SeVenTy.....

My Nana turned 70...SeVeN decades of being alive....She was born when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, a stamp cost 3 cents, and World War II was beginning. She experienced the effects of the war when she had to move to her Grandma's house at the age of 2 with her youngest brother and her other 3 brothers, all older than her, went to stay with an Aunt so that her mom could go to Baltimore, Maryland to work in a factory for military products. She specifically remembers hearing that WWII was over on the family radio and everyone ran outside when they heard the planes flying overhead. She recalls ' everyone cheering and crying' because the end had come.

She's raised two daughters...3 if you add me into the equation. From the time that I was 8 until I moved away to college at 18, I was taken care of by my Nana.

She taught me to clean, bargain shop, cook, drive, & gosh so many more things that I don't have time to list. She's taught me so much in my life that I know I've really taken it for granted. She's given up so much in her life to be my care giver...I'm grateful. One thing she shared with me that I am most grateful for is her belief in an amazing SAVIOR. I remember her making me be at church ' every time the door was open'.

Nana & her 2 Babies

Here's to Nana. An amazing lady who has loved me very much!

cLoSing OuT another sChOOL Year!

School ended on June 10th and it is the first year in my 5 years of teaching that I have ever EnDuRED summer into the month of June! I must admit I could feel the lengthened sense of dread each morning. Not only were the students ready for the summer with 97 degree temperatures outside our door, but I was as well. With EOG's finished there is only so much students are willing to do....I had to concur and movies, checkers, & playdoh filled our last days.

Middle School is so different than Elementary School. Seeing students signing yearbooks and t-shirts reminded me so much of my own days in school. Remember signing yearbooks and pouring your heart out to people that you really thought you would see for the rest of your life and you will NEVER and HAVE never seen them again! I look back to what people wrote in my yearbook and think, "Wow...we were so oblivious to what real life was going to be like." Wonder what we would write now....

I purchased a yearbook for this year. It was really nice to read what the kids wrote to me. One of my favorites was from a young lady that had less than pleasant days in my classroom.

She wrote: ' I'm really going to miss you Mrs. Berry and I want you to know that I love you, even though I say that I don't. You've been my best teacher. Thank you'. Things like this make all the rest of teaching fade away and makes me grateful for the opportunity to teach some great kids.

I really loved them and had a great year with my first set of middle schoolers! Many of them are already texting me and telling me how much they miss me. Though I'm unemployed right now due the Budget Cuts in the state, I'm hopeful that something will work out for next year, but until God opens that door I will enjoy my summer!

Splish Splashing into the Summer!

We've been so busy! It's amazing how much we have had going on this past week....

Softball has been going in fullswing. Last week the guys won 19 to something...It was rediculous really. The guys were on fire!

John was ordained last Sunday on May 31st. While he has been in full time ministry for the past 5 years, he never had been through an offical ordination service. But here at Liberty we finally were really blessed by our deacons and pastor who prayed over John and myself. We felt so loved and encouraged. It felt so good to feel like a group of people were standing behind us, loving us and wanting to work with us in ministry. Of course we didn't get any pictures because I, the picture queen, was up there praying too! We followed up church with a trip to the Ole T & R (Texas Roadhouse). This is one of John's absolute favorites! John's parents and Nana & Wanda came down and it was a great time with our family and friends.

Bruce, Yvonne, & Mike all avoiding the camera

Papa John & J Berry

Di soaking up some sweet tea in 3 gulps!

Nana & Brandon...he's so sweet!

Today we headed out to Fantasy Lake in Hopemills which is not far from Fayetteville. A few of our students decided to join us for this journey. We had never been and wanted to check it out because we have a youth event planned for there this summer. It was a blast and it was so much fun to get to know these girls better. They each have big dreams! They are wonderful girls who have blessed us in our time since we have been here. All three have been in the praise band with John.

John, Sam, Ashton, & Brianna

Brianna loves to read books and write plays! She's so smart- she shares so much knowledge! She plays the guitar, piano and really wants to learn the violin.

Sam loves soccor, plays the keyboard and is SUPER quiet! She makes some mean chocolate chip cookies though.

Ashton's going to be a Christian Rockstar someday in some amazing girl band that praises their Savior with their talents! She's an amazing drummer! She knows every Christian band....names, birthdays, children's names...she's a bit of a stalker! :)

John on the Tarzan Swing

Drop Slides--- One of their favorites.

Check out Ashton's face!

Sam slid right off before I could get her almost.

God has really blessed us with so many wonderful students. It's gonna take time, but I pray we get to know them all as well as we knew all our wonderful students in Boone.

Kids say the darndest things!

The following are a few conversations that I have heard from some of my students in the last few days....



I know a lady that is 114 years old Mrs. Berry. She's in the funeral home....
Really? the funeral home...
yeah....you mean a nursing home?...
Oh yeah that's right. A nursing home. opps...




