Tuesday, August 16, 2011
We were blessed with a little slower morning as we prepared for a busy afternoon. Some of the team went to Home Depot for supplies while the rest of us stayed back at the Ministry House to organize gifts donated for the kids and the ministry and just have time to chill and have conversation with the other team members. We drove to Capilla Cavalario Chihuahua to work. Donna, Heidi, Amanda and I spent some time in the church nursery cleaning the toys and baby items. The rest began painting a room added by a team of men from our church on a trip in March. We broke for lunch at Enrizo's, a really cute little Mexican restaurant for a wonderful meal. They normally eat their big meal mid day and then lightly in the evening. We definitely followed that custom today! Afterwards we returned to the church to finish painting the room. We were happy to not only complete the walls, but were able to paint the concrete floor as well. That paint was very strong so Dan instructed us to just paint for 10-15 minutes and then get fresh air while someone gave us a break. It did make us all a little woozy but we enjoyed the time fellowshipping (and praying when we had a break and nothing to occupy us...that was really special to see people just spontaneously forming groups and lifting the ministry in prayer).
We returned to the Ministry House to eat paninis prepared in the Cafe 1040 (the little cafe which is attached to the church and is a ministry of it.) We had a bit of time to clean off some of the paint before the men left for a Bible Study at the church. The women were joined at the Ministry House by some of the ladies in the ministry. They treated us to some delicious desserts and we had time to fellowship with them and here some of their struggles and victories. This was a really special night for me. I loved getting to know these ladies and learnin more about them so that I can pray more effectively for them. I feel joined to them as sisters of the heart. Praise God for these ladies who are sold our to God and His will.
Yesterday I went to bed emotionally drained and today I was physically tired but both days were spiritually refreshing.
Wednesday:
Today we were out early and went to the LightShine community (about 20 minutes from the Ministry House). I was part of the team that stayed at the LightShine building to paint. The ministry had been able to obtain the building which had been a carpentry shop and were converting it into the first church in the Tarahumara community. We spent the morning scraping off the old paint and painting the outside a bright yellow (so that it would be a light to the community). It was wonderful to see some of the Tarahumara children in LightShine joining us and helping with the painting. They loved being a part. Several of the people in the community stopped to watch us work and ask questions. Happily, Heather was with us and could explain that this would a church soon. It made me really happy to be part of this. Sunday worship in m own church is such an important part of my life; I am happy to be a part of bringing that to these people.
Inside, two of our men were working to build a partition at the entrance and a storage closet. The rest of the men went to the home of the man who will be leading services at the Tarahumara church. He has elected to give us a nice home to move nearer the community and live in a small one room house very similar to the Tarahumara. It has a separate small kitchen and the men were laying concrete blocks and making another room so they would have a separate bedroom next to the kitchen. Again, I felt humbled by what these people have given up for the cause of Christ. As we worked we watched a Tarahumara women in the house next to us outside scrubbing her clothes by hand and hanging them on branches of trees to dry. I was saddened by how many times I have grumbled about having to take my laundry down steps to our basement laundry room to dump them in the washing machine and press a button!
We all gathered back at the LightShine building for a lunch of burritos and waited for our sponsored children to arrive. Daniela was getting less shy of me and came to me quickly. We all got on a bus to be taken to a water park. It was a ride of about 20 minutes and we had a chance to give our kids our gifts. I had a pink shirt for Daniela and an Etch a Sketch. She played with it for a little while and then put it away. I was struggling to think of something we could do together when I thought of tic tac toe and thought I would have to teach he how to play. But as soon as I made my first mark she smiled and took the pencil and made her mark. We spent the rest of the trip happily playing the game, laughing whoever won the game!
We were all expecting a simple pool and playground and were surprised to be taken to a very nice area with several waist deep pools with water slides and a kiddie area with smaller slides and spraying water. Daniela at first wanted to stay in the kiddie area even nervous about trusting a swim ring to hold her up. But Chad convinced her to go down the slide with me while he waited at the bottom to catch her. Soon she was going down over and over with others and then even by herself! She finally decided to try the swim ring and clutched my hand and wouldn't let go at first. By the end of the day she was more confident and even decided to go down the enclosed tube, first with Chad and then bravely went by herself. However, she must have slowed down inside the tube and was pushed out by two other boys coming down quickly. This scared her and she cried and clung to Chad for a while. Soon after that it was time to go and I was sad that she was left with that experience. However, she did have a really good time and I loved having this time with her.
We returned to the LightShine building where Daniela and her cousin Gisela were picked up and walked back to her house by a man and woman (I think Gisela's parents) and they were gone before I was able to talk to them.
