It's Friday night and I'm happily relaxing with my laptop and internet, kid-sitting for the Caubbles and watching the dogs wrestle. I slaved away ordering pizza delivery for the boys' dinner. Tough job. ha So far everyone has gotten dropped off and picked up as scheduled. And I've been able to run back and forth to my home to take care of the pets and get my shower. It's working out well.
The timing of kid-sitting has been good this week. Since my work schedule is usally flexible, I've been able to run errands and also get work done at the church, at home, help in the Food Pantry 2 days this week and drop in at the Medical Clinic.
Today, I picked up 4 of the Janes kids and they helped me with cleaning up the remnants of my Local Missions stash in the Game Room at the old church building. I paid them off with limeades from Suzy Q drive-in restaurant. I dropped them off at home and ran over to the school to pick up Jonathon and a couple of buddies after ball practice.
I had lunch with Sherry Hulsey and she filled me in on some dates for teams going to Nic for next year. We have one team coming down over Thanksgiving and another the week after Christmas. I'll be going down around the middle of November and staying till New Year's. Then I'll go back in March and spend most of the spring and summer there. I'm ready for whatever, whenever. Hopefully, I'll get to go to Dubai to work with the Caubbles and Phillips' in either January or February. We'll see how God works it out. In the meantime, I'm working on all kinds of projects to be ready to go.
I've been busy getting things planned for FBCR Local Missions this fall/winter. Details are pretty much worked out, I just need to get more people on board to help run things while I'm in Nic. I'm coordinating volunteers to help get the Olive St church building cleaned out and staged better for the realtor to show it to potential buyers. It is a big job, but it will feel so good to have it in the best shape possible. And I like working with the different volunteers.
Time to run over to the house and take care of the critters. Then back to hang with the guys here at Caubble-land. Life is good. And God is even better.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Time has flown by. I haven't had much luck with internet service at the house and I have been really busy this past few weeks running errands to prepare for the block party, so I haven't had much time to sit at the church office and get on the net.
The Neighborhood Block Party went really well. We had a good turn out and lots of food and fun. I made a challenge for myself to use as much of the 'left over' craft supplies from previous years' of VBS that were stashed around the old building. There were hundreds of empty babyfood jars. I came up with 2 crafts and 1 game that involved using the jars. We only have about 20 jars left after the party, so I consider that a success!
I was running all over town, especially in the evenings the week before the party, to get food, prizes, supplies, etc. I had a budget and came in at only 75% (that includes a donation from Sam's Club...which is another funny long story). I love coming in under budget. We had 2 inflatables for the kids to jump in, simple games of ping-pong toss into babyfood jars willed with candy, ring toss, ball toss, decorate-your-own-cookies, face painting, a crafts station with 8 different projects the guests could do. A couple of sweet teenagers from FBCR played guitar and sang. It was lovely. We served hot dogs, chips, popcorn, nachos, sno-cones and drinks. And of course, there was candy given out! There was a drawing for prizes from the Christian bookstore. People could come and visit and some members of Cuerpo Vivo and FBCR talked with the guests and invited them to church. We met about 30 new households and 4 families are interested in coming to worship with us at Cuerpo Vivo. 2 of the families did come this Sunday! I was thankful for all of the volunteers who came to help serve. I love working with people who have a heart to reach others in honor of Jesus.
This past Sunday was the celebration for the 7 year anniversary of Cuerpo Vivo church. We had a special service and then a fantastic meal prepared by Cesar, a church member who is a chef at Abuelos restaraunt. Oh man! Can he cook! It was a fun time of food and fellowship. I was exhausted when I got home about 3:30pm, especially after the long day (week) working on the Block Party, but I was so filled with blessing I was so happy!
Deanna is still in Las Vegas helping to take care of her daughter who had surgery this past week. Elaine is home and healing from the surgery, which went well and had good results. Deanna has been gone 2 weeks now and I miss her. I know the cat and dog do, too. Hopefully, she will be back in a couple more weeks.
