October, Youth Conferences, Papers, and Banquets

Good Morning Friends, Family, and Internet Wanderers!

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my Blog! This past month has been extremely full and tremendously busy, but that has mostly been in a good way.

Thanksgiving,

So this month, as a part of my crazy insane class called Supervised Ministry Experience, (SME) I have been interviewing and meeting with people and leaders who I respect, including one counsellor, on the topic of ministry longevity and stress reduction. This process which started out as being very onerous has become tremendously fruitful as I have received and overflow of encouragement and blessings from many different avenues. In that I have realized that in my mind when I speak to myself I am often very negative, much more negative that I am even to others in my own mind. So it has been a project of mine to work on this for the next little bit and try to correct the way I think about myself. So far even being conscious of it has made a tremendous difference in my outlook and anxiety levels.

This month due to the excessive business of my schedule I was planning on not attending the annual youth leader conference. I had made this plan and then in conversation with my lead pastor I was encouraged to actually attend. I am so glad that he did so because the conference was a profoundly rich experience that I am sure I will be debriefing for many weeks after. The main speaker was a guy by the name of Tim Huff and he spoke at length about the difference between homelessness and houselessness. Tim works primarily with street youth and shared that kids become homeless long before they become houseless, that the main goal of a church or ministry should be to be that home for youth and young people. Because once church becomes a safe place, once the kids know that the adults and leaders are on their side, so much can be done with and for them.

Another thing to be thankful for this month is that I have met someone. I do not normally share about dating and relationships on here, but last month  I felt deeply discouraged and perhaps it is because I wrote about this but a few days later a friend of mine introduced me to a pretty amazing woman. It is still early, very early, and so perhaps nothing will come of this, but I am cautiously optimistic. Thank you for your prayers, in every category. For this reason, and so much more I have had an increased awareness of the Lord's presence and how he is caring for me even when the situations do not seem to indicate it.

Prayer Requests,

My studies continue to be a source of stress and anxiety. Recently a professor has been assigning significant extra reading about halfway through the week, and expecting it all to be done by the same time as the readings given twice as much time. I have approached her to explain that I do my school work early in the week when I have time, and cannot get it done when assigned so late. She was not sympathetic to my cause. After having prayed and spoken to a mentor I have doubled down and not done this additional reading, I am even meeting this afternoon with another professor to see what options I have if this affects my grades. Please pray that my grades would not overly be affected by a lazy professor, and that I would be able to meet all the academic requirements placed on me this semester and the coming year, as they seem to increase each year, not decrease.

This month during the churches annual fall banquet I had two unfortunate conversations. The fall banquet is possibly the highest stress event the church does, and so everyone who volunteers is running on a shorter fuse. With that I had two interactions with church members which I did not feel good about. The first was with a woman who was to organize the tables during the event. My role was mostly to help where needed and someone else had assigned me this task since I guess she was late, or perhaps we were early, yet I did not know that I had been taking over for her and so when she tried to instruct me I was cavalier and dismissive, which she snapped at, and I then also spoke shortly to her after she snapped. I regretted it immediately, and apologized shortly after but I would appreciate prayer for mindfulness in the future. Shortly after I had a different but also negative encounter with another volunteer. I was instructed to tell everyone to wear gloves to distribute food, yet when I passed this along one person was quite resistant to this instruction and became incredibly argumentative when I made the request. The person eventually acquiesced and I thanked them, but i did not know how to move forwards and sat there dumbfounded for several minutes until then. So I would also appreciate prayers for mindfulness in how to respond to confusing situations as well.

Finally I want to thank you and ask for prayer regarding my financial support. As of November I am funded until the end of March. that is so amazing and encouraging to see. As you may know I am in my third year of four working at my church, and that means that I still have to raise a little over a years worth of funds. So as you think of me, please pray that the finances will continue to come in and that the Lord will provide the resources for me to finish well.

Thank you all for your support both prayerful, and financial. I could not do even a fraction of what I am without your love and generosity.