Five Minute Friday - Broken

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt: “Broken” with no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

GO

I remember what it's like to be broken. I remember the point in my life when I thought that God was very far from me. Four years ago, I was in the hospital for emergency surgery. That afternoon, I was studying at school. The study hall for classes was on top of a dirt road type driveway that was very slanted and rocky. I remember tripping over a huge rock and not being able to get up. I called out for help and someone came to help me but still I felt very very broken. 

All I remember is pain for the next few days and I knew I was in the Lord's hands all along, but still the fact is that I was still very very afraid. I had never had surgery before and I was four hours from home. I felt very very broken and open and there was no one that I knew there except for a study hall person Mrs. Cheryl. She rode to the hospital with me. All I could think was Please don't leave me in this hospital alone. I was not her child I was not someone she cared more than a friend about. I felt very alone and very broken. I remember the pain as they moved me from place to place to place to place to place. I remember the meds they gave me. After that I remember nothing at all really. I went into surgery the next day. I remember even in my broken state that God does look after His Children I remember the church coming by and how there was always someone from church coming by to see me even when my family arrived to look after me. I would take that day back to have the strength and nerves in my legs again. But I know that God does take care of us and mend us when we think we are broken. I honestly to this day do not know why all that happened to me, but I do know that God holds the future. HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU!!!!!

STOP

First Thursday

Well, I promised to keep up this blog and so far it's so hard to find time to keep up with it.

Today was my second first day working the front desk. It was pretty fun. I opened doors for people, sorted mail, and answered phones. I'm getting to know a lot of the seniors that live in our Friendly Towers.

This week was like I said it would be a crazy week. I got all my cooking done last night thank goodness. Tonight has mostly been a relaxing night. My roommate said last year at Fest for Us she was overwhelmed. I've not signed up for too many priorities.

I'm working the front desk tomorrow and then Sunday I will be participating in karaoke. I'm going to sing Lord You're Holy by Karen Wheaton, I practiced for my roommate tonight and she liked it.

Dinner tonight wasn't that great. Maybe it was because I wasn't in the kitchen....lol.....jk. Anyways, they cancelled women's bible study due to the festival. I'm excited to see what it's like.

My roommate and I have just been discussing schedule changes. It seems that now we both have to get up at about the same time. So we have to figure out the bathroom situation. We are going to test a plan tomorrow.

Well, I have to shower and hit the hay. I hope to get around to Five Minute Friday but if I don't then I'm sure you will understand.

I'm Slacking on my Blogging

I just realized that through a mist of this past week. I only blogged once this week and not in my journal blog but the Friday blog. I feel really bad and I will try to make up for it this next week.

A few highlights of the week, I messed up on bread dough one day and Tim saved it somehow even though we ended up having a lot less bread that night. I hung out with more people this week. I also got to know Zach and Sasha better. They are the couple that I have been working in the kitchen with. The health inspector dropped back in to check on us. We passed Woo hoo!  I hung out with another girl who will be gone for two weeks to visit her ex fiance (???) But the guy is the father of her child.  She's a good friend. She invited me up to a party in her room the night before she left.

I've had book night two nights in a row. We read a book called Coraline, which is actually a children's book that was made into a movie a few years ago which I have not yet seen. Weekends fly by so fast for me now. I didn't even get to do laundry, which I will have to do tomorrow. If I wait until another day I will have no more clothes to wear.

This coming week I'm afraid will be another mist. Fest for Us is coming which is Easter weekend. I have to prepare and bake. I also signed up to work the front desk Friday night. Fest for us is basically a huge party during Easter weekend since they used to have the Cornerstone Fest during the summer. Everyone has to pick a slot they want to work to help pick up the slack in the house, such as dishes or kitchen duty. I signed up for front desk. So during one of the Good Friday services, I will be manning the phones.

There's only one thing to say about this coming week, it will either be too long because of all the things we have to get prepared, or it will fly by so fast.

Everyone please pray for my roommate. Her name is Sara and she will be going into the hospital the week after Easter to have brain scans done for her epilepsy.

I'm so sleepy so I'm going to slip into my jammies and go to sleep now.

Five Minute Friday - Remember

This is where I write for five minutes flat on a topic that is given on a christian blog Five Minute Friday. This week's topic is Remember. So here I go

GO

I remember a lot of things that come to mind when I think of remembering. I remember Grandma Faye and how the family would always go swimming in her and Grandpa's pool. I remember how she took me to Birmingham when I was young for my first Tim McGraw concert with Uncle Ray and Jackie. I have known that she wasn't really my blood grandmother either only a step grandmother but how she always cared for all of her grandchildren. I vaguely remember going with her to show houses since she was a real estate agent. I loved going to her house every weekend and going to children's church. I always remember their house being at the center of everything. I would anxiously wait when my cousins would be coming over and ask When will Jackie or Jamie be here?

END

I will always remember Grandma Faye and even though she died of cancer when I was very young. 

Satuday and Sunday All in One Post

Saturday was a good day. I thought about the class on rest and also about the Five Minute Friday about rest. I took their advice, I think the Lord was trying to tell me something (hint, hint, nudge, nudge). So I did all my work on Saturday. I did all my laundry. Ugh, laundry was horrible. I had a load of clothes that were so stained up from working in the kitchen.

Laundry took almost all day, in between I went to the coffee shop to hang out. That is my new hang out spot. This sounds crazy but within the upbeat music, I do find a lot of peace there.

After laundry, I went to the family fondue party. Some of the ladies there said I should bring my Mary Kay Satin Hands. So we all had a fondue party/beauty party. It was fun. The fondue was pretty good too. Our hands ended up being silky smooth. We just spent time talking and getting to know each other.

