We are in full garden mode and nothing can stop us! We got a Diane and she is focused and ready. We have begun planting the flowers and the peppers and all the rest and it is wonderful to see God bring things back to life and to feel a little brought back to life ourselves! He is Risen!
I took advantage of a free mulch drop and realized that I had gotten waaaaaaaaaay more than I needed... so my friends encouraged me to Tom Sawyer the whole thing and I did! I gave away FREE mulch on Facebook market place and have reduced my giant pile to almost nothing. Yay for community. Also yay for a back yard that no longer is covered in mud...
Family is so precious and we are in birthday mode, having celebrated Creed (15) and Serenity (6) and Liam being inducted into the National Honor Society. So much to celebrate! Diane always keeps dinner interesting, she introduced fish in all its glory, bones eyeballs and all! We are cooking as a family under her great leadership and taking time to prioritize relationship with each other!
But when dinner just feels like too much work we go to Sonic... sometimes... sort of. Any way this was a fantastic sign that COVID is waning in Duncanville, the playground at Sonic was open and we had a great time watching the kids play tag and running around and getting sandy.
We all want to stay on Diane's good side as she had learned axe throwing recently and is dangerous from about 15 feet now. It was so fun to go axe throwing at a friends birthday party and I love this picture of her so much I wanted to add it to the mix.
Diane and I have battled the crazy busy life and decided to get a date in once a week. We takes turns and just try and make it happen! On one of my weeks, I took us to get pedicures. It was my first time and I was horrified at how much skin came off my feet. It's great to keep it interesting.
I really enjoyed getting to speak in a church recently and share a little about my life growing up. I wanted to share these pictures with you of one of my early sermons at a church in Africa, I think I was 18. The other picture is of me in (I'm guessing) 6th grade... but I'm not sure. Who knew that little guy would have such a cool future and would still be preaching :).
MK is going really well and it is a privilege to be in person and mask free and back to doing so many fun events. We went camping and made homeless bags and go to coffee shops and Mondays are always fun with the great games my leaders come up with.
Right now we are finishing up the year and getting ready for our summer program. We have graduation coming soon and the pool opening and all the fun May stuff. It has been so long since we have been able to do these events!
I'm going through a series called "Failure to Launch" with my Seniors and it is going really well. I'm trying to answer the problem of adolescents failing to transition to adulthood. One of the issues we are talking about is how to develop internal motivation instead of relying only on external motivation, like setting your own alarm to wake up instead of relying on mom or dad to get you up.
Please be praying for me in May! I hope to go to Asia for 2 weeks to lead a Trauma Healing workshop and that is the beginning of a busy traveling season for me! I covet your prayers as I seek to parent better and lead MK well and re-enter a somewhat unfamiliar rhythm of life that I like to call Emerging from COVID.
Thank you so much for your partnership and prayers in this ministry! I couldn't do this without you and need your prayers and support to continue on! We see His kingdom come together in the harmony that God provides! You are amazing and God is working and doing amazing things because of you!
God is teaching me a lot about healing from some of the wounds I've received these last few years as I've watched some dear MKs walk away from their faith and seen some relationships get broken. I love the poem "If'" by Rudyard Kipling.... "If you can see the things you gave your life to broken and stoop and build them up with worn out tools"... I feel like that is a season I'm in right now. I'm learning to delight in my weakness and to know God in that place, the place where Christ's power rests on me and hope gets reborn. Thanks for your understanding and faithfulness to walk with me through all this!
Love you all so much!
Blessings,
Caleb
If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis or with recurring gifts, click on the tab "Supporting the Work" at the top of the page and sign up for Chase Quickpay. You can then send your donation to HCLC - Caleb Robbins Ministry using my e-mail address caleb_robbins@sil.org. If you would like further instructions on setting that up, please click on the link at the top right of the page called How to give. Or feel free to contact me directly! 214 558 8431.
Another way to donate to the ministry is via check. If you write a check to "Holy Cross Lutheran Church" and put "Caleb Robbins Ministry" in the memo line, it will get deposited into my ministry account.
The address is:
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
4400 W Arkansas Ln
Arlington, TX 76016
Diane is my beautiful wife and the mother of my precious children Creed 14, Asher 11, Liam 10, Echo already in heaven, Bella 6, and Serenity 5 years old.
