Saturday, January 30, 2010
Learning a Lesson.
Hey! I thought it was time to blog again before my buddy Alison reminds me that it is time! :) So although I don't have much to share I can tell you that I really feel like I am learning a lesson. That lesson is to "Let go and let God" well...not only to let God but let His people take care of me when I need it. The last week has been horrible for me in terms of health. I ended up in the ER one night due to some intense abdominal pain and it has been a roller coaster of thoughts and feelings as I wait for results from the various tests that I have been put through. During this time I have been instructed to pull back and allow God and my people take care of some of the responsibilities for this week. As tough as it has been I have learned or RE learned some very valuable lessons. The biggest one I will share tonight is that if I don't step back, other people in the kingdom can't and won't be able to find their place in the church. By allowing someone else to lead the service, preach, and lead worship these people can experience the blessings that come when we serve Him. So that is what I wanted to share. I am learning, leaning and trusting. Praise God for His peace. Blessings.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Simplicities of Ministry
So, the craziness of Christmas is over...Well not quite for us. We are having some more celebrations with our best friends who are coming here in Feb! So where almost every other household has their trees, nativities and lights put away, ours are still up! I feel like it is advent all over again! Only we don't have kettles, services or hampers to organize! Although I enjoyed every moment of it! I do want to give God credit for our amazing success of kettles this year...We managed to have a 116% increase of kettle income! That's right, we over doubled the goal! Also ALL families with kids were sponsored out which meant 47 less families to provide food and toys for! I would say that Christmas was a great success!!! All aspects of Christmas was fun but I am looking forward to celebrating some more!
I did want to share something that blessed my socks off. Yesterday we began a second Bible Study. We are working through "My New Life in Christ" our 4 new converts. We have opened the study up for all those who want to get back to basics and learn how to disciple others. Anyhow, during our first study one man gave his heart back to the Lord. Another man who attended has been Christian for awhile and he learned how to use the Bible for the first time!!! He had NO clue what the numbers were for...He said he always wondered what they were but couldn't figure it out. I was so excited today when he stopped by the church to tell us that he went home after Bible Study last night and looked up all the verses we talked about last night. He was SOOO excited to know how and he highlighted all the verses himself for the first time! THAT was SOOOO rewarding. So I guess what I am trying to say is that although Christmas was a success and a joy...It is the simplicities of ministry that have me stoked. Simply sitting down to teach someone how to navigate through the Bible, or sharing the miracle of salvation with those searching is what makes my life full of joy. My advent, my anticipation is not only applied to Christmas. I anticipate the many opportunities that God is going to give to share, teach, grow and love people into the kingdom. May God bless your New Year!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Response to "Merry CHRISTmas!"
A friend of mine in her blog shared how she celebrates Christmas. At the end she invited us to share how we celebrate Christ. So I thought I would respond with a post of my own. On that note, I would encourage you to check out my friend Alison's blog called "Hospitality Haven" http://alison.blogsome.com/ There you will find many wonderful ideas for entertaining as well as yummy meal ideas and more! Alright, so how do we celebrate Christmas: Here it is (well a small part of it anyhow!)
We do things differently in our home as well. First of all, our 3 yr old knows there is no Santa Claus (Insert *gasp* here). Now we take a lot of heat for this at times but I just don't see how lying to my child will help her. I mean if we let her believe in Santa what happens when she finds out that we lied about him? Will she think we lied about Jesus being real too? Just not worth the risk to us. So that is one thing we do, we tell the truth. That being said we still have fun with "Santa" we watch the movies and stuff...and she knows not to tell any of her friends that he is not real. Bottom line is she knows that we give/get gifts because of Jesus.
Another tradition we changed is the buying of chocolate advent calendars. You know the ones that begin on the 1st of December and you eat one chocolate leading up to the 25th? Well this year I bought a nativity magnet calendar. So on the 1st of Dec. instead of us eating chocolate and seeing pictures of Santa, trees, elves or any other commercially centered images that appear on the package, our daughter will look through the nativity images until she finds the piece with the "1" on it and she can place it on the fridge and then we talk about what it is...The first piece is the stable. By the time Christmas comes, we will be done putting together our nativity scene. :) I LOVE that.
