Sunday, September 28, 2014

Service Opportunities

Earlier in September my small group had the opportunity to serve an older couple in the church. They are getting ready to move in with their son, and are trying to get their house ready to sell. So, we were originally tasked with painting the garage with another small group. This task kept getting pushed back because of weather (which was fine with me because the original date it was scheduled might have been the hottest Saturday this summer!). So, when one of the men from the other small group went to look at the garage, he decided it needed siding instead of painting.  So, we were later tasked with painting the trim, two side doors, and the actual garage door.  And it was perfect fall weather for the day--high 60s.
I even found an old school long sleeve shirt that I didn't mind getting paint on.  And for those of you who might be wondering, No, I did not play in a flag football tournament.  But I was an avid fan even way back in college, so they allowed spectators to buy the shirts too!

Here's Diane taping the trim.  Jack is in the background scraping the trim around the garage door.
More scraping.
Nancy also got to tape some trim.

This is toward the end of our painting experience.  I painted one of the two doors and the garage door.  Here, Jack, Diane, and Nancy are trying to figure out which way the hinges are supposed to go back on the door.  I decided I was no help at all and began to take pictures instead! :)
I love Diane's face in this picture.  She has one of the best laughs and I can almost here it when I look at this picture!  And we got the doors hung correctly.

It was a great day of much laughter.  I love my small group and was so excited to get to serve with them.  This project was special to me, too, because the couple we were serving was one of the first couple's I met in the church.  When I first started attending Bethany, I was in a House to House group with them.  House to House was a ministry, like small groups, that met on Sunday evenings for about 8 weeks.  Lowell and Char were one of the couples in the group.  And we met at a lady's house from the church who was one of the most senior of the saints at the church!  While we were serving on this particular day, we were talking with Lowell and Char's son.  He shared that they are both in their 90s.  One of the sweetest things he said about his dad was that although some of his memory was beginning to fade and he could not always remember things, he always knows when something is good and he would appreciate the work we did serving.  Lowell came out at the very end to talk with us and I was able to get a great big hug from him.  I wasn't sure if he would remember me because I had not interacted with him for many years, but as his son was telling him our names, I heard Lowell say, "Teresa...I remember her!"  It was so sweet.  They are a great example of a godly man and woman who have served the Lord faithfully for most of their lives.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

A little bit of Mom loving/ Happy Birthday, Mom!

 Today is my mom's birthday!  And she sure does have a beautiful day outside to help her celebrate!  I was able to see her last weekend, and although we didn't do anything to celebrate, isn't every day a day to celebrate?  Okay, that was more so that I wouldn't feel guilty about not doing anything to celebrate :).  I love how much my mom loves others.  If there is no one else in my corner, I know that my mom will be right there with me.  No questions asked.  I love that she enjoys people.  I wish I could be more like her in this area, even though I often tease her about it and shake my head when she makes friends with everyone she meets.  Secretly, I wish I could do the same as easily as she does.  Happy Birthday to an amazing woman!  I love you, Mom!

Last week, one of the reasons I went up to the suburbs was because Mom had surgery on her foot and I wanted to help serve her and take care of her.  And let me tell you...she was not an easy patient!  It was a fun weekend of threatening to tie her to a chair or strap her to her bed.  I think Chris took it in stride, but Ann and I were a little ready to do bodily harm to her if she did not let us help her!  I learned a few lessons about myself though.  Because, really, I'm mostly just a younger version of my mother.  Isn't that true for most of us, ladies?  And she did let us take care of her some.  Mostly after we told her to sit back down and asked, "What do you need?"

Here is a picture of her toes sticking out of her cast.  Mom couldn't see them, so she had me take a picture:
 For her one week check-up, the doctor took off her cast to see how she was healing.  Sorry to any of those who are squeamish!

And Mom said that John picked out her cast color for her new cast.  The doctor said she was healing nicely but that she could tell that Mom had done too much.  I tried to convince Mom that if she didn't want to take the time off of work, I would take it for her!  Because really, as much as I am like my mom, I also am a baby when it comes to pain.  So if the doctor had told me to take one week off of work, I probably would have asked if she was sure that was all I needed to take off!

Scripture Saturday/ God's Word is TRUTH!

The problem with not blogging for a month is that I have a lot of Scripture Saturday thoughts that are going to go unattended.  And the other problem with not blogging for a month (and the reason I am so unsuccessful at journaling) is that I want to include it all and play catch up, but I know I can't.  So, here are some more recent thoughts.

Since the fall schedule has started, that also means I have started back to Bible Study Fellowship.  If you have a BSF group in your area, I highly recommend this year's study on the life of Moses.  The interesting thing about Bible study (well, there are lots of interesting things!) for me is that in life, in general, I do not like history.  It was one of my least favorite subjects in school.  But when I am studying the Bible, I LOVE the Old Testament.  I am in Old Testament heaven right now because was are also studying Hosea on Sunday mornings in church!  I think I like the Old Testament so much because I did not grow up in the church, so I didn't get all the Sunday School stories about the people in the Old Testament.  And even if I did, studying them as an adult is so different.  I also love how the Old Testament continually points forward to Christ and the redemption story.  And how it teaches about God's patience and loving-kindness toward His chosen people.

