Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wednesday again. Seems like a good day to catch up.

Lunch at Lisa George's was really nice. She hosted the Ministry Assistants and since Janalyn and I are the only other 'ladies' on staff, we were invited to attend. How fun. Lunch was tasty and we got to hear about a special thing that Lisa is doing with a healthy adventure. It was an answered prayer for me, since I'm looking for ways to supplement nutrition while I'm in Nica. I'm getting the shake mix and will substitute one meal a day with the shake. It's full of good nutrients and stuff. It is used for weight loss, too, if you do 2 shakes a day. And even though I need to lose weight, I'll start out just getting nutrition and see how I do from there.

Friday I had fun helping at the Community Meals at FBCR. It was rainy and I walked out one of the doors and ended up on my behind in a puddle of water. I drenched my backside, all the way to my feet, and also banged my left knee and cut my right ankle. I don't know how I managed to do that, but I'm thankful that I didn't hit my head. I did have to walk around for hours with wringing wet pants. Oh well, it's still not the most embarrassing thing to happen to me. :)

Friday night I got to spend time with my friend Zandra and her daughter Hannah. Hannah calls me Vickie Bead, from the days that she would visit me and we would make all kinds of stuff from plastic beads. She's 13 now. Can't believe it! Anyway, we had dinner at Mimi's Cafe. Yum! Then went shopping for a bridal shower gift and then stopped in at a beauty store (Hannah's request). While walking around I found some great clear plastic totes with pink ribbons for breast cancer. They were on clearance for only 99 cents! I bought 10 to take to Nica for prizes for the women. I really enjoyed my time with Zandra. I don't get to spend enough time with her at all. Going to have to change that in the future.

Saturday, I worked more on catching up on some of the ministries here in Rogers as I prepare to be gone for 2 months. I also worked more on my room and packing. I fit in a nap and a walk with the dog. A pretty good day.

Sunday was a wonderful day of worship. I enjoyed the music at Cuerpo Vivo and really enjoyed Pastor Jaime's message. Probably because I can understand about 80% of it from listening and can figure out the rest by using my bi-lingual Bible to follow along the scripture references. Isidro took me and Mark brought me home. It's nice to have friends willing to help me out. Mark let me stop in at my favorite Chinese restaurant for a to-go dinner. Yum! I got to take a little nap and then went with Deanna to church at FBCR for the special service. We voted unanimously to call Jerry Medlin as our new Administrative Pastor. We also had a beautiful Lord's Supper service. I always love getting to see everyone at FBCR. We headed home and prepared our 'safe place' in the hall bathroom. Storms were terrible and tornadoes were headed our way. We ended up with little in the way of dangerous weather, but Joplin was hit very hard. It was a busy and scary night in the air!!!

Janalyn picked me up for Staff meeting on Monday. I had gotten a quick walk in early before the rain started up. It was raining hard by lunchtime, but we stopped in at Maria's for lunch before the meeting. Our summer interns were present and thought being at staff meeting was quite fun. It did make it more interesting for the rest of us who go every week. We had an interesting and fun meeting. I got to take time to meet with Jaime and Oliver and talk about things with Cuerpo Vivo. Since the leadership structure with the church is growing stronger, I'm not needed to be involved with as much as in the past. It's wonderful to see the church growing and being blessed. I feel kind of like an empty-nester. I do feel proud of them all and I'm humbled at their passion and commitment. I'm very blessed to be able to worship with them every week and to call them friends (and family). It was a great time of sharing with Jaime and Oliver. Then it was time to head home.

I had a lunch meeting on Tuesday with Lori Gamradt of 'At the Table' ministry. We always get so excited as we share what God is going. We had a great healthy lunch and wonderful conversation. Lori was gracious enough to drop me off at the Olive Street campus and I got some work done before leaving with the Lopez's to set up tables at the Northside Elementary School Kid's Health Fair. I got to represent FBCR/ICVI churches, the Food Pantry, Community Meals and Medical Clinic. The Lopez's represented Puente and GANE ministries. They were lovely to let me ride with them and to bring me home. We actually had to close up early because of dangerous weather heading our way again. I had signed up to give blood (Red Cross had 2 blood mobiles there), but after waiting over 1 1/2 hours I had to leave because of weather. It was great that so many people had come out to give blood. I hope they have more drives and that I can make it to one.

Deanna and I had left our blankets, pillows, supplies, etc in the little bathroom each night. We ended up watching different weather stations on different TVs and having our Weather Radio going off and on all evening. Deanna finally went to bed (in her clothes) with a TV on and I went to sleep on the sofa in the den (in my clothes) with a TV on. Jet just gave up and went to sleep under the bed, his usual spot. Who knows where the cat ended up. I'll be good and ready for a nice night's sleep tonight.

A few people from FBCR and some from Cuerpo Vivo went to Joplin over the last few days to help with the clean-up and searching. I haven't been able to go, but my prayers are with everyone touched by this tragedy. It is so huge and unimaginable. But it makes me think about how Big God is. He is bigger than everything going on in this world put together. I pray He is glorified in everything, no matter what it is.

I received good news about changes and growth of the ministry in Nicaragua through Voice of Hope. I'm so excited for the summer. God is working mightily there. I'm so blessed to be a part of it. It's going to be a very busy summer, but I'm going to try and journal every thing God does. It will be more than I could remember on my own. So I hope that I am diligent on taking the time each day to journal.

This post is getting long so I'll sign off for now. I need to post more often.
There is so much that God brings across my mind and heart each day, and by the time I sit down to post, I've forgotten most of it. Shame on me!

Going to bed thankful for this life that God has given me and the call He has made on it. He is so busy all around us and all we have to do is jump on and join the ride! How blessed are we???