We also don't do the whole big turkey dinner. We dial it down a bit by rotating who chooses what for the appetizer, main meal and dessert. For example one year we had stuffed mushroom caps, flauta's (now if this was "Hospitlity Haven" you would have the recipe but it's not! LOL! but if you want to know what they are ask) and chocolate fondue. It is great! IF we have another child then we will add a special drink of choice. I find it cuts down on work (sometimes) and the cost is MUCH cheaper!!
Last year my side of the family drew names for gift giving. This year we are not doing that at all. We all decided that it is too expensive PLUS the joy for us and them is being able to see them open the gifts we give, if we aren’t there to see it, what's the point? We are drawing names on Mike's side of the family with a cap on the spending limit. Our daughter is learning how to give and share and we want to nurture that as best we can. She has not really asked for anything for Christmas and we have not asked her what she would like. So no big lists of "Wants" in our house...She HAS however expressed an interest in wanting to GIVE gifts to family members, so as I said we want to nurture this. SOOO she shopped at our Thrift Store, she helped me wrap the gifts, and she put the bow on and picked the tag for the gifts. She was SOOO excited and I am glad we are able to teach her the joy of giving and giving sensibly.
Let's see...We also hang our candy canes upside down to form the letter "J" for obvious reasons...I am sure there is more we do but I can't recall more right now. Anyhow, thanks for helping me to reflect on how we celebrate Alison. I like the Gifts of Hope idea...Might do that next year! :) Have a very merry CHRISTmas everyone.
We do things differently in our home as well. First of all, our 3 yr old knows there is no Santa Claus (Insert *gasp* here). Now we take a lot of heat for this at times but I just don't see how lying to my child will help her. I mean if we let her believe in Santa what happens when she finds out that we lied about him? Will she think we lied about Jesus being real too? Just not worth the risk to us. So that is one thing we do, we tell the truth. That being said we still have fun with "Santa" we watch the movies and stuff...and she knows not to tell any of her friends that he is not real. Bottom line is she knows that we give/get gifts because of Jesus.
Another tradition we changed is the buying of chocolate advent calendars. You know the ones that begin on the 1st of December and you eat one chocolate leading up to the 25th? Well this year I bought a nativity magnet calendar. So on the 1st of Dec. instead of us eating chocolate and seeing pictures of Santa, trees, elves or any other commercially centered images that appear on the package, our daughter will look through the nativity images until she finds the piece with the "1" on it and she can place it on the fridge and then we talk about what it is...The first piece is the stable. By the time Christmas comes, we will be done putting together our nativity scene. :) I LOVE that.
We also don't do the whole big turkey dinner. We dial it down a bit by rotating who chooses what for the appetizer, main meal and dessert. For example one year we had stuffed mushroom caps, flauta's (now if this was "Hospitlity Haven" you would have the recipe but it's not! LOL! but if you want to know what they are ask) and chocolate fondue. It is great! IF we have another child then we will add a special drink of choice. I find it cuts down on work (sometimes) and the cost is MUCH cheaper!!
Last year my side of the family drew names for gift giving. This year we are not doing that at all. We all decided that it is too expensive PLUS the joy for us and them is being able to see them open the gifts we give, if we aren’t there to see it, what's the point? We are drawing names on Mike's side of the family with a cap on the spending limit. Our daughter is learning how to give and share and we want to nurture that as best we can. She has not really asked for anything for Christmas and we have not asked her what she would like. So no big lists of "Wants" in our house...She HAS however expressed an interest in wanting to GIVE gifts to family members, so as I said we want to nurture this. SOOO she shopped at our Thrift Store, she helped me wrap the gifts, and she put the bow on and picked the tag for the gifts. She was SOOO excited and I am glad we are able to teach her the joy of giving and giving sensibly.