Speaking of the cat, she likes to go in the garage and hang out sometimes. She won't usually come in when I ask her to and I leave her out there for a while. Well, last night, I forgot to let her back in. She's comfy out there and it's not too hot for her at night, so she didn't suffer, well, maybe her dignity a little... This morning when I let her in the utility room, she marched right past her litterbox, food bowl, water bowl and went in the living room...spouting off what I'm sure by the tone of her voice were unpleasant phrases in cat language. We'll see if she is speaking to me tonight. I gave her a fresh new litterbox before I left for work this morning, so maybe that will win me some brownie points.
I was cleaning out the airfilter on the pump for the outdoor fish pond and got it put back together and was very pleased with myself. I don't like to touch fish, so I used a long meat fork thing to get a part of the pump pulled out of the water. If the neighbors saw me, they probably thought I was going spear fishing! Anyway, after getting the fish all settled in I started watering plants. Then I noticed that the pump was making a funny sound. I looked over and the pump had fallen sideways and pumped all the water out of the pond! The fish were in about 1" of water and had to lay on their sides. I started refilling the pond with a pitcher and the plant watering can. It took over half an hour of running back and forth with the dog and cat 'helping' me with each trip. The fish survived. I'm glad I didn't have to do fish cpr! Hopefully, when I get back home tonight, the dog will be happy, the cat will be speaking to me and the fish will still be alive. :)
I'm waiting to hear my final dates for serving in Nicaragua this fall. I know that I will get to go back and forth a lot in the future and eventually be more permanent down there. It's all in God's timing and I'm not stressed about the dates at all. When I'm here in Rogers, I get to work with Cuerpo Vivo church and FBCR local missions, so I have the best of both worlds. Make that 3 worlds, I also might get to travel to Dubai to work a while with the Caubbles and Phillips! I'm so blessed to get to serve the Lord fulltime. I can't imagine my life any other way.
The Neighborhood Block Party went really well. We had a good turn out and lots of food and fun. I made a challenge for myself to use as much of the 'left over' craft supplies from previous years' of VBS that were stashed around the old building. There were hundreds of empty babyfood jars. I came up with 2 crafts and 1 game that involved using the jars. We only have about 20 jars left after the party, so I consider that a success!
I was running all over town, especially in the evenings the week before the party, to get food, prizes, supplies, etc. I had a budget and came in at only 75% (that includes a donation from Sam's Club...which is another funny long story). I love coming in under budget. We had 2 inflatables for the kids to jump in, simple games of ping-pong toss into babyfood jars willed with candy, ring toss, ball toss, decorate-your-own-cookies, face painting, a crafts station with 8 different projects the guests could do. A couple of sweet teenagers from FBCR played guitar and sang. It was lovely. We served hot dogs, chips, popcorn, nachos, sno-cones and drinks. And of course, there was candy given out! There was a drawing for prizes from the Christian bookstore. People could come and visit and some members of Cuerpo Vivo and FBCR talked with the guests and invited them to church. We met about 30 new households and 4 families are interested in coming to worship with us at Cuerpo Vivo. 2 of the families did come this Sunday! I was thankful for all of the volunteers who came to help serve. I love working with people who have a heart to reach others in honor of Jesus.
This past Sunday was the celebration for the 7 year anniversary of Cuerpo Vivo church. We had a special service and then a fantastic meal prepared by Cesar, a church member who is a chef at Abuelos restaraunt. Oh man! Can he cook! It was a fun time of food and fellowship. I was exhausted when I got home about 3:30pm, especially after the long day (week) working on the Block Party, but I was so filled with blessing I was so happy!
Deanna is still in Las Vegas helping to take care of her daughter who had surgery this past week. Elaine is home and healing from the surgery, which went well and had good results. Deanna has been gone 2 weeks now and I miss her. I know the cat and dog do, too. Hopefully, she will be back in a couple more weeks.