Spending time with Daniela was awesome and wonderful to feel I was developing a relationship with her. She became so trusting of me, clutching tightly to my hand as she floated in the water, a picture of how we should hold tightly to God when our life becomes scary.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Mission Trip Thoughts, Part 1
My eight week Sabbatical ended with a bang and what wonderful ending! For those who want to wade through all the words that follow, here is a summary of my first week off Sabbatical (or last week before going back to my secretarial job).
Saturday:
On August 13 a group of 20 of us left from BWI and headed to El Paso and from their drove to Chihuahua, Mexico for a week of ministry. It was a very different trip from others our church has participated in. For one thing, the majority of the group was women. Seven brave men accompanied thirteen of us ladies. We were met at the airport by Lisa, wife of the pastor of Capilla Calvario and Heather, wife of the head of the LightShine program. Ater a stop in New Mexico to pick up some packages that had been shipped ahead, we headed to the border and all received our visas with no problems. However, there was a problem with paperwork for one of the vans so it was decided that that van would return to El Paso to correct that problem and one van would continue to Chihuahua. Those of us who had been part of a mission trip before elected to return so that most of those new to Mexico would not miss the church service the next day in case we were not able to cross the border that night. Happily, we were able to correct the problem and cross the border two hours later, arriving at the Ministry House very tired but happy at 3:00 am. Since Mexico is two hours behind us, that meant that most of us had been awake for 24 hours! Beds were all ready for us so we all fell exhausted into bed, grateful for comfortable beds.
Sunday:
Unbelievably, I was up early and had time praying and reading my Bible before breakfast at the Ministry House and worship at Capillo Calvario. It was an awesome bilingual service and we were bathed with God's Spirit. Since I had been there eight months before and communicated with several people in the ministry there, it was wonderful reconnecting with them. Lots of hugs and smiles, even when words weren't understood!
The rest of the afternoon was spent eating subs and fellowshipping at the Ministry House and a meetng to prepare for the next day's activities. Then we packed back into the vans and headed to the church where we were put in groups, each with an interpretor and then got on a bus and headed into Chihuahua City. We each received a Love Bag and headed out to the walk the streets to bless whomever God put on our hearts. All we had to do was give them the bag and tell them that God told us to give this to them. We were able to give all ours out, pray with people, hear their broken hearts. One man tried to pay us! We had to tell him it was a gift that we just wanted him to have. We gathered back at the plaza to eat pizza and fellowship. It was sad to see little Tarahumara children brought to the city to beg and so hard to turn them down. We shared our pizza and gave out Love Bags but were cautioned not to give them money because that only kept them enslaved. The whole mission of LightShine is to free them through the gospel and have them learn to rely on the Lord and earn their way by selling items. In the evening the church led a time of worship in the plaza and several of us agreed to share our testimony. I was way out of my comfort zone but felt God wanted me to share and so a stood on the plaza behind a microphone and shared stories from my life (through an interpretor) with over a hundred strangers. God was good and saved me from an outbreak of hives! Then we headed back to the church for delicious fruit popsicles in the Cafe 1040.
I was amazed at how I felt so connected to these people who lived hundreds of miles from me, many spoke a different language and lived a very different lifestyle. But we had our identity in Christ and it was amazing! Sharing my testimony was scary but as I stood in front of them speaking, God just gave me an incredible love for the people of Chihuahua and I wanted them to know the truth so that they would have what I have...faith in the one true God and life forever with Him! That made it incredibly easy; I couldn't NOT do it.
Monday:
Today we had a meeting with Chris Nickerson, the head of the LightShine program to hear an update on LightShine. We met with him in what had been a carpentry shop right next to the building used for LightShine. It will be the Tarahumara church, the first Christian church in their community. After meeting with Chris and hearing his vision, we broke into smaller groups and each took a street in the Tarahumara community. We each had an interpretor with us in case we needed to speak with any of the people and stopped in front of houses and prayed for those who lived there. Donna and I walked over to the school and prayed for its opening in a week and all those children who would be attending. I saw a rough looking man leave one of the houss and felt compelled to go and pray for the family (or probably families) living in that small house, the size of my small living room. It is heart breaking to see the conditions they live in but over and over this week it was impressed on us that we are not anyone's savior and that our job is to pray and point them to the One Who is their Savior. It is not our job to improve their living conditions or "save" them from poverty but to lead them to the one who can save them eternally.
I saw Daniela briefly as she was on the street with a few coins obviously going to purchase something for her mother and gave her a hug and received a shy smile.
