Patience is a Virtue...

This is the second time I've tried to post this. Apparently God thought I needed a little work in the patience department. I am rewriting this and we'll see how much I remember from what I was trying to write last night. :)
"This too shall pass" or so I keep on telling myself when I'm at work. We have a few new people and it is taking a while to get them "broken in". As fun as these new people are, it takes a lot of patience and a lot of ability to multitask. :) And I haven't even begun training someone yet!
A different topic...We had bible classes last night and Les is now teaching our class. Lots of fun! We just finished getting through the book of Deuteronomy and there are all sorts of "nuggets" in there! I love the way this course makes me have to think! We actually have two groups meeting in the church building. Dad is teaching the other class. We will be getting together to begin with some singing and inbetween we'll get together for coffee as well. It will be great to get to know some more people. I think if everyone came from the two groups, we would have 40+ people there.I don't have to start work till 12:00 today, but I should still go eat something for lunch. Otherwise I'll be starving by the time 3:30 break comes along.

Long Weekend

Yes!! It is the weekend and I get Monday off as well!! Quizzing went really well last night and we had a lot of fun! I really hope that the kids get as enthused about quizzing as I am! We have a bunch of new kids this year and hopefully it will go well. We might even have enough to have 3 teams this year! Wow! Big change from last year! I'm really excited about memorizing Acts. I really love the situation questions that pop up when we're quizzing on books like the gospels or Acts. Kinda fun to try and figure them out. Well, we have a special treat this weekend. David and Mindy Nelson are out to visit. David is the guy who got Dad hooked on BTCP training materials and who has been working in the Philipines with the same materials. Such a fun couple!! Anyway...I've gotta go and make some phone calls.

Back into Routine

Yesterday we started our small groups! It sounds like it will be a good year. I'm a little bit sorry that I will only be around for the first half of the book. Also...We will be starting up the quizzing again this week. Friday night is our "kickoff". I really hope that we get the kids interested. I really want to memorize Acts this year. I need to check out the materials website and see what we should order. It is going to be interesting this year. We need another couple to help lead, especially when I leave. I guess a prayer request would be that we as leaders would be good communicators and that we would find someone else to help. Anyway...gotta get back to work.

Could Someone Please Help Me Stop Yawning?!!

Yes, I am very tired today. It is dreary and cold outside and that always makes me feel tired. Yesterday we had a family member from out east just drop in. No, it wasn't Josh. :) shucks. actually it was my first cousin twice removed. Her name is Judy. We had so much fun trying to figure out exactly how we are related. :) We can't figure it out as fast as all you mennonites!! I think my great great grandfather is her grandfather and my mom's great grandfather. And my grandfather is her uncle or something like that. She is a character and we had fun looking at some pictures of her travels and just chatting. It is really nice to have a couple people from my Mom's side of the family still visit or call every once in a while. We are a lot more in touch with my Dad's side. Anyway...I have a bit of work to do now....

Please, Break My Heart

The title is one that you may or may not understand. I will explain it yet. Yesterday I found out that two very dear friends of mine lost their baby. The knowledge of them having to deal with such pain and loss had me in tears. This brought me around to thinking about something God has been impressing on my heart. Having a broken heart. Losing someone you love is always something that brings that pain. Some biblical background...
Adam and Eve - lost their son Abel
Abraham - offering up his son to God
Jacob - Losing his son Joseph and thinking he was dead
Job - Lost everything, I'm sure his Sons and Daughters were the worst part of that loss
David - Lost his first child born of Bathsheba, and his son Absalom
Mary the Mother of Jesus - Watching her son be crucified
God - gave His only Son for each and every one of us.

What pain must all of these people have felt?? What pain must God feel each time a person turns away from His gift?!! All these people who went through these things still gave glory to God through faith.

The other night I was praying and I asked God to soften my heart, to break my heart for each person I come in contact with. It is easy to feel pain and concern for those close to us who are hurting. It is easy for us to express concern and caring for those who are across the ocean. It is not easy for us to care for the people that we come in contact with either through work, or maybe even just random people you meet as you live each day. For me, it's the people that come in for a few seconds, to do business. It is easy to be completely impersonal and forget about them immediately. These people have problems and are hurting too. What does it take for us to care? I personally always try to guard my heart from pain. Knowing too many people too well, is a recipe for getting hurt. I pray that God will break down the barriers that I build up. That I would care more about the other person than about myself. That I would be willing to have my heart broken, to feel concern for each person I meet. That I would be willing to let God have the glory.

Dull...

