"Sometimes juicy, sometimes drippy and sometimes JUST RIGHT!"

One of the many good things about living here in Colorado is that I get to spend quite a bit of time with our granddaughter, Payton.  Payton is 2 and 1/2 years old and she, along with my oldest granddaughter, April, are two of the greatest delights and joys in my life.  For those of you that have met Payton, you know that she is talkative and expressive way beyond her 2 and 1/2 years.  This gift that she has of verbal expression will so often amaze us and bring us pure joy and laughter.  

Payton and her parents (our daughter Meredith and son-in-law Todd) live with us here at Soaring Wings Ministries and so we are blessed to have the opportunity to eat most of our meals together with Payton.  Payton will most times sit in her booster seat across from me at our dining room table.  On a special occasions she will sit next to me in a big person chair.   Most of you with young children know that eating with a toddler means that at just about every meal something will spill or something won't make it from the plate to the mouth or something will dribble down the front of a shirt or dress.   I recently had the joy of sharing half a grapefruit with Payton.  A fresh grapefruit, cut in half, with a little bit of sugar sprinkled on it is one of my favorite things to eat and I was delighted to offer some of my grapefruit to Payton as this was her first time experiencing a grapefruit. The very special occasion of experiencing a grapefruit for the first time required her to sit next to me in the big person chair.  I didn't know how she would react to her first bite of grapefruit as it can sometimes be rather tart.  I scooped a section out of my half of grapefruit and gave her her very first bite of grapefruit.  She loved it and she wanted more! Being 2 and 1/2 years old Payton was not content to have me feed her grapefruit.  She wanted to be the one to scoop out the grapefruit sections to feed herself and to feed her Meme.  I gave her my spoon and my plate with the half grapefruit on it  and with that passing of the plate began the hour long event of eating grapefruit with my granddaughter.  The eating of the grapefruit was an absolute mess but it was one of the most delightful hours that I can remember having.  We laughed, we giggled, we delighted in each delicious bite of tartness and sweetness and we delighted in spending time with each other.   Most bites of grapefruit made it into our mouths but most bites dribbled down our shirts, dribbled down our mouths, fell on the dining room table or fell on the floor.  Payton, being very smart and very verbal, put this grapefruit eating experience into words and into a sort of sing song.  With every bite she would say, "Sometimes it is juicy, sometimes it is drippy and sometimes it is just right". 

Aaaah, the wisdom and simplicity of youth! It delights me, encourages me and never fails to amaze me.  Payton's little song she thought up while eating her very first grapefruit brought me joy and laughter even though she must have said it at least 30 times when we were sharing that grapefruit.  The entire experience was pure delight!!!  I love the word "delight".  It expresses joy, refreshment, pleasure, and contentment.  
I am 100 percent sure that the word "delight" is not a word that the homeless use or a word that they have experienced.  Homeless young adults and families have not had very many positive experiences.   We hope to turn this around .

When we began the process of developing Soaring Wings Ministries we could have taken another direction to help the homeless.  Instead of the homeless families or young adults living with us here at 499 Trinity lane, we could have taken the direction to provide them with their own small house or apartment away from where we are living but we knew that sharing life with them on a daily basis was important.   We want to share life with them on a daily basis so that they can experience encouragement and hopefully learn to experience the word "delight".  Our hope and our prayer is that we can do this very soon.  We are making plans to put up an addition which will be a home for a homeless family or young adults here at 499 Trinity Lane.  We are getting blueprints developed and continue to raise funds for this project.  We wish that we could fast forward this building project and get it done right away and yet at the same time we are so very grateful for the progress that has taken place over the past year.  The property was a mess when we first saw it and and we have been working hard to breathe life and love into this place.   Our work has been hard.  Sometimes we have delighted in our work and sometimes we would grit our teeth and just get the work done.   The fruit of our hard work will be the day when a homeless family or broken young adult moves into the property here at Trinity Lane.  That will be a delightful day for us and we will then begin the process of infusing the word "delight" into lives of a homeless family or young adult.  

His Servant,
Anita Rennells
Soaring Wings Ministries
499 Trinity Lane
Wellington, CO 8-549