We left the community and had lunch at Pollo Feliz (happy chicken!) which was excellent even though it had a funny name. We returned to the LightShine building to get ready to lead the program. Before the program the kids are fed lunch and I was able to sit and be served by my Daniela. Not surprisingly, the other kids at my table were all boys! My lot in life! I loved it though and enjoyed teaching them the hand game in which everyone piles their hands on one another and each person pulls their hand out from the botton and moves it to the top quickly. Much laughter broke through the language barrier!
Our team had been put in charge of all the activities for this Monday. The kids went through each of four stations, devotions (an object lesson on sin using dirty water to show sin in our lives, vinegar which looks clean but tastes nasty to show hidden sin and then clean water to show that Jesus cleanses us from all sin); craft (zipper pull with colored beads symbolizing the steps of salvation), outside play (they learned the game of baseball with equipment donated by the Orioles) and a station where the kids hands were painted and imprinted on two banners, one that stayed at the Ministry House and one to take back to Open Bible. This is the station were I was assigned. I had a table with an activity for the kids to do while waiting to have their hands painted or after they finished. The kids enjoyed this preschool activity...even the older kids! They placed colored shaped wooden blocks matching to shapes on cards to make pictures. They worked diligently on this but I found myself having to use one of the few Spanish words I know repeatedly...comparte, comparte (share) as tried to gather the blocks for their own use only! Kids are the same in every language! It was neat to watch Sergio take the kids one by one to the hand washing station after painting and patiently explain to them as he washed the paint off that this was like God patiently works on us to remove the sin in our lives little by little.
The afternoon ended with more baseball with all the kids. They caught on to the game amazingly fast and it was hard for all of us to stop and say good-bye when it was time to return to the Ministry House. We found Rocio and Amanda busily at work making us a delicious supper of burritos. Wonderful ending to the day.
Saturday:
On August 13 a group of 20 of us left from BWI and headed to El Paso and from their drove to Chihuahua, Mexico for a week of ministry. It was a very different trip from others our church has participated in. For one thing, the majority of the group was women. Seven brave men accompanied thirteen of us ladies. We were met at the airport by Lisa, wife of the pastor of Capilla Calvario and Heather, wife of the head of the LightShine program. Ater a stop in New Mexico to pick up some packages that had been shipped ahead, we headed to the border and all received our visas with no problems. However, there was a problem with paperwork for one of the vans so it was decided that that van would return to El Paso to correct that problem and one van would continue to Chihuahua. Those of us who had been part of a mission trip before elected to return so that most of those new to Mexico would not miss the church service the next day in case we were not able to cross the border that night. Happily, we were able to correct the problem and cross the border two hours later, arriving at the Ministry House very tired but happy at 3:00 am. Since Mexico is two hours behind us, that meant that most of us had been awake for 24 hours! Beds were all ready for us so we all fell exhausted into bed, grateful for comfortable beds.
Sunday:
Unbelievably, I was up early and had time praying and reading my Bible before breakfast at the Ministry House and worship at Capillo Calvario. It was an awesome bilingual service and we were bathed with God's Spirit. Since I had been there eight months before and communicated with several people in the ministry there, it was wonderful reconnecting with them. Lots of hugs and smiles, even when words weren't understood!
The rest of the afternoon was spent eating subs and fellowshipping at the Ministry House and a meetng to prepare for the next day's activities. Then we packed back into the vans and headed to the church where we were put in groups, each with an interpretor and then got on a bus and headed into Chihuahua City. We each received a Love Bag and headed out to the walk the streets to bless whomever God put on our hearts. All we had to do was give them the bag and tell them that God told us to give this to them. We were able to give all ours out, pray with people, hear their broken hearts. One man tried to pay us! We had to tell him it was a gift that we just wanted him to have. We gathered back at the plaza to eat pizza and fellowship. It was sad to see little Tarahumara children brought to the city to beg and so hard to turn them down. We shared our pizza and gave out Love Bags but were cautioned not to give them money because that only kept them enslaved. The whole mission of LightShine is to free them through the gospel and have them learn to rely on the Lord and earn their way by selling items. In the evening the church led a time of worship in the plaza and several of us agreed to share our testimony. I was way out of my comfort zone but felt God wanted me to share and so a stood on the plaza behind a microphone and shared stories from my life (through an interpretor) with over a hundred strangers. God was good and saved me from an outbreak of hives! Then we headed back to the church for delicious fruit popsicles in the Cafe 1040.
I was amazed at how I felt so connected to these people who lived hundreds of miles from me, many spoke a different language and lived a very different lifestyle. But we had our identity in Christ and it was amazing! Sharing my testimony was scary but as I stood in front of them speaking, God just gave me an incredible love for the people of Chihuahua and I wanted them to know the truth so that they would have what I have...faith in the one true God and life forever with Him! That made it incredibly easy; I couldn't NOT do it.