I actually ended up going to sleep early.

Sunday was a good day too. I actually don't think I've had any bad days since I've been here. I went to church and sat by Sara and Cindy. They presented the last two stations of the cross. Jesus falling for the last time and Jesus' clothing is stripped. It was really meaningful and reflective. I didn't eat lunch that day because it did not look appetizing at all. While Sara and I were in the room, she asked if I liked to bake. I said yes but that I don't have much experience. She eneded up inviting me to a small group that her and another girl here Anastasia go to every other sunday.

I made sure that it was in walking distance. So we decided to make banana bread that is glueten free so that Sara could have some.

Baking the bread took all afternoon. Around 5, we got ready to go and walked there. It was a good 30 minute walk. I got to see a little of the city and go to a side of town that I had never been to.

The small group was nice. There were kids running around everywhere. We talked about church, politicians, missions, and homeless shelters. We also ate finger food and the banana bread without glueten was a big success.

The walk back home was a lot colder than I expected. I could see every breath that I made. My legs were freezing. My friend let me borrow her mittens, which helped a lot.

When we got home, me and Sara went to Annaliese's room/house and watched Where the Heart Is. Sara had to leave early, but me and Annaleise finished watching it and then we stayed up until 12 talking.

Overall, a really good relaxing weekend. Now I'm ready for the new week

Thursday Class Notes

John 20 Jesus calls the disciples now His brothers. We are being invited to a supernatural family. Mary is weeping. It was customary to go back to the tomb. She's coming to mourn her master. There's confusion because the stone has been rolled away. There are two guys in the tomb and that makes it less ordinary. The two men identify themselves as angels. Mary is trying to figure things out in her head. She thought maybe he was a gardener. Mary is in pain here. We know people in pain but if we let their pain speak to Jesus, we might hear Jesus response, because He is a God of suffering. C. S. Lewis says pain is a megaphone. If a person is lost we can imagine Jesus calling their name and pray for them and leave that person in God's hands. 

Jesus said to her,  “Don’t hold on to me, because I have not yet gone up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going back to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” (John 20:17 NCV) 

What this verse means is that He wanted to let her know that He wasn't going to hang around. God is always calling us onward. We have mountaintop moments and we like Peter on the mount of transfiguration we want to build tents and stay with God but we must move on. Mary understood Jesus saying this. Jesus affirms her and tells her to go tell the disciples what is going on. 

After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. His followers were thrilled when they saw the Lord. Then Jesus said again,  “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, I now send you.”    After he said this, he breathed on them and said,  “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you don’t forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:20-23 NCV)

Now this family extends to the disciples. Jesus appears and it shows that His body is not like the old body. That's why He says  peace be with you twice. Context is everything in these verses. We are not to speak forgiveness to people but to tell them about the forgiveness that is available to them. 

Friday is Here!

Friday was a pretty good day. The kitchen crew started the day with Our Daily Bread devotional. I don't really remember what it was about the only thing I remember is that it was very cheesy. Some of them stick with you for a long while and are very profound. Other's just go in one ear and go out the other. We were making burger bean bake for dinner that night with homemade dinner rolls (yay).  So me and Seda were the only ones in there somehow. So our job was to just prep the bread dough. So we made the bread dough and were done extremely early at 10:30.

At 10:30 I didn't have anything else to do so I went to my room. I actually got some transcription done for my little side job. I didn't realize that when I came into the community, I would have to give that up too. It's not for that much, it's through a site called www.mturk.com. Some of the jobs aren't worth paying anything for but the transcription jobs are the best paying ones on there. Before I came to this community, I did it to help me get a little extra Christmas money. I ended up making about $75.00 extra by working 3-4 hours in the evening. Friday I got about 2 hours on the site just working. But I had planned on getting some work in every day. It's okay, at least I know that I am always staying busy.

I didn't really eat lunch and when I came down for class. Today we were working on the magazine for P12. (Which is the name of the discipleship class) We all pitched in and gave a few ideas. I'm going to see if I can come up with any poetry. Some people are contributing paintings and articles.

After class, I went back into the kitchen. Thank goodness, there were more people in there helping out. We rolled up the dough and put it on the cookie sheets. That took longer than I thought. Tim the head cook was working on the burger bake I guess. I was in charge of keeping the timer for the rolls and taking them out and putting them into the holders. So i did that every 10 minutes, I would get the rolls put them in the warmer take the dough and put it in the oven.

This really made me think about how in life, we are bread in God's eyes. Think about this, He molds us into what we need to be. He puts the right amount of everything we need in our bodies. For example, our gifts and abilities, we may not know what they are, but God adds just a pinch of artistic creativity with a little pinch of something else for example leadership. Then throughout our lives, if we are believers, He molds us into what we are through Christ. When we are put into the oven of life, we are tested to see if we will remain confident in Christ through all the trials and tribulations in life. This is just a little thought I had while baking bread.

The burger bean bake was a little better than I expected it to be. It was burgers and beans put over rice. Sara's old roommate Becky came by and visited. She is the one I went to the coffee shop with on my first night here. She now lives outside of the community and has a full time job. She returns to visit a lot. I guess she really misses her friends.

The Irish concert in the evening was so amazing. I love that type of music even though I only hear it when St. Patrick's Day comes around. The band's name is The Crossing an article about the Crossing. I danced to a few songs and the flutes and the harps and the pipes were so amazing. I met my friend Molly there, who had worked in the kitchen with me for several days when I first arrived. She was only visiting during spring break if I remember correctly but had returned just for the concert. This concert was put on so that our girl scout troop can raise money to go on a mission trip.

I got up to my room very very tired. It was only 11 but it seemed like it was a lot later than that.