Elijah's Room!

I am finally finished with Eli's room! I am pretty happy with it, there are several more things I would have liked to do, like painted or picked out a little different furniture - but I am super excited about how well we budgeted the room and kept all costs to a minimum. So I have posted the pictures on facebook if you want a better look at them. The blog is being difficult and only posting the pictures as text.

Elijah's Batman Nursery!

Elijah's nursery is finished! We have kept it simple, and not overdone the Batman part, I am pretty excited to be done with it. Here are the pictures.

A Little Practice as the Day Draws Near...

This week John and I are taking care of three kids (9, 11, & 14), you could say we are getting a little taste of what it may be like to have a big family. The kids are great, other than wanting to eat everything their parents told us not to let them eat they listen to everything we ask of them- pretty amazing. The schedule is crazy, and I completely understand why parents feel like chauffers. Each kid is involved in two sports and one is part of a school play as well, its a lot of practices to juggle.

A wonderful part of taking care of the kids is seeing John with them. I am sure it will come to a huge surprise to you that John is the "fun" guy between the two of us but also he takes care of so much, and enforces the rules when needed. Since I am 8 months prego John has been especially willing to take care of more than his share of duties with the kids, grocery shopping and the little bit of cooking we have done. I love seeing John with the kids, it makes me so excited to have Elijah here and begin our family.

We agree though the toughest part of this week is sleeping in someone else's bed, it is a horribly hard bed and neither of us has gotten much sleep at all, which makes us both so tired and me incredibly sore.

A Sneak Peak

Since the day I discovered I was pregnant I knew that if we had a boy I wanted to decorate his room with Batman. John has been a Batman fan (and picky collector of Batman memorabilia), his groom’s cake was even decorated with Batman. So I have been brainstorming how to make this little boy’s first room a collection of something his father already takes pleasure in. I knew I did not want the “scary” Batman stuff, it is a baby’s room and I knew I didn’t want it to just be a tacky overwhelming collection of everything Batman. So below are a few pictures of aspects that will come together to make Elijah Keaton’s first room. Be nice though, everything looks better in person and will come together really well I think. John was excited when he saw what I had worked on this week with the bottom two things.

Poster- I hope to have this image printed out and framed as the center piece in Eli’s room. It is the 1939 introduction of Batman from Detective Comics.

Bedding- After much thought of making the bedding after doing the cost calculations I chose to go with this bedding from Pottery Barn Kids, I don’t have it yet but have registered for it.

“ELI”- Taking some old Batman comics I painted the edges of the letter and then deco-podged clips of the comics on the letters.













Paintings- I copied a few silhouettes from some Batman greeting cards John had on to these canvas to add bright color and keep a kid feel. I hope to add a couple more canvas as well.

Our Winter Wonderland

This past weekend Dallas had the most snow it has ever seen. The snow began to fall early Thursday morning and continued throughout the day, John & I were both substituting in the HP schools. Stuck inside with all the kids going crazy thinking- we should be outside playing in this snow! This is not normal for Dallas! The high school, where John was at even went 3 hours without electricity; those students were really going crazy.

Thursday afternoon I picked John up from the high school and we both agreed this is amazing and we need to do something in all this snow! John really wanted a snowball fight, every time we drove past kids attacking each other you could see the sad longing to lob a snowball at some kid, and his pregnant wife would not play that game. So John finally came up with the solution that I could be part of, we would build a snowman, and not just a normal snowman of until we got tired of being outside but a huge snowman. So Friday afternoon we layered on our ski clothes and created an 8ft snowman, however Friday night John decided that was not big enough so on Saturday he added 2 more inches.

We had so much fun building this snowman together and looking forward to the many snowmen in the future that would be built with our kids. And the joy of creating this snowman increased each time we looked out the window and saw a family taking pictures with him or just stopping to admire his size. This will absolutely be something I always treasure and remember about our record snowfall in Dallas!

Thank You...