Monday:
Today we had a meeting with Chris Nickerson, the head of the LightShine program to hear an update on LightShine. We met with him in what had been a carpentry shop right next to the building used for LightShine. It will be the Tarahumara church, the first Christian church in their community. After meeting with Chris and hearing his vision, we broke into smaller groups and each took a street in the Tarahumara community. We each had an interpretor with us in case we needed to speak with any of the people and stopped in front of houses and prayed for those who lived there. Donna and I walked over to the school and prayed for its opening in a week and all those children who would be attending. I saw a rough looking man leave one of the houss and felt compelled to go and pray for the family (or probably families) living in that small house, the size of my small living room. It is heart breaking to see the conditions they live in but over and over this week it was impressed on us that we are not anyone's savior and that our job is to pray and point them to the One Who is their Savior. It is not our job to improve their living conditions or "save" them from poverty but to lead them to the one who can save them eternally.
I saw Daniela briefly as she was on the street with a few coins obviously going to purchase something for her mother and gave her a hug and received a shy smile.
We left the community and had lunch at Pollo Feliz (happy chicken!) which was excellent even though it had a funny name. We returned to the LightShine building to get ready to lead the program. Before the program the kids are fed lunch and I was able to sit and be served by my Daniela. Not surprisingly, the other kids at my table were all boys! My lot in life! I loved it though and enjoyed teaching them the hand game in which everyone piles their hands on one another and each person pulls their hand out from the botton and moves it to the top quickly. Much laughter broke through the language barrier!
Our team had been put in charge of all the activities for this Monday. The kids went through each of four stations, devotions (an object lesson on sin using dirty water to show sin in our lives, vinegar which looks clean but tastes nasty to show hidden sin and then clean water to show that Jesus cleanses us from all sin); craft (zipper pull with colored beads symbolizing the steps of salvation), outside play (they learned the game of baseball with equipment donated by the Orioles) and a station where the kids hands were painted and imprinted on two banners, one that stayed at the Ministry House and one to take back to Open Bible. This is the station were I was assigned. I had a table with an activity for the kids to do while waiting to have their hands painted or after they finished. The kids enjoyed this preschool activity...even the older kids! They placed colored shaped wooden blocks matching to shapes on cards to make pictures. They worked diligently on this but I found myself having to use one of the few Spanish words I know repeatedly...comparte, comparte (share) as tried to gather the blocks for their own use only! Kids are the same in every language! It was neat to watch Sergio take the kids one by one to the hand washing station after painting and patiently explain to them as he washed the paint off that this was like God patiently works on us to remove the sin in our lives little by little.
The afternoon ended with more baseball with all the kids. They caught on to the game amazingly fast and it was hard for all of us to stop and say good-bye when it was time to return to the Ministry House. We found Rocio and Amanda busily at work making us a delicious supper of burritos. Wonderful ending to the day.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Week Five
Hard to believe that my Summer Sabbatical is half over. I don't think I have ever enjoyed a summer more! I am counting my days and trying to use this time wisely. Am I meeting all my goals? Not really, but it has been good to have them to keep from just being lazy. (The only one I am really on target with, is my running program!) I am making progress on home projects long neglected but also making time for connecting with friends, deepening relationships with them and also having fun with the grans and deepening those relationships. I am trying to focus on reading more. Making good progress in Les Miserables but also plan to start reading Prayerwalking by Steve Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick and have just begun Managing your Emotions which so far is very good.
More than anything this time is giving me perspective. I am seeing things that I have neglected and changes I need to make in my life. My priorities have needed reorganizing and this time is allowing God to reveal what needs to be reshuffled.
This week I hope to finish up some trim painting (we have painted several rooms in the past several years but never got around to the trim.) My focus in cleaning and decluttering is our bedroom, bath and closet. But I also will be having fun with the grans and go walking with a friend. On Saturday we plan to leave for North Carolina to meet our newest granddaughter. I will stay and help Kimberly when Carl returns to work on Monday and Bill will take the older boys camping for a few days. It is his turn to have Dad-Dad Camp!
But more than anything I plan to spend time in God's Word and allow him to speak to me in a deeper way.
More than anything this time is giving me perspective. I am seeing things that I have neglected and changes I need to make in my life. My priorities have needed reorganizing and this time is allowing God to reveal what needs to be reshuffled.