Speaking of the cat, she likes to go in the garage and hang out sometimes. She won't usually come in when I ask her to and I leave her out there for a while. Well, last night, I forgot to let her back in. She's comfy out there and it's not too hot for her at night, so she didn't suffer, well, maybe her dignity a little... This morning when I let her in the utility room, she marched right past her litterbox, food bowl, water bowl and went in the living room...spouting off what I'm sure by the tone of her voice were unpleasant phrases in cat language. We'll see if she is speaking to me tonight. I gave her a fresh new litterbox before I left for work this morning, so maybe that will win me some brownie points.
I was cleaning out the airfilter on the pump for the outdoor fish pond and got it put back together and was very pleased with myself. I don't like to touch fish, so I used a long meat fork thing to get a part of the pump pulled out of the water. If the neighbors saw me, they probably thought I was going spear fishing! Anyway, after getting the fish all settled in I started watering plants. Then I noticed that the pump was making a funny sound. I looked over and the pump had fallen sideways and pumped all the water out of the pond! The fish were in about 1" of water and had to lay on their sides. I started refilling the pond with a pitcher and the plant watering can. It took over half an hour of running back and forth with the dog and cat 'helping' me with each trip. The fish survived. I'm glad I didn't have to do fish cpr! Hopefully, when I get back home tonight, the dog will be happy, the cat will be speaking to me and the fish will still be alive. :)
I'm waiting to hear my final dates for serving in Nicaragua this fall. I know that I will get to go back and forth a lot in the future and eventually be more permanent down there. It's all in God's timing and I'm not stressed about the dates at all. When I'm here in Rogers, I get to work with Cuerpo Vivo church and FBCR local missions, so I have the best of both worlds. Make that 3 worlds, I also might get to travel to Dubai to work a while with the Caubbles and Phillips! I'm so blessed to get to serve the Lord fulltime. I can't imagine my life any other way.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
It's Thursday already. This week has gone by fast.
Deanna's great-granddaughter was born Friday. She looks so beautiful in the pictures! I know everyone is so excited. I'm glad that Deanna got to hold her before having to leave.
Speaking of which, Deanna left Sunday evening for Las Vegas to spend time with Elaine's family and take care of Elaine while she recuperates from her surgery that is scheduled for next week. The cat and the dog and I all miss her a lot already.
I don't have very good internet access at the house right now, so I'm spending more time at the church during the day on the net. I can work offline from home in the evenings. So it works out okay. I've had classes/meetings every morning at the church anyway, so it's not too bad running over there.
Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I got to granny-sit with Miss Juanita. She is so sweet. I really enjoy her. We have some funny conversations. The best time was watching America's Funniest Videos with her. She giggled at many of them.
I loved the worship time at Cuerpo Vivo church on Sunday. The music brought tears to my eyes. I love the congregation.
Monday, I took advantage of some Labor Day sales and a forgotten gift card that I found when cleaning up some papers. I had a blast. It was a beautiful day weather-wise and I took my time and just looked at stuff and enjoyed myself. I went back and forth taking care of Miss Juanita. It was a very good day.
I'm working on the details of the Neighborhood Block Party on Sept 18. It's enjoyable and not too stressful. I'm also working on the projects for November and December, so that I can have them planned and people in place to help. Since I will be gone the month of November, I wanted to make sure that I'm ahead of the game on the projects. It's going along well. There are some great volunteers that I get to work with.
I need to be spending more time in Spanish lessons, so I'll try to discipline my time a little better. The Tuesday morning Bible study taught in Spanish is really challenging me and I love it! I also love listening to Hispanic Praise music. I need to soak up all of it I can get.
The Youth from FBCR are planning a mission trip to Nicaragua over Spring Break next March. I can't wait for them to come down to Nic. They are going to have a blessed time. I enjoy working with Brian Sander (the Youth Pastor). And the kids who feel led to come will be a joy to work with. I don't know who God is calling yet, but if HE is calling them, then it will be awesome!
I am so lucky to have some very wise and devoted Christian friends and leaders. Pastor Jaime gave me some wise councel this week that I really needed to hear. He spoke so sweetly and truthfully and I know it was coming from the Holy Spirit.
