2021 At the Vicarage Week #7

Posted on February 18, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles, Uncategorized

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.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FCornerstoneChurchWinchendon%2Fvideos%2F186761709897954%2F&show_text=false&width=560

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!

Share Your World 2-15-21

Posted on February 16, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

Share Your World is a weekly challenge I have participated in for…gosh… 7 or 8 years now at least. It is hard to believe I have been a part of the blogging community for that long. In some ways I still feel like a real novice at this work and am just really discovering my wings.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PART OF YOUR ON-LINE COMMUNITY?

Anyway one of the things I like about this challenge is that it lends itself easily to one of my blogging goals, which is to inspire community through conversation. This year my number of hits has gone down, but the number of deep conversations I am having with people has gone up. It has been very nice to see this sense of community deepening with those of you who choose to read and comment on my blogs.

Anyway here are this week’s questions and my answers toward starting conversations with you all….

Do you feel you ask enough questions or do you settle for what you know?

I know I definitely do not ask enough questions. It is something I am trying to remedy…but I have to admit I am not very good at it.

When did you fail to speak up when you feel you should have?

This is a close cousin of the last question. I feel like not asking questions and not speaking up have the same root. ….Fear of other people’s opinion. As I look at what God’s next steps are for me I know that these things are going to be essential skills to develop further.

When was the last time you felt lucky?*

I don’t know that I consider luck as a part of my life. I do consider myself blessed. Blessedness understands that everything that comes, good and bad, is taking me down a God-ordained pathway that leads me, ultimately, to God’s plan for me, which is my created purpose and ultimate fulfillment of being. Blessedness understands that resisting the difficult things, because I want only easy things, only slows the process of receiving and achieving God’s plan. Blessedness embraces what is before me as a part of something larger which is both good and benevolent.

What is a boulder?

Feel free to share your gratitude with everyone!

I am so grateful that the Franklins got to join us for church and for supper on Sunday! I am also grateful to have the first pictures of my new grand baby in South Korea!

2021 Home Photo Challenge 1-10-21

Posted on January 10, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles, Photography, stray poetry- challenge poetry

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.

My granddaughter, ‘Lella playing with the windmill in the back yard.

In this little girl

I see future hoped. Am I

Tilting at windmills?

The Imagination Of A Two-Year-Old

Posted on January 8, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles, Uncategorized

We took ‘Lella home today. She was so happy to see her mom and dad and to meet her baby sister Yve.

Having Daniella with us here at The Vicarage has been a great way to start this new year. The last eleven days have forced us all into her rhythm of play and imagination, and while it has been a bit tiring, it has been very good for all of us.

Lisa Johnson, a friend of ours who teaches pre-schoolers reminded us that the lovely thing about children ‘Lella’s age is that it is not hard to entertain them. Give them a card board box and their imagination does the rest.

‘Lella reminded us what it was like to try new things. She reminded us about the wonder of discovery.

And she also taught us that it is OK to leave all the energy out on the playing field and to rest when you are tired.

I think the lessons we have learned will serve us well as we face the blessings and challenges of 2021.

SHARE YOUR WORLD 10-19-20

Posted on October 19, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

It is time for me to SHARE MY WORLD ONCE MORE. This is the weekly challenge where our hostess Melanie asks a few questions and in answering them we all share our worlds.

Here are the questions and my answers. When you have finished here hop on over to Melanie’s place and see how her other contributors have answered.

The first question is courtesy of the magnificent blogger, Rory (aka A Guy Called Bloke”). He asked this one last Saturday on a random question post he wrote and I thought it was nifty AND sort of Halloween-y, so I thought I’d include it.
“How many people in real life or on social media (including WordPress, which has become a rather social media site) do you consider good enough friends to help you ‘hide the dead body?”
This is purely a silly and fun exercise, so don’t worry that there are bodies in need of burying. At least I don’t have any…. if you do, I hope you have some good friends who will lend a hand in getting rid of the evidence AND never tell a living soul….

I am not asking anyone to help me hide the body. I am turning myself in. I have watched enough murder mysteries to know murder bites back….so you might as well get it over with up front.

Are You Ready To Order? What Are You Having (craving) right now?

