Third Day and Brandon Heath perform Rich Mullins "Creed" in the studio from Garrett Viggers on Vimeo.
I wish to thank everyone concerned for this vimeo being on my blog.
Budgeting and Staffing the Simple Church
6 days ago
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Ok. Follow me here. This is goofy. About 2 weeks ago, my mom went online to a certain well-known store (with a Red Bullseye logo) and purchased ONE Hamilton-Beach Red & Chrome Coffee Maker for me for my birthday. When she got it, there were 2 boxes with THREE HB Red & Chrome Coffee Makers. ONE packing slip/ONE order number. The store had sent her three identical coffee makers.
Wanting to do the right thing, she called the 'Red Bullseye' store and explained they had goofed and sent her 2 extra coffee makers that she wasn't charged for. It took her about a half an hour on the phone with them before they understood she was trying to give back something she'd gotten for FREE by mistake. I guess people don't DO the right thing as a rule!
The store said they would send her empty boxes and pre-paid UPS Shipping Labels to return the coffee makers. So a few days later, John, our UPS guy came, and they boxed up the coffee makers and he took them off in the truck. TODAY, my mother got an email. The email thanked her for returning the coffee maker (SINGULAR), and it said they were going to credit her account in the amount of $..... what she'd paid in the first place for the ONE coffee maker!!!!!!!!! She just called me with this incredibly silly news and we laughed - a lot. She said "I was just trying to do the right thing!" and I told her, "Mom, God has blessed you with one FREE coffee maker for doing the right thing!"
She's afraid to call them and try to explain THIS to them, so it's just going to stay the way it is.
So she asked me what ELSE I wanted for my birthday next month. H'mmm. Have to think of something good! And sometimes, when you do the right thing, you get a free, red coffee maker.
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Wow, is my face red.
I was on the Pastor Selection Committee. There were 6 with 2 alternates. We did all the stuff we were supposed to do, inquiries for resume's from Seminaries and state Conventions around the country, reading and culling those received, much discussion, etc., for months.
Someone suggested a gentleman who had attended our church until 5 years ago when he and his family left to take a position at a Christian college not far from here. He's had no formal schooling for the Pastorate but was known to be an incredible teacher. I knew this myself, having taken several of his Sunday School classes over the years.
Several of us on the Committee were against him being approached about his possible interest in the coming vacancy. Whoops! Too late! Before we could voice our objections, a member of the Committee had already spoken to him.
My objections to this candidate were personal. I came to Christ later in life, since I've been at this church in fact. My elder son made a profession of faith at about age 11 or 12, but was not seen living it through his teen years. My younger son, yes. In conversations with this gentleman's wife, I always felt like her comments were barbs, directed at me as a mother and at my oldest son. My husband also felt this, so it wasn't only me. My younger son told me HE never experienced it from any of that family, but he did observe it happen to my husband, my oldest son, and me. The family in question had a passel of kids, all seriously committed Christians. There seemed to be subtle put-downs of my older son over the years, and it seemed to happen every single time we were together. In all, I couldn't IMAGINE going to this man as MY PASTOR with a problem or anything of a personal nature. Couldn't see it happening. Ever. And...I let it be known to the Committee I was not going to vote for him.
Well, suffice it to say, through whatever machinations were at work, be they God's or man's, he did become our Pastor. And ok, I KNOW they were God's!
I come home from church every Sunday praising GOD we now have a man as our shepherd on earth who LOVES THE LORD SO MUCH AND ISN'T AFRAID TO LET IT BE KNOWN! He is an amazing preacher. Absolutely wonderful. I've already learned so much.
As clerk of the Church Council, I see firsthand he's got great ideas to get the church more organized and healthy. It's already growing in attendance. My husband, who is right now the Associate Pastor/Pastor of Education, and I keep getting thrown together with our new Pastor and sometimes with his wife as well. I know all the people in the Association, so she asks me who's who, from where, etc. We went to a large meeting on Sunday afternoon and evening and she was delightful. Just this morning I was in one church office working on the computer while the Pastor was next door in his office. He laughingly told me about his motorcycle road test he had to take yesterday.
I know I still have to approach her, maybe them, about my earlier misgivings and why I had them. There hasn't been time. They are visiting every single family in church, so I'm sure they'll get around to us. Perhaps then it will be time.
