Let the whole world see...

Greetings! On Sept. 20, I attended a conference called the Next Mile at my church. It was an all-day conference filled with worship, messages, Scripture, and seminars (oh, and lunch). It was for those people who have gone on STMs, team leaders, and for team organizers wanting to know what the 'next mile' is to be. After starting out with worship and a message, we went to our first seminar (choice of five, and yes, I did make a decision). The morning one I went to was called 'The Next Mile: STM for the Long Haul'. The main theme in that was about follow-through, not just after you've gone on a team but even before you go and while you are gone. It was very interesting and the guy that was speaking started it out with a couple funny video clips, and he seemed like he had a passion for people who go on STMs and seeing the Gospel spread throughout the world.
After the morning seminar, they served us lunch which was a choice of sandwiches plus other lunch fixins. Once the food was all digested, we went to the next seminar (again, I had to make a choice and after a couple minutes, decided). I went to the seminar called 'Gift-based ministry: serving in your SHAPE'. It was the only one of the four that I thought really applied to me. The guy that spoke in this one I think goes to GSCC and wanted us to know more about how to find our individual shape and how to go about doing so. He gave us handouts of certain tests that we can do ourselves to help us figure out who we are and what gifts we have. (Feel free to inquire me of them if you are interested). I myself am very much going to do at least one of those tests, if not more. That was also very interesting.
Then we had a focus group time and I went to one about 'post ministry-real life'. We talked about being home after gone on a STM and how we were going to keep the fire for Jesus alive. I even spoke up at least once and shared. We ended the day with more worship and message. During our last song, Here I am to Worship, we had a chance to go up and write down on pieces of fabric something we learned or that changed us during that day and sign it. Then a lady is going to make a quilt of all of them. It was very neat to do that. All in all, it was a very COOL day! I am glad that I went, and I also got to see two good brothers in Christ that I hadn't seen in a while and went out to dinner with them afterward at La Caretta.
I did go to church Sunday morning, and one of the songs we sang spoke to me and it was in my head ALL day long. I would like to share it with you now:

Mighty to Save

Everyone needs compassion
Love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me.

Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior
The Hope of nations.

Savior, He can move the mountains.
My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave.

So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again

I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender...

Savior, He can move the mountains,
My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave.

Shine your light and let the whole world see...
we're singing for the glory for the risen King...

I must mention this...on my way home from work on Monday, I was listening to the Fish and Dave said that he loves this one song that he was going to play and that he had sung it at his church yesterday. The song was...Mighty to save! I'm like...we sung it too and it was in my head all day long. I almost wanted to email him and let him know that! Oh, and if you want to know, it has been in my head off and on all this last week, and then I went to church this morning and guess what...we sang it again!!

I leave you this day with a verse from the second seminar that was said (and I knew it right away):
'But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.' 1 Cor 12:18

PS STM stands for Short Term Mission.

Time to catch up

Greetings! Sorry it's been two weeks since my last post. Things have been pretty busy around here. Let me start with the family. Dad started back into school the last week of August, teaching at WPC. He is also teaching at where Alyssa is going to school and just started a jazz band there this week on Monday mornings @7:30am. Alyssa is playing trumpet and I think that may be one of her favorite classes this year, considering she loves jazz. She likes to listen to 89.1 (the jazz station) in the car. Speaking of Alyssa, she has come down with a cold or something. Please pray that she will get over this soon. She is a good player on the volleyball team at school. They lost the first game (she played most of the time), lost the second game on Tuesday, but won their match today. She is getting a lot of playing time, which is good and helps her improve more in her skills.
Mom started teaching her piano students again after school started and my sister is doing pretty well.
Work has been busy...last week was month-end, then this week was payroll. I have done all the branches this week as my coworker has been busy getting final checks done for those that resign or leave early, incentives, etc. It seems like almost every time we turn around, someone else is leaving. Next week will only be busier as we start calculating those checks who are not continuing on to the new company. We will have a little bit of help, though from the HR recruiter which will come in very handy.
As far as my standings in the company, I was finally offered a position. I had been awaiting to hear something and on Friday the 12th, I heard. Temporary. Temporary?? Okay, at least it will be until the end of the year, helping out with the transition. See, there are only two spots for payroll employees under the p/r supervisor and I am not one of them. My supervisor did tell me that after it slows down (Nov/Dec) that she would try to convince them that she needs another person to help. I am going to keep my options open and look for any positions that I could apply for in the next few months. I did have an interview at the church for an open accounting position this week. The Lord didn't want me there, and I am okay with that. As long as He knows where I am to be, I will follow wherever He leads me.
Oh, and Women's Bible study started this week. I was a bit undecided as where to sit down, but then I started headed towards the front and noticed the numbers on the tables. (A light just came on) I was supposed to sit with the number of my small group's table. It's cool that it's starting up again and I am already looking forward to doing my beloved word studies again. Care and I got to see each other after three weeks and went to Fred's afterwards to catch up on life.
Have a great weekend!

