Depression and suicide are a hot topic this week. It’s not something that should pass. It is something that we need to become comfortable discussing. It is time for our community to embrace one another and to become stronger together. Judy Davis, The Direction Diva has been on a mission to make this happen.
I have never been particularly good at letting go, especially when it comes to people or experiences.
In my heart I have equated it with giving up. I love finding potential in people, I love dreaming about what’s right around the corner, and once I’ve seen what could be I hold on tightly. This isn’t a new phenomenon in my life. In fact I have been known to stay in groups, friendships and other unhealthy relationships much longer then I should have. In high school I stayed on the basketball team with the dream of getting off the bench. It wasn’t until the very last game of my senior year that I realized it wasn’t going to happen. I stayed in an unhealthy relationship, a high school boyfriend, through most of college even though I should have just let it go the first time we broke up. But instead I held on to a dream that should have died.
When we arrived at Ft Bliss I was 7 months pregnant. My first mission became to find a community of friends. Though I was still angry at God and not interested in pursuing our relationship further (read more about that here) the most familiar place I knew to meet people was church. I quickly discovered PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) and Sunrise Baptist Church and we began making a new home.
This world is a noisy place.
Every minute there are over 277,000 tweets, 216,000 pics uploaded to Instagram, 72 hours of new video uploaded to YouTube, over 204,000,000 emails sent, 48,000 apps are downloaded. Can you keep up?
When you search for guidance do you go to Google and join in with over 4,000,000 other searchers?
War comes at a great cost - the lives of brave men and women, sons and daughters, spouses and friends. Today only 1% of our men and women serve. They give of their time and sometimes their very lives so that the rest of us can sleep easier at night, not plagued by the nightmares they’ve seen. They are willing to go to war so that the war does not come to us. This comes at a price to us as well. As the war winds down, as troops withdraw and soldiers retire, it is our duty as civilians to step forward and help.
I am jumping back in. Yep my house will eventually look like a solar system, art work will be strung from wall to wall, and bulletin and dry erase boards will take the place of family pictures.
Everyone has a different reason for home schooling. Personally I have a multitude of reasons but the final decision came down to: El Paso is simply a great community to home school in. There are so many opportunities for the kids that they miss out on during school hours. This year our schedule is going to be full with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cross Country Practices, Ice Skating, trips to the Museums, Spanish Class, Art Class, Co-Ops, road trips to New Mexico, Arkansas, Florida and Tennessee.
Training Volunteers (aka Vs) is an essential part of a successful organization, outreach, or project.
As an FRG leader I love that training is built in and required before picking up a phone and officially being a key caller or before being handed a checkbook as the treasurer. As the Ministry Director of our church I struggle with the best way to train our already exhausted when they walk in the door volunteers who sometimes want nothing more then to be a “butt in the chair.” I have to say I detest filling chairs with nothing but butts. I find it a waste of everyone’s time and energy.
I’ve been reading a lot lately on volunteering. Not that I’m looking for ways to volunteer, nope I’m looking to recruit a few. Recruiting volunteers is not just part of my day job, it is also something I’ve volunteered to do. Have I used the V word enough yet?
Nope, sorry there’s more Vs coming.
In The New Breed Jonathan McKee talks about courting Vs. How I would love to do this? But a requirement of 5 coffee dates before getting the big YES is just outside of my budget. Unless of course my dates don’t mind my cheapness of office Keurig coffee and a bowl of toasted almonds.
In honor of Friday the 13th here is one of my all time favorite sermons “The Walking Dead” by Pastor David Turner (also my father). You can download the audio and power point to the sermon at Bible Studies Online.
I hope you enjoy learning about zombies as much as I did! Click HERE to listen to the sermon.