Another students was standing next to the mirror in the back of the room. Everyone else was working quietly. I asked "Juan, what are you doing back there?" He quite easily replied, "Well Mrs. Berry, I was wondering if I could flip my eyelids. So that's what I'm doing...flipping my eye lids."






Then another student came up and said...I really need to talk. My chest is heavy.
What do you mean your chest is heavy?
You know I need to talk because my Chest is heavy.
Very persistently he continued to press that he was struggling and needed to talk.
We finally realized he was referring to the old term "I have alot on my chest".


Then this morning I had a student, who is always 'full of energy'. She asked to go to the bathroom with her purse on her arm. I knew better than to think that she was only going to the bathroom for its typical uses. So I asked for the cellphone and all hairproducts that she had and this was my collection after she emptied her purse. She turned after handing me 2 combs, a brush, and some grease and just threw her purse down too and headed out the door to the bathroom....then she turned right back around and said...."I guess I really don't need to go".

SOFTBALL

Tonight was the first night for the '09 softball season and the Liberty fellas came out ready to play! They've been practicing for the past 4 weeks or so and tonight was the first game.
We won 10-9 against New Hope, it was a good time.

Liberty's team...



Gini, Shannon, Mike & Annie cheering on the team..

Rob .. our mighty team coach

J Berry holding up the fence...

Tori playing with her friend.




The cheering squad...

John's parents were here for the weekend and were able to see his first game.

Allen...look at those guns...got your tickets???

Brucey Bruce...

Fort Fisher

Today, oh what a long day it has been. I heard the alarm at 5:30, exactly one hour earlier than I usually rise, telling me it was time for me to get up so I could take 80 amazing 6th graders to the Fort Fisher near Wilmington.

We left school at 7:00 on the most rickety charter buses I ever have seen. I honestly wasn't sure we would make it. The kids were so excited and could hardly wait to see the ocean and go crabbing at the saltwater marsh. Many of them had but quite a few had not. While it was a hot and tiring day for this 6th grade teacher, the joy on their faces was priceless.

notice the alligator between their heads!

kids in awe at the aquarium

heading down the beach 3/4 of a mile to the salt water marsh to go crabbing

got fish???

"um...Mrs. Berry..."

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to JBerry!

He is:

A son, uncle, brother, a committed lover of Jesus Christ.

My husband for almost 6 years!

My best friend for almost 8 years!

Tall, Handsome, Strong, Gifted.

One whose eyes go "Chinese" when he smiles.

A Student Pastor. A Worship Pastor.

Blessed with an ability to fix things without any effort.

A 'jack of all trades'.

A talented musician and singer.

A lover of loud music- All types of music.

Athletic.

A lover of laughter that is contagious.

A loud laugher.

A corney joke teller.

FUN.

An individual with an amazing ability to let things 'roll off his back'.

Not a worrier but one who trusts in the promises of the Lord.

Not a fighter. He loves always.

Very forgiving. Patient. Kind.

A cleaner. He likes things neat and orderly.

Our laundry washer, yard mower, floor vaccumer.

Meat and Potatoes kind of guy.

A risk taker.

Outdoorsman.

The One I love to spend time with.

Always eager to ride his motorcycle.

Someone who has taught me so much about life and what it is to be loved unconditionally.

A snorer, lover of sleep, long naps and rising late.

A worshiper.

Going to be a WONDERFUL Father.

A multiple time snooze button pusher.

A former Quarter Back in High School. Practice Dummy at App.

Loved by many. Disliked by very few.

Lover of sports center.

Crazy about Texas Roadhouse Ribs.

Super Happy when I fix Cube Steak, Mashed Potatoes, and Greenbeans.

Lover of Pepper- both the person and the spice!

He is more than I ever could have asked for!

Send....

All of us are guilty of sending out a text message while being behind the wheel. And we can all probably think of a time that we had a 'close call' with another vehicle because we were texting. For those of you who have not, "CONGRATS!" , but I know John and I are guilty of texting and driving.

States all across the US are working towards banning texting while you are driving. How they will determine you are guilty, besides an accident, I am not sure, but the bill is in the works in North Carolina. I read the following article, where I found this .....

Now that the North Carolina House of Representatives has made it overwhelmingly clear—by a 104 to 5 vote—that texting and emailing while driving should be banned, the bill now heads to the state Senate and then Governor Bev Perdue. If the bill becomes law, anyone caught violating the ban would b fined $100 plus court expenses. Rescue workers and police are among those who would be exempted. An amendment to the bill helps determine when negligence might have occurred if someone was texting when a North Carolina car accident happened.

There are more people texting in North Carolina than ever before. According to the 2008 “Big City Wireless Use Study,” from April 2006 to April 2008, text messaging use increased among Verizon customers by over 600%. The International Wireless Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry says text message sending and receiving increased from 14.4 million in 2000 to 48.1 billion in 2007.