I was blessed to attend the Women On Mission meeting this morning and fellowship and pray with some very godly women. They are so wonderful. I got to share about some of the local things going on in the next few months and also a teeny bit about Cuerpo Vivo church and Nic. We prayed over the Arkansas missions and different types of ministries. Always lovely to pray with these women!
Time to head towards home and take care of the livestock (cat and dog). So I'll sign off of the internet for today and go home to work and study the old fashioned way. ha
Thank You God for all You allow me to do. Thank You for allowing me to represent You to others. Thank You for Your patience and forgiveness with my feeble attempts to serve. Thank You for the love You put in my heart for others. Thank You for the support system You have put in place for me. Thank You for Hope and Peace and Comfort. I love YOU.
Deanna's great-granddaughter was born Friday. She looks so beautiful in the pictures! I know everyone is so excited. I'm glad that Deanna got to hold her before having to leave.
Speaking of which, Deanna left Sunday evening for Las Vegas to spend time with Elaine's family and take care of Elaine while she recuperates from her surgery that is scheduled for next week. The cat and the dog and I all miss her a lot already.
I don't have very good internet access at the house right now, so I'm spending more time at the church during the day on the net. I can work offline from home in the evenings. So it works out okay. I've had classes/meetings every morning at the church anyway, so it's not too bad running over there.
Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I got to granny-sit with Miss Juanita. She is so sweet. I really enjoy her. We have some funny conversations. The best time was watching America's Funniest Videos with her. She giggled at many of them.
I loved the worship time at Cuerpo Vivo church on Sunday. The music brought tears to my eyes. I love the congregation.
Monday, I took advantage of some Labor Day sales and a forgotten gift card that I found when cleaning up some papers. I had a blast. It was a beautiful day weather-wise and I took my time and just looked at stuff and enjoyed myself. I went back and forth taking care of Miss Juanita. It was a very good day.
I'm working on the details of the Neighborhood Block Party on Sept 18. It's enjoyable and not too stressful. I'm also working on the projects for November and December, so that I can have them planned and people in place to help. Since I will be gone the month of November, I wanted to make sure that I'm ahead of the game on the projects. It's going along well. There are some great volunteers that I get to work with.
I need to be spending more time in Spanish lessons, so I'll try to discipline my time a little better. The Tuesday morning Bible study taught in Spanish is really challenging me and I love it! I also love listening to Hispanic Praise music. I need to soak up all of it I can get.
The Youth from FBCR are planning a mission trip to Nicaragua over Spring Break next March. I can't wait for them to come down to Nic. They are going to have a blessed time. I enjoy working with Brian Sander (the Youth Pastor). And the kids who feel led to come will be a joy to work with. I don't know who God is calling yet, but if HE is calling them, then it will be awesome!
I am so lucky to have some very wise and devoted Christian friends and leaders. Pastor Jaime gave me some wise councel this week that I really needed to hear. He spoke so sweetly and truthfully and I know it was coming from the Holy Spirit.
I was blessed to attend the Women On Mission meeting this morning and fellowship and pray with some very godly women. They are so wonderful. I got to share about some of the local things going on in the next few months and also a teeny bit about Cuerpo Vivo church and Nic. We prayed over the Arkansas missions and different types of ministries. Always lovely to pray with these women!
Time to head towards home and take care of the livestock (cat and dog). So I'll sign off of the internet for today and go home to work and study the old fashioned way. ha
Thank You God for all You allow me to do. Thank You for allowing me to represent You to others. Thank You for Your patience and forgiveness with my feeble attempts to serve. Thank You for the love You put in my heart for others. Thank You for the support system You have put in place for me. Thank You for Hope and Peace and Comfort. I love YOU.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
This week has went by pretty quickly. Monday I was still juggling the ears and meds for the ears, so I stayed home and worked on the computer and around the house. It's been up and down all week. I'm so thankful that I don't have pain. It's just very frustrating not being able to hear very well and to be off-balance and dizzy.