Ok, so I am at Winterfest, thirsty. I have two options: coke machine or stand in line at the concession. I am closer to the concession so I choose to stand in line.
I get behind a girl from another youth group. I ask how she likes it to which she tells me this is her third year to attend and she loves it.
“Great,” I say.
She responds with a question, “Do you have a dollar I can have?”
“Well, I only have a twenty. How about you order and I will just pay for yours
and mine at the cash register.”
“Thank you,” she says (I think).
We wait in line for about two more minutes not really talking before we reach the lady who asks what we would like. “Two pretzels,” she says. My eyebrows raise, my thoughts flashback to her only asking for ONE dollar.
I order orange juice. She receives her two pretzels. I get my OJ and my wallet to pay. Then lean over and say, “So, you really decided to take advantage or me offering to pay for your snack.”
“Well, one is for me and the other one is for my friend,” she says. But for some reason I don’t quite believe her. She takes her two pretzels and heads down the hall. I wait for Crysty at the exit of the concession. While I wait, I am just baffled that this girl would take such liberty in ordering more than she first requested. What was it that made her think she could now order two pretzels? Why didn’t she ask me if it would be OK? I know, I could have told her and stopped her order and said that I was only go to loan her a dollar. But I didn’t even make her spend her dollar. So she got the pretzel she wanted, an extra pretzel, and kept her dollar. I felt scammed by an eighth grader who is now going to enjoy two pretzels on me.
I looked around the hall as I waited on Crysty, and I see the girl. She just stopped walking to stand next to another girl and begins to had one pretzel over to her. Her friend is surprised. I can see the joy and confusion on her face. It seems she knew that her friend only had one dollar to begin with. She is happy to get her own pretzel, but wonders how her friend was able to get one for each of them. I cannot hear them, but I can see that she asks her friend how that happened. Then the girl in line points down the hall in my direction and says something. And her looks my way and says, “Thank you.”

As a minister, a youth minister that is (who apparently is in his office too much) I get the chance (or the shortest straw) to meet several people who come to the church looking for some kind of help. We call this the Back Door Ministry. The needs range from bus tickets for local transportation to sometimes the Greyhound. Food, prescriptions, clothes, boots, money, a night at the hotel, gas for their car, utility bills are all needs that have been presented to me. Most of them are easy, but we never give out cash and never fill prescriptions so, those people leave mad. Others become more complicated as their list of needs grow as they tell their story. We also get repeats; people who come twice a month, sometime more.

We had a guy call down curses on our worship minister. Crazy thing was that this guy could pray. He had a deep voice, strong and energetic, which just fed these amazing prayers. We saw Nathaniel for like 3 years here and there. He came in Dec. 2007 saying that he was moving to Denver and will not be back to ask for help in 2008. He failed to keep his promise.

Our campus minister has this on going pen pal from prison. Problem is that he serves his time and then makes personal visits. I have had a couple of visits with Raymond. We do what we can while he is out. But then we receive another letter from prison. He is one of five of our non-official prison ministry members.

In the summer of 2009 I was helping a young man named Isaac who served some time. He worked part time at La Madeleine. So he had a little income but not much. He stayed with his sister sometimes, until she felt like he was not doing his part around the house or to find a new job and she would kick him out for a few days. I tried hiring Isaac a few time around the church. He was an awful worker, slow, non-efficient, and never on time. I had lunch with him several times. We would talk about job hunting, prison, and his family. Crysty and I were prepared to help him with a monthly bus pass so he could be where he needed to be. We did for two months. Then he stopped showing up. I hope he found a full time job, but I just don’t know.
I have been conned a few times. One guy I met around 8:00 pm sometime in 2005. My wife and I were at Target, and I get this call from our office administrator who is at the church for a prayer meeting saying there is guy at the door who will not leave until he talks to someone and he is being a little aggressive. Crysty and I rush home. I listen to his story and decide to help. I helped with a hotel room, bought him boots for his job, played some ping-pong with him, and bought him some food from Wal-Mart. I helped him for about a week. Then nothing. I didn’t hear from him. About a year later, he shows back up at the church, but this time he is using a different name. Bummer. I bring up the past help and his other name, to which he replies, “I was on the run last year.” Bummer. I gave him a bus pass and sent him on his way.

