A friend sent this to me in an email today and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Prayer Request

I understand the weather in Iraq is very difficult to bear right now. Our troops need our prayers for strength, endurance and safety.

I am sorry but I am not breaking this one. Send this on after a short prayer; please don’t break it:

“Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands.
Protect them as they protect us.
Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need.
I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.”

When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world.

There’s nothing attached; just send this to all in your address book. Do not let it stop with you, please – of all the gifts you could give a US Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine deployed in harm’s way, prayer is the very best!!!

Thank you.

Sometimes, a change of scenery does a soul good.

Last night, I went down to a church in West Grove called Church in the Vineyard to check out their family worship program. Families get together the first Saturday of each month to sing songs and learn a virtue through drama & fun. It was really cool! I had seen a similar program at a church nearby last January and really liked the concept of it. So often, it is easy to always separate families into groups at church & church events – children go here, babies go here, teens go here…etc. but this programming is designed for the family to be together and have fun.

It was definitely nice too to just sit back and observe without feeling like I had to be overseeing or doing something. I don’t get to experience too many times like that in my church, especially on a Sunday. We don’t have a building so there is a lot involved in setup and takedown each week, especially in terms of children’s ministry. And somehow, we always seem to be shorthanded. When I took over this ministry a while back, God gave me a vision of what it could be. I spent a lot time working with my very AWESOME team in the beginning to just keep it going, then maintaining the momentum – throwing in some new things here and there. With all the changes about to occur with our pastor leaving, I feel like now is the time to leap. That probably sounds strange; many people would probably rather just keep maintaining things as they are and just “get through this” but I feel like this is the right time. As a team and as a church, we need to kick up the momentum and keep forging ahead…and that’s what I intend to do.

Last night was my first hockey game. We got stuck in a ridiculous amount of traffic, so by the time we got in and got settled, I had pretty much missed the first period. I had basically no idea what to expect and know very little about hockey (except that they need to get the puck in the goal)but it was really a lot of fun. The Phantoms won, which made it even better.

It was Faith & Family Night so there was a Christian concert afterwards with Sanctus Real. They were really good but the acoustics weren’t so hot – what with them playing on the back of a flat-bed truck on an ice rink…. We were all exhausted and ending up heading home before they finished.

Now today will be a day to try to get things done around here but I’ve put off all week. I wish I had the time to keep up during the week but I just don’t. It would be so much nicer to not have to spend my days “off” working so hard.

Tomorrow leads me to a sad event…my friend, Andy’s mom passed away this week after a long battle with kidney cancer. Her viewing is tomorrow night. I believe I only met her in person one time but Andy always had a such deep and abiding respect and love for his mom. It was evident every time he spoke of her. It breaks my heart that he and the rest of his family have to go through this. If you are of the praying persuasion, please say a prayer for them this week.

Well, my marathon dateless streak has finally come to an end. I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be and I managed to make it through the evening without spilling anything on myself (or him) or saying anything really ridiculous…so I guess that’s good. Right now, it doesn’t really look like anything will come of this but I guess you never know. If nothing else, at least now I know I can handle myself on a date. I was really beginning to think I wouldn’t even know how to behave!

My claim to fame today is that I am tied for dead last in our company NCAA pool.  As the co-loser, I get $2.50 back.  Had I been lucky enough to be the ONLY loser, I would have gotten my whole five bucks back.

I just got home from a wonderful dinner with my peeps from my old job. I love them so much! I can’t get over how blessed I am to have these people and all of my other friends in my life.

Things are getting a little better at the new job in terms of getting to know people and such but I know that no one can ever replace this crew. I don’t miss the job but I do truly miss them. We had a lot of fun tonight catching up but the most exciting part was hearing that Kristin got engaged!! When she came in and showed me the ring, I was so thrilled for them – I felt like the joy was just bubbling over. I knew that they would eventually get engaged and there had been a couple of times I thought might be the day – I remember coming into work one particular weekend (not remembering now when or what the significance was) but immediately going to her office to sneak a peek at her hand. I was glad too that everyone kept it a secret from me until tonight so she was able to tell me herself. It made my day and I am just so happy for them.

It was great to see the whole gang, and I have Tommy to thank for organizing it! I hope that we can do it again soon…it’s so important to me that I don’t lose touch with everyone. Love you guys!

This is my spare room/office.

When life gets crazy, this is the area that suffers. I try to keep some semblance of order in the rest of the house (especially with having home group here on Mondays) but then this room becomes the stuff repository. I just can’t function in this mess!! I’m hoping that by posting this madness here, it will shame me into cleaning it up and keeping it organized.