So far this new week has not gone as planned, but, hey! that's life in the fast ministry lane!!
Monday is my early morning walk with another mum - this is a relationship-building time as well as valuable exercise!
Mid-morning I'm usually on the phone to a far away 30ish year old who used to be in our youth group at our first church. She drifted away from the faith but has made a fabulous come-back (thanks in part to a zealous Jehovah's Witness!) and because she knows me, she asked if we could 'meet' regularly to discuss the Bible. The hour long session lasted for 3 hours this time! We are using Rick Warren's book to re-centre on the essentials, but after our chapter, I asked if she had anything else on her mind. Well, did she ever !!! Partner relationship & dealing with a stepson teenager. I'm so grateful to have done lots of reading and reflecting on these subjects, as well as studying them in my Christian Counselling course this year.
Monday afternoon's English lesson put off to Thursday afternoon. Replaced by watching Alpha France's new DVD collection for The Marriage Course with my hubby. Brought back memories of the course we did at St Hilary's Kew when in Oz in 2005. We are excited by this tool and eager to get it up and going. It's slow to get organised because other activities are more urgent.
Tuesday morning is usually supposed to be an hour set aside for the prayer triplet. This turned into an all-morning session as we poured out our different concerns about .... you guessed it! Relationships! This time it included family and church. An important airing of ideas, but a feeling of frustration because we are not sure the church community will reflect the same energy and innovativeness.
Supposed to go to the new manse to work on redecorating but was so late for lunch and had to share with husband what was discussed the morning (as regards the church, not the private side). So finished admin stuff, emails and did some taping for an elderly couple Pascal will visit.
4pm expecting a call from another pastor to discuss someone I'm following who has psychological problems. Ended up being late taking my daughter to music after that. But met up with a couple of women involved in organizing the World Day of Prayer in March, so had an impromptu meeting in the street.
What will tomorrow bring ? I admit that I like the lack of routine, the adaptability of being a missionary who can organize her own time around family and people, the unexpectedness of each day's events. I believe the Lord is in all this as I commit each day to Him. In any case, I rely on Him because I know He has a bird's-eye view of everything.
I do sleep very well at night too !
