My summer sabbatical- 2008

After 8 years of continuous ministry, with the same church, I am on sabbatical. I took a month this summer to refresh and unwind, and try to be somewhat irresponsible. I wanted to get my family moved and settled in our home and find the kids new schools. I wanted to finish a class I am taking. I had major plans. It wasnt going to be terribly relaxing. But it was supposed to be a break nonetheless.

So far, it is day 21 of my sabbatical and nearly every day I have had phone calls from the church staff. Asking me questions, wanting things. I have had to appear in a custody hearing and counsel people more than ever.

People that I lined up to fill in for me have not showed up or called me to tell me at the last minute that they cannot come. Yesterday, my pastor ( who I directly report to) asked me to teach his Discipleship class next sunday while he is on vacation. I tried to hide out in my office yesterday, but someone thought it was a closet and stuffed stuff in it. I couldnt even get in. maybe I shouldnt ahve been there, but my husband's sub (he teaches 4th grade boys) canceled as did my replacement. People no longer even say hi to me they just spit out their demands. I feel like a convenience store. People come to me for their immediate needs but instead of them over paying for the need, I am overtaxed.

Maybe I am learning to move on, maybe I am learning to say no. It seems that our church body needs more and more from me and I am so finite and limited. I feel so overwhelmed.

this is an accurate image of my sabbatical. not pretty in the least.

teach me oh lord

This week I am at the Promiseland conference in Chicago this week. I wonder what God has for me.
I need refreshing. I need wisdom. I need encouragement. Search me today o God. I need your strength. I need your Spirit .

Have you ever...

Had to move all this stuff that we "need" for ministry???

I have. About every 2-4 years. There is a tremendous weeding out of puppets, musical instruments, magic tricks, craft supplies and recycled easter eggs.
So much meaningless stuff. So many memories of ministry to go along with each item. So many touched lives and happy kids. So many doggone plastic easter eggs!!!

I am about to embark on this again only this time my basement is also full of items gathered for the Christian school my husband and I were wanting to start. Desks, books, tables, chairs. Teaching stuff and ministry stuff. SO much stuff.

I plan to start to list this stuff on ebay. But I am having a hard time separating from it all. I guess I am a educator/ministry director/pastor horder of stuff.

The extra sets of dishes are easy to part with even though we might actually have company someday again after we move. Someday when we make friends and ministry partners again.

The house we live in is rather large. The house we're moving to could fit in the downstairs of the house we're in. We have to get rid of stuff. Why is the school stuff and the church stuff so hard to part with?

a pile toys...

so we're at another car dealership. my kids are restless. it is amazing to me how a mere pile of toys can manipulate the perspective of children. complete strangers become old friends.

sunday mornings can have the same effect. I wonder what could transpire if we let our kids just spend some time just connecting with each other.

Daily Devotions

This is not to say that it is so important to do your devotions. Or to say to you that I myself do devotions each day. I maybe do them twice a week in a good week. (see my next edition of chronicles of the crazed children's pastor) :)

I was reading Oswald Chambers this morning, My Utmost for His Highest. If you don't realize it already, today is Leap Day, The only February 29th that we will have for another 4 years. Needless to say, given my inconsistent patterns of "daily devotions" and the likelihood of having done them on February 29, I found something that was simply profound in my reading.

I read with interest the devotion of the day in Chambers' book, "What Do You Want The Lord to Do for You?" In this segment, he reference Luke 18, where Jesus healed a blind man. The author referenced the limitations that we put on Christ based on our own presupposed ideas of what God may find as a priority or significant enough to consider.


One sentence however, really jumped out on me:

The agony we suffer is only the result of the deliberate shallowness of our
own heart.

WOW, I really hadn't considered that. In our limited finite being of self we are truly incapable to put those kinds of limits on God. We have not be cause we ask not. (James 4:2)

Just think what could happen in our lives and our minsitries if we simply let God be God and remained solely an instrument of His choosing. The results could be astounding.

The best things in life....

are never free.... they take dedication, sweat, tears. Fears of failure, and faith in God to surpass the fear.

Today I have had some of the most rewarding and hard experiences of my life in children's ministry. Both of which really didnt involve the children I work with. It involved parents.


There is a girl I sponsor in a christian program. I love her like she was a part of my own family. She isnt a child. She is a young adult. I have known her as a teenager, college student and now a young adult. Her parents have served in our church. I recently had the priviledge in supporting her as she shared with her parents some of the growth she has experienced in the program, and tonite I received such a beautiful email from her mother today thanking me. The truth was, that was one of the most nerve wracking things I have ever done in ministry service. I was scared out of my skin the whole time. But God went before us and carried us the distance that we needed to span. To Him be all the Glory.

Today I also had the opportunity to support a parent with a child who is ill. I was not sure how I could offer any support. I am not a pastor: merely a children's director but somehow God gave me the words she needed to hear and we cryed and prayed together. God is so faithful to us.


The best things in life are never free, but God is there in all of it. I surely felt that today as I served my church family. Thank you God for always being there when we need you, and also when we think we don't.