Summer Fun: Journey Across America

Last week's Journey Across America stop didn't make it on the blog because I didn't want to interrupt our series on prayer. So, here it is to get you all caught up.

Sometimes we look at a task that God has set before us, and we think "That's impossible." When you're a child, lots of things look impossible because there are lots of things that children can't do, simply because they are small. This week's stop on the Journey Across America landed us in Ohio, a state that's motto is "With God All Things Are Possible."

Our verse for the day was Phillipians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It's so important for kids to know that God equips them to do the things that He asks them to do. To explain that to the girls, I asked them to work together and lift up the car. Of course, they couldn't, and one of them conveniently announced, "It's impossible." I showed them how to use a jack to lift the car off the ground. The jack made the impossible, possible. God will never ask us to do something impossible without giving us the tools to make it possible. It was a great object lesson for them, and they really got it.

We spent the rest of the day making soap because the first floating soap was made by Ohio native Charles Gamble, co-founder of Proctor and Gamble. We also learned about other inventors from Ohio -- the Wright brothers and Thomas Edison are Ohio natives -- and how sometimes they probably wanted to give up. When we are faced with something that seems impossible, we can tap into the ultimate source of help, God.

We learned about the "impossible" task of escaping from slavery. Columbus, Ohio was a major crossroads on the Underground Railroad. We learned what the Underground Railroad was and how sometimes stops on the Underground Railroad would use quilts to pass important messages to the runaway slaves. We played a game of tag where three quilts were "safe houses" on the Underground Railroad. The "slaves" tried to reach the quilts while the others tried to catch them.

Lastly, we pretended to be rock stars because the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland. We talked about how God provides us with talent and we should use it for him. We also talked about how sometimes the "popular" rock stars may not be the best examples of how we should dress and act.

Overall, we had a great time learning about Ohio and how God makes the impossible possible.