God has shown me how ideas about one thing may not have ANYTHING to do with something else, even if the same people are involved!
"DO NOT JUDGE, AMY!" I'm sorry, Lord. I promise I'll work on it! Amen.
Blessings,
Amy
September 22, 2009
11:15 AM -
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I've been in much discussion lately with my two boys. Two "boys" who are now young men. And it occurs to me how much different it is parenting young adults vs parenting young children or even teens.
The older one is 26 years old. He married a woman with two adorable children a few years ago. They now have a 17 month-old together and another one due in March. This "boy" of mine is a police officer in a town in north-western North Dakota with a population of about 18,000.
My second "boy" is almost 20. He is employed full-time for a national warranty company in their computer support division, a really good job, and is in college full-time. He lives about 55 miles away in a small city in north-central Montana. He has his own apartment, no roommates and is doing pretty well for himself. He's in a very committed relationship with a committed Christian young lady, who recently left for college in Texas.
I have been so incredibly fortunate in that my sons and I have wonderful, if sometimes painful discussions. About everything. In fact, sometimes I wish they weren't so forthcoming with the minutae of their lives, but overall I realize how very very lucky I am to have this with both of them. Other people marvel at it, both their friends and mine. They both talk to their dad fairly openly as well but sometimes I know he hears about some things I don't and vice versa. And that's FINE!
They both call and ask for advice. And therein lies the rub. Yes, if they ASK for my advice I will certainly give it. What I've had to learn as my sons have grown into adults is: Give the asked-for advice, then back off and act, I said "ACT" totally UNconcerned as to whether or not they take it!
It's similar to when they were small and we had to allow them to learn certain things the very hard way, through natural consequences. Now though, at their ages, the oh-so-wise parent in me, the one who's had to make the difficult LIFE-choices, trembles when she has to force herself to BACK OFF and let those natural consequences happen! I mean, these are the HUGE LIFE-CHOICES the "boys" are asking about!!
One of them will ask for advice and he has either already checked it out with his dad and is calling to see if I say the same thing, or will call his dad after he's talked to me to see what Dad has to say. Then, he'll say thank you, go on his way, and make his decisions for himself. We usually learn later if he took anything we had to say into account.
The other one is a natural worrier. He will worry about a problem that isn't going to present itself until the year 2012 or so. He will call every day and ask the same questions. I'm not much of a worrier, but I do worry about this one. Until he learns to leave the worrying to God, and he's a devout Jesus follower, he's going to stay awake nights pondering...until he's so stressed he won't be able to concentrate on school or work. Just today he's called me 4 different times with questions that start: "What about...?" and "What if....?" A lot of the time I end up telling him we don't need to concern ourselves about that yet, and when it's time, he'll deal with it.
So, I get on my knees, again, and turn this son of mine of to the One who created him. And I also ask our Helper to help me stop worrying about this child of mine!
Parenting young adults IS a bit different! For all the trials and errors, ins and outs, ups and downs we had when they were young, it now seems like it was easier then. Or maybe I'm just wistful for those "olden days" that seem so far away now.
Blessings,
Amy
Friday, Sept. 18, 2009
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Fear is Not of God! Fear is the Opposite of Faith! I must remember these things, now and always. I am in a waiting period. Waiting for another test next Monday the 17th, to determine if a "procedure" will be necessary, which will then determine whether more extensive medical treatment is indicated. This is a time of waiting, of testing my patience. I feel like I'm failing this test! A) I don't want to wait. I want to go in for the next test tomorrow; B) I want to know now. I don't want to wait till Monday to see if something bad is growing inside of me.
There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of Bible verses I could list here that would be pertinent to my situation; to a lot of people's situations. But if anyone is reading this, chances are they already know those verses, as do I, so I won' t list them. I know them so I must bring them to the forefront of my brain, perhaps journal (on paper) a bit, perhaps read a funny book for some distraction. Maybe a lot of funny books!
However the Lord wants this to work out, that is how it will work out. And I will praise Him and Love Him because He has not left me, He's right here with me. He has been for a long time and will be for eternity.
