emotional week

I've been in a bit of a writing funk this week, dealing with lots of emotions…

Mourning…sitting with Gary and Carol Harris at Hospice…and surprised yesterday by another old Crossroads friend's death….and yet it definately brings perspective
Missing….missing my daughter and son-in-law like crazy all of a sudden
Loss….of Pastor Tim and family
Loving….amazed at how deep my love runs for my family and girlfriends
Praising… praising God for provision in ministry as well as finally enjoying being home a little more
Thankful..that God is in control and I don't have to take on trying to make sense of details
Anticipating…we have college interns arriving next week for the first time at Crossroads
Determined…  I've never felt as driven and responsible as I do now
Excited….when there is an ending there is always a new beginning

I feel surrounded by God's army and I can't imagine moving forward alone!   My heart has been deeply, deeply burdened for those outside the Lord lately.   I can't imagine the helplessness they must feel.   I'm burdened also for people who know the Lord but have chosen to step into sin, knowing their own decisions separate them from Him…how lonely they must be.

So I ask the Lord - how do I help them, how do I even know who they are?

My heart feels close to God this morning - yet feeling very far from where I long to be spiritually.

 I would assume that puts me right where He wants me.

out with 100 of my girlfriends

One of the things church should be is a place to connect with others, to make friends to do life with, who love the Lord as you do, who struggle with life as you do…

Tonight me and over 100 of my best girlfriends from Crossroads Community Church all went to see "Mom's Night Out" movie!  It was a blast!   

I got the Crossroads girls to do the wave…well, kind of

The movie was hilarious, but also encouraging and honest about motherhood.  It brought to mind those familiar memories of helplessness and frustration with the day to day care of our kids.  I remembered many days when I felt as if I never accomplished anything and what I was doing didn't matter.

It did.

But it was also SO encouraging to all young mom's out there and to see the entire theatre just filled with Crossroads women!  It was a great night of fellowship and WAY too much popcorn!!

We'll be planning more activities soon for all the girls!

my birthday

Many times my birthday falls during the week of Easter and even several times on Easter itself.  This makes it difficult to even think about since the ministry is all about Easter and what goes into it!  And honestly at my age - I really don't care about celebrating at all!

This year was different.

It started on a rainy Monday earlier this week,  when we went to Easton to shop and spend time relaxing- knowing it might be our only celebration time.  It was one of my favorite days in a very long time!  I came home with a few things, but mainly just very relaxed, especially unusual on Easter week!

But, today, a work day surpassed all my expectations!  I got to be with my friends and they gave me many warm happy birthday greetings and funny cards and very meaningful cards and gifts. I am a very, very blessed woman!

Jesse and Eric - horse heads for the Country Western series

This was one of the first things I received - a Happy Birthday text from my grandson!









There were things that made me laugh - like the crazy Student Ministry Pastors - and very thoughtful  treats - my favorite flavor lemon - which caused me to immediately gain weight!

Claire could be a professional baker!

A few of the notes I received were extremely kind, meaningful and quite surprising.  Some of the beautiful young women I work with, are girls that God has given me the privilege of loving in my home and in groups at Crossroads.  I now am surrounded by them at work and I will NEVER take this for granted!  I beg all of you reading this, to take time out of your schedule to build into other people's lives - it will come back to reward you in the most shocking ways and at unexpected times.  Everything we do with the limited years of our lives matter!

My older girlfriends at work blessed me with more of my favorite things as we laughed over the funny cards and talked about the next time we will be able to get away together and our hopes and plans for the future at Crossroads!  I love them!

Crossroads staff

At lunch I snapped a picture of all my friends at Crossroads, (missing a couple of staff that had appointments), I praised the Lord that He has allowed me to be part of this amazing group for so many years.  And I understand in a new way the only thing that makes birthdays matter to me is being surrounded by the people I adore and the job I love so much!

The only sad thing of the whole day was our very last programming meeting with Pastor Tim!  He will be missed more than I can EVER explain!

Final programming meeting with Pastor Tim

And finally a quiet dinner out with the love of my life, my hubby!  I figured out it was my 38th birthday with him - again, I'm a very blessed woman!

Thank you all for a really, really great day!

away

This month has contained a whole lot of 'away'!  And what a blessing it's been!

Last night I spent the night away for one of my girlfriends' birthdays - I'm not sure how many words have been spoken - or how many times we nearly fell off the couch in gales of laughter, but it has been a blast!  I love the women God has placed in my life and HIGHLY value them!

In talking to other ministry leaders I have discovered that our staff at Crossroads is a rarity as far as how close we all are.  How awesome to get to work and serve with people we love everyday!

I want to tell you who my staff girlfriends are that I give thanks for!  There is one new girl I'm looking forward to getting to know, her name is Kelly!

These are the staff girls I work with everyday:

Julie
Jeanette
Darlene
Leah
Pam
Holly

On top of the staff we have amazing volunteers - God blesses me with these girls!

parties for girls

Saturday our daughter and her friends threw a Bridal Shower at our home for Naomi King. Our daughter is her maid of honor and all the brides maids came together to prepare way too much food, lots of laughs and gifts galore!

It has been such a privilege to watch all these Godly friends work together on project after project going all the way back to elementary school in sports, birthday parties, first dates, proms, class elections and graduation parties...now 3 of them get married this summer. Such great girlfriends!

what I learned today

I got girls! Girlfriends that is. Some of us girls from Crossroads meet once a month for breakfast! As I got caught up with each one it dawned on me that we are girlfriends!

Girlfriends had been a terrifying term to me in the past, it usually conjured up visions of constant talking, gossip, looooong telephone conversations (I HATE to talk on the phone...texting in the greatest invention known to mankind!), neediness - you get the idea of my former opinion of girlfriends. But times have changed.

Everyone is buys, everyone seems more confident and it has become a mutually giving and receiving relationship now with all my girls! I know if I needed them they would all be at my home immediately but we give one another space in between times of need. How blessed am I?

So after I finished hangin' with the girls I stopped to make yet another 'deal of the century coupon purchase' and another one of my girlfriends called and said she just saw me in the parking lot where I was digging through my coupons. She talked for a while - saying very encouraging things to me and continued on her way...

I know many people out there are very lonely. If you are willing to take a word of advise I would say this. Be mutually giving in your relationships, don't just take - give too! By that I mean, respect your friends family time, don't monopolize their days off, limit phone calls unless you really need to convey a message and when you do talk be encouraging, not always needy! I think these few guidelines will go a long way to create new strong friendships that you will both benefit from.

Today I learned, I have a whole lot of great girls around me and I thank my God that I could go to any one of them just to hang out or in a time of need! I am blessed!