Let's see...We also hang our candy canes upside down to form the letter "J" for obvious reasons...I am sure there is more we do but I can't recall more right now. Anyhow, thanks for helping me to reflect on how we celebrate Alison. I like the Gifts of Hope idea...Might do that next year! :) Have a very merry CHRISTmas everyone.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
In Awe
Today has been one of those "Awe" days...You know the ones I mean? The ones where you stop and think "Wow, what did I do to deserve this?" That has been my day. Allow me to share it with you:
This morning started quite early as my whole family headed down to the hospital. Mike to get his dressing changed on his wound (ask me later). Me to get blood work done (I'll tell you a cute story about that in a bit) and Megan well...just because the couldn't stay home alone! So we were up and out the door before 7:30am! Reminded me of my college days...Glad those days are over. Anyhow, Mike stayed downstairs to get done what he needed and Meg and I headed upstairs to the lab. We got to the waiting room and there was a man there waiting to get his blood taken too. Megan and this man chatted off and on and then bluntly Megan says to the man "What are YOU doing here?" The man with wide eyes said, "Welllll, I don't know." It was obvious that he didn't want to or quite know how to tell a three year old that he was getting blood taken. Anyhow, after his reply he says to Meg, "What are YOU doing here?" Meg replied, "Wellll, I don't know either (pause) my Mom has to get blood work." The mans face was stunned. I chuckled...Here he was trying to spare her the gruesome details but nope not my girl...She just HAD to share. So along with the the blood work they needed a urine sample (T.M.I I know but it is part of the story) so while I was in the washroom doing what I needed to do, Meg decided to ring the "in case of emergency" bell! I was horrified!! So here I am trying to do what I am doing and yelling at the same time "I'M SORRY...THERE IS NO EMERGENCY" Meanwhile I hear the nurses chuckling. It was FUN! After that was done, we all went for breakfast before taking Meg to daycare and us heading to work. It was a nice morning.
Fast forward through the day...We are in the midst of an audit and that is going quite well. Tomorrow is the last day for it and I am glad this lady is here helping us! Such a blessing. It was a long day at work...As we were leaving work a man from our congregation came and dropped off an article for the paper that needed to be done (HUGE relief that it is done and that I didn't have to do it!) and then he handed me an old style kettle popcorn popper that he bid on at a fundraiser we went too. I REALLY wanted to bid on it but just missed it and couldn't really afford to anyways. I had asked to borrow it for our church family decorating night on Saturday and it turns out that they were giving it to me for Christmas anyways so they decided to give it to me earlier for Saturday. I was SO shocked and EXCITED! I was in awe. It makes the BEST popcorn! YES, I have already used it! Had it for a whole hour! LOL!
For weeks now our lawn has needed so much attention and we have not had the time to tend to it. It has been bugging us for so long. It added to the stress in our home because we would come home and see that it needed to be done so badly. By the time we get home we are SO exhausted and there was at least 2 days worth of work to do out in the yard that we just couldn't get to before the snow comes. Anyhow, we drove home on cloud nine with the article in hand and a brand new popcorn machine, to find another man from the congregation finishing up our lawn work! I could not believe my eyes!! The leaves were cleaned up, the lawn was mowed and he even cleaned the gutters on the house!!!! I stood there with my mouth hung open and my eyes stinging with tears. What had I done to deserve this? I stood in awe.
To top off the day, my cell phone has been missing for WEEKS I mean at least 3-4 weeks!! So odd for me to lose something like that and for that long...But as I was sitting here telling you my story, who should appear holding my cell phone? Mike. He was so happy to top my day off with that news! We have prayed hard that we would find it! Again, I stand...well right now I sit in awe.
This morning started quite early as my whole family headed down to the hospital. Mike to get his dressing changed on his wound (ask me later). Me to get blood work done (I'll tell you a cute story about that in a bit) and Megan well...just because the couldn't stay home alone! So we were up and out the door before 7:30am! Reminded me of my college days...Glad those days are over. Anyhow, Mike stayed downstairs to get done what he needed and Meg and I headed upstairs to the lab. We got to the waiting room and there was a man there waiting to get his blood taken too. Megan and this man chatted off and on and then bluntly Megan says to the man "What are YOU doing here?" The man with wide eyes said, "Welllll, I don't know." It was obvious that he didn't want to or quite know how to tell a three year old that he was getting blood taken. Anyhow, after his reply he says to Meg, "What are YOU doing here?" Meg replied, "Wellll, I don't know either (pause) my Mom has to get blood work." The mans face was stunned. I chuckled...Here he was trying to spare her the gruesome details but nope not my girl...She just HAD to share. So along with the the blood work they needed a urine sample (T.M.I I know but it is part of the story) so while I was in the washroom doing what I needed to do, Meg decided to ring the "in case of emergency" bell! I was horrified!! So here I am trying to do what I am doing and yelling at the same time "I'M SORRY...THERE IS NO EMERGENCY" Meanwhile I hear the nurses chuckling. It was FUN! After that was done, we all went for breakfast before taking Meg to daycare and us heading to work. It was a nice morning.
