Music, MRIs and Medical Stories

I don’t mean to make a big deal about my surgery and the last few weeks, but too often I think that God wants to use our story and we can tend to tell ourselves that it’s not a big deal, someone else has a bigger story, who am I?  

The Agency

I’m excited about next Monday Night – The Agency.  Yes, it’s time again for all of the volunteers to get together, see what the big picture is and hear about all that God is doing through all of you.  We’ll be breaking up into our separate areas for the second hour.  What will that look like you ask?  Will it ‘just be training?’…..NO!

To give you a sneak peak into each of our areas and what we’ll be doing I’ll give you a hint with this wordle from www.wordle.net

Don’t miss it – Monday Night, 6:30-8:30p.m.

Update

I’m healing well and want to thank all of you for your prayers, meals, cards and stepping in to help out myself and family during the last 6 weeks.  I don’t think I’ve ever realized what a simple note or meal can mean until we received them during this time.  Thank you.

I’ll leave you today with a fun little story.  Right before my surgery (and after lots of prayers, tears, etc.) Paul stopped at the end of the hallway and read our sign on the wall with the verse -

Love bears all things, believes all things,hopes all things, endures all things.         1 Corinthians 13

and blurted out – “Wow, love has to do a lot of things.”  We had a good laugh, knowing that it was true and overwhelming to think about at the same time.

Finding Comfort in God’s Word

There are a few verses that have been a huge comfort to my family and myself in the past week.

Happy 1st Birthday Sweetie!

Happy Birthday to our first born baby girl who turns 1 today!  Mommy and Daddy love you so much and thank God for you every day!

John 9

John 9:1-8

¹As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

 ³“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. ⁴As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.⁵While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 ⁶Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Read the whole chapter here.

What a week!

Well, just over a week ago we were challenged as a church to pray for God to do something big, something that only He could do.  My family and I feel like we’re living that right now.  Sunday morning I was hanging out in the 1st-5th grade room when I started seeing kids with 4 eyes and got dizzy.  A few other weird things happened and I was out the door within minutes headed to the Medi-Center where I was told it was probably just the start of a migraine.  The Dr. sent (made me go) to the emergency room for a routine Cat Scan.  A few hours and tests later I was diagnosed with Meningioma – a non-cancerous brain tumor.  

Talk about a shocker!  It didn’t hit home until Monday evening.  We’ve had a few good cries and I felt like I wouldn’t be able to stop.  Where was my faith?  Where was my trust in God through this?  Where was the peace that God could give me?  Well, that peace came yesterday.  Yesterday morning I cried some more on the way to the hospital to learn more about what will be happening and schedule the surgery.  After that Paul, Eliana and I just enjoyed the entire afternoon running to the beach, out to lunch and up to Hesperia.  During that time our conversations were full of peace – and we know it was the peace of God.  We talked candidly about the fact that every breath is a gift – and we don’t know when our time to leave this earth will be, but it will be in God’s timing.  We know God has His plan and it’s much bigger than me.  If anybody knows me, they know that I can have issues with anxiety, so even writing this is a huge deal for me.  I’m not crying, I’m not anxious – and that fact alone is a God thing!  God is real and present in our lives.  Even more, God is showing Himself to us through the tiniest gestures (emails, posts, etc.)  Thank you for praying and allowing God to use you in our lives.  Prayer is the biggest gift you could give me right now.  I’m sure I’ll still have moments when I’m scared in the next few weeks, so I do appreciate your prayers for peace, safety, healing and that God would do something BIG through this.  I’m not the first to have this surgery and I’m sure I’m not the last to have it.  It makes me realize how much people are going through as we just walk through our lives.  

Know that God is real.  His peace is real and His forgiveness is real.  Real and Big!

Don’t take for granted what God has given you.  Enjoy the moments you’ve been given.

Jesus is our Comforter….

Thank you for all that you’ve done and continue to do.  On the informational side – my surgery is next Thursday morning.

Family Friday

Talk about the main point of the week (God made you / God wants to give you wisdom). Maybe do this through some fun pancakes. Check out this blog to see how simple it is to make some letters.

Have fun!  You’re showing your kids you love them by spending time talking and listening.

Fall is here!

I’m so excited that fall is coming – no, not the weather, but getting back into the groove with kids, volunteers and families.  God has brought an awesome team of Volunteer Coaches together over the summer and we’re running full speed into this fall.  We’ve been challenged to pray for God to do amazing things, God sized things that we can’t take credit for.  Come on God!  Do more than we can ever ask or imagine in the hearts and lives of kids and families in Muskegon-Ottawa counties!  Give us wisdom as we move forward and prepare for every week.  

• Some changes this fall:
• New Journey Kids Blog
• New Curriculum in the 1st-5th room called 252 Basics
• New Take Home Sheets
• Banners
• Hilarious intro sketches for the 4K room on dvd – thanks Julie and Kate!
• Volunteers back on the schedule in larger chunks, making a better connection with kids and allowing extra hands to be just that.
• and more to come, including:
• countdown screen until check-in
• t-shirts for volunteers
• next steps night
• JK tech team up and running!
• and more dreams!

10 Random Things Continued….again….

3. I recorded (in Nashville) backgrounds for a commercial for Atlantis Resorts while on vacation last year.  They said that they needed someone who could carry a tune (and not such a good voice) so my friends asked me!  Too bad they picked the other version.  The NY suits liked it with just my friends singing and not me.  My 2nd 10 minutes of fame (and paycheck) was sadly taken away.  

2. I love the smells of clean laundry, freshly cut grass, coffee, chocolate, citrus, suntan lotion, shampoo, gummy candies, and September evenings.  I don’t like the smells of campfires, fish, onions cooking, damp anything (which makes our basement on the bottom of my list), and bleach.

1. I love my husband, daughter, kids, friends, and am excited to see God work in all of our lives.  I can tend to be anxious about things and God’s been teaching me not to.  If I’m anxious, that means I think I’m in control, and I’m not.