This week I hope to finish up some trim painting (we have painted several rooms in the past several years but never got around to the trim.) My focus in cleaning and decluttering is our bedroom, bath and closet. But I also will be having fun with the grans and go walking with a friend. On Saturday we plan to leave for North Carolina to meet our newest granddaughter. I will stay and help Kimberly when Carl returns to work on Monday and Bill will take the older boys camping for a few days. It is his turn to have Dad-Dad Camp!
But more than anything I plan to spend time in God's Word and allow him to speak to me in a deeper way.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Week of July 11 Goals
Writing this down will help me stay accountable (hopefully!)This will be a boring post for anyone but me. Sorry!
Monday:
1.Bible reading (Romans & Eccleciastes) and prayer, lesson 5, #3 & 4,refresh first 3 memory verses
2. Interval Jogging 2 miles
3. Put guest and kid's room in order, collect items left behind and add to box to be mailed to Kimberly.
4. Start laundry.
5. Dust, vacuum & sweep all floors, clean bathrooms, steam clean upstairs bathroom floor, mop kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Clean refrigerator, kitchen fan, kitchen windows. Wipe down cabinets and counters.
6. Finish laundry, fold and put away
7. Les Miserables-finish reading Fantine's story
8. Errands-bank, UPS, library
Tuesday:
1. Bible reading, prayer, complete lesson 5 and refresh Bible memory verses
2. Prime trim in kitchen
3. Gym work out
4. Tiff's to do fun water activities with grans in afternoon. (Possibly stay for campfire supper)
5. Les Miserables-begin Cosette's story, through chapter 7 of Book Three.
Wednesday:
1. Bible reading, prayer,, lesson 6, work on Proverbs 3:5-6 memory verse
2. Paint kitchen trim
3. Zumba class (treat myself to lunch at Subway)
4. Tara's house for cookie baking, book reading and fun.
5. Les Miserables-through Chapter 3 of Book Four
Thursday:
1. Bible reading, prayer, memory work
2. Interval jogging
3. Weight Watchers/meet with Donna to plan Mexican Dinner
4. Possible lunch with friend (if not, work on painting living room trim and steps.
5. Les Miserables-through Book Seven
Friday:
1. Bible reading, prayer, memory work, Begin Lesson 7
2. Gym workout
3. Finish trim work (possible lunch with friend if yesterday didn't work out)
4. Girls' night with friend Donna.
5. Les Miserables-through chapter 8 of Book Eight
Saturday:
Something fun with my honey!
Monday:
1.Bible reading (Romans & Eccleciastes) and prayer, lesson 5, #3 & 4,refresh first 3 memory verses
2. Interval Jogging 2 miles
3. Put guest and kid's room in order, collect items left behind and add to box to be mailed to Kimberly.
4. Start laundry.
5. Dust, vacuum & sweep all floors, clean bathrooms, steam clean upstairs bathroom floor, mop kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Clean refrigerator, kitchen fan, kitchen windows. Wipe down cabinets and counters.
6. Finish laundry, fold and put away
7. Les Miserables-finish reading Fantine's story
8. Errands-bank, UPS, library
Tuesday:
1. Bible reading, prayer, complete lesson 5 and refresh Bible memory verses
2. Prime trim in kitchen
3. Gym work out
4. Tiff's to do fun water activities with grans in afternoon. (Possibly stay for campfire supper)
5. Les Miserables-begin Cosette's story, through chapter 7 of Book Three.
Wednesday:
1. Bible reading, prayer,, lesson 6, work on Proverbs 3:5-6 memory verse
2. Paint kitchen trim
3. Zumba class (treat myself to lunch at Subway)
4. Tara's house for cookie baking, book reading and fun.
5. Les Miserables-through Chapter 3 of Book Four
Thursday:
1. Bible reading, prayer, memory work
2. Interval jogging
3. Weight Watchers/meet with Donna to plan Mexican Dinner
4. Possible lunch with friend (if not, work on painting living room trim and steps.
5. Les Miserables-through Book Seven
Friday:
1. Bible reading, prayer, memory work, Begin Lesson 7
2. Gym workout
3. Finish trim work (possible lunch with friend if yesterday didn't work out)
4. Girls' night with friend Donna.
5. Les Miserables-through chapter 8 of Book Eight
Saturday:
Something fun with my honey!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Goals
How am I doing with the goals I set for myself? Let's see:
1. Definitely doing more introspection and examining my life from God's perspective.
2. Spending more time connecting with friends.
3. More time praying, reading my Bible, studying God's Word and memorizing (not an easy thing for a 61 year old brain!)
4. Consistently exercising, increasing my jog time (this morning up to 14 minutes total jogging time, interspersed with 11 minutes of walking.)
