Auld Lang Syne

I should first say that I've never really understood this song. But upon looking it up on Wikipedia I've at least learned what the phrase means.

Auld Lang Syne = "Days gone by" or "Old times"

and that seems a bit fitting for my last post of 2010. What has happened in this year, these days, that have gone by? How has the Lord taken care of me? And what have I learned along the way? (sidebar: not every month will be covered)

February: I moved from Coupeville to Oak Harbor and helped in the blessing of the Sweethearts Banquet at church. The SHB is one of the highlights of the BBC callendar, and in serving those couples that I love I get great joy and satisfaction.

May: My Birthday! Another year older...and hopefully a little wiser. I can be a pretty selfish person at times (it's something that I'm working on), but being 31 has me thinking outside of myself and looking at how I can try to be a blessing to others.

June: I go to Washington D.C. to attend LTIA & give Senator Cantwell a "talking to"...well maybe just a little. June had the SPG's traveling to DC to learn about our country, it's foundation of Biblical values and how to lead effectively (that is it in summary, because really it was so much more). I also got to finally meet Julie!!! My e-Buddy for the past 3...almost 4 years now. You never would have known it was our first time meeting each other.

July: I said so long to one of my SS girls as she moved with her family to the Methow Valley. We miss Lilly, but I know she'll be a blessing to her fathers ministry as she grows up there. I said goodbye to my other friends for the ministry as well. The Lord had me reimursed for a discrepancy that I made in paying back the FAFSA people for my loan, it was a NICE payback. I needed the money right at that time too. Now if I had not have made the oversight I would have kept the money that is true, but I probably would have squandered it, and I know exactly what that money is for and haven't touched it since I got it (trust me it will come in handy in the coming months). And I also started my involvement with the Central Whidbey Republican Women (that's right Nancy), and the campaign for Kelly Emerson as Island County Commissioner. Call it inspiration from the prior months activities. I'll call it the summer of sign waving.

Summer: The summer also had me working with Alyssa on photos for a book that she was contacted about for her vertical garden and taking photos for A Knot in Thyme for the new brochure that they wanted to put together. A busy fun summer of taking photos, but it was satisfying.

September: After a stressful month prior at work I made my way over the mountains to visit Kali & Maggie and our evangelists over in the Methow Valley. I even got an extra day off of work! It was a very restful Labor day weekend and the Lord encouraged me with my visit over there.

October: The Lord spared my job. That's right folks. Just a few months prior Pastor Sargent had preached a message and within it made a point about working and how we should be thankful for the work that he does give us. Well during that message I was going through a time where I was not happy about what I was doing and it was affecting my work ethic & motivation. During that time also though things were changing behind the scenes at work. Well The message that night changed my thoughts and so I changed me actions accordingly and was rewarded with getting to keep my job.

November: I house sat for 2 weeks (during Thanksgiving) only to have the tool shed of my friends house topple over in a huge wind storm, which was followed by snow a few days later. I battled frozen spickets and icy roads. November also brought an old friend to WA from Michigan and it was so great to see her. Her father was the Pastor of the church that I was saved in back in Sicily and the last time I saw Joyce she was 16. Now she's a young woman in her 20's, man time flys! It was great to fellowship with her for a couple days.

December: Brought a new ministry opportunity with the Bible studies with "T" and a trip to go see my family in CA, and the apartment ads in the paper as I look yet again for another place to live. Hopefully one of these days I can make one last move and call it HOME for real.

Through all my travels the Lord kept me safe, and brought me back to home. He provided in some pretty miraculous ways and I look forward to seeing what He sets in motion for me in 2011.

Happy New Years everybody!!!

We seem to be experiencing technical difficulties

At least that's how it seemed tonight. Let's see...where to begin...