Olive Garden…

How’s the weather in YOUR neck of the woods?

It has been rainy and chilly here the last few days. But the rain makes the leaves really pretty.

Lastly, one deep question, because some folks enjoy those. Prepare yourself. Or pass. It’s all good!

There has always been something. Before there was something, there was only nothing. Which do you think is more likely?

The something was something injected into nothing before it came from somewhere else.

Attitude of Gratitude:

What is your favorite time of year? Why?

I love the Autumn and the Spring. The temperature is perfect. Clothing choices are easier. And there are holidays to celebrate.

Gratitude | Words quotes, Sunshine quotes, Quotes

Sharing My World HP Style 9-21-20

Posted on September 21, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

I am getting a bit of a jump on things this week and I am SHARING MY WORLD WITH MELANIE

AND I AM SHARING MY WORLD WITH ROGER.

This is the challenge where Melanie and Roger have joined forces to ask us question that help us to share our worlds with all of our readers. Here we go!

Have you ever driven the wrong way on a one-way street? How did this come about? I got lost on the one way streets in Worcester (pronounced Wistah) MA when I was young driver. I think I had jury duty or something. I thought I was going to die and my panic just kept growing. Finally I got turned round right and headed for home, so I am thinking I had finished my day and was on my way home. It was a long time before I went back
As a kid, did you ever decide to run away? Did you have a plan? Take a pet? Sandwiches? No. Running away was my sister’s job.
You suddenly found you have a hidden talent for playing a musical instrument. What musical instrument do you hope that accompanies your talent? Any particular song? I have always wanted to play the accordion or the guitar. If I were to play the accordion I would want to be good enough to play some of the really fast polkas. Guitar would have to be some classical latin guitar.
Do you accessorize with jewelry? There was an opal necklace (cursed) and Slytherin’s locket (also cursed) in the Potter story. Have you had any heirloom jewelry passed down through the generations? Is it more ‘keepsake’ or do you wear it on occasion? (Hopefully, yours was not cursed?) I do not generally wear jewelry.

Melanie’s Ordinary Muggle Questions:

What ingredients go into YOUR favorite salad? I like to make tossed salads with lettuce, nasturtium, tomato, cucumber, celery, mushrooms and grapes. I also like cheese and croutons but I don’t often put them in.

If you care to, share something that really irritates you.

poison ivy.

What are your favorite ‘lounging around the house’ items of clothing? Now that a lot of people ‘lounge around the house’ waiting for the all clear in respect to Covid being shown the door, have those lounging items changed?

I like to wear my plaid pajama pants and a tee shirt. As the nights get colder I will add a sweater or my big maroon bathrobe.

GRATITUDE (as always this is optional)

Please feel free to share something about Autumn (or Spring if you’re gearing up for that) that you especially enjoy!

My sister has been working at an apple orchard for the last few weeks helping some folks from church bring in the harvest. She brings home a bag of apples everyday. I have gotten to bake a lot!

Six Word Saturday 9-19-20

Posted on September 19, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

My granddaughter is sleeping over tonight!

Share Your World With Harry Potter Week Three

Posted on August 25, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

Well it is that time again. For the last several weeks and continuing on through this week and on for a few more, Melanie From “Sparks From A Combustible Mind” will be teaming up with Roger Shipp of “It’s All In Finding the Right Words”, to produce SHARE YOUR WORLD MEETS HARRY POTTER OR HARRY POTTER MEETS SHARE YOUR WORLD depending on which blog you are reading. My suggestion is to read them both when you have finished reading my responses to them.

HERE ARE THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS AND MY ANSWERS:

Share Your World Meets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

One of my favorite gifts that Harry Potter received came from the Weasley Twins; and was “Mrs. Mooney’s Marauder’s Map”. This magical document showed every classroom, hallway and secret corner in all of Hogwarts. It also showed you the location- by name- of every person in Hogwarts. If you had such a magical map of your town, what would you use it for? If you would not use it, is there another person to whom you would gift it? I love knowing things so I would definitely use this map, but most likely I would just keep the knowledge to myself until the time came when knowing something would help someone else out of a jam.

