Lets go, lets go. L.E.T.S.G.O.

This week was VBS at chapelwood. We did the cokesubry curriculum of Camp Edge. It was a good camp other than the music being able to easily stay in your head for days. I am still breaking out in song. Ahhhhh. I had the kids that were going into first grade. I thought this would be great because I love young children around the ages of 5-7. However, I had three that had varying levels of mental handicaps, and three girls who would not stop crying and fussing. When did 6-7 year olds turn to become so spoiled and crazy.


The "Lets go" for my week did not stop there. This weekend was my first Faith In Action camp in Lake Jackson. Faith In Action is a cooperative of churches in the area that put on 4 mission/service camps a year. This was the second one, but I did not go to this first this year because of my Emmaus walk. So after VBS Friday I went home did a little bit of cleaning up, went to look at a new car, and then went to St. Timothy's Episcopal church for Faith In Action. We played games and got everyone ready for work the next day. Saturday I spent most of the day driving from work site to work site handing out ice pops, frozen grapes, frozen towels, and spraying youth and adults off with ice cold water. This was not fun for me because the guy riding around with me would not get out of my car and kept getting mad that I would take my keys with me when I got out of the car. He is this guy from my church who is 30 and autistic and has this huge crush on me. I used to think this was sweet, but it is kind of annoying after a while. Saturday night we had a fun night of more games, ice cream (that I cannot eat), and worship.


Today was church and Rock Climbing with my youth. I let myself sleep in and go to late service. However, I left late service within five mins. of getting there. A Worship service that was not supposed to be announced in church was and well things had not been changed or talked about yet. So here is the information and why I was mad about this. A college age guy at the church asked a few weeks ago if he could hold a worship service or Bible study for college age people. The staff at the church have been so excited about it. That is we were excited until last Monday. A church wide email went out from one of the members saying that it was for College age and High School students. This is bad because we have a Bible study at the same time and same day. Also since I got to Chapelwood a Youth Programing Committee (YPC) was put together to help the youth ministry at the church run better. Part of the committees job is to regulate what is taught to the youth and what type of theology. Also what is offered to the youth as a programs. The college age guy did not come to the YPC and did not even talk to the head pastor or myself about offering it to high school age youth. I went to the Pastor last week and asked him to talk to the college age guy about the service and get this fixed or at least get him to talk to the YPC about his plans before anything else was announced about the worship service. The pastor agreed to what I proposed to him, yet the service was announced just as it had been the past week without any discussion and talk to the YPC.

Luckly Rock Climbing was fun. I had a blast with the youth who went. One of my girls, Laurel, asked me to sponsor her on the Chrysilas walk in two weeks. I just hope I can help make this an amazing experiance for her.

UM ARMY and First Love

This past week was amazing. We were up in a small east Texas twon called Wells. There are around 750 residents in the town and around 240 homes. This past week we worked on 20 of those homes!! It was amazing. Although I was not working on the sites because if programing and my allergic reaction to the sun, I am so proud of my youth. I got to know many of the non-active youth at Chapelwood aswell as some amazing adults. This week is one I will never forget.

The theme for UM ARMY was First Love. It focused on how God is really everyones first love in life. God gave us all love even before we asked for it becasue God loves us just that much. I was remineded many times of the Parable of the Good Sameritan. We were looking out into this community and helping those that many people had passed over in the past. The people we did work for were some of those who had given up on faith or were not included in many of the community events. It was amazing to hear the testamonies of the clients on cliant night. They really were in need of our help. I also found help this week. I have been having a hard time at Chapelwood and finding my place. I talked with this amazing pastor, who is on the BOM for Texas Conference. He was very supportive and gave me some amazing advice.

graduation, partys, and U.M. A.R.M.Y. planning

Oh my how busy this time of year is. I think that I must always take a vacation in May since I will be going through crazy summers.

Last week I had graduation for my high school seniors. It was outside in around 85% heat at 7:30pm. I ended up hanging out with Tyler, one of my youths boyfriends. We were cheering and running from one side of the field to another to see people graduate. I left early so that I could get out of the parking lot. Let me just say my car was parked at a 65% angle and it was crazy. I was so afraid it would roll down the hill even after I put the parking break on.