We once had a lady who came every Tuesday for help. Her name was Elizabeth. We continued to push her toward Central Dallas Ministries, but she said her needs were not that great. She had small requests (except one time our campus minister bought her a diabetic blood test thing that cost him $65). Every once in while she would test the waters and ask for cash, “I need ten dollars in quarters for laundry.” We (I) denied her request. She would get mad and leave. But not without a bus pass, and she would be back next week. She tried going back to school (or at least that is what she told us). We probably saw her for about half a year then one Tuesday she didn’t show up. That Christmas I got a letter in the mail at the church. It was Elizabeth. She sent Crysty and I a Christmas card saying thank you for the help and that she moved to Kentucky. It made me smile.

I wished more of these stories ended this way. With just a letter that says thank you. A letter that contains a little closure. I don’t feel bad, when I can’t help someone out, I do feel great when I do help someone out, but I wonder when I send them on their way if their story is going to change because of the help I have given them.

Jesus one time saw this man who was born blind. He then spit in the mud placed it on his eyes and told the blind man to wash in a pool. So the blind man went and washed and came home seeing. The rest of John 9 is this man telling a new story, a grand story, a story of redemption. As a blind man he was a beggar, an outcast, a person with no story. Even Jesus’ disciples weren’t looking to redeem this man; they wanted reasons for his blindness. Jesus shows us purpose. “That the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Am I looking for purpose in outcast situations? Was I looking for the work of God to be displayed in Isaac’s life, Nathaniel’s life, or Elizabeth’s? I don’t really know.

Today, I helped a couple get to Austin, TX. They have been in Dallas for three days. They said they have visited at least 40 churches asking for the same thing. I could see the hunger in their faces and the tiredness in their posture when they showed up. I bought them bus tickets and some lunch at Whataburger (it’s the go to fast food place for moments like these). I took them to the bus station, purchased the tickets, and handed them over. Last night they stayed in the ER room of a hospital. Tonight they will stay with family.

I may not ever hear from John and Donna King again. I might not ever know why they were stuck in Dallas and not somewhere else, but I do know that the work of God was displayed in their life. And I know that they have a new story to share with their family.

Preparing for a baby with John...

I am sure John will have a post later this week about our Winterfest Retreat with the youth group but I wanted to share a little paragraph with you that expressed so well what it is like preparing for our little boy with John.

Below I is a paragraph John wrote to his brother and sister updating them on how we're doing and what's going on. Please read with a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Crysty and I are hard at work trying to get a name for our child. It’s one of my new years resolutions. She is hard pressed to name him before May 11th and I tell her she is pushing the schedule up 7 months in advance (I have until Dec. 31). I threw out the name Diego, because I do think it’s cool, a little Hispanic sounding, and that was my name while I waited tables at Olive Garden, because the ladies loved it. My hope of naming our first Bruce and our second Wayne has been laid down to rest. We also have to find furniture for our kid, which already sounds like a pain. I mean we just visited the furniture stores for a TV console and end tables. Now I have to go back in these stores to find something for my child already. I was trying to get Crysty to go with, “If the child doesn’t ask for it we don’t need to get it” agreement saying it would save us some money, but she refused. So, now I have to go crib shopping, then look at changing tables, and maybe a dresser. The other thing to add to all this is the fact that we want at least 3 more kids. “We really need to get some thing nice and durable,” she says. So I had to throw away all my drawings of how to stack or move the furniture we already own. Let me tell you, seeing eight hours of drawings that include your couch facing the wall, or a pallet of blankets on your dinning room chairs all pushed together with their backs making a crib didn’t really settle well. I hope this is worth it. I am sure in hour ten I was going to revolutionize the baby furniture market. Babies are so demanding, and this kid has four more months in the womb. I have to take a class on just his arrival! "

My First Blog, Please Go Easy...

