of Russ' dad - "I love Russy's father and I miss Russy's family."
- Russ - sword and Filipino flag - "I want Manny Pacquiao to slay the giant today."
- Loi (house parent) - princes fairy tale book - "never judge a book by its cover."

We acknowledged each of these desires in the light of Psalms 139. We then played the last scene of Narnia - The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe in which each of the childre receive new names. In the same spirit and gesture, I took the play sword and presented to the King each of the girls acknowledging each of them as Princesses. And then we closed our worship time singing the following song.

We are enjoying these times with the girls. I see their spiritual hunger and they are receiving what is being shared.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written
in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.