Going's on

Hey really starting to feel settled here and enjoying myself. Its going well for this post I think ill use bullet points:

- The work with the junior high is probably my favorite work at the minute I’ve had more of an opportunity to get involved and to get to know the kids its been cool since I spoke at God Squad last week its put me on a new level with the kids and they are coming and chatting to me and having a bit of banter and keeping me going about some of the stuff I shared that made them laugh. I’ve also been given a small group to lead of 6th grade girls lets just say they are very energetic and good at copying my accent!

- Driving is going very well had no major near misses or find myself on the wrong side of the road!

- Went to taco bell drive through that was funny the woman didn’t have a clue what I was asking for and thought that I was making a prank order- Its not like the drive through at home where you order through a window but into a microphone at a menu board- which I didn’t realize when I heard this voice saying “Hi how are you today” it scared the life out of me as I knew it wasn’t from the person in my passenger seat!

- As I think I’ve mention on previous posts I’ve been given the opportunity to meet with some of Elmbook’s pastors to ask questions about their life and their ministry. I met with their mission’s pastor- Dick Robinson [I find it weird here that Dick is someone’s name I know its short for Richard but I just cannot bring myself to call someone Dick so I always have to follow through with their last name! I’ve meet 3 or 4 so far!] last week which did not go well I felt like I was just wasting the guys time and he didn’t seem enthusiastic at all or even interested and barely answered my questions which made me feel pretty wick… and not looking forward to meeting with other Pastors- Stuart Briscoe in particular. I shared my feelings in our junior high personal staff meeting [We have 2 a week 1 for ministry the other about ourselves and praying for things] I was told that Dick [Robinson- see I can’t even just type it by itself!] is probably the hardest pastor to get on with and hold a proper conversation/meeting and if your not talking about things that are important for this exact time he doesn’t talk much so that made me feel better leading into my meeting today with Scott Arbeiter who is the associate pastor which went a lot better he gave some good answers and insight into Embrook, himself and ministry.
For your information I asked the following:
1. How do you lead a church of this size? How do you envision and inspire such a large amount of people?
2. What challenges do you feel the church will face in the incoming years? [Asked especially for Charlie!]
3. How do you/ Elmbrook test the call on someone's life for ministry?
4. How do you manage your time between your ministry and personal life? What boundaries do you set yourself?
5. In such a busy life and caring for others how do you keep your own personal devotional life on track?
6. What is your most treasured experience from your time in ministry?

Let me know if you want to know some of the answers!

- Tonight we are having a indoor winter Olympics for the senior high some of the events are interesting to say the least one being frozen turkey bowling!! and we made a bobsled out of bins and wood- its pretty sweet it even has breaks! I’m the Ukraine team leader – what other country would I chose when we couldn’t find a Northern Ireland flag?!

Here’s to going to Chicago tomorrow baby!!