Write, write, write. I keep wanting to write something for this blog but I really haven’t been finding anything to write about. Much less anything to think about and have others think about. I mean, if you are reading this right now you have to be thinking, “Lame.” Which is exactly what I am thinking. So to get started maybe a few random things from my life.

I am having a boy. Awesome. I love the fact that it is a boy, because that is what I wanted. I kept calling the baby a boy way before we ever new. Which spurred some youth members and parents to keep saying, “It’s going to be a girl.” Which then put them on the “NO HOLD” list. That’s right, a “No Hold” list. But back to me hoping for a boy. I prayed about it quite often, but I can’t say that I always knew for sure. And as much as I would like to say it was all me, I must be humble or I will be humbled. My mom on the other hand decided to make a blanket for ‘Bruce (gestational name, not real name)’ which was a blue blanket on the day we found out we were having a boy. She is good, real good. My next step is to toss out all her pink yarn so it will always be blue blankets. Well, maybe not. Having a girl wouldn’t be that bad now that we have the big brother. (I think we need to have a girl next time so that my niece Katie will be nice to me. I told her we were having a boy and she gave the phone back to her daddy.) This whole pregnancy thing hasn’t been that bad either. Well at least not for me. I really thought I would be going crazy with the whole, ‘Crysty’s pregnant and can’t do anything because she sick every morning.’ But she’s not. She hasn’t been sick once. Which is so cool, because it makes things just a little easier when the smell or sound of vomit is not the first item in the morning.

That was longer than what I was shooting for. I don’t think I can do that again, especially not with this one.

Our youth group is amazing. This past week we have had just some great fun with them and they have really been participating in a lot of activities. Our fist Sunday here we had 4 in class. This past Sunday we had 40 from the roll with two visitors. Amazing. I was humbled, in a good way. Then we went to worship and 38 students sat up front. We filled 4 pews and spilled over onto the fifth. This was great for the congregation to see, and it was great for me to see. Three of our students even went and invited three others to come sit with us. That night, we had went to one of our students JV hockey games as a surprise to him. 24 showed up plus 12 adults and siblings. So we yelled and cheered “J-Ho” every time he touched the puck (His name is Jonathan Holt (I might need to ask his parents if I could use his name on the internet (privacy concerns (it could hurt his future job hunt)))). We went to IHOP to eat after the game and two elderly persons complimented their behavior in the restaurant. This weekend we have Winterfest. Small retreat, but great time with students. Although the singing (or sound, actually) is weak, the teaching does allow us to reflect on what God has done for us and how we share that with others. I am ready to go and watch our students do and say amazing things.

Wow, I thought of others things to say, but since I am at a page I thought I might need to save those for later. I am not sure if you read this far, but if you did, Why? Post a comment and let me know. Lame, Room for Improvement, or Stop writing and let your wife tell the stories. She’s good.

New Page, New Writer...

Well, I am finally updating the blog. After our trip to Italy the only news that can be more exciting than that is that John and I are expecting a BABY! I am due on May 11, 2010. I have update the blog now because John said he would start blogging if I changed the layout to be for our family. Alright John here's your chance.

Words Aren't Enough...

Words aren’t enough to describe the wonderful days John & I spent in Italy! I have posted only a few pictures here, but several more are on both myspace and facebook. I will keep this short because there is just too much to really go into, but Venice and Rome were my favorite cities. Venice is completely unique and I completely felt like I was going back in time, it was beautiful. I also learned so much, I had no idea the rich history that Venice has, it retains one of the longest records of a republic in history, from 500-1600 AD. And Rome, all roads lead to Rome and for good reason. Rome has everything, it was simply breath taking! Here are pictures.

Arrivederci!

Arrivederci! Tomorrow by the time that your alarm goes off John & I will be on our first flight to Italy! I am almost completely packed and still cannot not fathom that this trip is actually happening. It has been five years in the making, and in the saving. We have been so blessed to have both family and the church celebrate this trip with John and I through gifts. Both of which will make this trip even more wonderful.




