sorry...

I have recently been scorned by my good friend Natalia and a few others about not being faithful to my blog. I admit that I have been blazy "blog-lazy." I have had a lot of things going on. The big one has been work but other things have been the small group. Okay it starts at 8 and ends at 12 midnight. I've been focusing my personal study on leadership. I am amzed at the style of leadership Jesus showed here on earth. I love how Jesus always led by example and out of servanthood. Chad has a cool post on his blog here.

Ask yourself these questions about your leadership skills;

Do people enjoy your leadership or endure it?
Do you lead with the verbal stick of intimidation and threats?
Does your organization have unwritten rules and levels of needless affirmation and approval that bring division, competition, and isolation?
What is the first thing that comes to mind when your name is spoken?

cheapskate

Yesterday after we got home from school I started frantically cleaning my house for my small group to come over. I was really running behind so I called Chad to stop at the store to pick up dinner. He offered to come get Cooper out of the way so I took him up on it. When He got to the house Cameron wanted to go too. Well, it just so happens that Cameron happens to be the neat freak in our house and I really needed his help . ( he's 6) Isn't that sad! So I tried to bribe him to stay home and help me. I said,"Cameron if you stay home and help me I'll pay you a dollar" (he's only 6 ok) He said, "sure ! If that dollar has a 20 on it!" Oh, my gosh! I couldn't believe he said that. Chad had to leave the room because he was laughing so hard. Chad's always accusing me of being a cheapskate. Anyway... I had a great time with my group. The last 2 people didn't leave until 1am. God really has a way of bringing people together. I'm so excited about the relationships that I'm going to building in the next 5 weeks!

1st wed.

Last night was 1st Wednesday at FRC. I was just remembering my very first experience at 1st Wednesday. I was so guarded when I first moved to Florida. I was extremely shy as a kid, and no matter how hard I try it just takes me a while to warm up to people. Moving here from Texas where I had been building relationships for the past 5 yrs was difficult to say the least. So on first Wed. I was so intimidated to walk into the student building by myself and sit with strangers to eat. That seems so ridiculous now, but at the time it felt like a big deal. So I went in with my 2 kids (cooper wasn't even walking) and I sat at a table in the corner with the least amount of people. People were very friendly. I remember Garland coming over to say hi, and Brian Vasil, and then Matt and Jen. Jen took Cooper so I could eat. But in reality God was setting me up. I was then free to start a conversation with girl next to me Betty. Through the conversation she shared that she was going through a very painful divorce. A beach baptism video was playing on the screen, and God prompted me to ask her if she was going. She ended up telling me that she wanted to get baptised but she felt so inadequate. She was struggling with shame and guilt over a failed marriage and thought she couldn't make a commitment to God until she cleaned herself up. I got to share with her how much God loved her, and how He takes us all just as we are and He does the cleaning up. As we got ready to leave she said that she was amazed that God brought a stranger to sit by her, encourage her and cry with her over a greasy slice of pizza. To this day I still feel blessed for getting to sit by Betty that night at my first 1st Wednesday!