The Strangest Things… July 15, 2008

When I surrendered to full time Christian ministry (that is what we call it in Baptist life when you follow God’s call into ministry as a career) ten years ago there were a lot of things I did not know. Exactly what kind of ministry I would be doing and where I would be doing ministry were some of the basic unknowns. I also did not know, however, how weird ministry could be. Here is a list of some of the most unusual things I have done in ministry over the years:

• Deciding how to make a lamp made out of a female mannequin’s torso appropriate for display on stage during a service.
• Buying a bunch of little cakes- one birthday theme, one Bob the Builder theme, etc – for a welcome reception for a new minister when the order was not ready as promised. Cutting the cakes in the kitchen and then serving them helped a lot!
• Writing an email that began “Thank you for joining the XL team, Big Daddy.” :):) I never thought fun nicknames would be a part of church work, but boy was I wrong!
• Coming up with ideas and buying items for “The Wheel of Meat Products”.
• Writing the words “fart machine” during a planning meeting.
• Passing around a stuffed bear while saying nice things about everyone in the room.
• Listening to one guy sing in a gospel quartet at church in the morning and an Ozzy Osbourne song at church that same night.  Go Cliff!
• Tackling my boss on video – my all time fav, by the way!
• Oh, yeah, and throwing a pie in my boss’s face.  That was a good one, too.
• Knowing way too much information about men’s urinals.
• Having a meeting in a men’s room.
• Sneaking into an ER to make a hospital visit – that has been more than once, I am pretty sure.
• Dressing up like a bumble bee, penguin, and a football player.  The hall of VBS shame stops there – I escaped the costume fun this year!

Sunshine in my day 1 May 17, 2008

• I have a cool friend like Hannah who I can steal ideas from.
• I did not have to wake up to an alarm this morning.
• Jeanne recruited 3 new guys to work the parking lot tomorrow, and maybe on a regular basis. Go Jeanne!
• The sun is out again.
• I have wireless internet at the house thanks to Jason and am sitting on my couch in my pjs blogging right now. So nice!
• I get to see my family in less than a month.
• I have really great friends.
• It is flip flop season! (the whole year is flip flop season for me, but no one gives me grief about it in the spring and summer months )
• God’s Word always speaks to me – like always.
• Last night with the Bagwell family was fun – lots of laughs, a not too bad movie and great friends.
• There are no dirty dishes in the sink.
• My Dr. Pepper stash is full again.
• I do not have to go to Wal-Mart today.
• I had a fun dinner with Valerie and her kids on Thursday. Emmie and Ben both wanted to sit by me! Who knew bringing an umbrella could form an instant friendship?
• My gas budget still gets me where I need to go.
• The Office was stinkin’ funny this week. I think I am going to have to watch it again today.
• God is working in some families lives in such cool ways at XL and WRBC – new believers are getting involved and growing, first time leaders taking on new ministry roles and people are coming together in new ways. That is really cool.
• When adults get saved, their kids’ futures are automatically different than what they were before their parents got saved. There are a lot of kids with new futures around XL and WRBC. Wow!
• I found LOST full episodes on the web this week (I know this is not a new thing, just new to me). My sister is pretty pumped!

People Who Rock April 30, 2008

I haven’t done an installment of “People Who Rock” in a long time.  It’s about time I quit making the blog all about me for a little while.  So today, it is the WRBC staff!  I work with great people.  It has been a tough year at West Rome, I won’t lie.  Some days I wondered what in the heck I was still doing there.  But, I have experienced things that I don’t think are very common in most churches or other work places.  There is a respect that flows from top to bottom and bottom to top.  We truly work as a team where each person’s part is seen as important and valuable.  I saw Randy spraying weeds the other day and was amazed at how much work it takes to make our campus welcoming to others.  Hard work is the norm around the office, too.  Rarely is anyone slacking off  or not giving 100%.  The staff genuinely cares for one another.  Prayer requests are shared, hugs are given, tears are shed, personal concern is really present.  We’ve helped each other through sickness, family problems, and bad days.  These people are funny, too.  If you are in our offices and don’t hear laughter it must be lunch time when everyone is gone.  So, Jarrod, Ken, Cliff, Todd, Mandi, Kim, Jerry, Wes, Ramona, Hannah, Shannon, Jessica, Gracie, Gloria, Randy, Narlene, and Ginger – you rock!

I am glad I work for Jarrod Roberts March 25, 2008

I have know Jarrod and Tiff for close to 10 years. I volunteered in his ministries for about 4 and have worked for him on staff for the last 6. God has confirmed to me many times in the last 6 years that part of my calling to ministry is to work along side Jarrod and support his ministry (and believe me, it has been many times because I have asked God many times! ). He is a man of integrity almost to a fault. As a member of his staff I know that I am respected and cared for, not merely managed or used. Don’t even get me started on Tiffany and the girls! Tiffany has welcomed me into their family with open arms when I needed family the most and I get to love on their girls on a regular basis. It is awesome. Tonight was another moment in time when God’s confirmation of my calling to be in ministry with Jarrod was solidified. I don’t give him and his precious family nearly what they are due on this blog, but I just wanted to say tonight it is a true privelege to be in ministry with Jarrod and to be loved by his family. I love you guys!

