Thanksgiving

I want to make sure that the people who serve along side of me at Hope Fellowship know how grateful I am for each and everyone of them.  I am amazed each week at the team of people who come together to serve our kids.  It is a lot of fun.  I had a God Idea of few weeks ago (I know it was from Him because I am not intelligent enough to think of it).  I sent an email to all of the parents of Hope, and I was blown away at some of the responses.  I thought  I would share one with you:

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my appreciation with the Adventure Kids Volunteers. I am a single mom of a 20 month old girl. My husband left while I was pregnant. I was fearful I couldn't make it on my own. I was so afraid to leave my daughter with anyone, but I really wanted to come back to church. Miss Helen made me feel so comfortable leaving Kennedy with the volunteers in the nursery. I remember I almost cried the first day I left her in the nursery. Volunteers like Ginger and Shelby helped me to trust people again. Through my contact with the Adverture Kids Volunteers I realized it does take a village to raise a child and there are certain people you can trust for help. The hour and fifteen minutes I get in church is my time and these volunteers have made that possible. I have very little me time to grow my faith or to just relax and they have provided that for me.

There are no words to describe the appreciation I feel for these volunteers. They have helped me find the courage to rediscover my faith and live a normal life. I will be forever indebted to Hope Fellowship and the Adventure Kids volunteers. Thank you so much for all you do. You all touch my life weekly. I appreciate you and the sacrifice you have made to help a total stranger. Thank you!

Exciting Times

Got a chance to sit through 3 incredible meetings today...Normally I am not really fond of meetings. I usually get so antsy that I can't sit still and I end up having to move around or find something else to focus my attention on.  Today was different though.  It began with a meeting of our Adventure Kidz Leadership Team. This is a team that I am forming to help me with the directional Leadership of Adventure Kidz.  We are still forming this team, I have two more positions on the team that I would like to fill, but it is made up of myself, Helen and Jennifer (my Early Childhood Director and Administrative Assistant), Eric (my High Point Guy and Key Director), and Julie (my Girls Ministries Director).  This team challenges me.  I can be "set in my ways" sometimes, and this group is really pushing me to see things through a different perspective.  This week we met to discuss two major events that have happened in the last few weeks, and to look at our 09 calendar.  It was fun to meet with a group that is so committed to the ministry that God has placed them in.

From there, I went directly into our monthly leadership team meeting with the other Pastor's and staff of Hope.  We discussed more of our mission and how we can continue to stay on course.  We also went over the entire calendar for 09.  It is always fun to meet with this group, though sometimes we have issues "staying focused."  There are certainly never any dull moments :)

When we got back to the office after lunch, Helen and I looked at our new Early Childhood Structure.  It was fun to dream a little bit, and look for opportunities to find the "perfect fit" for our leaders.  It is our goal to make sure that every player on our team is in the position to score a big win for themselves and for Adventure Kidz!

I love these crazy times that I find myself leading it.  As stressful as it is, it is so much fun!

-PS

Fun to be on a great team!

Reminded again this weekend how awesome it is to be on a great team.  When everyone is doing their thing and doing it great, and we all still work well together, that is truly fun!

What a weekend!

This was  a pretty incredible couple of Days at Hope Fellowship.  On Thursday, my leadership team and I recognized the hard work that our volunteer teams have been doing all year long at our first "Leadership Appreciation Banquet".  It was a fun time watching them come in and having the chance to honor them for all they have done.  I had a "God-Idea" on Wednesday morning, and I sent out a request to the parents of Hope.  I asked them to send me notes of appreciation to our team, or to send me a story from their experiences with our team.  The emails came pouring in, and when I finally put the last ones together, we had nearly 15 pages of notes of encouragement.  I was blown away by story after story of changed lives and families.  It made me realize even more that God is using this team to do something special.

Two home runs to win the game!

Sometimes I can get a bit discouraged. I am very much the type that wants to see things happen, and see things happen quickly.  I am rarely satisfied with the progress that I see happening, and I am always looking for ways to improve. Every once in a while though, I am reminded by God that things move in His time, and not mine.  Today was a long day, and at times felt like a very tedious day, but I got to see 5 of our girls play a softball game (two games, and all 5 of our girls were on the winning teams (oh yeah, and in the first one, they were down by two in the last inning, and one of our girls hit a home run to make it 2-1 and another one of our girls hit another home run with a girl on to make it 3-2)  it was a ton of fun.)

I am reminded that my job is not the crowd that shows up on the weekends, although that is a big part of what I do, my job is to pastor the individuals, the kids and the team of people who serve those kids.  I love doing what I get to do, and I love the people that God has blessed me with to serve alongside.

Being Just a Kids Pastor is really pretty cool sometimes!