Today is the last day of our wonderful vacation... it's been great, so great in fact - neither of us wants it to end! I'm sitting here now listening to my husband practicing his worship music, and just got finished emailing my pastor, and his wife... seperately for different reasons.
John and I had a great day yesterday - our pastor's sermon gave me some new ideas of how to expand my relationship with God... and I am committed to finding some time in each day to expand that knowledge and relationship.
Our church had a special event yesterday too - where we took all of our visitors to the church yesterday to lunch... we enjoyed it so much, and had John's parents with us along with another couple that used to go to our old church.
John and I really love our new church - it has been such a breath of life for us... and is very different from our old church - in a good way. Not better, but different... we loved Fellowship of Houston too, but for different things. Cypress Family Fellowship has already embraced us in such a way that we feel like we're part of the family in a much shorter time frame than it took us to get completely involved at FOH.
John is going to be leading Worship on a weekend when our main Worship Leader, Justin, can't be there with us... and John is so excited. He really didn't think he'd be able to get back involved with the music that he loves so much as quickly as he has been able to, and it's been such a blessing.
After taking pictures for the women's retreat this weekend, our pastor, Kevin, has asked if I'd be interested in becoming the "official" photographer for our church. This is right up my alley, and a perfect committment for me right now. John and I talked about how I could get involved, but with things being crazy right now - I couldn't commit as much time as I really would like to. So this is definintly God working his will and showing me a perfect way that I can help in the time that I can give.
I've done a lot of reading about the first year in a teacher's career, and it is such an adjustment and building time - you really have to cut a lot out and focus on getting all your materials and plans prepared for your students... and figure out ways to get everything graded and maintained... so I truly believe this is just one more way that God is helping me get my life in order in a way to be able to start the career that I've dreamed of for most of my life (the only other one I've dreamed about this long is being a mother... and I pray that in his time - he'll allow me the priviledge of doing that too.) and at the same time help out in my own special way for my church and their ministry.
I guess that I'm closing out this vacation with more hope than I've had in a long time - I really am starting to feel like it is part of God's plan for me this year... and that putting the career change on hold for a year in order for me to have my life changing surgery... is all part of his plan for my future. At the same time - I think that the end of Fellowship of Houston was more of a gift than I realized at the time, because without that happening - we might never have found our way to our new Church Family.
wow, Kim, what perspective you have! It's amazing what a retreat, a few days of work, and a great church can do for a person!!
ReplyDeleteI think it's wise that you're planning for the heavy load of first-year teaching. I've never taught in grade school, but I've taken on plenty of college courses as an adjunct instructor and the prep time is ALWAYS the biggest commitment. But I can't wait to see you get through it with flying colors!