Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year

It has been busy (like I'm sure it is for all of you). I have been getting everything ready to leave next weekend for Houston and trying to get all the required papers into the BOM for consideration in my commissioning. I'm praying that it goes better this time around. It is kind of amazing at how different this conference is as far as requirements go.

Anyway, I wanted to wish all of you, my blogging buddies, a Happy New Year. I pray that you will have a wonderful year.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Dancing Before The Lord

"Dancing before the Lord."

I cannot dance, O Lord
unless you lead me.
If you will
that I leap joyfully
then you must be the first to dance and sing.
Then, and only then, will I leap for love.
Then will I soar from love to knowledge,
from knowledge to fruition, from fuition to beyond
all human sense.
And there I will remain and circle for evermore.
--Mechtild of Magdeburg

Wow

What a busy time of the year for all of us!! My Senior Pastor is taking a month off so it isn't going to get much better especially since, sandwiched in that time, I have to go to Houston for a week.

I am driving my daughter to Texarkana tonight to meet up half-way with another family member. She really wanted to spend Christmas with our family and it didn't seem right for her to have to stay here just because I had to. It will be the first Christmas without her and I'm not looking forward to it at all.

One of the main fuses to the house has blown and hopefully the electrician will finally make it out here today. It has been since Tuesday without all of the lights and most of the electrical outlets. Thank goodness the major appliances and the heat didn't go out.

I have a funeral tomorrow and a cold, too. It is a really weird virus. I feel like crap but I don't have hardly any drainage or even much of a cough. My headache and sore throat are the worst of the symptoms. The funeral is a graveside service, so it won't be very long. Plus, there won't be much of crowd so I won't have to project my voice very far, which is very, very good. I don't think it would go very far. This is the first time I've been sick since that horrible, horrible flu I got last April, so I'm feeling pretty lucky.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Wow

It is amazing at what a person can accomplish if she locks herself in her house and just writes, and writes, and writes. Thank goodness that my church truly believes in continuing education and were willing to give me the time off without it counting for vacation time.

I am already feeling less overwhelmed and in control than a couple of weeks ago. I still have work to do but it helped when the director of the D.Min. program said that any late books added to our list just were for reading, no papers required. Apparently, she is having problems getting the book lists from the professors. I was getting a little worried because they kept dribbling in and I thought we would have writing assignments coming in at the last moment.

Now the other good news, the new Sunday School class that I was responsible for starting is going well. It started off with a core group of 10-12, which I think is a perfect size for a Sunday School class. It allows everyone a chance to speak. After being in school for so long, I did not want to start a lecture style group and this is working out well. I did go against one suggestion of my senior pastor, she recommended that we call the class the "Wesley Sunday School Class". I decided "Maranatha".

Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Christmas Season

My days are so filled that I can't find the time to blog. Christmas is such a busy season for the church. I would like to say more but I'm off to pick up Ryss from her volunteer work at the Salvation Army Angel Tree and then we are going to the Nutcracker Ballet. One of our church youth is performing in it.