Fast forward through the day...We are in the midst of an audit and that is going quite well. Tomorrow is the last day for it and I am glad this lady is here helping us! Such a blessing. It was a long day at work...As we were leaving work a man from our congregation came and dropped off an article for the paper that needed to be done (HUGE relief that it is done and that I didn't have to do it!) and then he handed me an old style kettle popcorn popper that he bid on at a fundraiser we went too. I REALLY wanted to bid on it but just missed it and couldn't really afford to anyways. I had asked to borrow it for our church family decorating night on Saturday and it turns out that they were giving it to me for Christmas anyways so they decided to give it to me earlier for Saturday. I was SO shocked and EXCITED! I was in awe. It makes the BEST popcorn! YES, I have already used it! Had it for a whole hour! LOL!
For weeks now our lawn has needed so much attention and we have not had the time to tend to it. It has been bugging us for so long. It added to the stress in our home because we would come home and see that it needed to be done so badly. By the time we get home we are SO exhausted and there was at least 2 days worth of work to do out in the yard that we just couldn't get to before the snow comes. Anyhow, we drove home on cloud nine with the article in hand and a brand new popcorn machine, to find another man from the congregation finishing up our lawn work! I could not believe my eyes!! The leaves were cleaned up, the lawn was mowed and he even cleaned the gutters on the house!!!! I stood there with my mouth hung open and my eyes stinging with tears. What had I done to deserve this? I stood in awe.
To top off the day, my cell phone has been missing for WEEKS I mean at least 3-4 weeks!! So odd for me to lose something like that and for that long...But as I was sitting here telling you my story, who should appear holding my cell phone? Mike. He was so happy to top my day off with that news! We have prayed hard that we would find it! Again, I stand...well right now I sit in awe.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
My Funny Girl
Alright, so I have decided to catch up on some of the funny little things that my 3 yr old says...There are ohhh so many. I can hardly keep up with them! I try and write them all down but some unfortunately get missed. I will give you some of what I have. Enjoy!
Megan was "teaching dance" to her imaginary class.
Me: "Megan, what kind of dance do you teach?"
Megan: "Ohhh Roll over, Ballet and Wiggle."
(Insert chuckle here)
Someone asking Megan her how old she will be on her next birthday.
Lady: "So Megan, how old are you going to be?"
Megan: "5 and 4 too!"
On our holidays we travelled to see Mike's family. When we were there we had the opportunity to visit Mr. Musgrave's (a good friend of the family) new hotel that he built and owns. He invited us there to have breakfast with him. Megan was treated as a princess. Given gifts and the grand tour! A little while later she wanted to say something to Mr. Musgrave but she did NOT say Mr. Musgrave, NOPE! She addressed him as Mr. Muskrat! It was great.
Megan pretending to teach dance class (she does this often lately).
Me: "What time is your next dance class?"
Megan: "6-0-4-8…I better be on time!"
Ohhh to have that much time in a day!!
Well, that is all I am going to give you right now. Stay tuned...I have many more to share! :) Take care! Until next time...
Megan was "teaching dance" to her imaginary class.
Me: "Megan, what kind of dance do you teach?"
Megan: "Ohhh Roll over, Ballet and Wiggle."
(Insert chuckle here)
Someone asking Megan her how old she will be on her next birthday.
Lady: "So Megan, how old are you going to be?"
Megan: "5 and 4 too!"
On our holidays we travelled to see Mike's family. When we were there we had the opportunity to visit Mr. Musgrave's (a good friend of the family) new hotel that he built and owns. He invited us there to have breakfast with him. Megan was treated as a princess. Given gifts and the grand tour! A little while later she wanted to say something to Mr. Musgrave but she did NOT say Mr. Musgrave, NOPE! She addressed him as Mr. Muskrat! It was great.
Megan pretending to teach dance class (she does this often lately).
Me: "What time is your next dance class?"
Megan: "6-0-4-8…I better be on time!"
Ohhh to have that much time in a day!!
Well, that is all I am going to give you right now. Stay tuned...I have many more to share! :) Take care! Until next time...
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