Friday, February 13, 2009

Give the poor tooth fairy a break!

It seems like I've been reading a lot of posts about the "Tooth Fairy" lately. I guess a lot of my friends have kids at that age, and the question has been raised, "what is the going rate for a tooth?" Well, the "Tooth Fairy" doesn't visit us out here on the road. We just move around too much and the poor fairy would go broke trying to pay market value for 13 children, all of whom are of "tooth-shedding" age. Not to mention that some lose teeth in their host homes, while I personally pull others. The fairy just can't handle the pressure of keeping up with that.

The question that has not been raised is, "what do you do with all the lost teeth?" Now I know there are some that may put them in a special box, or maybe in a scrapbook, but the thought of saving and keeping up with 13 kids' teeth is just plain gross (to put it bluntly), and I can just imagine little teeth falling out of the kids' suitcases in random places if they kept them.

Now I can't take credit for this brilliant idea. Our kids from India taught us about this tradition of what to do with lost teeth during our first year on the road, and I think the idea has spread to several other countries by now! It is an outdoor ceremony of sorts, and the key is to gather everyone around and make a big deal about it. If the tooth was lost from the upper jaw, then the "tooth loser" throws the tooth up on something (a stranger's roof, a tree, or in our case a church...). If the tooth was from the bottom jaw, then it's thrown under something. It's fun, it's quick, it's easy and it saves the child from having to face the traumatic question of "what do I do with all these nasty teeth?" when they go off to college. After all, we do call them "lost" teeth!

While we use this as an alternative to the "Tooth Fairy," I'm sure all of you could figure out a way to incorporate it with the fairy if you wanted! So anyways, if you should someday find yourself on a roof and you find a little tooth, you'll know either the Children of the World choir was there, or this great idea caught on!!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Disney Frenzy

Our team was very blessed by churches and host families that worked it out for us to spend 2 days at Disneyworld. We hit the Magic Kingdom for a full day, and then did Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot on the second day. We had a blast!! All the kids rode anything and everything. We started off slow on "It's a Small World" and ended up doing Space Mountain twice...and that was just the Magic Kingdom. At the end of the day, we all watched a million bucks literally go up in flames (give or take). The "Wishes" fireworks show was amazing. As it ended, we were staring at Cinderella's castle when Catherine looked over and said, "I just want to be a princess...if I could just have one wish, I would be a princess." It was pretty stinkin' cute!

Day 2 brought even more thrilling rides like the Tower of Terror and Everest Expedition. If you've never been on that one, I'd say it's the best ride at Disney! Anyways, we can't thank everyone enough who helped make this such an amazing time for us!




















They all have a story...

This year's children came to us all the way from Nepal, Uganda and the Philippines. Most of them come from children's homes, but they all have a story of trials that God has brought them through. Some of them have faced things in their young lives that most of us won't face in a lifetime. We praise the Lord for the ministries that love and care for these kids, and most importantly, are teaching them what it means to live for Christ. These children are the future Christian leaders to some of the most unreached areas of our world. We are so blessed to be able to disciple them and have them here as missionaries to the U.S. this year.

give hope

Everywhere we tour, people have the opportunity to give HOPE by sponsoring a child. Just $30 a month provides a little boy or girl with food, clothing, medicine and an education, but it also gives that child the opportunity to hear about Jesus...the only HOPE for eternity! Maybe this is something you've always wanted to do, but you just wanted to make sure it was a trustworthy organization. Maybe you came to a concert and are still thinking about it. Whatever the case, we hope that you will prayerfully consider sponsoring a child. There's no better time to invest in eternity! 

Tour Schedule

'09-'10 tour schedule to come...we'll be heading west this year!