Baptist, Methodist, UCC

As I am now staying at home and not having to worry about too many bills, rent, or food I can spend time figuring out my life. This for me means taking the next year off from ministry and finding a denomination that will support me in ministry. As I am back in North Carolina I am finding this a little harder. First off I am not Texas Baptist anymore and will not be licensed at the end of this summer. Second I am living in a house with my Grandfather, who is die hard Methodist. Third I have no clue what I am doing, I just know I am called.

So my first step was to meet with the soon to be ordained Rev. Owen Barrow. He is a good friend of mine who is associated pastor at my families church. We sat down and talked about everything that happened in Texas. My finally decision that if I am to stay Methodist I am going deacon track. Then how staying Methodist is probably not the best idea. I do not have the best file and it is going to be difficult if not impossible to ever be ordained because of my file. Yes I have been shown my file and it is not good. So the next thing out of Owen's mouth was "how do you feel about Congregationalist Baptists?" I kind of looked at him stupid and said I was sure no Baptists in North Carolina ordained women. Well they do! I explained to Owen that I did not agree with the theology totally. Then we went through the other big denominations and I said I have been thinking about UCC. This shocked Owen as he did not know I was as lgbtq friendly as I am.

Now over the past two days I have been doing research on the UCC congregations in my area. Sadly most of them are not involved in the "God Still Speak" campaign and are not open congregations. The closest one that I liked from the web page is in Chapel Hill, a 30-40 min drive. Then today I was on facebook and saw a post by Bridget about becoming a fan of The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists . I asked her about it and got information and found a cool liturgical congregation just one town away. I also then checked out the Congregationalist Baptists and decided on checking out two different congregations right here by me.

Now here is the questions Baptist, Methodist, or UCC?

You Can Go Home Again

For many years I have made one statement; I will never go home again to live. I have even gone as far as to keep myself in Houston for 5 months living off my savings earlier this year because I could not get a job. Now here I am living back in North Carolina with my family. So far it is not too bad. I have reconnected with two friends from high school, who I had not talked to in almost 8 years. I have been interviewing almost every day for jobs. Just trying to keep myself busy so that I don't miss Texas too much. The best part of being home is I got to spend my dad's birthday with him yesterday. I have not done that in many years and he was very happy to have me around.

When it rains, it pours

The past week and a half I have heard this saying a lot about my life. When it rains, it pours!


Starting last Monday I found out James had stolen money from me. I called him out on it and he flipped and ended up hurting his hand and getting himself put in jail.


Thursday I got a call from my temp agency telling me that permanent job offer I had been offered the week before had been taken back by the agency. Thus I lost my job, because I could not do anymore temp hours for the company.


Friday my family and I decided that I only had one choice. I am moving back to North Carolina next Thursday. I am starting to become ok with this.


Today my car would not start. I took it to the shop and now I will be spending $1300, that I don't have, to replace the ignition, the belt, and the cooling fan!


Usually I don't like using saying unless they refer to God's Blessing. However in my life this past week and a half, When it rains it will pour!

How to Save a Life

So just for starter James and I broke up. I will not put all the horrible details on here but feel free to message me on facebook and I'll let you know. I count this number who knows what on my life saving campaign.




Ever since I was a small child my family has teased me about taking in lost animals, hurting people, and causes that need support. My mom calls this my "how to save a life campaign." I have always wanted to help people and I guess that explains part of my calling into ministry. As a young child I was friends with people who no one else wanted to be friends with. I would bring hurt frogs, birds, and well whatever I could find home with me to try and save. This to my parents became quite annoying. As I grew up I continued to do many of the same things. I was friends with people who did not have friends. Instead of bringing home animals I volunteered. I also added a new thing as a teen, dating guys who had problems. I guess I always though that in some way I could help them. I dated drug addicts, alcoholics, people with family issues, or just issues in general. This caused me to forgive many things people did to me. I gave so many chances and tried never to give up. In college I did the same thing. Became friends with people no one wanted to be friends with and dated guys who were totally wrong with me. In Seminary I started with the animals again. I brought home two dogs. Onyx now lives with a cousin of mine who I gave her to and Lynn who died last year. Since moving to Houston I have adopted my share of people who need help. Friends and acquaintances. I thought I was done with dating guys who were totally wrong with me. Haha I guess not. So now I ask how do I save a life without hurting myself in the process?

Parents Visit and Sweet 16

Gotta love having the parents visit when there is a Duke Game.

Last weekend my parents came down from NC to visit me and James. They had been planing this for a while and none of us had any clue that Duke would make the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight.

As Luck would have it Duke did make the games in Houston, of all places. My mom made a call to my grandfathers best friend, an Iron Duke and got us tickets in row 42. Which was really close to the court action.

Unfortunately for me I ended up in the ER the day of the Duke Sweet 16 game and could not go ( I hate really bad kidney infection). So mom, dad, and James got to spend some quality time together. Luckily to say they LOVE James now!

Sunday I got to go to the Game against Baylor. We had a complete blast watching Duke win. All of us had a great day. Mom and I ended up going out to dinner with one of my mom's old co-workers. James and dad ate pizza and wings at home and to top that off James asked for my hand in marriage!

I have the best Boyfriend

Let me first mention that my parents are coming into town for a visit tonight. They will be staying from tonight until Monday. As I got ready for my usual cleaning ritual before the parents get here I started to have immense pain in my lower back. I decided to ignore it and press on. That was yesterday. Today I was in so much pain that I tried to do work, quite doing work, took a bubble bath, and finally decided to call my PCP and ended up at an urgent care. As I was in so much pain James decided that he would clean for me! He did such a good job and is trying really hard to keep me comfortable until my pain pill kicks in. He ordered Chinese, cleaned the whole apartment, walked Rocky, and even drove with me to the pharmacy. I gotta love a man who will do all that!

Knock on the Door

The past two weeks have been a complete and total blur. I answered my door two weeks ago to a guy selling magazines. However, he never even got his sales pitch out. All he could say was "Hi my names is James, and you're amazingly beautiful." I just about drooped dead. He told me he was going around meeting people in the neighborhood. I just kept thinking that this guy better live in Houston and be single. We stood outside my apartment talking for three hours that day and have not left each others side since, unless it was forced for work and such. James and I have been together for over two weeks now and loving every minute of it.


James decided that he wants to settle down and get his life a little more straight. We have spent the last week in Dallas and he is moving back to Houston with me tomorrow. We have decided that we are going to move to Dallas in a few weeks because I can do my work from Dallas and it will be easier for him to get a job there.