My heart is welling up with joy right now…there is so much to give praise for! Especially today; buckle up – this is going to be a long post! 🙂
I’ll start with today, because it’s the freshest in my mind…but this whole last week has been marvelous.
Today was the day that I look forward to every summer…it’s the first day of our jr. high vacation Bible school program, called GFI (which stands for “Go For It!”) This is the Bible school program that I teach with every year. I was particularly excited for this year because I had been hearing about the large number of new incoming jr.high girls that I’ll be blessed to work with. Pray for them, these girls have had rough lives and their hearts may be calloused to the Word at first. Pray that the Lord would soften them to the words He may speak through me.
This year’s GFI theme is super heroes. I’m head leader of one of four teams composed of over 100 students each. There’s the Superman team, the Spiderman team, the Batman team, and then my team which is the Incredible Hulk team. (Little did I know, but they put me in charge of the team they anticipated would be the biggest because the Hulk movie is coming out in a few weeks…yikes!) And as it turns out, my team of kids is one of the biggest so far…right behind Spiderman. So, with the first day behind me…I am more pumped up in anticipation for tomorrow!
Tomorrow I’m taking my Bible study girls out to lunch after GFI. I’m hoping to use this as a time to synchronize our schedules so I can plan events and activities ahead of time and see when is best to meet for Bible study. This way I can give parents some early notice. (Ha-ha…they usually appreciate that. 🙂 I wish so much that I could share the feeling that I felt rising in my heart as my girls arrived at GFI today. As each one was dropped off by their parents, they ran up and threw their arms around me and I just couldn’t stop hugging them. I have missed them so much! These wonderful girls…in addition to the rough new batch that’s coming in this year…are going to make for a lot of ministry. I’m sooooo pumped!
Tomorrow we’ve got water wars planned for recreation and team color spirit day…I’ve got my green face paint and green bathing suit all laid out!!! GO HULK!!
Wow, this IS going to be a super long post…so much has been happening! I’ve had the chance to hang out with some of my best friends since I’ve been home. I met up with my buddy Lance last week and he helped my family and I move into the new ServiceMaster office. Oh my goodness, this office is such a blessing! It’s at least 3x the size of our old one and a gazillion times better! Today was the first day that all the employees started working out of the new building. Praise the Lord, everything worked smoothly.
I also got to see Loreanne before she left to visit some friends in Texas. She just got home last night and I’m anxious to see her again.
I’ve been working A LOT since I’ve been home too. Mostly cleaning the house. My parents hired some people to clean when I left for school because they work too much to have any time to clean the house themselves. But the new people haven’t done a good job at all and the house was really yucky. So now I’m back to giving the house the full treatment every week. In addition to that…I’ve been working in the jr. and high school group ministries at church and I’ve continued with my Mystery Shopping job. Heather (my bro’s fiancĂ©e) and I went and visited a few athletic clubs last week. We took a yoga class and boy, did I feel out of shape! I haven’t had the chance to stretch and test my flexibility like that since ballet! I wasn’t too fond of the ‘spiritual’ edge they tried to put on the class. But what I found myself doing every time she would start talking about the ‘third eye’ or the ‘inner chi’…I just closed my eyes and centered my focus on the Holy Spirit and allowed Him to take over my body and relax my soul (that is while everyone else was trying to stir up their inner ora or whatever, ha-ha). The class as a whole was fun though and I gave the instructor a decent rating on my mystery shopper survey.
Yesterday for Father’s Day my dad and I went to church. My mom couldn’t go because she wasn’t feeling very well…but I was enjoying the father/daughter time. After the service I ran into my friend Brad’s parents. (I’m pretty sure I told you about him…he was a recruit training down in camp Pendleton in the San Diego area). Anyhow, apparently there was an article written in the local newspaper about the ministry that he and his brother have started on the base! Its soooo amazing what the Lord has done through them! The Holy Spirit is alive and working the harvest on that base…their parents and everyone at church was so proud to hear the news!
After church my dad and I went home to pick up my mom and head to work. Unfortunately we had to head into the office because there was still a lot of moving to do before Monday morning. We worked late, but we set aside a time for dad to open his Father’s Day gifts and have dinner. I started my brother and Heather’s wedding portrait that evening too. I hadn’t realized how rusty my drawing skills had become. But my hand is finally back in drawing mode after an evening’s practice.
We got home around 1am last night and while my mom went to bed I went out on the back deck for my usual quiet time under the stars. And oh my goodness the stars were amazing last night and the moon was gorgeous! I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to look at it lately but it’s big and orange. I love it! As I sat there in the warm night air and gazed up at the stars…I was reminded of an attribute of God’s character. I remembered a time when I was younger and I was at this summer camp with my friends. Our counselor had us play this game at night when the darkness was its thickest. We each stood a few yards across a field from a fellow camper and we were to stare at their heads and focus as heard as we could on their faces for a few minutes. The trick of this little night time exercise was that after staring really hard at this person’s head for a while when it was almost pitch black was that the darkness would begin to place tricks on our eyes and the person’s head would start to look like it was disappearing! Ha-ha, it was scary at the time, but I have since learned how the darkness was playing tricks on our eyes. But as I recalled these memories and found myself staring at the stars…I realized that the longer and harder I stared at the sky…the more stars I could see. It served to reminded me how…the longer and harder we center our focus on God and His works…the MORE we’ll see Him. As opposed to disappearing under certain heavy analysis…the more pronounced He becomes. I’m not sure if that all makes sense…but it sounded good in my head! Ha-ha.
After a while, my dad came out on the deck to join me and we just enjoyed one another’s company. It was a prime moment…I thank the Lord for every second of it.
I was watching the movie “When Harry Met Sally” today with my friend Johan after lunch and reminded me of how much I like seeing cute old couples that have been together for a long time. 🙂
About my psych final…I think I got a B. I’m not sure, but what I do know is that my final grade in the class was an A-. I don’t know that you’ve ever experienced this frustration…but boy does it bug the steam out of me when teachers or Profs give you an A minus. That little minus sign is like a smack in the face…ha-ha. A reminder that…no, nobody is perfect. It’s humbling, what can I say? Ha-ha. Oh well, better try next time!
Well, I’m going to stop now before this email gets any longer. Ha-ha.