One of my ministries at church involves editing video for our Bible Institute. Well can you believe that it wasn't working the way it was supposed to tonight (naturally I'm dripping with sarcasm)?! It's not that I don't like trouble shooting, because truth be known I DO. I enjoy the sense of accomplishment that I feel when my hard work finally pays off. It's just that it was adding more work to my otherwise long day and I really wanted to get home to dinner and more study time for Thursday's Bible study. So first, I had to split up the video into 2 different DVDs, no biggie a little extra work, but nothing big; then it ended up that I was getting an error code when burning the DVD, so I had to create a completely different file...extract it...and reload it for burning, that did take a little bit of time. FINALLY, once it was all finished I headed over to the office to burn the DVD's only to find a scratch on the Part I DVD, which only let the DVD burn 50% of the necessary information that I needed. Seriously at this point I was loosing my sweetness, hey I'm only human. It was a quarter to 9 and I still hadn't had dinner yet. All work and no food make Carolyn a whiny girl. Because lets face it in another life, pre-GF I would have just headed out to BK to curb my appetite but that was not in the picture.

Then after arriving home my Dad called me to ask me a strange, but well meaning question. Wanna take a guess? He asked me if there were any special Christmas cookies that I wanted him to make for me for Christmas. My reaction was pretty dumb struck as one could imagine. Then as I started to give my answer it completely dawned on him that Christmas cookies, at least the regular family Christmas cookies were not to be had by me. Actually last year my mom made GF snowball cookies for me and they turned out good. So instead he asked about what candy I might like...mmm...chocolate covers a multitude of cookies;)

And as for my DVD's I called Sherri to ask her if she would help me out tomorrow. She graciously obliged my request and I don't know what I would do without her sometimes. All she needs to do it copy them and she should be all set.

Hopefully the technical dificulties don't persist...unless there is a lesson that the Lord wants to teach me...in which case I hope I pass.

A Testimony on Tapping

The universal prompt for someone needing or wanting something from you is a tap on the shoulder. It's nicer than a tag, which is someone hitting you and then "running away" w/o any answers or pass down to give you and it's a lot nicer than a poke, which just plain hurts sometimes, depending on who's offering it up. A tap is usually a subtle way of someone getting you attention in order to help them out. It's also a way that the Lord uses people in order to enact service for Him. It's been my experience that a gentle tap on the shoulder from a friend at church, ministry leader, or Pastor, usually means that the Lord wants you to do something for Him, which will ultimately lead to a persons spiritual growth and maturity. A lot of people get tapped and never turn around to see what is needed, some get tapped and turn down a blessing because they are scared of what is expected of them or uncomfortable with the gifts and abilities that God has blessed them with, and still others get tapped, unsure of the path that is before them, but rise to the occasion in spite of their insecurities. But I don't have any gifts!, or so you claim. Well not according to the Lord; 1 Corinthians 12:4 "Now there are diversities of gifts, but Spirit." Not everyone is you, not everyone is me. No one can do something as you do it, the little touches that make an event or lesson special. God gives us abilities so that we can glorify Him and help the rest of the church body (1 Corinthians 12:1-31).

Most often I find myself in the last category. That's not to brag. It's just a fact. The Lord has blessed me tremendously with a willing spirit, and I don't do everything perfectly, but I do approach the tasks willingly and try my hardest to improve in areas where needed. It's the tapping that has given me some of the greatest joys in my walk with the Lord. It started for me pretty soon after I joined BBC, when our choir director asked me to join the choir. I've always enjoyed singing and having been a part of different choirs in the past that was an easy "Yes". It had been a while since I had read music, but it was nothing that I couldn't overcome, I'm still not that great at it. I know the note, flats and sharps, I know about forte's and mezzo piano's (the volume of the music), but other than that I'm not very knowledgeable, don't ask me anything about a timing signature. Then almost 5 years ago I was tapped, by my Pastor, to teach in a young ladies Sunday School class, which made me nervous like you wouldn't imagine (trust me girls can be scary), but I knew it was what the Lord wanted since I had been asking Him to place me in a ministry since I had returned to civilian life. Now you couldn't ask me to give it up ministering to young ladies, unless I get married and move away, the Lord calls me home, or something earth shattering happens in my life, I'm hear to stay. I couldn't imagine another ministry I could like more.