Blessings,
Amy August 12, 2009
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Isn't it wonderful when you see old friends that you haven't see in a long time and they look at you and say, "You haven't changed a bit!"? When you know you look older, heavier, and different from the last time they saw you?
That's happened to me twice now this summer. Once in Phoenix in June, and once today here in Rochester. Now in June, the woman I had lunch with I hadn't seen in THIRTY FIVE years. And it was wonderful. Yeah, we both looked older, but we both looked pretty good still, and would have known each other anywhere.
Today, I had lunch with a guy I worked with back in Flagstaff in the late 80's and early 90's. He's probably 15 or so years younger than I am. He and his wife had one baby when I left there, they now have 3 kids, the youngest is 10. We had a blast for an hour and a half talking about old times and people from then and now.
It's just cool. And I wanted to share.
Blessings,
Amy July 30, 2009
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I was WRONG! And in this instance I LOVE being wrong! Miss Isabelle has let her very sore and swollen cheek slow her down not one iota. She was drinking juice 3 minutes after she woke up; eating crackers about 5 minutes after that. It is sore, and @ about 3.5 hours, we can tell she's starting to hurt, so every 4 hrs. she's getting the tylenol with codeine. THAT hasn't slowed her down at all either! So in 6 weeks when they come again for the next 10, that's right TEN shots in her cheek, they'll know the little dynamo will snap out of it quickly, and their fear factor is now completely down. Praise Jesus for this tough little miracle child.
Blessings,
Amy July 30, 2009
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Isabelle is 15 months old. I've known her since the moment she was born and I love her intensely. When she was 2 months old, her parents noticed a bump in her right cheek. They took her in to their doc and he ordered a CT scan. He said it was a Hemangioma, a tumor consisting of a group of extra blood vessels built up in her cheek. It wasn't immediately obvious (as in discoloration) from the outside, just a cheek growing disproportionately bigger than the other one. In late September 2008, they took her to a pediatric plastic surgeon in the capitol of their state. HE said it was a LYMPHangioma, which is more serious, and has it's roots in the lymph glands in the neck and does major, irreversible nerve damage. He was smart enough to say she needed to be seen by a plastic surgeon at Mayo Clinic because he wasn't good enough to operate on her.
Within 2 weeks, she had an appointment with Dr. Ricky Clay, one of the top plastic surgeons in the country at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. He operates on quite a few lymphangiomas a week, and surgery is the only cure. So off to see Dr. Clay they go in early October 2008. The other doctor was wrong. NOT the more serious lymphangioma but a mere hemangioma, which does NO nerve damage and can be handled a variety of ways. Dr. Clay said most of these conditions in infants begin to resolve themselves with no intervention, by the time the child is one year of age. He said they should see it getting smaller by then, and then gone completely by about age 3,at the latest. He took measurements and pictures and wanted to see her again in a few months. By April of 2009 it had grown quite a bit, and she was about to turn 1. More pics were taken and a late July appointment was scheduled. He wanted to wait a bit more to see if it began to go down visually by age 15 mos. TODAY, July 29, 2009, she is 15 months old, and Isabelle saw Dr. Clay this morning. He said it had changed a bit, a bit flatter up by her eye, but was not a small as he would like to see it at her age now. He gave her parents a choice. He said it would not hurt her to watch it a bit longer, but he could also begin the shots. They would put her under anesthetic for 5 minutes, and shoot a special drug, which I don't have written down here, along with some cortisone, into the site from the outside of her cheek. She would have to stay in post-op for hours until she urinates clear two times, as one of the side effects, a rare one, but a side effect nonetheless, is kidney failure. The pain afterward would be intense, AND the swelling will be huge. He said the first shot may make the hemagioma Bigger all over until the next shot 6 weeks hence. She may need 4 shots total, it may start shrinking in 2 shots.
Her parents had a tough decision to make.
Isabelle's father, after a few minutes thought, said he wanted to go ahead with it. His wife was silent for a few minutes, then said she thought they should go ahead as well, but was beginning to cry. The father asked if he could speak to his wife alone for a few minutes; but she said, no, he was right, she knows it's the best thing for Isabelle. So the assistant came in with paperwork, schedules, information, phone number, etc., and the process began...
