Worship

Wow two entries in one day!
Rick started a series last week on worship, and he talked about whether or not we pay attention to the words that we "sing" when we are worshipping.
Tonight we sang some songs with some of those lyrics he was talking about last week. We sang a new song that has the line "stolen my heart" refer to Jesus stealing my heart. Is that true? Has he stolen my heart? Is my every breathing moment captured with thoughts of him? Is he the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning? Is he the last thing I think about before I fall asleep? Another song we sang was "Sweetly Broken". It has the lines "sweetly broken, wholely surrendered". Am I wholely surrendered? Am I really completely and totally surrendered to God? What would this look like? Is their parts of me that I haven't given over to him? These are just some random thoughts running around in my head.
Another one we sang is "Hungry".
Hungery I come to you
So I wait for you
I've fallen on my knees
Offering all my needs
Jesus you're all
This Heart is living for

Broken I run to you
For your arms are open wide
I am weary but I know your touch
Restores my life

So I wait for you
So I wait for you

Do I wait for him? Do I stop and listen to him? (See my blog from 7/20) Is he all my heart is living for?
I am sitting here watching "Pretty Woman" with Julia Roberts. I saw the scene where she is walking back into the Hotel after shopping for a whole new wardrobe. I thought WOW, what a change. But isn't that the type of change we make when we ask God to save us? We make this radical change from what we were to what Jesus makes us.

Almost a week since I have posted. Just not a whole lot going on. Last Saturday Builders of Hope joined with the local Habitat to begin building some walls an parts needed for a home that Habitat is going to be building in August. They had about 16 people show up. I was not able to be there, because I had to go to my job that is paying the bills (for now). They got a lot accomplished. By 11a the had done what the Habitat people had planned to take till 1 or 2p.
We are going to try to meet week after next, since Chris is planning on going to Ms Aug 11th. We want to finalize some plans for that trip.
Sunday Leighann, my brother Phil and his wife Cheri, and I went to the Elkhart County 4H fair. On Sundays they have free addmission, and no parking fees. Now that is my kind of a date! A good time was had by all. Next weeek is the St Joe county fair, I am not sure whether we will get to that or not.
Since it is Thursday we have church tonight. That will be continuing for two more weeks, then it will be moved to Saturday night. That is disapointing to me because they are still only going to have the two services on Sunday morning. This means that on my week end to work I will not be able to go to church. Bummer! Maybe I will have to start going to that "other" church that has services on Thursday nights :).
Speaking of church, we are having a worship and praise service this Sunday night with Faith Apostolic from the west side of South Bend. We haven't joined up with them for four years. It is always an awesome time when we get together! I am looking foward to it, even though I will not get there til late, since I have to work till 6 :(

Isaiah 40:31 tells us "but those who hope (or wait as another version put it) in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." This was the verse from my devotions, My Upmost for His Highest, this morning. I have to include some of Oswald Chambers thoughts also. " Having the reality of God's presence is not dependant on our being in a paticular circumstance or place, but is only dependant on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. ..... At critical moments in our lives it is necessary to ask God for guidance, but it is unnecessary to be constantly saying " Oh, Lord direct me in this, and in that." Of course he will, and in fact, He is doing it already! If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, He will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.
God has really been really working on the thought of "walking with God". I always thought is was neat how "Abraham walked with God". Or how "God walked through the Garden of Eden looking for Adam and Eve to fellowship with them. I thought how cool is that to be fellowshiping with Gods presence.
You know what? That is available to Us! We have the ability to walk with God and fellowship in his presence! The only thing stopping this is.........US! If we truely want this for our lives, all we have to do is put aside our agenda, and be quiet and wait for God's direction. Sometimes the reason we cannot hear God, is because he can't get a word in edgewise!
As you can tell this is someting I have become very passionate about. God has really been talking to me about this. I used to think that I needed to get a really great position, or win the lottery, so that I was financially indepedant so that I could serve God. As a very good friend has said many times "God doesn't need our money, if he wants money he can just print more". What God wants is Us completely broken and relying on him for all our needs. We also must learn the difference between needs and wants.