Isaiah 30:15 December 10, 2007

“In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

Weekend Wows August 17, 2007

Last weekend I went to the Women of Faith conference with 59 other ladies from West Rome. My job for the weekend was to keep everything running smoothly for everyone. To give you an idea of what really went on, it all started for me at 5:20AM on Friday morning. That would have been fine except that I was supposed to be leaving my house at 5:30AM to get to the church on time. So, in a baseball hat and no makeup I slid into the parking lot on time. A few other things like this happened on Friday – washing my hair in the sink at the hotel because in a time crunch the shower was not working right, etc. You know what the cool thing was? The whole weekend spoke to these things. Each speaker talked about faith and trusting God in difficult circumstances. Women who had endured much more than running late and a few hitches along the way shared about God’s goodness and love in the midst of pain. Wow! Here are a few of the most memorable moments I had:
~In God’s agenda hard things or challenges are so that we can do things; they are not the things that keep us from what God wants, but are there so we can do what He wants.
~When we try to stay in control of everything or spend our time comparing, we most often miss what God has in store for us.
~Isaiah 51:12-16, God says, “Act like you are Mine!”
~My calling will be far beyond what I am comfortable with.
If I walked away with one thing from the weekend, it is that comfort does not define what is good in my life. Good things can come from pain, hurt and challenges. Comfort is truly divine when I lean into God no matter what is going on around me. That sure makes God a lot bigger and my “around me” a lot smaller.

People Who Rock: My small group July 25, 2007

We had an amazing time sharing and getting into God’s Word tonight.  We were looking at the sermon from Sunday and I Corinthians 3:11-15 about living with an eternal perspective.  Two statements were made by 2 small group members that really struck me:

“Discontent is not from the Lord.”

“What is keeping us entertained while slowly taking away our freedoms?”

My small group is full of real people with real problems and a real desire to know God and actually live their faith.  I love being in the group with and learning from them.  They rock!

Change happens July 16, 2007

In the last 2 months a lot of change has happened in my life.  My boyfriend and I broke up, my roommate and dear friend moved out and away, and God called my pastor to another church.  The question I kept asking over and over is “does this all have to happen at once?”.   That question hung in the air, along with a heavy sense of overwhelmingness.  I did not understand why all at once the things I was enjoying so much,  praying about so much went away.  I was scared that I had done things to mess them all up, that I was being punished for something.  I worried that sadness and loneliness were my new life-long lot.  (I never said I didn’t have a flair for the dramatic ).  I was mad that I was having to deal with it all – one of these I could handle, but really, all at one time?  Taking the advice of my ever-wise friend Kim, I let myself be sad, I took it all to my Father and I walked through it with Him.  Usually, see, I try to be happy, fret over why I am not feeling good and push the unpleasantness aside, opting for denial.  That is really healthy, isn’t it?   I was able to come to a place of peace in all these because change is not my enemy.  Change does not indicate God’s displeasure.  One devotion I read during these weeks focused on the fact that we want our lives to be nice and orderly so we can honor God, spend time with Him and follow Him without distraction.  The thing is, how true is that kind of faith - one that is not challenged?  I had been in Hebrews for while in my quiet times and I see that God had His hand in that timing, too.  During some of the roughest days I read these verses: “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.  But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul”(Hebrews 10:35, 39).  My Father can be trusted, that is why “we are not of those who shrink back.”  He is  sovereign in all things, so that even changes that bring sadness or hurt for a time can be accepted as part of His good, pleasing and perfect will.  Accepting pain and change as part of God’s plan for life is not fatalistic.  It is quite freeing and comforting to realize that God’s love is bigger than pain – it does not deny or dismiss or ignore it.  God’s love gets right in there with you in it and then makes room for peace and faith. 

Vacation Bible School June 28, 2007

How many years can I be a sucker?  Well, according to the pictures below, 3 is a good guess.  Each year I somehow end up dressing up as the VBS mascot.    

First it was the Honeybee (or Humble Bee as Ms. Jeanne so deftly named me) then Meredith joined in as the pengiun pair for 2006 (and no, there really are not penguins in the Arctic, but were we really going for accuracy here?) and finally this year as #68 (I did not get to knock anyone down, although a poor little lady almost got the privilege for being in the wrong place at the wrong time).  I figured if Josh was going to play a video in church on the big screen on Sunday morning, I should give in and have a little fun, too.

I hate it when my sister is right May 14, 2007

She better read this blog because that’s her only shot of hearing me admit this! (hee hee hee)  A couple of months ago I blogged about my awesome family and how my sister tells it like it is.  She did it again recently, telling me I make big deals out of little things.  Well, you can imagine that I enjoyed hearing that!  But, her comment has been stuck in my mind and boy, she is right.  God is using her to teach me to quit thinking so much (although I will always be an analyzer) and lean into Him.  Glynn’s message from Sunday about distractions and Jarrod’s message from XL last night about how drawing into ourselves when things go wrong can mess us up were just reminders of the thing my sister was pointing out.  Ouch, what a great sister I have.