5. Making my way through Les Miserables. (Although I confess that I have only been seriously reading for the past week, but now it has captivated me.) Book not in front of me but I am now up to Javert's story for anyone familiar with the book. I may start taking notes of all the Biblical analogies I see. It is an amazing story of redemption. (which Javert rejects and Jean Valjean embraces)
6. Slowing down to spend time with children and reacquaint myself with the wonderful stories for children (everyone should read them, even adults!). I have read The Rag Coat (have tissues handy!), Blueberries for Sal, and The Doorbell Rang (this borrowed from the library, but I HAVE to buy this book...thanks for the recommendation, Margy!) The last one hasn't been read to the grandchildren yet but it will be (accompanied by a batch of chocolate chip cookies...because nobody makes chocolate chip cookies like Grandma! [This is from the book...you have to read it. And there is a great lesson about preferring others over yourself in it.])
7.Okay, the house hasn't received the attention I would like, but there is still time for that. People first, things second!
Best of all this time is recharging me, and making me eager to return to the work I love, serving my church family. Almost seven years ago I reluctantly accepted the job as church secretary, sure that God was asking me to make this change in my life. It was a sacrifice of love and obedience because what I wanted to do was be a full-time grandma. But God gave joy in that obedience and I love each day that I go to "work". But joy became possessiveness and I found myself taking the reins from God as if "I can handle it now." And the result was incredible stress causing constant ocular migraines. I realized that nothing God calls us to causes stress so, after much prayer, decided that I needed to remove my hands from the reins and allow God once again to do the leading. I look forward to what He is doing in my life as well as others as I let Him be God. He is so much better at it than I.
1. Definitely doing more introspection and examining my life from God's perspective.
2. Spending more time connecting with friends.
3. More time praying, reading my Bible, studying God's Word and memorizing (not an easy thing for a 61 year old brain!)
4. Consistently exercising, increasing my jog time (this morning up to 14 minutes total jogging time, interspersed with 11 minutes of walking.)
5. Making my way through Les Miserables. (Although I confess that I have only been seriously reading for the past week, but now it has captivated me.) Book not in front of me but I am now up to Javert's story for anyone familiar with the book. I may start taking notes of all the Biblical analogies I see. It is an amazing story of redemption. (which Javert rejects and Jean Valjean embraces)
6. Slowing down to spend time with children and reacquaint myself with the wonderful stories for children (everyone should read them, even adults!). I have read The Rag Coat (have tissues handy!), Blueberries for Sal, and The Doorbell Rang (this borrowed from the library, but I HAVE to buy this book...thanks for the recommendation, Margy!) The last one hasn't been read to the grandchildren yet but it will be (accompanied by a batch of chocolate chip cookies...because nobody makes chocolate chip cookies like Grandma! [This is from the book...you have to read it. And there is a great lesson about preferring others over yourself in it.])
7.Okay, the house hasn't received the attention I would like, but there is still time for that. People first, things second!
Best of all this time is recharging me, and making me eager to return to the work I love, serving my church family. Almost seven years ago I reluctantly accepted the job as church secretary, sure that God was asking me to make this change in my life. It was a sacrifice of love and obedience because what I wanted to do was be a full-time grandma. But God gave joy in that obedience and I love each day that I go to "work". But joy became possessiveness and I found myself taking the reins from God as if "I can handle it now." And the result was incredible stress causing constant ocular migraines. I realized that nothing God calls us to causes stress so, after much prayer, decided that I needed to remove my hands from the reins and allow God once again to do the leading. I look forward to what He is doing in my life as well as others as I let Him be God. He is so much better at it than I.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Sabbatical Thoughts
I am now in my third week of my Summer Sabbatical adventure. The first week was a time of adjustment. I found myself stressing over not "wasting" time and making sure I accomplished something. I filled that first week with lots of time with friends as well as days with my grandchildren and it was wonderful but I found myself feeling guilty about not getting anything done. By the end of the second week I was relaxing and getting into a rhythmn of being home. Still lots of time with friends but now I found myself really wanting to get into home related projects and Bill came home one day to find the house sparkling and the front and back porches cleaned and rearranged into comfortable living spaces.
This third week we are back from a weekend in North Carolina with Carl and his family. We brought Alex (12 years), Williams (11 years), Nathan (9 1/2 years) an Esther (8 years) home with us. Today is our first full day with them and we are enjoying getting back in touch with them. It is important to us to stay involved in their lives even though they live 300 miles away.