Not much happening here. I am enjoying my three days off of work. Alot of rest and relaxing going on. Moving along on the family room, just sand again, and maybe a little more mud. Then we can paint. I am hoping to be able to do that on my next weekend off, which I think will be the first weekend of August. That will make such a difference! Then all we have to do is come up with the money for the flooring, put it down, and trim.
Sara, if you could send some of your rain this way, we could really use it. We got some light rain this morning, not nearly enough. Even the lawns with sprinkling systems are turning brown. They were saying that we were suppossed to get really hot (98) again this week, I am not sure if it is still supposed to happen or not.
Well, I am going to go get ready for work, yak at you later.

Change in plans! In doing our research we found out that buying the materials in for the walls was cheaper in Mississippi. That was one of the reasons we were considering building them here and shipping them down. Therefore we will not be building them here. But we have a backup plan for the 21st. It is really interesting how God works. Monday morning Dave Hatch ( director for Habitat in St Joe County) called Chris to see if we would be willing to work with them on the 21st to build walls for a home they are doing for a displaced Katrina victim! Chris had told them no at first, but after we discussed it Monday night, it became a yes.
Habitats across the country are building up to four homes for people that were displaced by Katrina or Rita that have decided to stay in their new location. The home that we will be doing the walls for is for a gal that works with Mike L. So we have our own personal conection with this project. Like I said, it is amazing how God works. As he shuts the door on one thing he opens it on another.
Finally a day off from work. I work days tommorrow the I am off Sat, Sun, and Mon. Sort of a mini vacation after my nine days in a row. It is great that we can work with one another so well that we can flex back and forth like this. Again it is really great to have Missy back. It really takes alot of the load off of Andrea and I. Whew!
I am just looking foward to August when Joe gets back so that we can sit down and I can then get started on raising support. See ya later alligators!

Day 7 of 9 in a row! Finally some relief today. Andrea was back from vacation, and Missy was back from maternity leave. For the first time since mid February we are fully staffed managementwise. I think Andrea is really glad! She is the one that had to endure it the whole time. It was nice to walk the store and bounce ideas off of one another again.
I have a BOH meeting here in a little bit. We are going to go over the plans for the construction of the walls for Mrs Hui's reseraunt. We are going to be framing them in the church parking lot on July 21st. The Mike Schaffer is planning on getting a goose neck trailer to haul them down there with his pickup. I may have the opportunity to ride along with him! He was planning on just running them down and then coming right back. I talked to Andrea and got three days in a row off so that I could go with him if the logistics work.
Well I got to get ready to go, so I will right more the next time. Bye!

Wow, the fourth of July, Happy Birthday America! I worked today, as I have for every fourth since we opened, and the day just seemed to d r a g..... We were pretty busy, with a lot of foot traffic, a decent day in sales, not fantastic. To day was the second day of nine days in a row. I can't beleive that I suggested this to Andrea. Just a gluttin for punishment I guess.
After work I went over to Andrea's. Her and her husband have a big bash every fourth. Lots of good food and company.
Not much else happening here!

I really like having the opportunity to go to church on Thursday night. Today I get the opportunity to just relax and take it easy.
Yesterday after our book study, I came home, and after a nap worked on mudding the drywall in the family room. Then I ran out of drywall mud.
We have changed Time and attendance software at work, this was our first week on it. We had to do a Saturday payroll close because of the holiday next week. Since this was our first time closing with this system, and it was a Saturday close, I went in about 8:30 last night to help out. It was a good thing. We had some challenges with the close, and it would have been difficult for Andrea to close the store and close the payroll both. Some times we really wonder if the higher ups have any concept of the realities of running a store. Retail is just sooooo much fun!
This afternoon Leigh and I watched "Little Miss Sunshine". It is a funny movie that makes some poignant points about family life.
Going to sign off now, Bye!