Operatic Notes

Hi. Just thought I would do a quick post. Thursday night, I went with my family to go see Phantom of the Opera. My sister wanted Alyssa to see it and thought she would like it, and.....she did. She knew two songs of it and was singing one on the way home and one at school the next day. It was quite well done production...my second time seeing it and my sister's third time (she likes it a lot). I am glad that Alyssa did like it.
This weekend was low-key but somewhat nice as this week will be busy for me at work as it is month-end and there is a good chance I may get a job offer. I went to church with my sister and Alyssa last night and listened to an awesome message on worship and church. Afterwards, I signed up for Women's Bible Study then we went to and ordered pizza for dinner from Papa Murphy's and took it home to eat. Today was spent cleaning house for most of the day.
Alyssa made it through her first two and a half days of 7th grade. Pray that she gets through her first full week of it as I don't know if you can fathom this but she is now in a group of 7-12 graders instead of k-6 graders. That's a whole new group of students and school stuff.
I am trying not to anticipate this merger/job offer thing too much. I remember in our last dept meeting that we were told to just continue work as normal. That was about two months ago, but it is getting harder to do this as the date is getting closer and sooner or later you are going to have to start prepping for what's to come. In fact, in some cases, some of us have already started that preparation. Considering the size of the new company, there are plenty positions to be filled and I really shouldn't be that worried about it. I guess it's just a matter of knowing if He still wants me there or not. I know that God has things in control and under His control...it's a matter of trusting Him that He will have me where He wants me to be doing what He wants me to do. Please pray that things will go according to His will and that I will continue to trust in Him on this.
Hope you have a good week.
"Therefore, do now worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:34

Happy September!

Happy Wednesday! Well, it's payroll time at work again. I always look forward to payroll time. I heard that, this month of September, is not going to be a 'pretty' month to do payroll or in the accounting dept, but we (my coworkers and I) will get through it. The reason I say this is that the projected goal of closing is October 1, so it's getting closer each day.
Now, about the weekend. Hope you had a nice and safe Labor Day weekend. Friday night we stayed home. Saturday afternoon we left and picked up my sister from work and headed to the coast, making a couple of stops along the way so the dog could stretch her legs and we could get some dinner. We got to the cabin and watched the Oregon Duck game on tv. We also kept tabs on Hurricane Gustav on the news...thank goodness it wasn't as bad as Katrina. Now, it might be Ike that they have to prepare for. Sunday, we stayed around the cabin and played games and went to the neighborhood barbecue in mid-afternoon. There was a lot of good food there. My aunt and uncle came to the barbecue and their recently acquired puppy, Ginger. Monday, we were able to go to the beach, just for about 1/2 hour and the weather was beautiful. The dog enjoyed walking on the beach and used the streams of water as paths. We came back home Monday night, after having a good time at the cabin.
I believe in my last post, that I said Alyssa starts school on Tuesday. Well, I thought it was Tuesday. She didn't start until today, Wednesday and it was a half-day at that. She did have volleyball practice yesterday, though.
Hope you have a good rest of the week.

Boy, am I glad it's over!?!