I had a lunch meeting with Vicki P, a social worker with the Rogers School system. She helps to coordinate how our church can bless the families most in need, especially those families with kids at Northside Elementary (our adopted school). It was good to spend a little time with her and Magdelina (her intern) and Patsy (the head of the school social workers). And of course, the food was yummy!
I've gotten a lot done this week on preparing for the Neighborhood Block Party. Also, I've been working on getting things around the house cleared out and organized so I can spend more time in Nicaragua in the future. I finally got all my dresses and skirts altered and ready to hem. I just have one more skirt to sew up, but I'm taking my time on that since I am tweeking the pattern a little bit.
I've also got dozens of 'bean bags' cut out to sew up and then fill in Nic. I'm trying to learn how to juggle. It's been a desire of mine for a long time, but I don't spend much time on it. Anyway, I thought it would be cool to teach kids in Nic to juggle with their own 3 beanbags and also teach them about the Trinity in the process. We'll see how that goes...
I'm taking a Bible study class (in Spanish) along with the folks at Cuerpo Vivo church. I broke down and ordered the book in English so that I can follow along a little easier. So, I'm spending time doing the study each week in English and then again in Spanish to see how much I can figure out. It's a good study, so it's a good thing to be spending my time on.
Deanna's granddaughter is in labor as I'm writing this (Friday at 5pm) and Deanna went to the hospital for the big arrival. Everyone is so excited and I'm praying for Mama and baby. She is going to be loved on tremendously as soon as she comes out. Can't wait to see pictures!
I'm going to granny-sit this weekend with Miss Juanita. I'm taking some handsewing and hemming work to do while I visit with her. I haven't seen her since before I went to Nic, so we have a lot to catch up on. :)
Not much more to report on for now. I feel good about getting some 'not so fun' chores done lately. There's still a lot more to do and more decisions to be made by the end of the year, but it's going fine.
I'm so thankful for each day that the Lord allows me to walk beside Him. I'm especially thankful that He is so patient and long-suffering and forgiving. He is my everything.
I had a lunch meeting with Vicki P, a social worker with the Rogers School system. She helps to coordinate how our church can bless the families most in need, especially those families with kids at Northside Elementary (our adopted school). It was good to spend a little time with her and Magdelina (her intern) and Patsy (the head of the school social workers). And of course, the food was yummy!
I've gotten a lot done this week on preparing for the Neighborhood Block Party. Also, I've been working on getting things around the house cleared out and organized so I can spend more time in Nicaragua in the future. I finally got all my dresses and skirts altered and ready to hem. I just have one more skirt to sew up, but I'm taking my time on that since I am tweeking the pattern a little bit.
I've also got dozens of 'bean bags' cut out to sew up and then fill in Nic. I'm trying to learn how to juggle. It's been a desire of mine for a long time, but I don't spend much time on it. Anyway, I thought it would be cool to teach kids in Nic to juggle with their own 3 beanbags and also teach them about the Trinity in the process. We'll see how that goes...
I'm taking a Bible study class (in Spanish) along with the folks at Cuerpo Vivo church. I broke down and ordered the book in English so that I can follow along a little easier. So, I'm spending time doing the study each week in English and then again in Spanish to see how much I can figure out. It's a good study, so it's a good thing to be spending my time on.
Deanna's granddaughter is in labor as I'm writing this (Friday at 5pm) and Deanna went to the hospital for the big arrival. Everyone is so excited and I'm praying for Mama and baby. She is going to be loved on tremendously as soon as she comes out. Can't wait to see pictures!
I'm going to granny-sit this weekend with Miss Juanita. I'm taking some handsewing and hemming work to do while I visit with her. I haven't seen her since before I went to Nic, so we have a lot to catch up on. :)
Not much more to report on for now. I feel good about getting some 'not so fun' chores done lately. There's still a lot more to do and more decisions to be made by the end of the year, but it's going fine.
I'm so thankful for each day that the Lord allows me to walk beside Him. I'm especially thankful that He is so patient and long-suffering and forgiving. He is my everything.
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