The other thing I love about Bible study is how God connects many different things I am doing together.  For the past two months I have been meeting regularly with a friend to do Scripture memory.  It has been an amazing journey of discovering how much I choose to dwell on other things instead of God and how memorizing Scripture helps me to be able place more focus on things above instead of earthly things.  We are currently memorizing Acts 7, which is a history chapter.  And guess what I was memorizing as BSF started?  The life of Moses.  How cool is that?!

Okay, so that was the little bit of catch up that I am going to do, and now I'll let you in on some of the stuff I studied this morning.

When I complete my BSF homework for the week, I am continuing my way slowly through the psalms.  This morning I studied part of Psalm 25: "Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long."

I love how it says "make me to know."  God is gracious to instruct me when I am open and willing to hear from Him (and even sometimes when I am not so open!).  The Hebrew for teach is to goad, teach, instruct.  And the Hebrew for paths is a well-trodden road.  I love the word picture this represents of God prodding me to take the well-trodden path of His Word so that He can teach me His truth.  And here is the definition for truth: stability, certainty, truth, trustworthiness, assured, faithful, establishment, right, sure.  God's Word is certain and established.  It brings stability to this crazy life of mine.  It is faithful and trustworthy.  Oh how that just brings a great big smile of satisfaction and joy to my face!  I love that He loves me and is faithful to me!  And lastly, the definition for wait is to bind together.  When I wait on the Lord all the day long, I bind myself together with His truth.  Which, let me tell you, is so much better than going my own way and trying to figure things out on my own!

Friday, September 26, 2014

Roommate shenanigans

That title does not really reflect this post at all, but I love my roommate and we do tend to partake of some shenanigans! Two weeks ago was the Pumpkin Festival in Morton. For those of you who are unaware, Morton is the Pumpkin Capitol of the World. And I live about 20 minutes from it. I know you are all jealous. As for me, I'm a little apathetic. Because if there is one thing that I don't really like about fall, it's pumpkins. :) I don't dislike that pumpkins represent fall, I just don't really enjoy anything about pumpkins. But that is also not the point of this post. Friday night, some friends were getting together to go to the Festival. Earlier in the day, I was super excited because it was really chilly and I was going to be able to wear a hoodie sweatshirt for the first time this fall. But as the time drew near, I was really sad, because with the cool weather, we had wetness. When Emily got home, I was trying to decide whether to go to the Festival where I would neither want to eat pumpkin flavored anything nor ride any carnival rides. Emily basically held me at gunpoint persuaded me to go because she said we would have fun.
Emily and I have very few pictures together, even though we have lived together for 7 years.  Not even a picture a year.  So, while at a stoplight, I snapped this great picture of us in our hoodie sweatshirts on our way to the Festival.  And Emily was right (don't tell her I said so).  I had fun.  Even in the misty, cold rain.  And it did eventually stop.  And I ate a caramel apple while everyone else had lots of pumpkin stuff.  In the end, I was glad that I went.

2014 Wedding #4

First, I have to put a disclaimer. And an apology. This was one of my first public events to practice taking pictures with my "smart" phone. And apparently I'm as good as my father at taking blurry pictures and using them as if they aren't blurry. So, I apologize to Dad for thinking that it is super easy to take a non-blurry photo. And I'm apologizing to anyone reading this that you have to endure blurry pictures. But it was such a beautiful wedding that I wanted to blog about it!

That being said, the Sunday of Labor Day weekend I got to be part of Jimmy and Kim's wedding.  She was a beautiful bride and he was a spiffy groom!  Kevin gave a great message.  And the Lord was glorified through the whole event!
Above, Jimmy and Kim are listening to Jimmy's nephew read 1 Corinthians 13.  Cutest reader EVER.  I don't even know him, but I wish I could hear him read every day!
The above picture is definitely blurry, but Jimmy was wiping tears from his eyes.  And I couldn't resist the emotion of the moment.
Praying for the new couple.
And another blurry picture, but again, their faces just say it all.  And I love Kim's laugh, and this picture captures it so well.

This was the first Sunday wedding I have attended, so that was kind of fun.  And they had a breakfast for dinner reception--what could be better than that!!!

Congratulations, Jimmy and Kim!!!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

This crazy life

I realized sometime last week that I haven't blogged at all in September!  It makes me sad.  There is so much going on that I want to capture and tell you about.  Serious stuff, silly stuff, mundane stuff.  you know, ramblings.  But life has gotten a little crazy.  I'm getting ready for a vacation in a couple of weeks and my fall schedule is in full swing, which means late evenings, early mornings, and not much down time in between.  So when I have down time, getting pictures to the computer or organizing my thoughts for a blog just haven't been top priority.  But hopefully I will have some time this weekend to get some pictures up of what my crazy life has looked like, at least in a small measure.  I promise I will be back soon!