I hope it does pass! I really was indifferent until this morning when a young lady was driving behind me on Bragg. Blvd and almost hit me because she wasn't watching the road! She was too busy looking at her phone. I know that it was her phone because as i started to break, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw her looking down. Then as I heard her breaks screech and she flew past me, finally with both hands on the steering wheel, she had her cellphone in her left hand in the death grip with her steering wheel. Not only did she pass me in the median before coming to a halt, but the car in front of me too! She was moving!

I'm grateful that I am safe and I have decided no more messaging for me while I drive. Whoever it is can wait! I hope that they would prefer that over never being able to talk to me again!

What's in Your Thought Closet?

A closet is created to store things. Some closets are neat and organized. Others a mess that you dare not open. Have you ever thought of your mind as a closet? It's created to store your thoughts. It harbours thoughts of yourself, your family, your surroundings,your hopes, your dreams, your God..... The list goes on and on. Our minds are constantly running thoughts through it. Rarely do we really sit and just think of nothing. Well, the women who are reading this anyway?:) John often times says he is thinking of nothing and over the last six years of marriage, I have really found it to be true.

I have really struggled with my thoughts. Thoughts of myself, my life, my marriage, my family, my relationships, God..... The list is endless. I dwell on things I know to be true but I can do nothing about it and I dwell on things that I think are true but are absolutely not true at all!

Words...even the ones we speak to ourselves in our thoughts have great influence. Our words either build up our life or speak death into our life.

Matthew 12:35 says "A good man produces good things from him storeroom of good, and an evil man produces evil things from his storeroom of evil." The greekword for storeroom is thesauros. The term thesaurus, used to describe a storeroom or collection of words is derived from this word. Thesauros also refers to the magi's chest of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:11). A thesauros, like a storeroom or the magi's chests, is a container. Your heart and mind are also containers. They are full of words, many of which you've said to yourself over the years. When people used words in Scripture, it reflected what was in their thesauros.

Many people in God's word struggled with their words about themselves. Look at Moses for example. Moses identified himself by his studder (Exodus 4:10) We would never identify him with this quality. His I am statement may have been I am not an eloquent speaker and not capable of communicating Gods word to others.

When we look at God's word and what he says about us, we see ourselves in a different light that calls us to clean out our closets and rearrange our thoughts so that they line up with what God's words says about us and his thoughts towards us.

Psalm 40:5 ' Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which you have done, and Your thoughts toward us...'

Psalm 92:5 ' How precious also are you thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!"

Jeremiah 29:11 ' I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil , to give you a future and a hope.'

God's thoughts are not like our thoughts. While our thought closet can be crammed full of darkness, His can only be filled with light because He is LIGHT!

I have been praying that my closet doors will spring open to be aired out allowing the light to shine in.

Hebrews 4:12 says 'For the Word of God is alive and powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting between soul and marrow. It exposes our inner most thoughts and desires.'

ReTHINK

Yesterday John and I spent the day in Raleigh at the ReTHINK conference. It was great time hearing about how the Word calls families to carry the responsibility of spiritual growth for their children. Many people believe that this lies on the shoulders of the youth pastor. We've been told so many times , "John could you get my child saved" or "my kid really needs to hear a pastor talk about responsibility or priorities".

This conference really emphasized what an important role the parents play in their childs spiritual growth. The family is to be an example of how we should be at church; loving others, being able to talk out differences, etc. However, because the family structure has fallen short of what God's word calls it to be, we see the impact on the church body often times through how they deal with one another.

One of the speakers talked about the importance of starting a childs spiritual development plan as soon as they are born. He challenged families to get in the word together, pray together and sing and worship together in their home setting from the time that your family begins. Doing this on a consistent basis begins to allow your kids to see the example. Only seeing parents be 'Sunday Christians' leaves students, especially as they get older, with a distorted view of how God calls us to live. This causes students to leave their faith or "graduate from their faith" as they graduate from High School.

There is a battle going on for the next generation. The only ones who truly can win are parents who partner with the church to grow their child spiritually ' so that they might not depart from it'.

While we were at the conference we had an awesome privilege to see Jon and Leigh Chasteen! We went to school together at Appalachian (GO MOUNTAINEERS!) and John and Jon played football together. They are serving at a church in Durham with their two beautiful kids.

Leigh and I both love to take pictures. We are laughing here because Leigh had picked out the background she wanted for our picture and we just needed someone to take it before the last speaker started. We were out near the parking lot and man in a suit was getting out of his car. Leigh grabbed him before he went in, asking him to take our picture. Noticing that he was in a suit the guys pointed out that it was Randy Stinson, our next speaker! He probably thought we wanted a picture with him but we really just needed him to press the button :) It was a really good laugh and I'm sure he didn't mind....so we told ourselves!

We had a good time together and they introduced us to a new place called Pei Wei. It was just like PF Chang's but the cheaper version of it. It was SUPER good and I'm sure we will go back together again!