For What It's Worth

Eating dinner together as a family was common and brought, and still does, us together as a means to reflect, share, and relax. When the Lakes eat together, we've developed some fun things that allow us to interact and enjoy each other.  Topic on the Table, Highs/Lows, Either/Or, and And Then are just a few Lake Family practices. 

And Then is a continuous story that starts with one person telling their segment of the story then passing it to the next person by saying ... "and then ... "  It's pretty fun and not everyone participates everytime (which is OK to do), but we all seem to enjoy seeing the story evolve ... usually with explosions and/or tea parites if my wife shares!

If you want to rekindle some conversation as a family, below are a few questions I recently came across and plan to use in the future.

Great Conversation Starters:
1. If you had to give every human being one quality, what would it be and why?
2. Do you have any recurring dreams? Describe them?
3. What is the meanest thing someone could say to you?
4. If you could be a famous athlete, actor, writer or musician which would you choose and why? (It is fun to guess what the other people in the group will say before divulging answers)!
5. If you were invisible where would you go and what would you do?
6. If your life was made into a movie, who would play you? why?
7. If you could invent one thing what would it be?
8. What is the greatest song ever written?
9. Do you believe in heaven? What does yours look like? Is it different for everyone?
10. What is the most important quality for a boss to have?

These are from a parenting resource I read occasionally, Radical Parenting. 

Bottom line of this post ... Eat dinner with your family, regularly. 

What are some things that bring your family together at dinner time? 

Melissa and I recently bought a water filter for our facet at home. As I was installing it ... I thought, "We want a filter for taste, many need a filter to live!"  The people of Bugiri 1 region of Uganda no longer need a filter to live! We and many others helped provide the money for Hope 4 Kids International to facilitate the drilling of a well for that community last year!

Dear Doug and Melissa,

Greetings to you in Jesus name from Uganda and Hope 4 Kids International. I hope you and your family are doing well.

I wanted to share with you some of the photos I received from the field of your well opening in Bugiri 1, Uganda. As you can see from the photos, there was lots of celebration! What a sweet and grateful village. Many of the village ladies greeted our Water 4 Kids team with singing and dancing. They offered them goats, turkeys and a chicken of a sign of appreciation of the borehole. As you can see from the photos, they laid down special handmade papyrus mats for them to give their speeches and presentation. :-)

The village constructed a fence around the borehole to protect it from animals and crowded villages waiting for water.

Thank you for your patience as we were able to get these photos for you of the well opening. I hope it was worth the wait! Because of your heart and dedication, thousands now have access to safe water. Children are now able to go to school, mothers can stay at home with their families while others will be saved from dehydration and other preventable and treatable diseases. Your gift will be a blessing for generations to come!

Thank you for restoring God's Kingdom through our Water 4 Kids International program. As our African W4KI project manager says, "Let the favor and blessings of Almighty God be upon you."

Sincerely,

Angie