Share Your World 2016 Week 16

Posted on April 21, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

It’s past time for this post this week, but then my whole world is going a little slower this week as I am adjusting to the pace of this cold or severe allergy or whatever it is. My head is full, my eyes are watering and I have gone through several boxes of Kleenex. How’s that for a share? 😦

But enough of that. It’s time to answer Cee’s wonderful questions this week.

Here are the questions and my answers

If you had to have your vision corrected would you rather: glasses or contacts? Or what do you use if you need to have your vision corrected?

I use glasses. I cannot stand the thought of touching my eye to put in a contact lens.

If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?

Stop!

Was school easy or difficult for you? How so?

School itself was easy (except for geometry). I loved the learning process and I loved being in class. The hardest part of school was gym. I was a nerd and a klutz. It made me everyone’s last choice on a team. Have you seen Diary of A Wimpy Kid? I still cringe when I watch it.

Would you rather take a 1 or 2 week vaction with an organized tour or take a cruise of your choice?

I love a two week vacation. I loved the trip my daughter and I took to Ireland. We had our rest stops planned and suggested sites to see, but the days were ours to plan and the pace was ours to keep. We tracked alongside some of the bus tours. Oh my gosh! I think the pace of a bus tour would have killed me. I work too hard to have to rush through a vacation.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful I got to go out with my daughter for her 26th birthday last night. This week I am looking forward to getting over this cold or allergies or whatever it is.

Amanda at the Old Mill

Please click THIS LINK TO SEE ALL OF CEE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Share Your World 2016 Week #14

Posted on April 5, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

I am kicking off my writing week with SHARE YOUR WORLD 2016. In this challenge our hostess Cee asks us five questions and in answering we share our worlds with each other. You can click the underlined link to see all the contributions to the challenge.

Here are the questions for the week and my answers:

If you could hire someone to help you, would it be with cleaning, cooking, or yard work?

I actually am in the process of hiring someone right now to help me with several projects around the house. It’s not yard work exactly but the old place needs a new front porch and new gutters. The chimney needs to be relined and reappointed. The whole place needs a fresh coat of paint and the masonry on our stone porch needs some help. Can you say home equity loan?

What makes you laugh the most?

I think lunch time with the church staff is the most hilarious time of day for me. We all work under such high stress levels that lunch time becomes the time of day we can really cut loose and release the tension.

You are probably thinking that a church job should not be stressful; After all, pastors only work one day a week, right? Well that is not really so, particularly in this cultural climate. People are hurting and in need and daily we deal with some pretty emotionally difficult situations. Being able to laugh keeps us going.

A merry heart does good, like medicine,
But a broken spirit dries the bones. Prov. 17:22

What was your favorite food when you were a child?

Macaroni & Cheese with hot dogs.

List at least five favorite flowers or plants.

Wisteria

lilac

lemon balm

lavender

sea rose

I could go on but these five will do.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful to have had the privilege to perform my cousin’s wedding last week.Weddings usually make me so nervous but I was actually pretty relaxed through this one.

This week is going to be a little nuts. With the winter storm last night I lost a rehearsal for one of my concerts this week and the week was already tight as it was. I am looking forward to Sunday afternoon and the week being done.

Share Your World 2016 Week 13

Posted on March 29, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

Can you even believe we are 13 weeks into 2016? We have officially begun the second quarter of the year. Soon we will be half done!

We still have loads of questions to answer though before this year breathes its last. Every week from here until 2017 Cee will ask us 5 questions. In answering them we, Cee’s contributors, are sharing our world.

Here are this week’s questions and my answers.

Are you left or right handed?

I am right hand dominant, but playing piano has strengthened the coordination in my left hand a bit.

If you had only one TV, would you prefer the TV in the living room or another room?

I do have only one TV currently and it is in the living room.

Have you ever participated in a distance walking, swimming, running, or biking event? Tell your story.

I once did a walk-a-thon for a ministry called Speed-The Light. That is a ministry which buys vehicles or equipment of any kind to help missionaries do their jobs. That is the closest I have ever come to what you would call long distance, and I don’t even really know how far I walked. I did laps around a track for about five hours.

Complete this sentence: Love is… .

patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:4-13

OK it may not be original but it is accurate.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful for a wonderful Easter weekend. Here are some photos from our various events….

worship team

Easter morning worship

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter BBQ at Cornerstone

This week I am looking forward to performing my cousin’s wedding.

Now check out Cee’s other contributors by clicking the underlined link above.

Share Your World 2016: Week 11

Posted on March 17, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

It’s time to SHARE OUR WORLD’S WITH CEE!

