365 Days of Service

Day 267 - Mar 11

Served with Ryan at the Switch experience tonight and had a really great conversation with a young lady there. I’m starting to feel more at home among teenagers. Who knew?

Day 266 - Mar 10

Like most Tuesdays during my lunch hour, I served at the Internet Campus at LifeChurch.tv. I prayed with a man about his finances and family. I think we’re going to pray more and more for people as we see a steady decline in the state of the economy. Hard times, but we have to trust in Jesus. Our LifeGroup was getting together tonight for a “Going-Away” party for one of the couples beginning their own LifeGroup. It was a fun evening and we all brought something to add to dinner.

Day 265 - Mar 9

Ryan recently accomplished something remarkable and really impressive regarding our personal finances. I hadn’t been able to properly tell him how proud of him I was because we’d been so busy (and I was sick) so tonight I made a “Congratulations” sign and hung it in the entryway. To make it more impressive (it was made from paper plates) I hung balloons, made brownies, a spaghetti dinner, and got him a card. Have I mentioned recently that I’m really proud to be his wife? We had a good night celebrating together.

Day 264 - Mar 8

Ryan works all weekend with only a small window of time to rest. Well, he’s been looking sideways at the yard on his way in and out of the house, so I spent the day in the yard today trying to help him get a jumpstart on Spring. He also tries to go to bed early on Sunday nights, so I was working on a project for him so that he might be able to go to sleep earlier than I did. While I was waiting for the computer to process, I also cleaned the closet. Let’s just say I didn’t miss my workout today.

Day 263 - Mar 7

Have been feeling rather puny since I got sick yesterday, so I wasn’t able to do much. We did show up to the church earlier than usual and helped bundle 10,000 church invitations into sets of 10. Thank goodness we had enough help. If you haven’t heard, Dave Ramsey is coming to LifeChurch.tv as part of the series “Life. Money. Hope. Featuring Dave Ramsey.” I can’t wait to see how this series impacts families around the world. Join us at the Internet Campus this weekend!

Day 262 - Mar 6

We decided to make some changes that impact our finances and one of the things we knew would help would be to downsize our car expenses every month. Ryan has been doing a really good job (and being really patient about it!) of trying to sell his truck. He got a phone call this morning from someone ready to buy it. I took him down to south Oklahoma City so I could give him a ride back. Feels good to be on our way toward better financial health. Speaking of which - see my earlier entry about Dave Ramsey coming to LifeChurch.tv soon!

Day 261 - Mar 5

I’ve been a part of the single moms night at Mercy Ministry for a few months now. I didn’t have the date on my calendar, but someone at work had a ton of clothes to donate and reminded me I’d said I was always there on the first Thursday of the month - so I had somewhere to be tonight! I was happy to deliver 3 big boxes of clothes. I spent the evening lugging around jugs of milk, frozen ravioli, bags of ham and frozen potatoes to get them packaged for these families. It’s always so rewarding for me to expend some energy making a difference for those in need.

Day 260 - Mar 4

Served at Switch with Ryan tonight and we had a great conversation with some of the leaders. It’s been a great couple of weeks talking about changes that we want to implement and I’m really impressed with the change I’ve seen in the kids and leaders already. Ryan and the staff are doing a fantastic job keeping the leaders informed and leading through the change.

Day 259 - Mar 3

I took a good friend a birthday gift and card today. I gave her chocolate - I have a hard time thinking of anything that is better than chocolate.

Day 258 - Mar 2

On Monday nights I make a trip to Mercy Ministry to help lead a LifeGroup through the setup process for the next day. Well, last week after that night, my team from LifeChurch.tv was serving during the day on Tuesday. I heard a lot of feedback from the staff about how poorly put together the grocery sacks were (I even had to take many apart and start over). Apparently I wasn’t leading very well. Lesson learned. In an effort to try to make up for it, I spent an hour putting together signs that illustrate the best way to fill the grocery bags. Hopefully it will make a difference for the staff.

Day 257 - Mar 1

I picked up Ryan from the Edmond campus after the Switch small group meeting. It’s possible that I did something more than that, but I’ve forgotten.

Day 256 - Feb 28

You’ll read more about these women if you keep reading, but today I sat down and sent an email to the women I met at the Women’s Conference at LifeChurch.tv recently and spent some time in prayer over them.

Day 255 - Feb 27

Craig Groeschel’s wife, Amy, and her friend, Sheri, led a conference by speaking to women about finding their identity in Christ. I was challenged by their messages and had so much to think about. During the session, we would break into smaller groups and have discussion and prayer time. I was “in charge” of a small group and connected with 5 amazing women. I also arrived a little earlier to help with setup and check-in. Overall, it was a great night and I was honored to be invited to get to know women leaders at LifeChurch.tv more personally.

Day 254 - Feb 26

I am volunteering to help with a women’s conference being held at LifeChurch.tv and tonight we had a leader training and handed out t-shirts. I can’t wait to see how lives are impacted by the women speaking at the conference.

Day 253 - Feb 25

Had a MUCH better week serving at Switch tonight than I did last week. I was better prepared this week to guard my heart against attack from the enemy and it seemed to be much more effective. I went in prepared to do what I felt led to do and offered to pray for the other leaders there so that I might be able to serve them. Although the night was not nearly as smooth as the week before (according to Ryan) I saw several kids proudly carrying their New Believer’s Kit around and talking excitedly with each other. I opened up to a couple of kids and tried to get to know them better. I definitely felt like I was helping Ryan and the other leaders by being available to them for any reason. I’m hoping this starts a trend of better and better nights at Switch.

Day 252 - Feb 24

This is definitely one of my most favorite days (going back before I started my 365 journey) because a team of people from LifeChurch.tv and I go serve the hungry in person. Once a month, Brian (my boss) and others from the Internet Campus gather together to serve at Mercy Ministry during thier hours of operation. On Monday nights when I am there, it is just me and volunteers getting things ready. There are no clients there with us. On Tuesdays, when Mercy is open, we might see 100 people that are waiting for their groceries, or clothing. It’s getting to see all of their faces, blessing them with food or prayer, walking them out to thier car, or simply saying a silent prayer over thier circumstances that you really feel the power of God. I love Tuesdays because although it is busy, tiring and draining, it’s one of the most satisfying days of my month. I’ve seen so many faces light up after a prayer, or seeing so many bags full of good food to take home, that I know what we are doing there is changing lives. I love to serve God as a messenger of His love.

*Also had a great time with our new LifeGroup. I took chocolate covered rice Krispie treats, and we had brownies, cake rolls, and colonel’s chicken to snack on. Yum.

Day 251 - Feb 23

Spent the evening serving at Mercy Ministry, trying to get the goods and groceries ready for Tuesday - when our team from LifeChurch.tv will be there all day to help serve the hungry. Had a great group of people there tonight to help get things ready to go. I am very excited to be back at Mercy tomorrow to interract with the public. It has been two months because last month we had an ice storm and couldn’t go.