When was the last time you made a snowball? Were in a snowball fight? Oh my! In my world snow is for shoveling and than avoiding. I am not much for snowballs anymore. Now snowmen…. I think it will be fun to build one with the grandkids.
Many cultures set great value in each child of the family having godparents. Did you have godparents? Are you a godparent yourself? I did have god parents, though they were not really active in my life. I think I met them each a few times, but we were not close. I am not a god parent to anyone.
You have found a secret tunnel under your house. Where does it go? To the Sage’s Cave.

Muggle Questions (of a more philosophical bent this week):

Is intelligence or wisdom more useful? Intelligence without wisdom is pretty darn useless.

How important is play in living a healthy and fulfilling life? For most people play is absolutely essential to leading a healthy life. It is part of the great balance. That said, play means different things to different people. What is play to me is not much fun for other people and I find what most other people call play a lot of work.

Is happiness just chemicals flowing through your brain or something more? Happiness is chemicals. Joy is a spiritual quality that goes far beyond happy.

GRATITUDE SECTION (Always optional)

Feel free to share some photos, an image, a meme, a story or incident or a poem that helps you feel grateful.

I heard my second grand daughter’s heart beat for the first time yesterday!

Share Your World Potter Style Week 2 8-17-20

Posted on August 18, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun, Uncategorized

This is week two of the SHARE YOUR WORLD and ROGER SHIPP mash up which we are calling SHARE YOUR WORLD MEETS HARRY POTTER…OR …HARRY POTTER SHARES HIS WORLD…OR HARRY POTTER’S SHARED WORLD…OR…well I guess you can call it whatever you want.

Here are this week’s questions from Roger and Melanie respectively. Use the underlined portkeys above to get to their sites after you have read my answers.

Share Your World Meets Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter can speak to snakes. If you were able to have conversations with any one animal, what animal would you like to speak to? What would be the topic of your first conversation? I would really like to be able to speak to the bigger animals like bears and lions and wolves and what not. I would talk with them about life in the forest
The portraits in Hogwart’s dormitories can talk. If your graduation portrait could speak to people passing it by, what would it tell them? I really wish he had done something different with his hair. The eighties were not good to anyone’s hair. We all looked like Hermes, Elvira or like someone had fried us in an electric light socket.
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger use the Pollyjuice Potion for finding new clues for the happenings at Hogwarts. (The Pollyjuice Potion is a magic potion that allows your body to form into that of another and live their life for a few hours.) If you could transform into another being, who would you chose to be? What would you hope to learn? I would like to transform into some lowly worker in the President’s surround but whose job took them into Congressional offices as well. I would want to be someone beneath everyone’s notice, someone invited in and then treated like I was invisible so that I could hear the truth….something I am sure none of us is hearing from the powers on high.
There was a flooding in the girl’s bathroom where Moaning Myrtle resides. What has been the most dangerous (or comical) ‘flooding’ where you reside? Our cellar routinely floods in the Sprinter (that season between winter and spring). It’s neither dangerous nor comical just a pain. I am going to have to do something about it this winter.

Mundane or “Muggle” Questions:

(Serious one which is rather creepy): How do you think you’ll die? IF you do think about it? I really have no idea. Maybe I won’t. Maybe Jesus will come and “rapture” me home before I drop.

What’s the best on-line screen name you’ve seen? “Best might mean the oddest. I really like SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND.

What’s invisible that you wish people could see?

GOD. I do believe this will happen eventually.

If over time you replace parts on a car, at what point does it stop being the same car you bought? How many parts do you need to replace to make it a new car?

This is like that tootsie roll question right? The answer of course is the same…Three.

….errr I mean 9,000.

Lillie-Put

The place where you can find out what Lillie thinks

Tag Archives: family

2021 At the Vicarage Week #7

2021 Home Photo Challenge 1-10-21

In this little girl

I see future hoped. Am I

Tilting at windmills?

The Imagination Of A Two-Year-Old

Six Word Saturday 9-19-20

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PART OF YOUR ON-LINE COMMUNITY?

In this little girl

I see future hoped. Am I

Tilting at windmills?

(this meme is borrowed from Di. She used it recently on one of her own posts and I found it to be very apt).