November Update - 'Tis the Season

We are currently gearing up towards the one time of the year we really love and hate all at the same time!  With it being the end of the normal year as well as the academic year, it is a time filled with end of the parties, graduations, Christmas celebrations, for about every group of people you are remotely involved with.  We love it because it's a lot of celebrating. But we hate it because even too much of a good thing can still be too much :)  Let's just put it this way: The month of December is the only time of the year ever that Tracey actually gets sick of eating :)

We're not complaining, though.  We are thankful to have people to celebrate with and jobs that allow us to serve others in this holiday season.  It's a crazy time, but it's a crazy good time.

With that said, here is a summary of what's been keeping us active, inspired, and/or running around like crazy this month:


We are taking our House of Hope kids to church!  Three churches, actually.  We are taking them to our Chilean churches that support us financially to say thank you and have them pray for our kids.  It was this time last year I was gearing up for my 8+ weeks of public speaking, and this year I get to watch our Director, Susi, present our kids to these congregations.  I am again reminded of how much we need community in our lives.

The end of the Sunday School year is approaching.  A year of conversations, investment, craziness, organizing, planning, discipling, etc. is coming to an end.  My (Tracey here) kids are awesome and I don't want to see any of the graduating class go.  Typically there has always been that one kid who just drives you nuts, but all of our kids are just stinkin' awesome.  I'm going to miss them over the summer break.  Speaking of the summer break, it's going to be a lot of work and energy honing in on the things we've all learned through out the year. To me it's incredible necessary if we want to be "filled back" up, trained, equipped and in tune with a fresh vision for the year to come.   

We had our first job interview… as the interviewer!  We are in the process of bringing down our first teacher from the States to teach for goEnglish.  This is a huge answer to prayer!  God has provided a qualified candidate for us that seems to really share the vision we have for our business and how we want to serve the community through it.

An expanding business brings a lot of questions.  After a year and a half of business, we are reevaluating and learning from our mistakes in order to do the best job we can and keep us sane.  Bringing on employees now brings a whole new world to conquer, so we are doing some small business advising, rewriting some of our policies, and trying to learn everything we need to know about legally hiring employees in Chile.  While at times it seems overwhelming and super intimidating, we keep remembering that God has provided what we've needed for this business one step at a time, and we trust that this will be no different. 

I am graduating from Bible Institute.  I (Christine) took my last two classes this month from our Bible institute (seminary-like classes) and will graduate with a certificate of ministry next month. Tracey speaking, I on the other hand will not be graduating, no questions please, maybe sometime soon though.     

The end-of-the-year "paseo" is in 2 weeks!  This year we are taking all of Tracey's Sunday School kids, plus House of Hope kids, PLUS a short-term mission team of kids from the U.S. to our end of the year "outing."  We will swim, grill out, play soccer, and hang out all day.  We've never done this with a mixed-language group, or with House of Hope kids, or with an infant, so it should be a pretty memorable event. 

60 pieces of chicken will fit in that oven!

We have a mobile child.  It is unbelievable to see how quickly Coen changes and grows and learns new things!  This now includes crawling everywhere, climbing, "walking" along the side of the couch…  And he just loves every bit of it!  Especially going for things like the ironing board, doors that should have been shut, and anything that has a screen.

Who needs a play yard?

This guy!

I am trying to figure out how to get anything done during the day.  See previous paragraph.

We are running a half-marathon.  Next Sunday we will be running a half-marathon along the coast!  Should be a good time.  Christine has trained, I have not.  Sports are 95% mental right?

Nice weather for a long run

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'll!

December Prayer Requests

1) Following God's vision for goEnglish, Sunday School, and House of Hope

2) Dedication in planning 

3) Patience and energy in the craziness of December

  

Small Business Advisor? Anyone?

We are looking for someone stateside who knows some things about running a small business.  Things like financial planning, managing employers, creating policies for services, and really anything else that is included in running a small business that we haven't thought of :)

If you know anyone that has experience with this, or if the job "Small Business Advisor" actually exists, we would love to talk with you!  Please email us at thekeitts@gmail.com.

Thanks ya'll!

 

Free Gym

So we just found this little gem and it is too good not to share!

If you don't have access, time, and/or money for a gym, this is a great alternative.  Or maybe even better.  A husband and wife team of personal trainers have created this website so that everyone can have access to free, quality workouts. 

http://www.fitnessblender.com/ 

There are a ton of full length workout videos, ranging in length, difficulty, and focus.  The way they format everything is really engaging and helpful.    

Hope you enjoy!

Keitt Update - October 2013

Disciples and Dependents

You know those moments when you look back and think, “Dang, I did exactly the opposite of what I wanted to do in that situation.” That was what ran through my head about a year and a half ago after our “Kid’s Day” celebration at the church. 

What’s “Kid’s Day?” 

Glad you asked.  It is a great/horrible idea similar to Father’s or Mother’s Day that easily morphs into a month long “celebration” of kids.  Buying, consuming and stressing on the part of adults and demanding and expecting on behalf of those delightful children. 

Am I a crotchety old fart or what?

My dislike of silly Hallmarks holidays is not the purpose of this blog, just one of those tangents that I couldn’t pass up. 

Obviously prior to the day, my intention was to redirect how we celebrated “kids” with the kids and hopefully give a new perspective to these yougins. 

But guess who, guess who, oh yes this guy, muwaa, Tracey Keitt was that guy in line two hours before church kicked off with a buggy full of snickers, pringles, chocolate bars and basically a diversified plethara of junk.  I pulled out a bunch of “tricks of the trade” of youth ministry activities, competitions and games out of the bag that I’d developed over my 5 or so years of working with youth.

And how’d it turn out, you ask? Without a hitch.  An entertaining, fun, high octane, sugar buzz and sugar crash kid’s day that they won’t forget easily.  I, on the other hand, wish it had never happened. 

Now the “how” I got myself in this sitiuation is the crux of what I’m trying to explain to you and change about how I lead Sunday School, my ministries in general, and the overall way I go about life.  Details are not necessary, but I basically took the reins of a situation where everyone else had dropped the ball, planned none of their parts, organized none of their responsibilities and decided to “save the day”... in some regards. 

In other words, I decided that allowing for my fellow Sunday School teachers to grow as disciples was not important.

“I’m sorry guys but I can’t give you the opportunity to feel the full weight of your actions or non-actions.”  “Let me save you guys them from an awkward and possibly shameful situation.”  “The kids lack of a precious kids day will cause too much pain.”

I treated them as dependents, a dependent who can easily grow accustomed to someone else coming behind them and tidying things up so that everything looks shiny and nice on the outside.

Disciples or dependents.

The vision I see with Sunday school in let’s say 5 or 10 years has nothing to do with me.  I should not be in the picture.  No one should be waiting on me or any other single person to pull it all together.  I invision teachers who have learned and grown through trials, success and failures.  Disciples who have passed through frustrating moments, who have heard as well as shared necessary and yet difficult criticism.  I see a team who really takes ownership of Sunday School as a whole and who invests in each individual kid as a person.

Yeah, it is easier to just fix it up and pat these guys on the back.  “No worries, it’s ok, you don’t have to be responsible, because I’ll always be here to keep you as dependent as possible on me.”

It’s hard work on everyone’s part to do this disciplining thing.  It’s not always pretty, people fail, get hurt, hurt others, but it’s so necessary.  It’s what a long term healthy organization, team and church needs.  It’s what I hope we’re doing now.