Finally withing the past 2 months I've been tapped 2 other times for service outside of my norm/comfort zone. First, was after our Bible Institutes 'Women in Ministry' class, when my Pastors wife asked me to pray about bringing the devotion at our Decembers ladies meeting. She told me what she was thinking about for the topic, which was the matter of dress and how it affects our femininity. We had just finished reading Dress the Heart of the Matter and she and I were discussing the book and I was sharing what the Lord had laid on my heart as I was reading it. The SPG girls had already been tapped to host the monthly meeting, i.e. creating the theme, decorations & refreshments, but she wanted to continue the theme with having one of us bring the devotion. The "praying" about it was really just me going back and re-reading the portion of the book that the devotion was to come from to see if I could give a cohesive presentation of what the Lord had laid on my heart, and even as I was reading He impressed upon my heart some other things, which I felt compelled & scared to share and that was how I knew that I should say yes. Speaking in front of people doesn't really scare me. I blame that on years of drama and speech classes. It's more making sure that I do a good job for the Lord. In the end though people response has very little to do with me and everything to do with their own willingness to be obedient to God's word.

The second tap came this past weekend after our annual church leadership retreat. A time when the leadership of out church can get away and pray about the direction that the Lord would have us to go in for the coming year. 2010 for BBC should be an exciting one! We're finally sending people over into Twisp to continue further evangelistic efforts and to start a church over there. This has been a 3 year long project planting the seed of the Gospel along HWY 20 and though "success", defined as a future church starting and then sending out it's own team of Preachers to plant a church, is still a work in progress the Lord is opening some amazing doors for the families that will be moving up and over the mountains. So what does this have to do with me being tapped? Well I was asked to be our new video editor at church. Last Valentines day the SPG's hosted the Sweethearts Banquet and I put together a 15 minute DVD, set to the musical stylings of Jim Brickman, of the photos that I took that evening as the "official" photographer. This effort is what cemented my fate, although I had no inclination a year ago that this door would open for me. Tim, the SPG leader, has said that it's his "favorite movie", which is nice to hear, but truly it was just fun to do. (I haven't figured out how to put it on You Tube or here since the sites don't seem to support Windows Movie Maker, but if I ever do figure it out you know it will go up) Anyway, there seemed to be much support behind putting me here and so though I've never worked with this kind of equipment, I'm eager to learn and do my best for the ministry. So what will I be doing? Initially I'll be putting together a DVD for presenting the work and vision to other churches that we may be visiting and contacting. Without a church, or team of men there yet, there have been churches that have already presented themselves with a desire to support BBC's work in that area of WA. Beyond that I'll also be editing other videos for the church, but I'm still waiting on the official ministry meeting to find out the particulars. Eventually we'd like to be able to have the videos stream on our church website as well, but that's a little ways off I think.

This particular tap is really exciting for me. See when I was in HS, and pretty much while I was growing up, my whole goal in life was to become famous, or at least well known for something. And being the movie addict I was back then, I was obsessed with the process of how they were edited and cut together and so that was what I decided in my heart that I wanted to pursue. Obviously that didn't happen. Life had other plans for me. So to have this desire come full circle is really only something that the Lord could bring about, He tends to work like that in my life. Beside the glitter of the Hollywood lights, that once called my name, have since dimmed and I can't think of a better way to use this desire than in service for the Lord.

Pay attention to the taps because you never know how the Lord wants to answer the desires of your heart. You just may miss out if you hide behind your fears.

~ Psalm 37:4 "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

Teaching

I love teaching Sunday School! I feel so blessed that the Lord opened up that opportunity for me 4 years ago (WOW, 4 years already, where did the time go?) I don't know that I've shared this story, but I would like to take the time now so that you can understand how special this ministry that I'm involved in is to me and how the Lord can use something so "little" to teach a big lesson. However, in order to do so I must backtrack to a few years ago.

Back in 2004, before my final Navy deployment, I worked in the nursery at our church. Of course it was always a joy to be with the babies and I was sad to leave them as I headed off to Japan. When I returned in 2005, I came back to not having a ministry to serve in at all. My friend Abbey had been asked to take my place (which was necessary due to laws and child ratios, all that stuff) and so I was left to wonder what the Lord had in store for me. I had, while on deployment, finished the ABC's of Christian Growth so I now was able to graduate up into the "big kids class", Pastor Sargents SS class. In the mean time I set to praying about the Lord using me in another ministry, hoping that it might be a teaching one, but I simply desired a place to serve in. Meanwhile, I told noone about what was on my heart. I wanted to be able to give all of the glory to the Lord once he opened a door.