After leaving the main Mayo Clinic building, and may I say here - WOW -Extremely impressive medical set-up at the Mayo Clinic! - Isabelle's mother of course began second-guessing herself. I think her father did too. Yet they know this is the best route to take for their daughter. Her mother is so terrified of the pain her daughter will suffer, and also of the unknown. In 6 weeks, when they come back for the next shot, they will all know what to expect, and depending on how bad it is for Isabelle tomorrow, her mother will either be better about the 2nd procedure, or worse. I really think this baby is going to prove to be a trooper. She is such her father's daughter that I think she handle it better than her mother. She'll be surprised at what's going on, and she'll cry with the pain afterwards, but I think she'll not let it slow her down for longer than about 2 days. That's my prediction. We'll see if I'm right. I sincerely, for Isabelle's sake, hope I am!
If you haven't guessed, Isabelle is my first grandchild, her father is my son. I was blessed to be asked to be with my son and daughter-in-law in the labor/delivery room and I was blessed to be asked to come to Mayo Clinic with the 3 of them.
I don't know if anyone even reads my new blog. I haven't posted since the tribute to my folks on July 3rd; so maybe not; but if you do, I will keep you posted on this Love in my life and how everyone is doing.
Blessings,
Amy July 29, 2009
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Today is my parents 61st wedding anniversary. Is still present tense if one of the partners is deceased? For my mother it is. My father passed away 11 years ago, this October 21st. I miss him. My mother misses him more. He was her partner for 50 years and 4 months when he died. Mom told me this morning she can hardly believe that 61 years ago today they got married. She said she hardly feels that old at all, but then she looks in the mirror, and yup, she's that old! She'll be 82 in September.
It got me thinking of the commitment, the ups and downs of a 50 year marriage. And my first thought was "WoW". I thought of some things I remember between them, first through my child's eyes, then a teen, a young adult, a married parent myself; still observing the two people who had brought me into this world.
I watched them grow, even as I grew. Sometimes growing very close together, sometimes more apart for a time, but always, even as their relationship evolved and changed through the years, always growing close again, being The Team.
As a child I saw were moments between them that I now know were "intimate" moments, a glance, a brief touch, a smile that didn't include us kids. Those moments made me feel safe and loved; I knew that love spilled over onto me. I could feel it. I felt it all my life.
Thank you Mom and Dad. July 3, 2009
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Our Destiny is to be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference, as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life, mercy, and grace.
TOO MANY CHRISTIANS ARE NO LONGER FISHERS OF MEN, MERELY KEEPERS OF THE AQUARIUM.
Blessings,
amy June 27, 2009
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8Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for MY strength is made perfect in weakness."
2Corinthians 8-9. NKJV
The Lord said "No" to Paul. He did not take 'this thing' away from him. And in the Garden, He said "No" to His Son as well, when He asked His Father to "take this cup from Me."
It strongly occurs to me today, that whatever our weakness, whatever our 'thorn', infirmity, trial, or sickness, God does not have to heal us. He wants us to lean on Him. To rely totally on Him to get us through whatever trials we are facing. HIS grace is completely sufficient; meaning HIS grace is all we need to endure any trials or illness that comes our way! He's waiting for us to call out to Him for His help; for His grace and His mercy. And when we do, the grace, mercy and love, that can only come from the One who created us, will envelope us and give us the strength we need to endure whatever it is we're dealing with. And we are better for it.
Lord,
Today, when facing troubles, please grant me Your grace. May I remember to lean on You in all things, so Your strength is made perfect in my weakness. Amen
June 25, 2009
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7In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.” Titus 2:7-8 NIV
There have been some things going on in my life of late; and people have been surprising me... and letting me down. People I've greatly respected due to who they are in Christ. Now, I'm no longer sure. They are no longer the same people and the changes have not been for the good. I am not the only one who's seen it. A wise man of God told me a true Christian cannot be demon-posessed, but can be demon-oppressed. Well, the people I'm referring to seem to be just that. Radical changes in their behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes. Has been keeping me up at night. But no longer. Because... The only thing I KNOW, is that God is in control, and the only human on this earth I can change is myself, with His help.
By God's Grace, I can try to be more like the verse above, to hang onto my integrity, stay in God's Word, and walk the walk.
Blessings,
amy March 23, 2009