I am most excited to experience a new country with John and spend time together celebrating the last five years of our marriage, and preparing for what God holds in our next five years of marriage! Below is a concise version of our itinerary; I will post pictures shortly after we return on the 24th of March.

• Thursday, Day 1- New York City, tour the city, the Broadway show Guys & Dolls.
• Day 2- Depart USA
• Day 3- Arrive in Venice, meet tour guide for dinner and explore Venice.
• Day 4- Venice, Pisa, Florence.
• Tuesday, Day 5- Tour Florence. Michelangelo’s David, the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio.
• Day 6- Florence, Assisi, Rome. Sun Route, Basillica of St. Francis.
• Day 7 & 8- Rome. Tour Vatican Museum and Ancient Rome, the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Arch of Constantine.
• Day 9- Rome, Pompeii, Sorrento. Mount Vesuvius, ruins of Pompeii, and the Forum.
• Day 10- Sorrento. A day at the beach in southern Italy.
• Day 11- Naples to Depart for USA.
• Day 12- New York, USA to Dallas.

Reasons to Celebrate!

I am not going to apologize for not posting in the past three months, everyone takes a while to post at some point and I am just lagging behind.

Anyway, two huge reasons to celebrate among all of the wonderful things that have happened in the last three months…our offices at the church are finished! We moved into them last Tuesday and needless to say I had my office set up that same day. And then this Tuesday John & I were so over productive that we cleaned out and set up all of the general office supplies. It is so wonderful to be in the place that will be permanent! And I have a window; if you ever need to know what the weather is like in Dallas just give me a call.

Secondly, this past Friday (January 9th) John & I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary by planning and booking our trip to ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!! We are finally going; March 13, 2009 we will spend 11 days touring throughout Italy! Sadly though we will have to fly out of JFK and the travel agencies recommended that we arrive in NYC the day before just to make sure we have plenty of time for an international flight, so we will be adding in a trip to NYC also! It’s a rough trip but we’ll make due. We have friends that were so excited we are going to NYC too that one has offered to buy us Broadway tickets and another has offered to buy us tickets for a boat tour around the city. Any other offers? Well I bet that is all the excitement you can handle for today; I don’t want to overwhelm you. I will post again soon!

These pictures are from the Youth Specialties Convention in Pittsburg back in November 2008, but I thought you would like to some type of pictures.

When It's Not Working

Well I am running low on energy and the ability to concentrate today, so I will try hard not to just ramble. I got up at 5:20am this morning to take a friend to the airport and now John and I are watching their three kids while they are out of town for a couple of days. But the kids are great; it’s the lack of sleep that is affecting my ability to focus on anything.

The pictures up are from my grandmother’s 90th Surprise Birthday Party. John & I provided the church building and the excuse for her to come see us, and all of her sons (my dad & uncles) provided the resources for the party. It was wonderful, truly a blessing to celebrate my grandmother, Fannie Lucinda with all of our family and friends. John & I were also able to make an Imovie of all of her old pictures and the whole family growing up, it was so special and fun to see our families go through the growth over time.

Here is something I have been struggling with the past couple of weeks. Four years ago now I started a Middle School Girls Bible Study that met once a week, the group was small (between 4-6 girls each week) but it was consistent. And those girls that I started with are now freshmen; they are changing the leadership of our youth group and are the closest group of girls in our youth group. This year I am continuing their study, which is now a High School Girls Bible Study, but I have also attempted to begin the next Middle School Girls Bible Study. This is where the struggle is coming in. At what point do I justly declare that the new Middle School study is not working out and disband it? It has been four weeks, the first week I had one student, the second week I had two students (but it was like pulling teeth to get them to talk, simply painful), the third week only one made it so we went and got ice cream, and this past week it was canceled because no one could make it. So where is the line in this ministry that I can easily draw, and say this is not accomplishing it’s goal time to stop, pray, and see what will provide they unity and growth for these girls. What are your thoughts?

