Exciting things are happening with the Expressive Signing ministry! First of all, we now have a name. We didn't want the "Happy Hands Club" name one of our pastors came up with to stick, so we came up with 3D (which stands for Dance, Drama, and Deliverance). We also have our first male dancer, and he does amazing things with flags and streamers. We aquired white gloves, which not only looks really cool when signing, but is symbolising pure hands. 3D Dance Ministry did a song at a different church for the very first time last Monday. Everyone did wonderful, and people were blessed. Here are some pictures:

I edited this one just for fun, but it looks pretty cool.

This adorable girl...

...got baptized last Sunday. Ever since our church did a baptism last summer, Faith has been wanting to do it, too. Our church just had another baptismal service, but we had forgotten it was that week. Faith still really wanted to do it, so she got baptized wearing an adult t-shirt and her tights.
Faith was the only person to be baptized, but that made it even more special. The tub they were baptizing in was too deep for her, so she ended up standing on the platform for sitting. She expressed no fear of going underwater, and she fully comprehended what she was doing. Dad held her and dunked her under, and she came up smiling and excited.
For anyone who wants to see the Christmas dance/skit I wrote about, the video is done. Here's the link: Christmas Play Let me know if it works. Also, if you want to see a couple of the other songs our group has done, the links are here and here

Random Ramblings

Something my family has missed since we moved is Buckeyes. People here have never heard of them. Buckeyes are essential to us "Ohioans", so my family decided to venture out into the unknown world of candy making and give some of these Ohio treats out to people for Christmas. Eli got all into it and mixed the peanut butter mixture himself.

The rolling of the balls, which Faith did a very good job with.

The finished peanut butter balls. This was everyone's favorite part: dipping the balls into melted chocolate.

The finished product. Not perfect, but pretty good considering Faith and Lydia did most of it.

We did our dance/play last night,(the one I blogged about earlier) and it turned out really good. We managed to get a Joseph, so we had a complete cast. He was a real live person, too, so no cardboard needed. I will try to get a video of it up soon. Until then, Merry Christmas!

My mom has had an expressive signing ministry for as long as I can remember. Expressive signing is a mixture of ASL, dance, and drama. I do a little of it as well, and when we came to Washington the doors opened up for us to start another signing ministry. Expressive signing hasn't been done in the western states as much as in the eastern, so people are intrigued by it. Our group consists of our pastor's wife, a woman from Peru who is still learning English, a Khazak woman who is wonderful in dance, a Muslim, and two other woman, along with my mom and me. My point in bringing this up is that we are doing a couple of songs that show Jesus' life on earth, and then him dying on the cross. The second song tells that he then rose again, and that he's not a baby in a manger anymore. We had the first song almost finished, but our assistant pastor, who is playing Jesus, came in and changed a lot of it. The changes were good, but the fact that we only have two more weeks is a little difficult. Also, I'm supposed to play Mary, but we have no Joseph. The guy who was going to play him can't anymore, so we have to find another. My dad thinks we should just paint him onto cardboard and stand him there. I'm thinking that since Joseph has to get up and dance during the second song, the cardboard version is not adequate. Hmm....