Thoughts and that

Me and one of my favorite profs!

Me and the fam!



And the Berto and Me...yes he is the younger sibling :)

After Commissioning, my bosses took a week of vacation to prepare to leave. I was left in the office on my own essentially. I actually got a lot done in the week. Almost all of my program is planned out for VBS. I have both of my supply lists completed. I started my Welcome program for the new Captains/officers coming in. I also had an opportunity to do some Social Work. In midst of that I realized that I wanted to know more about the law when it comes dealing with and working with people. I don't like thinking that people take advantage of services offered them. But I know it's true. Someone tried to do so to me on Friday. It was a learning experience. The more time I spend at this job, the more I learn.
I've been thinking about several things lately. Politics and relationships. Look for these to be upcoming topics. In short, I do not understand much about politics and I'm quite unsure of where to aline myself party-wise. I know that I am not a liberal but I have moderate leanings. I know that the conservative side tends to be pro-absolute, pro-life, pro-Christian values. I'm for all of those things...but does that necessarily mean I should be a Republican...b/c the majority of them are political conservatives? But I'm drawn to the Democrats b/c they tend to be pro-education and social programs. However...the majority of them tend to polarized as liberals...the non-absolutist mentality and weak arguments for their beliefs. I realize that I am really generalizing these groups. I'm hoping upon reading some books my mind will have a better understanding. At the moment, I'm making my way through Light in the Shadow of Jihad by Ravi Zacharias. I like what he has to say as his name frequents this blog. Trust me the book relates to the topic of politics. The other I'm still waiting to arrive in the mail is called God's Politics.After Commissioning, my bosses took a week of vacation to prepare to leave. I was left in the office on my own essentially. I actually got a lot done in the week. Almost all of my program is planned out for VBS. I have both of my supply lists completed. I started my Welcome program for the new Captains/officers coming in. I also had an opportunity to do some Social Work. In midst of that I realized that I wanted to know more about the law when it comes dealing with and working with people. I don't like thinking that people take advantage of services offered them. But I know it's true. Someone tried to do so to me on Friday. It was a learning experience. The more time I spend at this job, the more I learn.
I've been thinking about several things lately. Politics and relationships. Look for these to be upcoming topics. In short, I do not understand much about politics and I'm quite unsure of where to aline myself party-wise. I know that I am not a liberal but I have moderate leanings. I know that the conservative side tends to be pro-absolute, pro-life, pro-Christian values. I'm for all of those things...but does that necessarily mean I should be a Republican...b/c the majority of them are political conservatives? But I'm drawn to the Democrats b/c they tend to be pro-education and social programs. However...the majority of them tend to polarized as liberals...the non-absolutist mentality and weak arguments for their beliefs. I realize that I am really generalizing these groups. I'm hoping upon reading some books my mind will have a better understanding. At the moment, I'm making my way through Light in the Shadow of Jihad by Ravi Zacharias. I like what he has to say as his name frequents this blog. Trust me the book relates to the topic of politics. The other I'm still waiting to arrive in the mail is called God's Politics.
And my brief in short about relationships. As humans we are created to be in relationship with each other. There's no doubt about that. But my mind has been thinking about types of relationships lately. There's friendships, dating, marriage, aquaintences, passing strangers. How deep do we go in our relationships? How vulnerable are we with other human beings? Oh course the answer depends on the type of relationship we have with that person. I have to admit. I got a little cocky in this past school year. I thought I had the relationship thing down. I had several close friends and a fantastic small group! However, I found out that I had hurt several people throughout the year. I didn't intend on hurting these people, but it happened and they were hurt. I felt terrible for having caused them pain and representing to them someone, I didn't think I was. Is it possible to avoid hurting people? Probably not. It makes me shudder when I think of how I represented the Lord to those people I hurt. I didn't do a very good job. So what's next? Do I spend time worrying about every relationship I have? Do I go on and try to do better the next time? hmm...
Summer Outreach starts this week. I was feeling calm, cool, and somewhat collected until now. Discouragement is starting to creep in. What if I'm bad with the kids? What if no one comes? What if I'm boring? What if the new officers don't like how I'm doing things? I'm being quite silly as fear does not come from the LORD. It comes from the enemy. Who doesn't want little ones to hear truth. So...Thursday's going to be fine, right?

Anticipation...