Then there was the parties. I have been going to graduation parties since I got back from my graduation. I have had a blast at all of them, but I have to say the cake at the last one was too cute. They made a three tiered book cake and the bottom book said Party and Boys. The top two were better with History and Science. I laughed so hard. There was crazy dancing and music. I was welcomed to Texas country dancing and learned to two-step. It was so funny to be two-stepping with my youth. There was also Bich's birthday party this weekend. It was fun and the band was not too bad. I hated having to leave so early because of work on Sunday, but that is the life of a minister.

Now for U.M. A.R.M.Y. planning. I think I am going to go crazy. I have so much to do and so little time. I have been ordering, printing, emailing, and calling people all day long, even on my day off. I just hope that all this work makes this mission trip amazing for the youth involved.

Mental Health Days

During my time at Candler I came up with the idea that one day a semester I would allow myself to take off a day from class. This for me came because I was stress, tired, and just worn out. On these days I let myself sleep in and always did something just for me. Since I was not of those people who got divinity school paid for by scholarship or funds from the church this usually meant watching a movie I owned and taking a bubble bath.

Now that I am in my ministry position I have found that the stress is not all gone. I sometimes and just plain worn out and tired. Yesterday I went to work on my day off because I have been at annual conference all week. I ended up leaving less than four hours after I got to work because I just could not take it anymore. I got a bad look and lecture about something that I thought I was doing right. Haha I guess not. Needless to say phone calls were made while I was at conference about me to one of the other staff and she feels it is her job to not tell them to call me and talk about it, but instead to verbal attack me when I get back from conference. I left work, walked fast to my car and called my mom to cry (I never do that by the way). I told her everything and just asked for prayer.

I have realized that sometime even in ministry I need a mental health day. During those times when I am tired, worn out, and frustrated it is best for me to take a day off and just rest. I let myself sleep in late and am going to watch a movie. I made chicken lasagna with lots of vegetables and salad for lunch and dinner later today. Now I just need to get my mind in the right frame to finish this weekend and keep on going in my ministry with my church.

Prayer for Prayer

This week has been so crazy for me. I have been trying to recover from my vacation to visit my family, which needs a lot of recovery, and getting ready for Annual Conference starting tomorrow. I am going to conference as a district delegate. Since conference takes most of my work week this means I have been trying to get everything for this week and next week together. I know I am nuts!!

Now for the prayer part. If things could not get more hectic in my life time week I got a call Monday afternoon from my DS asking me to be one of the people in my district to say a prayer in front of everyone at a conference session or worship service. Me being who I am, and not knowing the word NO, said YES!!! I know Dr Wodleton asked me because he is trying to get me through my candidacy process faster and thinks the more I am seen the better it will be since I do have a few things on my file that are not flattering. Well I was told I would know by Wednesday/Thursday at the latest. Hahaha. I called Wednesday to find out what was going on and now I am having to wait until I get to conference to find out when I pray. This would be all good, but I am showing up a day late! Annual conference starts tomorrow afternoon with sign in and service of remembrance. During this time I will be leading youth group and driving to conference. I have decided to write a generic prayer, and add in when I find out what I am praying over. Please pray this works and pray that I will get a slot on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Graduation Relizations

So I have been visiting family for the past week in Atlanta and Raleigh. First the start with my graduation then off to my parents place. I loved my visit with my family, but I missed my freedom.

Now for the realizations. As I began to sit and think about my life now I began to see how different I am. As I sat and looked out at the other graduates of Candler I started to realize how changed I am. My Candler peers are all just starting their lives and careers. I have already started by life outside Candler. I have moved on. People began asking questions about my life, where I had been the past four months, and what had changed in me.

I am happier, healthier, and more connected than I ever was in my time at Candler. I have new friends, a new life, and a new outlook. Yes there is drama at the church, but I am handling it better. Yes there are time when I miss my family and friends, but I have realized they are only a phone call away. I also realize that I have new friend who I love to death. I know that I am blessed and hope that this knowledge stays with me during the hard times.

Ready for Atlanta

I am so ready to get going and head out for Atlanta on Saturday. Getting to see family and friends just has me on the edge. I want it to be Saturday now or even Monday. I am so distracted because of my excitement. Even though today is my day off I cannot get my mind off the trip east.

So I had to post this picture. It was taken at Cinco De Mayo dinner with friends. The dish I am holding was called Rachel's Spicy Tacos. We had a blast at this little Mexican place. Then we went to a place called the Chocolate Bar. No alcohol involved, but there was a lot of Chocolate. I had a piece of mint chocolate cheesecake. It almost matched how good a piece of cheesecake is at the Cheesecake Factory.