Every week Cee asks five questions, In answering them her many contributors share their worlds with the blogosphere. You can find all their answers by clicking the underlined link above.

This weeks questions and my answers are below:

How many siblings do you have? What’s your birth order?

I have one sister, Brenda. She is a missionary to the Netherlands. I am the oldest. I am a pastor here in America.

This is me and Brenda at Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse

In a car would you rather drive or be a passenger?

I would rather be a passenger. I love riding. That said, I almost always drive as I am generally alone in the car.

When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?

Usually both. I have a vast supply of candles in the house and at least one flashlight on every floor…except the cellar which I try to avoid at all costs in a black out.

List at least five of your favorite types of animals? (any animal to domestic to wild to marine life)

I love dogs, especially my little dogs.

I love cats too. In fact my daughter is moving in with her cat Picasso on Saturday. That means in my house there will live four people, three Maltese and one tabby cat who outweighs all the dogs by at least double.

I love birds. The property I live on is covered in wild roses and that attracts the wild birds throughout the winter. I love going out and seeing the waxwings and the chickadees and the robins and the cardinals in the trees. I especially love birdsong in the spring.

I love mountain lions, not like in a cuddly way, that’s just stupid. Those people who go out and live with giant carnivores and try to be their friends and be accepted in their packs are just crazy in my mind; But as a concept I like mountain lions. One was spotted in the town next door about a month ago.

Finally I love bears…in the same way I love mountain lions.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that at last week’s bowl-athon fundraiser for special needs the ministry brought in almost $4,000.00! This week I am looking forward to a fun-filled Saturday at C.cada. Ray Parker will be giving a lesson in basic camera use in the afternoon and I have a new camera I am dying to work with.

Share Your World 2016 Week 10

Posted on March 8, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

We just crossed into double digits with SYW 2016 can you believe it? Only 42 more weeks to go until 2017. Click the underlined link to be transported to a great sharing space at Cee’s Blog.

This week Cee has asked us five sharing questions and given us a warning. The warning is

With your answers, please remember we are in the SYW world which may not always match our reality.

The questions are:

What would you ask for if a genie granted you three wishes?

I think I would ask the genie to make me strong enough to cover all the bases that need covering in my section of the human sea of need. I do realize however that genies are quite literal and I would probably be given a huge baseball diamond in the middle of an ocean along with super speed so that I could run on top of the water and thereby cover all the bases. I think I will just continue to ask God for the strength. He gets the metaphor.

What experiences are most meaningful to you?

I love our times around the altar of the church. There is nothing like being in the presence of God.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As a young child I wanted to be a zoo keeper, a naturalist, an ornithologist or something else that would keep me near animals and the natural world. From the eighth grade on though I pretty much knew I was going to be a pastor. It was an innate sense I guess you could say…a calling I couldn’t deny.

Complete this sentence: The best day of my life was….

the day I received Jesus as Savior and Lord. The second best day was the day I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful that our lead pastor, Pastor Risto was back to lead staff meeting last week. He had been away and then had Network staff meetings in Sturbridge . So I was running meetings for a few weeks. This week I am looking forward to ministering in two concerts.

Share Your World 2016 Week #9

Posted on March 4, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun, Uncategorized

It’s past time for me to

Every week Cee invites her contributors to SHARE BITS OF THEIR LIVES.

You can discover how the rest of the world is sharing by clicking the underlined link. Here are the questions we are all answering along with my answers.

Have you done something you truly want to do today?

I get to do lots of things I want to do everyday. I love my job of pastoring and while there are pieces of it that get pushed to the back burner because of the craziness of everyday life I do really enjoy it all. Today is a day of office cleaning and administrating . I am finally getting to organize my desk and my office and that feels really good! Currently it looks like my desk blew up and that makes me sad.

What can you help the world with?

I believe I am called to help the world by bringing them to the knowledge of God.

If life was ‘just a bowl of cherries’… which fruit other than a cherry would you be..?

I would be a kiwi. Sweet, fuzzy and a little odd.

Quotes List: At least three of your favorite quotes?

I have so many favorite quotes narrowing it down to three is really hard, but I shall try. Here are three quotes on joy I really like shared by my friend and fellow artist Betty Knowlton:

What a witness to the world Christians would be, if only we were evidently very happy people
.
Our sense of joy, satisfaction and fulfillment in life increases, no matter what the circumstances, if we are in the center of God’s will.
Joy is NOT the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful that last week I got to preach at Cornerstone and that four people came to Jesus. This next week I am looking forward to leading worship at Cornerstone!