Now, anyone who has sought the Lord's will for a door to be open in their lives knows that there are 3 answers that he'll give you - yes, no, and wait. Well I was waiting, and while I was waiting the Lord started to place on my heart a burden for young ladies. This was a complete shock to me, as I considered myself somewhat out of that category, due mostly to the fact that the Navy had given me somewhat of a hard edge and that was not what they needed to be around. Then one day, post devotion, I realized that he wanted me to actually teach them. Ummm, what? Was basically my reply. And in all seriousness my reply back was, "Well Lord, I really don't think that's what you want", and then listed my reasons to him as to why I didn't feel qualified. But I also said "If that's what you want I'll do it, but you've got to open the door, because I'm don't want to knock." Seriously, how dim was I? I had already been knocking, duh!

Anyway, sometime later on that week I had to drop off my new address and phone number to Kali for an update to our church directory, only Kali wasn't at her desk (she was at lunch) and Pastor Sargent was taking care of the phones for her while she was gone. So I handed him my info and he said that he wanted to talk to me about working in a teaching ministry. The Lord was now saying yes! I was casual on the outside, but inside I was a flutter at the thought of my prayer request being answered, still not thinking that working with girls was in the picture. I said OK, and he said we would talk about it on Sunday. Well Sunday came and instead of a talk what I received was an envelope from one of the ushers telling me that I would be joining the Jr. Girls Sunday School class, ages 9-13. Obviously God knew what he was doing because I can't ever imagine having another ministry, at this point, that I enjoy as much as working with girls, ladies, and offering up encouragement in such a capacity as it is needed. As Tim so eloquently put it on Saturday night, "They'll have to take it from me from my cold dead hands", or, as far as I'm concerned, finally getting married and moving if that's the Lord will.

Since that time, and through a series of events, I've been moved on to teaching the Primary girls, ages 6-9. Making this move made me a little nervous, as I have a tendency to get a little deep into Biblical explanations, and challenging pre-teens in that capacity is a little easier. However, this too the Lord has used to teach me and help me grow closer to him. realizing that it's OK to just give a simple answer which completely appeases a 6 year old. They're usually onto the new thing faster then I can come up with an answer. This brings me to yesterday and hearing the sweetest name offered up from one of the sweetest girls that I've had (I'll spare her name as she is a minor).

This little girl that I teach is quite a sweetie and is starting to open up more and interact with the lessons. It's still a process as captivating the attention of someone that young is fraught with distractions and rabbit trails, but she's getting much better. She's also learning how to read, thanks to teacher Kali.

Yesterday's lesson was about learning to trust Jesus, taught through the story of Jairus' daughter and the woman with the issue of the blood (Mark 5:21-43). The start of the lesson was to get the girls focused on Jesus protecting us, so on the board I wrote "Jesus protects us when. . ." Well, after I wrote it her little voice spoke up and said "The J has a ja sound". I said, "You're right it does. Now what about the letter next to it? What does the E sound like"? To which she replied with "Eeeee". "So let's put them together" I said. "JE, (Jeee, she said) and whats the next letter"? "S" she replied. "What sound does that make"? "Sssss" she said. "So let's put them together again. JES. . . (Jeees, she sounded out)" and then knowing what the other two sounds were U and S she shouted out "That says Jesus". Ahhh, out of the mouth of babes (Matthew 21:16).

There are many circles that we approach in learning how to trust Jesus more each day, but the wonderful irony, for me, and for my lesson was in that moment. Having learned to trust him to put me in the ministry he wanted me in, and getting to hear the sweetest name I know, from someone who will hopefully as well one day learn how to trust him and let him into her life. What if I had never said yes, to the Lord wanting to put me into a ministry like that? What if I had been to scared to ask the Lord for a ministry in the first place? I never would have gotten to have that moment yesterday and missed out on someones heart growing in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

This story has also been prevalent in my thoughts as we go through another change at church and let our Pastoral change take place, how the Lord used this situation to help me instill my trust not only in Him, but in those people that he's put in leadership positions within my life. Because no matter what God is in charge and he is perfectly capable of being trusted for everything. I don't know about tomorrow, but I know who holds my hand.