OK, onto the second part of my post:
SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS
The Sunday School class I am teaching on Sunday mornings at the church we went from is going great. I have been scheduled to teach three Sunday mornings on Christianity and the Environment and I had my first class this past Sunday. There were about 15 people who showed up, not bad for a holiday weekend. It went real well. I think I was nervous on my drive over, but prayed and by the time I got there I was fine and then once I got started talking...even more fine. I talked about God's original design for our planet, how sin corrupted that plan and how our current sin continues to affect the environment. I spoke on how we need to repent of our sin that causes harm to the earth and behave differently. I talked a little about the direct link between poverty and environmental issues. This week I'll dive a little more into that link. It has been a real neat thing for me to do. I get asked a lot at church "are you an environmentalist?" and I have not had good biblical answers to why I believed protection of our planet is important. And now I do. It is even more ironic, because in my travels to Europe, Christians are on the forefront of environmental protection and in America many Christians are obstinately opposed to environmental issues. I am not sure why there is such a difference, but I now have direct biblical truth to back up my stance.
SEMINARY
I am not sure if I will still be enrolled or not any longer. I missed the last classes due to travel and my brother and sister-in-law being in town, and this week I am missing due to the wedding and just too darn many other things going on. And so, I am behind. That doesn't bother me much, but it does make me wonder whether it is the Lord's will that I continue or not. Just something on my mind to make a matter of prayer.
MINISTRY
I continue to meet with and mentor half a dozen gals at my church and this is such a great area of joy for me. How I love meeting with them, speaking into their lives, seeing them changed and grow. I love women's ministry. I have been realizing, however, that I have been very passive with my desire to be involved more. I have a passion for teaching and I have been "sitting around" (figuratively) waiting for someone to say to me "Erin, will you teach the lesson this week?" instead of looking for opportunity when it arises to jump in. So, last week we had a meeting with other small group leaders and at the end of it they mentioned that they were going to hold a class to teach gals how to verse pool and some other study techniques of the NIV study Bible. I had this flash thought "Erin, you have taken that class at least twice, and have taught those techniques to other gals, you might be able to help." And so, I offered to help teach the class. The response "Erin, that's great! I'll give you a call." Simple as that! I have not gotten a call yet, and I am not worried, but I just realized, how much I wait around instead of initiating. It is no ones job but my own to push myself into my calling. I think I expect everyone to just KNOW that somehow I am called to teach and just ask me to do it when instead, I need to initiate. Duh, I know, but a big revelation.
As for the preschool. It is full steam ahead. Erika and I met with Evan and Andrew about some stuff and it is a go! What we know so far is that it will be three days per week, two and a half hours per session, two sessions per day and will meet at Urban Grace. That is all we know. We don't know who will be teaching, how much we'll charge, or any other details, but we have started advertising already! So, here we come. I am not sure yet what this will look like with my current job, and in some ways I feel like I am on a "hurry up and wait" kind of schedule with it. I can't make a decision one way or another until I know more details. I do know this, that if I am going to do the preschool and can't do my current job, I HAVE to either sell my car or pay it off. I can't afford the payment on a part time salary, which is what I would have if I quit. I have to refinance my house anyway (adjustable rate mortgages stink) and so I might try to take that money and pay the car off for now and continue to try to sell it and buy something smaller. It is a convoluted sequence of events that has to occur, but the bottom line is, getting out from under the car payment. When I refinance, my house payment will be slightly higher, but I am hoping by having an extra girl at the house, the payment hike will be offset by extra rent coming in. See, this is where I so have to trust the Lord for provision.
I am realizing how hard it is for me to trust in that. There are a lot of generational issues that have been passed down through both sides of the family regarding the whole money (or lack of money) issue. Those generational chords are reinforced by my own injustices of watching my parents go through massive ups and downs with their own money history. So, those two things play into a huge fear of mine regarding financial matters. I don't think I even realized how deep that fear is. I am just starting to see the surface of it when I think about what would have to happen if I quit my job. Immediate anxiety and fear....definately something to be in prayer about.
TRAVEL
One of the cool things about being part time, or even working for the church would be that my time would be freed up to travel (how to pay for it, another story...again, refinancing would leave me with a nice chunk to save and pull from to travel). But, even as I type all that, yet another trip to London is in the works. Jess, the gal I stayed with in London in March is getting married to James, mentioned in this blog several times. Their wedding is in September. I, always looking for an excuse to head back over, am looking into tickets as we speak. I have a place to stay all lined up, and even if I still work for the County, I'll have almost enough vacation saved to go for about a week and a half. What would be even more cool is if I could go to London and then hop somewhere else for a few days. We'll have to see what happens.
Well, I think that might be it for now. I am going to put some pics up too!
Erin
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