I have several things to anticipate about.
1. I am preaching at church on Sunday, June 10. This is rather close. Check your planner, calandar, or PDA if you don't believe me!
2. My wonderful officers have received moving orders. Which means new ones coming in. I am in anticipation...hoping that I will mesh well them.
3. I have offically passed all of my Praxis Exams for the state of Kentucky! (and my scores passed in the other states I sent them too!) This means I can anticipate student teaching without a re-take looming over my head :)
4. And I wait in anticipation for what the Lord will do through my youth pastor who is also moving on to another church.
All of these things have the potential to be exciting. My current officers have been an incredible example to me, they are honest and live lives of integrity. I feel like I can ask them harder questions and Capt. Mrs. takes them on without fear or condemnation. Their new appointment will increase their ministry and provide them with a new set of challenges. The area covered is larger compared to the current appointment. I am anticipating what the Lord will be doing through them in their new corps. As for the new people coming in, I hope they are excited and looking forward to ministry to children and youth. I want to be positive about them coming in. I want them to see the potential our corps has and see how they can continue programs/ministries. I am hoping that they will be anticipating forming relationships with our corps members as well as numerous volunteers. Also in anticipation for others, my youth pastor is taking on a new position after 9 years at my family's church. I consider him to be my youth pastor because it was under his leadership that my life changed forever. He led to Christ in a way that I understood and took seriously. He gave me plenty of leadership experiences and allowed me to speak...trusting what I was going to say without even reading over my outlines. That is trust! I can only imagine what the Lord is going to do to increase his ministry in a new church, in a relatively nearby community. I am excited about how he is going to grow in faith, experience, and leadership with this new job.
For myself personally, I am looking forward to preaching. Knowing that this is what I want to spend my life doing, this will add to my experiences. I will also be running the program on Sunday as the officers will be out of town. I feel relieved about passing my education tests. I was genuinely concerned because I had to describe and answer a question about an economics graph I had never seen before in my life. I felt like I didn't prepare well for the test...it sort of creeped up on me. But I did well enough to pass the first time around for all 3 of my tests!!
I wouldn't say that I am anticipating this yet but...I recently had an opportunity to hold and feed a 6 week old baby. It was such a precious experience. Seeing how small we all start and knowing that we grow and mature rather quickly. I was amazed and in awe! And I'm silently hoping to have more interactions with this baby over the summer. She's a cutie (ok I think that about most children/babies, but still...)!
Are you in the blog world anticipating anything this summer? Or at all?

P.S. There's one more thing I'm anticipating. I'm attempting to grow sunflowers this summer. Mind you I've never been a green thumb. But in my attempt, I've seen green leafy business shoot up. Hopefully this means flowers are coming!

Home Again!

Well, I've offically been home for a couple weeks. I have been working since May 21 but more about that later! I slowly unpacked, watch way too much tv, and then read like I was picking up a new habit. In actuality, I like summer for several reasons. Choosing what I can read, for leasure is a plus of the summer for me. So far I'm completed the following: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Secret of the Old Clock (a little juvenile but I enjoy suspence and an easy read isn't a bad thing), and I finally finished Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of Christianity. I have completed: The Hidden Staircase, several other Nancy Drew novels and Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin'! I do have various interests if you can't tell. I think I really enjoy reading because I love stories. True or fictional.

Well, to put straight any rumors that may be going around, I participated in graduation but did not receive my degree yet. I have a semester of student teaching to complete and then I can finally get my degree. After all the work I put in, I feel that I am prepared to student teach. Now if I passed my last two Praxis exams, I'm rolling! However, if not I will have an opportunity to re-take them this summer:( I'm hoping to not have to do that.
I love my job and the people I currently work for. I am working for my home-town corps...Salvation Army for you non-army readers. My role will mainly be in the programming department. I will be coordinating activities for the summer lunch program. It's open to all kids 0-18 but I'm thinking the activities are going to be directed towards younger children 12 and under. I already have ideas swirling in my head of things I can do with the kids and ways to encourage them to invite friends, come back, etc. I will also be responsible for the VBS program. My mom will also be running a VBS at her church this summer! There are several perks to this job: I get to work with awesome officers (and I'm not just saying this...I mean it! I am sad to them go and hope that I will get along with the newbies), the hours are decent, I get to experience another aspect of SA ministry, my leadership skills will increase, I get to be creative, and I'll get to meet some new kids! Those are my main responsibilities but I do know there will be some other things added to the list. I will hopefully have an opportunity to preach at least once this summer and maybe dance a couple of times too! My first opportunity to preach will be this Sunday. I am anticipating the day, whatever the Lord will bring or say!

I'm looking forward to this summer. It's the first summer in a while that I haven't gone off to somewhere new. I expect that the Lord is going to not only use me but teach me. I want to expand in dance and my prayer life...but I also want to learn how to listen. I'm very good at talking to God...it's the intentional listening that I'm bad at. Sometimes I talk so much I don't pause to listen, to truly listen. It's one thing to follow what someone is saying. It's a complete other to listen to what is being said or not verbalized. I also have a goal to lose weight this summer. I mean it...I am going to eat better and actually exercise. Truth be told I like working out once it becomes an established habit. It's keeping at it to get it to become a habit. I tried one morning of a dance salsa workout DVD. It wasn't bad. And I wasn't tempted to laugh unlike when I've tried Richard Simmons. I'm going to swim this summer as well. This is more promising, I think :) I have an accountability thing worked out as well. So we'll see where this goes.
I think that's about it for me.
Questions: Do you have any summer goals? Have you read any good books lately?