If you're looking at the title and thinking I am relating that to the Olympics, you're incorrect. I am sad they are over, yes, I am saying so now. I am relating the title to this week. It was s-l-o-w at work...I am not complaining, but I am glad that next week is back into payroll again. YAHOO! Did I just say that?? I did but I am looking forward to that since I do love doing payroll. I do suppose that it is good to have days that are slow to break up the days that are busy and fast.
The family is doing well. Alyssa starts school again on Tuesday...7th grade!!! OH MY! She and her mom have been checking to see if she has all she needs for the school year. I think she is looking forward to seeing all her friends again, as any kid would, I think. She has started volleyball (v-ball for short) this week already, and there is a new girl (Joy) in her class that is also playing v-ball so I hope she and Alyssa get to be good friends.
This weekend, we are going to the coast. Many I am sure are going to the coast this weekend to enjoy the last bit of summer. Guess what? we get to take the dog with us as I just found out. That should be interesting.
Well, hope you have a nice weekend!
"And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." Col 1:17

More than One Friend

Hi all! I am not going to talk about the Olympics much this post, because, in my mind, they are not over yet. But stay tuned for a top 'undetermined number' list of Mare's highlights of the games.
First, for a work update. Regarding the merger, the closing date has now been pushed back to October 1. The goal is to have job offers out to those who applied for the new company by September 12. Then I got an email from the boss of the dept on Friday saying that they are working on the next level of positions and the chart should be out this week. It also said that, at this point, she could assure all of us that we would get job offers for those that applied, but not necessarily for what we are currently doing right now. There was one day last week that my coworker cut seven or eight finals, all in one day. We both decided that people are dropping like flies. It's only going to get worse, most likely, as far as cutting finals. This is a big trusting in God 'thing' so I will do my best to do so. Also it was a bittersweet day in that it was one of my friends' last day and another friend had come back from maternity leave. She is leaving though in a week to be a stay-at-home mom, but my friend that left, she told me that I was the one person that she wanted to find to say goodbye to the most. The good thing is that she wants to stay in contact (as do I) so we exchanged phone numbers.
Speaking of friends, I chilled out with a dear friend (Care) last night. We went out, did a little shopping, went to Powell's (both of us got to use our gift cards that we've had for a while), ate some late dinner (my meal was QUITE good) and had some VERY nice fellowship time. I appreciate her friendship very much! Thank the Lord for keeping us safe...
Saturday night I went out to meet some friends at a pizza place. We talked about the Olympics and other things. Among those things, I shared my epiphany I had the night before. I had the song, 'one is the loneliest number' in my head while I was out walking the dog. While I was in Mexico, there was a kid named Juan at the rancho and someone (who shall remain nameless) started singing that song. It made me think of the Lord and how He is One. Then I was thinking, 'wait!'...He is really THREE in One...Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How do you say that one is the 'loneliest number', then?
I would end with a verse, but since I don't have my Bible in front of me, I know there is a verse that says, "The Lord God is One." (I am still baffled over this one).

Safety in, through, and after the storm

Lightning and thunder came through town on Sunday night/Monday morning. I saw lightning on my way to work Monday morning, and heard thunder after I got to work. Monday night, I went over to Care's house and got to meet her uncle from Texas. Howdy! We watched our movie, Clue, again and I noticed things that I hadn't noticed before. On the way home on the main road, there was a tree down, blocking the road. The car in front of me went around and when it was safe, I went around it too. I am glad that no one was hurt by the tree. I hope they were able to get it off the road okay.
Tuesday night came another storm. I was sitting in my room on my bed reading in the Word and a big wind gust came up, shaking the walls. Whoa!
Wednesday night, I went to the airport to pick up my parents. They were coming back from Florida/Georgia on vacation. If you have been watching the news, you know about Tropical Storm Fay. It was making its way toward the Floridian/Georgian coastline. Just as they were getting on the plane, the person taking the tickets said, 'oh, you're not going to stay for the hurricane party?'. It sounded like they were going to have a 'lovely' time at the airport (from what ma and pa told me). Yes, my parents made it home safe and sound. (My sis and niece came back tonight from the coast). In fact, we watched the weather channel tonight about their discussion of the storm. It is right now, where my parents were, and about 20-25 inches of rain have already fallen in the area. I hope and pray that the people down there would be kept safe and secure from the storm.
Well, it was nice to have the house to myself for a few days, but then it's nice to have family back home.
Work this week was busy the first couple of days (payroll) and has slowed down. Hope you all have a good rest of the week and weekend.
"For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew 24:27