I have been so very busy that I have not taken time to journal my thoughts here on my blog in a while.
Last weekend I went on my Walk to Emmaus. As I was going on the walk not only for myself, but also for the youth at my church (I have been asked to work a Chrysalus this summer) everything felt a bit strange. I am just hitting my three month mark here in Texas. Have been taking life at full stride and have been on a planing mission since I came to Lake Jackson. So taking a weekend off to myself felt strange. I know as a ministry I need to take time to make sure my walk with God is going well, but I just did not know if I really needed it. Luckily I had the best sponsor ever, Margaret. Margaret and Her husband Oren drove me two hours to the camp. We had a wonderful dinner at a Mexican restaurant and saw two rainbows. I could not have asked for a better arrival. Yet, I was still scared when I realized they were leaving me with a group of women I did not know.
Last weekend I went on my Walk to Emmaus. As I was going on the walk not only for myself, but also for the youth at my church (I have been asked to work a Chrysalus this summer) everything felt a bit strange. I am just hitting my three month mark here in Texas. Have been taking life at full stride and have been on a planing mission since I came to Lake Jackson. So taking a weekend off to myself felt strange. I know as a ministry I need to take time to make sure my walk with God is going well, but I just did not know if I really needed it. Luckily I had the best sponsor ever, Margaret. Margaret and Her husband Oren drove me two hours to the camp. We had a wonderful dinner at a Mexican restaurant and saw two rainbows. I could not have asked for a better arrival. Yet, I was still scared when I realized they were leaving me with a group of women I did not know.
The Pictures above are what I came home to after Emmaus. My apartment was decorated by my youth and the office was decorated as well. The office windows had shaving cream on them and writing about 4th day.
As the weekend went on I found that I was doing my walk more for me than the youth. I needed that time to take a look a who I am becoming. I realized things like I am worrying too much, planing too much, and not taking care of myself enough. Yes the planing part is a good thing, but I need to take my days off just for me. I also found that having a weekend free of planing was amazing. I could hardly remember what having a weekend free felt like. By the end of the weekend I was devoted to making sure I am taking care of my own spiritual life.
Ok so high lights of the Walk to Emmaus. Seeing two dolphins in the water outside the camp close up, the dinner with Jesus, the candle light, no cell phones, and lastly meeting another woman my age who live the next town over.
So now that I had a great weekend I had to recover from because I was so tired the Spring youth retreat (7th-9th grade) had to come. Yes two weekends in a row of retreats. I know I am nuts. We went to Camp Cho Yeh. It is this amazing Presbyterian Camp about two hours north of Lake Jackson. We did low ropes, high ropes, and paintball yesterday. Yes I played paintball and now have a sprained wrist to prove it. Hahaha. One of my youth shot my wrist right after I surrendered. I was really mad and yes it was the same wrist that I broke in October. We did so much team building and even the youth agreed that they are in a different place now. Last night we had a huge camp fire with smores and all. Sadly the weekend had to end early because the youth and I had to be back for confirmation.
The church I am working at has an amazing program called hidden angels. This person is a youth who sees the confirmand through confirmation and, thanks to me, through the first year of youth group. The youth started by buying small gifts and making crosses for the cross wall for the confirmation class. Today they stood up with the class and got to lay their hands of them when they were confirmed. This was awesome for them. It was a spiritual time.
OK now for my part in confirmation. I knew I had to fill in for any of the girl's whose mentors could not show up. However, they all did show. The confirmation class decided to ask the head pastor Wesley if I could be up at the kneeling station and lay hands on them all as they were confirmed. He agreed that this would be good. So I got to hand them inscribed rocks with the Methodist cross and flame and their name. I got to do this only after I laied hands on them and blessed them as they enter into the church. The act of blessing the confirmands was very spiritual for me. It reminded me of what all God has in store for me in the, hopefully near, future.
Finally I have accepted a position as district delegate to Annual Conference. My DS wants me to be known in the conference as I begin to work through the candidacy process again. I could not agree with him more. He has been such a help to me since moving into the Texas Conference.
As the weekend went on I found that I was doing my walk more for me than the youth. I needed that time to take a look a who I am becoming. I realized things like I am worrying too much, planing too much, and not taking care of myself enough. Yes the planing part is a good thing, but I need to take my days off just for me. I also found that having a weekend free of planing was amazing. I could hardly remember what having a weekend free felt like. By the end of the weekend I was devoted to making sure I am taking care of my own spiritual life.
Ok so high lights of the Walk to Emmaus. Seeing two dolphins in the water outside the camp close up, the dinner with Jesus, the candle light, no cell phones, and lastly meeting another woman my age who live the next town over.
So now that I had a great weekend I had to recover from because I was so tired the Spring youth retreat (7th-9th grade) had to come. Yes two weekends in a row of retreats. I know I am nuts. We went to Camp Cho Yeh. It is this amazing Presbyterian Camp about two hours north of Lake Jackson. We did low ropes, high ropes, and paintball yesterday. Yes I played paintball and now have a sprained wrist to prove it. Hahaha. One of my youth shot my wrist right after I surrendered. I was really mad and yes it was the same wrist that I broke in October. We did so much team building and even the youth agreed that they are in a different place now. Last night we had a huge camp fire with smores and all. Sadly the weekend had to end early because the youth and I had to be back for confirmation.
The church I am working at has an amazing program called hidden angels. This person is a youth who sees the confirmand through confirmation and, thanks to me, through the first year of youth group. The youth started by buying small gifts and making crosses for the cross wall for the confirmation class. Today they stood up with the class and got to lay their hands of them when they were confirmed. This was awesome for them. It was a spiritual time.
OK now for my part in confirmation. I knew I had to fill in for any of the girl's whose mentors could not show up. However, they all did show. The confirmation class decided to ask the head pastor Wesley if I could be up at the kneeling station and lay hands on them all as they were confirmed. He agreed that this would be good. So I got to hand them inscribed rocks with the Methodist cross and flame and their name. I got to do this only after I laied hands on them and blessed them as they enter into the church. The act of blessing the confirmands was very spiritual for me. It reminded me of what all God has in store for me in the, hopefully near, future.
Finally I have accepted a position as district delegate to Annual Conference. My DS wants me to be known in the conference as I begin to work through the candidacy process again. I could not agree with him more. He has been such a help to me since moving into the Texas Conference.
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