2 Floods and Some New Names

I am finally taking the time to update my blog, let’s see since I last wrote we have under gone some major construction at the church, the church experienced its 5th flood, John experienced his 6th office flood, we had our annual parents’ meeting, we have begun searching for our Italy trip plans and much more. I will just cover some highlights.

The 5th flood of the church was an amazing one, not the most amazing but one to remember. You see the new building was just installed with a fire sprinkler system that will eventually also be added in the old building, well a pipe on the second floor was not capped off when the water was turned on. For about 45 minutes pressurized water flooded the east side of the second floor, flowing freely into the auditorium balcony which then created a waterfall in the auditorium (which would have been so beautiful had it been made purposely). The water also came through the floors of the second floor seeping into the first floor and cascading down the stairs. So much fun! I could only laugh as we hastily swept water out of the balcony and second floor, praising God that it was not my office.

Last week John was interrupted in his work by water flowing through his ceiling tiles, we had to quickly evacuate his office of anything that might get ruined, nothing was ruined but his office reeks of stale water now.

Right now, I need your help with something John and I must decide this week. We have to name the three new youth rooms for signage purposes. There are two classrooms and a gathering/hangout space in the between the two classrooms. Since the two classrooms are separated by the gathering space I have been rejected to simply call them classroom A and classroom B. So what should we name these three rooms? I don’t mind some funny answers; I expect nothing less from many of you- but a few helpful ones also. They don’t have to be themed just simple.

Cool Mountain to a Fiery Furnace

From the cool mountain air to a fiery furnace, meant literally and a little symbolically. A week ago John & I returned from our greatest week of camp with Preston Road in the last four years. Literally the temperatures were average about 50-60 degrees it was wonderful to wear jeans and fleeces in the middle of the summer. We were encouraged to take 20 students with us to camp this year; two years ago we went alone to fulfill our teaching responsibilities. Therefore taking 20 students was exciting, but numbers is not the most exciting part of course or the real evidence of God’s hand. Throughout the week our students worshipped with instruments (provided by our favorite worship team ever from Dave Drake, Edwin Guerra, and Aaron Collier), they worshipped accapella, they opened up to one another, and included everyone. The Preston Road Youth Group actually looked like a group of students seeking Christ together, this is a huge milestone for a youth group that is spread through 25 schools and has had no leadership from students until now. It was inspirational and one of the few times in four years that John and I have been able to SEE the difference in our group now. This week was our cool mountain air.

We came back to a literal fiery furnace; the temperatures this week will stay around 102 degrees every day. I am not a friend of the heat, I have always been sensitive to heat and the sun with headaches and sunburns, but after getting heat stroke and dehydration last year I do all that I can to stay out of the heat now. Symbolically, it was not exactly a fiery furnace but it felt a little similar. I had a confrontational meeting with someone that expressed to me I had let them down, hurt their feelings, and had missed opportunities to show Christ’s love to them. My reflex was to defend myself, find excuses- but I had nothing and I could defend nothing- this person was right. I had unintentionally failed to offer support, give encouragement, or show Christ’s love in the past year. It broke my heart to be told this and know there was truth in it. I cannot go back and change my lack of actions, but I seek God to forgive me, and to allow this to be a building step in my ministry. One that will encourage me to actively seek more people out boldly if needed to show them care and encouragement. I strive to not let this confrontation tear any part of God’s work in me down, or give hold to any doubt of what I am doing for Him.

Revelations 3:19-20, here He is knocking

New Orleans Mission

This past weekend John & I took our students to New Orleans to work with Operation Nehemiah, to help rebuild the city. We had a great trip, some lessons in patience and flexibility- but still a great trip that we believe has been instrumental in forming and connecting our students. Here are some pictures of our trip. I’m headed to Nashville in the morning to have a girls’ weekend with all of my old Dallas friends that have abandoned me (see blog titled “And then there was one”). I hope to fill you in more on our New Orleans trip when I get back.

Breaking open the crawfish was so gross at first.

