District Council

We had a great district council this year. We were miraculously provided for. I was miraculously healed of an ear infection and sore throat. You can read about our provision on my hubby’s blog. He did a great job of writing about it, so there is no reason for me to rewrite it. So, check out Adventures in Asceticism. He’s written some other great posts about District Council as well. I will just add that generally, our church pays for all or most of our expenses. That has been a wonderful gift in the past, but this year was especially tight, so we took donations, but not even an official love offering. I was amazed at the amount we got that way, but it still wasn’t enough. Our personal finances have been really tight the past month as well, so we weren’t in a great place when we left.

Now, as for my healing, I get to tell that story! Sunday, Princess was complaining of a sore throat. I thought, “oh, great, we’ll all be sick by the end of the week!” I wasn’t wrong. 😦 I tend to stress out when we are going somewhere. I don’t want to forget anything and I have to pack nearly everything. I make Chris pack his own clothes is all. So, I usually do get sick at the start of a trip. I think I run down my immune system or something. Anyways, I got it Sunday night. My throat hurt just a little. I thought maybe I wouldn’t get the full-blown thing. But, I did. Monday morning, I was croaking out my sentences. Monday afternoon, my in-laws met us at the campground and we handed off the kids. We went to dinner and shopping with them, but the kids were stuck to grandma and grandpa. Monday night they slept on their bus while we slept in our hotel room.

Tuesday morning we headed off to DC (District Council). My head hurt and my throat was killing me, but it was still manageable. So we went to the ordination luncheon and the banquet that night. At the banquet, my ears started hurting. I didn’t even tell Chris because I was hoping it wouldn’t be anything. We went to the house that was lent to us. It was great by the way! What fun! At 2 a.m. I awoke with terrible ear pain.

 

Almost Ordination Time!

Well, the big day is here! I will be ordained in about 5 hours! Yay! I can’t wait! District Council has gone pretty well. Right now I’m sitting in a seminar with Ed Stetzer talking about being a missional church. Good stuff! In an hour and a half, we will get pictures taken with our kids, go to dinner with the in-laws and then come back for practice and more pictures.

It has been confirmed that we are the first couple to get ordained at the same time in Michigan, at least for the past 20 years that our district superintendent, Bro. William Leach, has been in office. We succeeded in confusing the ceremony. But, having practiced, all should go well. I must be honest that it was rather fun confusing things. 🙂

Ed Stetzer is a great speaker. He talks realy fast, but what he has good church planting stuff to say. He is saying that just like missionaries who go to other countries, we need to prepare for our “mission field” where we are pastors. We need to be intentional about reaching people. Just like missionaries learn a new language and culture, we need to continually relearn the culture of those we are trying to reach. That might mean having church in a coffee shop or bar. It might mean going out to help a farmer plant his crop. Whatever the situation of the people, we need to associate ourselves with them in an obvious way. We have “engage the culture where they are.” He listed three things that we need to be do in conjunction with each other.

“Our churches need to be biblically faithful, culturally relevant and counter-culture community for the gospel and the kingdom.”

Good stuff!!! Well, I’m signing off for now!

If there are typos in this post, my apologies! I’m using Hubby’s laptop. Did I tell you that a 7-foot shelf with 20-30 vases fell on him and his laptop? I don’t think I did. I blogged about it on my minister’s network on ning.com, but never copied it over. I will have to do that.

 

Ordination, Digi-scrapping and Other Assorted News!

This year has been CRAZY!!! I know that isn’t an excuse for my lack of posts, though. I’ve been feeling kinda unspiritual lately. I can’t really explain it better than that. Here I am a short week before ordination and feeling…blah spiritually. I’ve decided to take action! And I have. Hopefully my action will get me out of this funk.