Each summer I look forward to having the grandchildren over for three days of NiNi Camp. This year we are doing it a little differently because we have three brand new grandchildren who have been a part of our family or two months now. It would be a little overwhelming for them to be away from their parents for several days. So tonight Tara and Eric will be bringing their kids for some fun with their southern cousins and a campfire, roasting hot dogs and making s'mores and memories.
Tomorrow we will have fun with just Carl's kids, maybe spending the day at the Hammerman area of Gunpowder Falls State Park on the beach and doing a little kayaking. Then on Friday the southern grans will meet the Columbian grans. We will take NiNi camp to their house for some games, crafts and fun with them.
Saturday is still unplanned as yet, although the kids tell me we have to go to Broom's Blooms that night because it is "tradition" to go there on their last night. Because on Sunday afternoon we will be driving south to meet Kimberly's sister so that they can visit with their cousins in Northern Virginia for a week before returning home to meet their brand new baby sister who is to arrive, Lord willing, on July 13.
More than anything during this time, I am enjoying unhurried time in my Bible each morning. This year we are taking a discipleship class with our small group so I have time to spend memorizing God's Word and discussing with others what God is saying to us through His Word. Time to sit on the front porch just enjoying swinging and gazing out over the farm across the street and having time to just "Be". Time to finally realize my goal of reading the book "Les Miserables" cover to cover.
My goal is to return at the end of the summer refreshed and recharged to be better used of God for whatever He has in store for me. So far, so good! So very, very good!
This third week we are back from a weekend in North Carolina with Carl and his family. We brought Alex (12 years), Williams (11 years), Nathan (9 1/2 years) an Esther (8 years) home with us. Today is our first full day with them and we are enjoying getting back in touch with them. It is important to us to stay involved in their lives even though they live 300 miles away.
Each summer I look forward to having the grandchildren over for three days of NiNi Camp. This year we are doing it a little differently because we have three brand new grandchildren who have been a part of our family or two months now. It would be a little overwhelming for them to be away from their parents for several days. So tonight Tara and Eric will be bringing their kids for some fun with their southern cousins and a campfire, roasting hot dogs and making s'mores and memories.
Tomorrow we will have fun with just Carl's kids, maybe spending the day at the Hammerman area of Gunpowder Falls State Park on the beach and doing a little kayaking. Then on Friday the southern grans will meet the Columbian grans. We will take NiNi camp to their house for some games, crafts and fun with them.
Saturday is still unplanned as yet, although the kids tell me we have to go to Broom's Blooms that night because it is "tradition" to go there on their last night. Because on Sunday afternoon we will be driving south to meet Kimberly's sister so that they can visit with their cousins in Northern Virginia for a week before returning home to meet their brand new baby sister who is to arrive, Lord willing, on July 13.
More than anything during this time, I am enjoying unhurried time in my Bible each morning. This year we are taking a discipleship class with our small group so I have time to spend memorizing God's Word and discussing with others what God is saying to us through His Word. Time to sit on the front porch just enjoying swinging and gazing out over the farm across the street and having time to just "Be". Time to finally realize my goal of reading the book "Les Miserables" cover to cover.
My goal is to return at the end of the summer refreshed and recharged to be better used of God for whatever He has in store for me. So far, so good! So very, very good!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
A New Season
I love my job...actually I don't look at it as a job. Almost seven years ago, God softened my heart, and gave me a desire to serve my church as the secretary. As I neared the end of my homeschool mom career, I had no intention of being in the workforce again but looked forward to being a full-time NiNi. It was the second time in my life that I felt definitely that God was asking me to do something that I really didn't want to do (the first was home-schooling my children!). Both times I found what joy there is in obedience to a Sovereign God who has all wisdom and never asks us to do anything in order to bring us pain but will take us (way) out of our comfort zone for our good and His glory.
Although I really do find so much joy in servng my church family for the past several months I have been feeling unexplained stress with symptoms of ocular migraines that just wouldn't quit. One evening on a stroll across our neighboring farm I mentioned to Bill that I had the crazy idea of taking the summer off to jut have some home time and reconnect with myself. I fully expected him to talk me out of this crazy idea. I should have known better! He immediately responded that he thought it was a good idea. I took another week or so to meditate and pray on this idea before I put the request to Pastor Dave. He graciously granted my request and this week I began my Sabbatical and chose to make this week sort of a "staycation" and took each day at a time and did something fun. Here's what it has looked like so far: (Every morning started with a wonderful, relaxed, extended time with my Heavenly Daddy...EVERY morning, wonderful!)
Monday: Morning: Walked almost 3.5 miles on the Ma & Pa Trail with a friend I don't know well enough, followed by a long chat in her living room. Afternoon: Picked Bill up at church, drove to a nearby park to put our kayaks in the water with dear friends and outlaws (er, I mean, in-laws) for two hours of paddling around a lake.
