Uphill idealist

Heaven! It's funny what can come up when your brainstorm over pizza, salad and the need to create a t-shirt design for a ELCA Youth Gathering t-shirt contest. My friend Darcy, and her family all helped to think through the number seven (that is what Synod we are a part of) and our upcoming mission trip to New Orleans this summer. We did improve on, " Synod 7d is headed to heaven!" (Ahem - thank heavens!) So this is what we ended up with... Synod seven d is here to serve...now lets put ourselves where this design is! If you would like to submit a shirt design by January 31st, you can do so by submitting to: 2012 Youth Gathering T-shirt Designs C/O NFCLYO 55 Pleasant Avenue, Lancaster NY 14086 or email info@nfclyo.org

Image from Arizonatravel.wordpress Have you ever watched a young child learning how to swim? This task requires a number of safety precautions and some detailed planning. First, it's necessary that someone who knows how to swim be in the pool, second the child learning to swim needs to have the support and help of their parent in the process, and third - this child learning to swim needs to enter the water with the right kind of equipment. A few years ago, my nephew took some classes to learn how to swim because Grandma had a small pool in her backyard. At first, he was literally enveloped in gear to assist him in swimming - a full body swim suit that had floating devices built in, water wings, goggles and a kick board! At first, he looked a bit like a deep sea diver in the 4ft. deep pool - but day by day he shed the gear as his skill and confidence in swimming grew. In that short summer, I was amazed at the stride he made in learning how to swim. Throughout the whole process, he h