So, yeah, my wonderful hubby and I will be getting ordained on Thursday, May 8th. I’m very excited! We have worked for this and I will be glad to have accomplished yet another goal in my life. I created an invitation using digi-scrap items. This is Shauna of Pineapple Plantation’s Fancy Pants kit. If you’ll be around Detroit, here is the invite:

I’m sure you’re wondering what I’ve been doing with myself all this time. I am too! lol! No, really, our family had the flu two time this year and that wiped us out for a good 5 or 6 weeks! In my free time, I have been diligently digi-scrapping. I just got into this whole new world. I really love it. I’m a huge fan of Photoshop and I never really got into paper scrapping because of the time, cost and space needed. I really love digi-scrapping. In fact, I am the lead moderator on a new digi-scrapping site. I love it at the Scrap Orchard! Here is a recent layout that I did. I think it’s my best ever! If you like it, click it and leave me some comment love! All of the credits are in the gallery.

What do you think? I was going for whimsical. I think I did it!

So, we are leaving on Sunday sometime to go down to the campground, owned by the Assemblies of God Michigan District, where we will spend a couple of R & R days and meet my in-laws. They are watching our kids for us while we are at District Council. Tuesday we will head to District Council. Then Thursday everyone, including my family, will meet in Detroit to see us get ordained. I’m super excited! Can you tell? One of the pastors in Detroit offered us their church’s missionary house to stay in, FREE of Charge, while we are there. Isn’t that awesome? We have the whole 4 bedroom house so our family can stay with us Thursday night. Yay!

God always provides for us even when we don’t know how he will do it! Praise the Lord!

Well, now you know I’m still alive. I do feel rather bad about not writing lately. But, I should have plenty to write about our ordination, so look for that in a week or so!

 

Our Ordination Interview

Thank you all for your prayers today. We needed them and appreciated them. The interview went really well. They had an issue with a post I wrote about tithe a while back, with good reason. I really had no idea I had left out so many details when I wrote it. I can’t say enough how embarrassed I am now that I realize how it came out of my head. It really didn’t look like that inside my head.

They asked pretty much what everyone said they would, like why do you want to be ordained and what does ordination mean to you? But, most of the time was spent talking about my blog posts and the logistics of blog writing when you are a pastor.

I really appreciate the three men that interviewed us. I appreciate the loving tone that they used when talking about this post. I appreciate that they saw that I was terribly embarrassed when I realized how bad the post was. Most of all, I appreciate that they want the best for each pastor in the district; it was obvious from the conversation and the prayers. I now covet their prayers and friendship.

It really was a great experience. I felt like I could have stayed and talked to them all day. We had already gone half an hour over when we left, though. While I was talking to them, I only felt loved.

The interview really made me realize a lot things.

 

I Need Prayer

Thursday, my hubby and I have our ordination exams. I am really, really nervous. At first I was nervous because I had no idea what to expect. I’ve learned a bit more in the last 24 hours and now I am nervous because I don’t feel ready. I was told that they ask questions from the exam. That’s only slightly bad. I’m not sure I remember all the verses that went with everything. But then I was told they will definitely ask the questions that you got wrong! Well, that’s just great! They didn’t tell us what we got wrong. I have some idea from what I didn’t know when taking the exam, but that doesn’t cover all my missed answers! I only got an 88%. I know maybe 5% of the questions I got wrong. So I am super nervous.

The other thing I have to be able to do is give evidence of my call. That doesn’t sound too hard, but I never had any “Aha!” moments. My call was gradual. At first I knew that I would be a pastor’s wife. When I got out of college I felt led to become licensed without any thought of ever being ordained. I received a specialized ministry license. I was sure I was never going to preach. I knew I was avoiding it and eventually I was ready to listen to God and switch to license to preach. At that point, I figured I may as well go all the way and get ordained. I feel called, but that’s not really too much evidence. I suppose that since it is the truth and I can talk about it passionately, I should be fine, but I’m still nervous.

I am still seeking more information if anyone has an idea of what goes on in an Assemblies of God ordination interview. I would love to have a better idea. Is there just one interview or several? You would think that since my grandfather, father, father-in-law were pastors and I grew up in the AG, I should have a better idea. I don’t!

Please pray for me. I need it. I need it now as I study and Thursday as I get interviewed. Thanks!