Tuesday: Morning: Laundry (okay, not a complete staycation!) and a 30 minute 2 mile walk/jog. Afternoon: Six hours of fun with grandchildren, getting to know the new chicos and catching up with the old, mostly having fun making crafts and loving hearing, "Abuelito NiNi!, Abuelito NiNi!" when help was needed. Discovered that even though we don't speak the same language, there are many other ways to communicate...and laughter breaks through the language banner! (Jonathan laughed at me...a lot!)
Wednesday: Morning: Zumba class Afternoon: Five hours reading and crafting with more grandchildren (the ones that all speak English!), then home, dinner and our small group meeting.
Thursday: (today) Spent the day with a friend and her daughter strolling through Longwood Gardens, talking and relaxing and enjoying all the creativity of our Creator God. Late afternoon: Grocery shopping (again...not a total staycation) and home. Hobby took pity and treated me to dinner out! Yea!
Tomorrow: Bill is taking off and we need to spend some time pricing donated items for a flea market on Saturday to raise money for mission trip planned for August. Then what? Ideas include: picking cherries at the orchard one street over from our house, relaxing at the pool, kayaking...or whatever we feel like!
This weekend I plan to spend some time writing down things I want to accomplish this summer. Ideas off the top of my head:
Although I really do find so much joy in servng my church family for the past several months I have been feeling unexplained stress with symptoms of ocular migraines that just wouldn't quit. One evening on a stroll across our neighboring farm I mentioned to Bill that I had the crazy idea of taking the summer off to jut have some home time and reconnect with myself. I fully expected him to talk me out of this crazy idea. I should have known better! He immediately responded that he thought it was a good idea. I took another week or so to meditate and pray on this idea before I put the request to Pastor Dave. He graciously granted my request and this week I began my Sabbatical and chose to make this week sort of a "staycation" and took each day at a time and did something fun. Here's what it has looked like so far: (Every morning started with a wonderful, relaxed, extended time with my Heavenly Daddy...EVERY morning, wonderful!)
Monday: Morning: Walked almost 3.5 miles on the Ma & Pa Trail with a friend I don't know well enough, followed by a long chat in her living room. Afternoon: Picked Bill up at church, drove to a nearby park to put our kayaks in the water with dear friends and outlaws (er, I mean, in-laws) for two hours of paddling around a lake.
Tuesday: Morning: Laundry (okay, not a complete staycation!) and a 30 minute 2 mile walk/jog. Afternoon: Six hours of fun with grandchildren, getting to know the new chicos and catching up with the old, mostly having fun making crafts and loving hearing, "Abuelito NiNi!, Abuelito NiNi!" when help was needed. Discovered that even though we don't speak the same language, there are many other ways to communicate...and laughter breaks through the language banner! (Jonathan laughed at me...a lot!)
Wednesday: Morning: Zumba class Afternoon: Five hours reading and crafting with more grandchildren (the ones that all speak English!), then home, dinner and our small group meeting.
Thursday: (today) Spent the day with a friend and her daughter strolling through Longwood Gardens, talking and relaxing and enjoying all the creativity of our Creator God. Late afternoon: Grocery shopping (again...not a total staycation) and home. Hobby took pity and treated me to dinner out! Yea!
Tomorrow: Bill is taking off and we need to spend some time pricing donated items for a flea market on Saturday to raise money for mission trip planned for August. Then what? Ideas include: picking cherries at the orchard one street over from our house, relaxing at the pool, kayaking...or whatever we feel like!
This weekend I plan to spend some time writing down things I want to accomplish this summer. Ideas off the top of my head:
- Read Les Miserable (the 830 page version) completely...this will be my third attempt. I have estimated that to do this I will have to read 20 pages a day
- Paint trim in rooms we have painted but never got around to finishing.
- Finishing kids' room tree that friend Kim helped me paint almost two years ago. I need to stencil on the leaves and birds, etc.
- Paint kitchen cabinets.
- Declutter office, bedroom closet, etc.
- Conduct NiNi Camp (a little differently this year!)
- Camp
- Help Kimberly after baby arrives
- Train for a 5K
- Other ideas?
I hope to use this blog forum to chart my progress and keep me accountable., which I will need, because after writing the above I am already tired! Above all, I just want to have time to step back and take a look at my life and be willing to hold things lightly rather than making God pry them out of my fingers and listen to God with new ears and see Him with clearer vision. My hope is that I will be better able to serve my church family after this time away and will give others a chance to be blessed by serving in my stead.
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