PAstor Nick Fatato our District Pastor came to speak to us in the midst of our transition this week. Here is his sermon and the key Scripture….
36 “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.” Acts 13:36
So this week has been…..
My mother fell down the stairs on Tuesday night. We were pretty sure she had broken her hip. She of course insisted she had not. It turned out the doctors and the X-rays agreed with her.
Y’know it is entirely possible for a person to have no broken bones and still be entirely broken…..
While Mom did not break any bones she pulled every muscle on her right side including her back and groin, and the bruise on her hip is massive. She is shuffling with a walker around the new bedroom living room we fixed up for her in the two hours we had while she was in the hospital.
I am so thankful for Jody Clapp who came to our rescue and helped us with our impromptu and o’er-rushed home improvement.
Over the last three days we have rearranged the entire front of the first floor into an open concept living room- bedroom/ dining room-office.
We have thrown away a couch, a hutch, six broken dining room chairs, a broken table, an old TV stand, three rugs older than me and about a truck load of bric-a-brac we didn’t even know we had. We have dusted, swiffered, swept, mopped and vacuumed every square inch of this area.
Today I hung privacy curtains which can be drawn across the arch into Mom’s space so I can receive congregants at home as the transition at Cornerstone progresses. I have begun moving my office and prayer center down into this front room so that I can work and help Mom at the same time. I have been sleeping downstairs on the couch so I can help mom with the bathroom at night.
We have met with a nursing agency who is beginning to care for Mom when the three of us are at church ( this will hopefully be temporary but better safe than sorry). I have hired a junk take away guy who is coming on Monday to remove the mountain of refuse from the stone deck. We have made about forty calls tom the doctor and pharmacy (maybe an exaggeration but it feels like that).
In the emergency, my schedule left me. Routine vanished like summer snow. My prayer life became so cursory I hardly had time to say “Thank you Jesus! Amen”. The absence of my disciplines left me feeling like I was absent myself. It has felt like I was on the outside looking in at my life and very…very out of control, not of the circumstances ( I am painfully aware I have no control of circumstances) but of my response to them.
So last night I stopped and reminded myself of why I need my schedule. Why I need my prayer time….. It keeps me sane and keeps everyone else safe.
So today as we are mostly done with the first phase of the reset at The Vicarage I have begun to restore the patterns of mindfulness and prayer that keep me from becoming absent in my own life and keep me from being a totally unhelpful jerk.
The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it
IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN.JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.
Feb. 12th– Today was a day of deep prayer at the Vicarage. Hours were spent in the Word and in the prayer closet. I am learning that days like this are days of preparation for the days of action….those days when I must be about the Lord’s business in the harvest field. Sunday is coming and it will be a day in the field. So today was more like this.
Feb. 13th- Another day of prayer in preparation for tomorrow.
Feb. 14th– Valentine’s Day and the Lewiston’s final service with us at Cornerstone.
We took the Lewiston’s to lunch afterwards just before they departed. We cried and prayed one last time in the parking lot of 110 Grille. Well the Lewiston’s cried….Lillies are not known for their tear-ducts.
Feb. 15th– Today was a day of meetings and preparation for the transition which lies ahead. I am working hard to try and make sure that my slow, constant, intentional routine while adapting is not discarded….especially the prayer piece. It is very easy to allow the weight of ministry in the moment to steal away the very things that feed the anointing for ministry.
Feb. 16th- Today was my first day running staff meeting without our lead pastor. It was a good meeting. We are determined to carry on the vision God has given to the body. God will fill in the gaps.
We may not know what lies before us as challenges, but we have our mission firmly in hand.
Feb. 17th– My mother has taken a fall. At first we thought she broke her hip, but after a trip to the ER via ambulance and a few xrays the doctor has diagnosed her as badly bruised. Of course we weren’t allowed to go with her to the hospital because of COVID but I was able to pick her up and bring her home after her xrays.
With my friend Jody’s help Brenda and I were able to reaarange the downstairs so Mom’s room is near to the bathroom, which is still too far for her to walk at the present moment so thanks to another friend, Sandy Freeman we now have a protable commode for Mom to use as she convalesces.
There will obviously be a lot of cleaning and putting away tom do tomorrow but the furniture is moved….That is a super big deal.
Feb. 18th– Mom has been in a great deal of pain. She isn’t sleeping well which means the rest of us are not sleeping well. I have called the Dr. to see if they can prescribe something stronger than Tylenol….Her is hoping we sleep better tonight!
The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it
IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN.JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.
The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it
IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN.JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.
I know after the year we all just lived through many of us were hoping to get back to “business as usual” or at least business as it used to be. Maybe somewhere out there that is happening for someone, but that isn’t how it is for me.
And you know what? I am good with that!
I have said to many of my friends that as frightening and difficult as 2020 was, it changed me in ways that I want to abide in for a while…maybe forever. I don’t want to go back to what was. I want to forge ahead into something new.
And 2021 seems to be delivering on the age old promise, “You can’t go back again.”: With my lead pastor leaving and the church looking for its next leader, I can’t go back again; With the birth of my second grand-daughter and the promise of a third by fall from these two….
I can’t go back again; With the upcoming publication of my first novel, Pork Chops With the Sentinels Of Azatan , I can’t go back again; With my sister finishing up her itineration and getting ready to head back to The Netherlands, I can’t go back again; With the Franklin family looking to relocate to this area, I can’t go back again;….
I suppose as I think about it I could go back…..but I really don’t want to. I feel more ready for an adventure now than I ever have before. I feel more ready to move forward into something new than I ever have before. Somehow 2020 got me unstuck. I am no longer willing to settle for business as usual. I also feel less inclined to accept the status quo as it is set up by other people.
I know how I want to live my life now.
I also feel strong enough to not let others tell me how to live it. I am ready to move forward and not to go back to what was.
The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it
IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN.JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.
The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it
IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN.JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.
The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it
IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN.JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.
Lillie-Put 