Hey there - dodgeball and prayers :-)

So, not much has been going on here - haha. Too much really, but I can't say right now. It is February and like I said, the workload is increasing and so is the stress. That is ok. It comes with the job as minister. I can now say that I am insane. Teachers and ministers I think have the hardest and most unappreciated jobs in the world and I have done both. But as I was reminded recently, if you are loved and admired all the time in your job as minister, then you are not doing your job. oh boy. What does that mean? You have to do your job with dignity and integrity and if you do, then you are going to be challenged and people are going to push back. They may even say bad things about you. They may stomp their feet and whine too.

So, how do I relieve that stress?? I signed up for an adult dodgeball league!! That is right - I am now playing my favorite childhood game with a bunch of adults. I am having a blast. The first night we played, I hit a guy in the face, but I really didn't mean to. We all just laughed about it. The balls are made of foam anyway.

I want to share a link with you. I have decided to do another blog. I know. I can barely keep up with this one. haha This new blog is more focused on the "professional" side of my life. A devotion of sorts - not sure how else to describe the random thoughts that occur in my daily encounters with ministry. So I have put them in a blog. http://educatemoore.wordpress.com/
Don't worry. I will still keep up with this blog for my home folk! I do want to share two things with you and ask for your prayer.
First, we have some challenging things happening soon here and I am being challenged to come out of my comfort zone. I will be able to tell you more at a later date, but pray that I get the rest and eased mind that I need. I have absolutely no problem with being able to handle whatever comes my way. God is there to help me through it and pick me up when I need. Just the added prayer helps. God and I are having an interesting conversation now that God doesn't want to stop challenging my growth and development as a minister and I am having my own whining and stomping of the feet (gotta love the humor in that!!)

Second, February is such a great month because we have so many family birthdays to celebrate - it's Christmas all over again. But February is always a hard month for me. Most of you know that Dad died on my birthday and I have never been the same since (neither has my birthday) and being up here, not being able to visit Dad, makes it harder. So I go and visit him when I visit a lighthouse, the Boston Harbor and the local fishing hole. Please pray that I will be able to celebrate my birthday in the way it was meant to be, knowing that my dad is right there with me.

I do have some WONDERFUL news to report. The educational debt that I collected while being in seminary is finally paid off!!! We have the Massachusetts Baptist Charitable Society that provides yearly grants to help ministers pay back their educational loans/debts. They saw how hard I had been working on paying mine down and decided to help. I received a check the other day to pay off the remaining $6000. YEP - you read it right! How wonderfully blessed is that??

Ok - I gotta get back to work and actually do what I should be doing. Thank you for checking in, for your prayers and for the cheers.