But well worth the flavor!

Going Solo

Last year in March I wrote a blog about the core group of friends I had made in Dallas, I told you how great they were and how much God had worked in our lives through each other. The title of the blog in March of last year was “And Then There Were Two.” Because from the three close friends that I had here in Dallas- one moved to the west side of Fort Worth, and one moved back to Kentucky.

Yesterday, I said goodbye to the third. Summer and her family moved to Alabama, her husband was our worship minister and took a job at a church in Montgomery. To say that I shed a few tears is a huge understatement, but I am thankful for the sorrow I felt. It means that Summer and her family were an important part of my life here, that God has made me more of the woman He desires me to be through our friendship, and I believe I will be a better mother someday from what I have learned from her! Though yesterday was hard, and it will be sad to enter into the church not hearing her little girls yelling my name in excitement, and I am still sad for how our friendship will have to change- going from weekly visits to yearly, but nevertheless I rejoice and have faith that there will be many more opportunities for God to use new friends to mold me.

For this is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.

A One-Woman Man

Madness, complete madness. That is what my schedule has felt like lately. In the past month I had an amazing trip to Nashville for Church of Christ women in fulltime Youth Ministry Retreat, and I was able to see one of my favorite people Lesli and her family that moved from Dallas to KY last year. It was AMAZING! I have started a new bible study at one of the private schools nearby after having finished studying with one of the girls that had some BIG questions about God (examples: If heaven is sinless how did Satan sin while there? How do we know Jesus was the Savior? Where did all the nationalities come from? Where did the Bible come from?) And she is in 6th grade. We just had a lock-in with 25 members of our church and 35 friends they brought! So fun!!! I want to stay up 24hrs every day. Ok, the lock-in was great but at age can I claim to be too old for that? We had a Deacon/Elders/Ministers Retreat, which I was the only female at- fun times. And from the retreat I have been given my first big task at Preston Road, well you know other then spiritually forming the lives of teens.

I have been set as the chair of a committee of deacons and elders that will evaluate two things. First, potential deacon candidates, our church has not installed new deacons in six years. So they are asking me to chair a committee that will get it done in less than one month, gee thanks. And second, we will present to the elders a translation of what it means for a deacon to be the “husband of but one wife.” 1 Timothy 3:12. Literally translates a “one-woman man.” I don’t know where to go with this and how in the world I became the chair is beyond me. What is your church’s policy on this deacon qualification? Or what do you believe, I have done the research and I have my own conclusions but there are so many different situations. What do you think? And any advice for chairing a committee?

A Sad Realization & Working in a Wind Tunnel

Last month while cleaning out my parents attach I had a slight mishap, when tossing down a stack of heavy metal trays I released them to early- throwing them on top of a wooden pole which in turn flew up and hit me in the face. Sounds fun uh?! The stick came within an inch of my eye but thankfully only put a messy scratch on my eye brow. The next day after John & I went to a Couples Retreat with our church, where I was asked repeatedly what happened. Eventually one person asked if the scratch was still from the fall when I had two black eyes. I told him the story of how I got this injury at which point he asked…”are you a klutz?” Of course I said no, I really am not.

The following week that question came back to my mind twice when I once burnt my finger on the curling iron, and then again when I burnt my shoulder by dropping the curling iron on myself. And then this past week when a student in our youth ministry tossed me a cell phone and it hit in the face. So my family nickname of “Grace” has come to full tuition, and brought me to the sad realization that I am a klutz.

And now at this time I once again write to you from the wind tunnel of my office. Though my office took on no water it shares a wall with John’s office and a portion of the youth area that once again flooded for the forth time. Here is the sad part though; no matter if it is a foot of water all over the whole basement or about 10sq feet that got wet the process of drying out the walls and floor demand multiple days of huge drying fans and furniture moved. Hence now I am working with hair flying and ipod blasting to block out the noise of the fans. Oh, the adventure of it all!

This is the day the Lord has made, I will be glad and rejoice in it.