I know, I know. When am I actually going to have a real post? Not right now. Yes I am very bored at work, but for me to actually keep a train of thought here, is impossible. Right now I have been counting the seconds till lunch time. only 1920 more to go!! I'll post more tomorrow

Oh What a Day!!

Yesterday, I was invited to go on a hike with some friends from camp. I thought "sure, a couple of hours hiking and maybe icecream after, no problem". It turned into a 10 hour marathon of fun and laughter!! We left my parents place around 1:00 in the afternoon and headed out to camp for some exercise. And oh, what a gorgeous day for hiking!! 20 degrees, the trees are starting to turn, the sun was out, Perfect!! After our hike, they decided to play some football. Since I haven't got over my fear of flying/falling objects, I opted for lazing in the sun instead. Afterward we went out for ice cream at Dairy Queen. Yum! Pecan Cluster Blizzard. Lots of laughs and then we decided to go and buy some food from Stuporstore, and make supper at someone's house. Perogies and bacon. Good stuff. lots more laughs and then we went to another person's house for some basketball and frisbee, where I again opted for the sidelines and my 4 doggy friends. Apparently every animal knows what a sucker I am. ;) We ended up gong inside and eating and laughing some more and finally got back to my parents place around 11:30. Anyway, It is another gorgeous day outside. Maybe I'll go rollerblading or something.

Just a Typical Day at Work

So...not much new going on in my life. Yesterday I firmly decided that chewing tobacco is an absolutely disgusting habit! It reeks, it bulges out your cheek, it makes it hard to talk properly and I'm sure that there are many other reasons beyond that. Besides serving that one person last night was a very slow and easy night. Today I'm on commercial. Yay!! love that! So, I got my passport in the mail a few days ago. It only took them 14 days to get it to me. Not bad! Also, Tauernhof got my application so it is now completely officially official. And...I got my leave of absence approved from work. Great!! Everything is falling into place so neatly! I'd better start working now. :)

Back to Work

So, my first day back at work after my extra long weekend and I got to work overtime. Yay!! Can you tell I'm being sarcastic? I am. No, it wasn't because I was rusty and couldn't balance. It was because it was so incredibly busy!! So much for a holiday to get rested up! I think I'm more tired now than before. I'm sitting here listening to my little bro record some harmonies for one of his songs. If I didn't know better, I would think that he just couldn't sing. :) It's funny 'cause we can't hear the music he's singing along with, so we just hear him singing something that sounds very off key. :) Anyway...I think I'm going to go home now and do some more Sudokus to make me really tired, and then I'm going to bed. g'night

The LifeLight Experience

Wow! What a great weekend!! So, apparently my parents (no pun intended) like Perkins because it's "predictable". We stopped there for lunch the other day in Winnipeg, and then on the way down to Sioux Falls, and also when we got to Sioux Falls. For those of you who know how indecisive I can be when looking at a menu, I am really tired of Chicken Quesadillas. :) When we stopped for lunch at Perkins we were seated right by a middle aged couple who were taking their very elderly mother out for lunch. So funny!! They kept on reading suggestions off the menu for her with tantalizing comments. The elderly woman was so spunky! She didn't know what she wanted, but she sure knew what she didn't want!! After a few such comments, Mom and I were trying to not obviously laugh at them. So when we got to Sioux Falls we camped at the KOA. Showers, a great playground, laundry facilities and not too many other things that would recommend them. Not my idea of real camping, but I'm not complaining too hard because it was cold and wet so it was good to have those things (minus the playground). LifeLight...Yeah, so it started out with a lot of rain (and I mean a lot!!) With close to 100,000 people walking all over the grounds and driving all over the fields where there was parking, it was soon a muddy mess! I wore flip flops on Friday and got a really great pedicure!!! Hardened mud..exfoliation..yah. :) We sat in the dining tent and watched people trying to walk up a little hill to get to the main stage and wiping out. People were walking around in mud from head to toe!! The showers and dryers were in demand at the KOA that night. The next day was much better!! It was still a little cold, but it was drying up. They had brought in wood chips and gravel and we had gone out and bought rubber boots (with hard toes for moshing!!jk). We managed to stay fairly warm and dry and the concerts were good! Sunday was definitely my favorite day for concerts though. Leeland ( a really great band with a 17 year old lead singer!! ) Sanctus Real, Kutless, and Newsboys...although not my favorite band, they always have a fun concert!! The sun also decided to come out on "Sun"day and dried everything out and kept us much warmer. So we came back safe and sound and even without a cold!!