Re-Arrangement

My daughter is currently rearranging the living room. While I don't condemn the practice in general, I really don't like it for me. If I get up without my glasses on, I like knowing where everything is so that my toes don't get stubbed.

Really there wasn't any need to rearrange the living room!! The child gets one Saturday off and this is what happens.

Prayer Shawls

I am currently working on my third prayer shawl. Who would have thought that I have a domestic streak?? My daughter came in from school the other day and said, "You look just like Grandma"!! It was a shock to my system because my mom is a big crocheter. We never want to hear that we are like our parents, because we feel like we should be totally separate.

Anyway, this ministry has totally taken off from my initial Small Group Leadership Retreat. I am very excited about it because it is Lay led and Lay driven. God is good!

Sunday, November 1st

Saturday night, I received a phone call from my senior pastor. She is sick and I have to preach. Not a huge problem in and of itself, but this was a special service Sunday. We had added all kinds of different pieces to make it a very memorable All Saints Service. On top of all that, I had forgotten that I was filling in for the Children's Sermon too.

First service starts and the "stinking" sound system is down again. Thank all the Saints who were looking out for me, it was fixed before I had to preach very much of my sermon.

After that inauspicious start, the rest of the day went extremely well. Lots of people loved the service and I was glad that I was able to pull it off without any major stumbles.

The next day was our "Staff Retreat". It was led by a psychologist that specializes in relationships. It will be interesting to see if it has any effect. Unfortunately many of those involved "like the way I am", which is code for, they have no intention of changing. Kind of sad when you think about it.

BOM Sermon

Scary moments this morning--the sound system was totally down for the first service. I thought, "Not today of all days!!" However, they got it up and running in time for the second service and I was so relieved that I relaxed (a whole bunch) and preached over the Wesleyan Threefold Grace. I don't know how it went because I haven't seen the DVD yet, but congregation reaction was good.

Of course, they liked the first service sermon too. The one where I had to strain my voice projecting it over a huge room.

This was the first time the entire sound system crashed!!! Was God just testing me??

Casting Off by Nicole Dickson

This is a wonderful book about a woman who finds redemption and forgiveness on an Irish Island. Woven throughout the story is the history of Irish spinning and knitting.

Rule of Life

I am in the process of completing an assignment for school. It is supposed to be titled "Rule of Life for Pastoral Care to the Pastor". Basically, it is taking care of myself. In reading, Barbara Brown Taylor's An Altar in the World, she talks about having something that you love doing outside of the church. Not in the recreation department, but an unpaid job.

I've thought and thought about what I would like to do as a volunteer that is not related to being a pastor. I thought about counseling at a local domestic violence shelter or volunteering at a local library----helping women and books, but those are related in a way to my tasks as a pastor. The more I consider what I truly love besides God and church, it becomes clear--Dogs. I love dogs.

Unfortunately, she also talks about the ability to say "No". I am so overwhelmed at times that I want to grab anything that is made out of paper in my house and have a gigantic bonfire. I feel like I'm being smothered by paper. Not just the books that dominate most of my life, but the hoards and hoards of mail, papers, magazines, my crap, Ryssa's crap. I'm sure that as soon as a throw a piece of paper away, I will need it. (I did do some cleaning yesterday and feel a little better today.)

So the problem with having an unpaid, non-church related job will have to wait until I finish school. I have just been approved for Candidacy status for my doctoral project. It took several (several) re-writes for my project narrative to be approved. I was beginning to think I wasn't going to make it, but it turns out that I was the test case for the new, improved doctoral program (fun). My papers will be the format for all the following D.Min. students. So they were looking for perfection, which as many of you can attest to, I am so not perfect.

Back to the Rule of Life, it is a work in progress and an evolving tapestry of wants and needs.

Love at First Sight

I was going through the usual 1st of the month routine. Paying bills (always depressing) and I decided to run into the grocery store for one thing (dish soap). Now I knew that I probably wouldn't leave the store without spending $100, but I was resigned to that fact.

So here I am, in less than a gracious mood and my hair pulled back into a ponytail and no makeup, when I spotted HIM. He was probably in his 80's. A small man, dressed in a dapper, three piece suit, with a red handkerchief coming out of his front pocket and a little black hat. He could only take steps in about six inch increments with the help of a cane.

He caught my eye and tipped his hat at me, smiling broadly. I smiled back and dipped my head in acknowledgment. I watched him repeat this with everyone that he made eye contact with. I looked behind him and saw a billboard with the words, "I love you, I love you, I love you....signed GOD".

That little man made my day, with his dark brown skin, dapper suit and a smile that lit up the day.

Retreat

Tomorrow is the very first "Retreat" that I have ever organized and led. It is, also, the kick-off for my doctoral project. Needless to say, I have been agonizing over this thing. I'm pretty laid usually, so I hope that kicks in tomorrow and I don't stress over little things.

In Memory of:

Being in ministry is never an easy task. We make friends in a local church and then have to bury some of them. I know this is not something unique to clergy but it seems to come in cycles. I had a funeral last week, another tomorrow and another Saturday.

I did a lot of funerals over the Christmas holiday but they weren't for people I knew. Mostly is was for people who had no church home, sad in its own way, because we didn't do something right to pull them into the life of the church or sad because they rejected the grace offered to them.

I know that I'm going to miss the woman I'm doing the funeral for tomorrow. She was almost 92 and hardly anyone knew it. She was so very active. She learned to play the viola at 85 and she learned how to paint last year--hummingbirds. She started a handbell choir at the church last year, tutored at a local elementary school and was a fierce bridge player. I hear that she couldn't cook that well, however. My kind of woman.

Prayer's

My 22-year old neice called me this week to tell me she reported, her mom my sister, into CPS for neglecting her 11-year-old brother. She said that my sister is abusing prescription narcotics. The family has tried interventions, but my sister keeps denying having any problem.

Please keep my family in your prayers. I'm not sure that my neice chose the best option for dealing with it, but she felt she had no choice.