Durango Palmers: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Last weekend in April

I realize that I've been silent for a long time. Longer than normal.

Honestly I haven't had a lot to share. Our life has been pretty steady. School, work, church, baseball, art class. Not much deviation in there.

Mark and I are slowly learning what we need to do as a team. If you were to ask me what it's like pastoring a church, I'd say based on the past 3 weeks it's a cinch! (wink, wink). I know that we've not even begun to come out of the "honeymoon" stage. We haven't been in this position long enough to ruffle feathers and make folks uncomfortable. That will come I'm sure. But for now, we have been amazed at the support and encouragement and excitement we've seen from many. So very thankful for that grace during this time.

This past weekend Mark and Kale headed with our trailer to Canyonlands in Utah. I will post those pictures when I get them off of Mark's phone. They had a blast!

Kate, Jack and I stayed home and were busy ourselves. Friday night I went out with several ladies from various small groups (including ours) that meet on Friday nights. We had a great time getting together and just hanging out sans kids!

Saturday we did some deep cleaning and got haircuts but then Kate got to go to a ballet recital. She loved it! Our friend, Ashley, was performing and although it was long, Kate thought it was so cool and has already talked about going next year.

While Kate was at the ballet (something I'm quite confident that Jack would not have enjoyed) Jack and I had our own little date.

We headed downtown for some pizza. Here we are waiting for our order. It's hard to take a self-portrait with a 3-yr old!

Here are the ginormous slices of pizza we enjoyed. They were huge and yummy!

That's my kind of pizza!

After pizza we headed to our frozen yogurt place (fro-yo as our friends call it)

Then to the park. Just us. It was such a beautiful night.

This is what I saw for a good portion of the time there. He's always begging me to swing. This time he got to swing to his heart's content.

This little guy just makes me melt. He's such a stinker at times but I love those beautiful eyes and his sweet smile. It was so fun just hanging out alone with him. A rare treat.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Just Listen

Never underestimate the power of listening.

I've not been known in my life as a good listener. No one has actually come out and told me this...I just know. I'm usually thinking about the next thing I'm going to say instead of truly listening to what is being spoken. Or else I'm just talking and talking. I'm a good talker :)

But God. He has been reminding me over and over about the power of listening. A couple years ago I felt like I needed to hear more Truth about this very thing. I looked up scripture and found a few that have sat in my bathroom and I've read over and over again, daily. I believe the Truths are starting to sink in.

Several of the scriptures relate to me listening to God.

John 1:27 - My sheep listen to my voice...

James 1:22 - Do not merely listen to to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Others remind me that wisdom comes from listening.

Pr 1:5 - let the wise listen and add to their learning...

Pr 12:15 - The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.

Pr 19:27 - Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

To listen means to humble ourselves.

To listen means that we want to learn and grow and change.

To listen means we desire knowledge and wisdom.

And when it comes to listening to people...

James 1:19 - Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

Listening to others brings value to them. It shows that you care. That you value what they are sharing. That you aren't just thinking of yourself.

To listen is to build relationship and trust.

I've thought about how listening affects my relationship with Mark. He's a great listener. I love talking with him because I feel respected and valued and loved. I want him to feel the same. To know that I care about what he says. Even if I disagree.

Listening to my children does the same. To have them know that it matters to me that they are sad or mad or scared or hurt or confused or frustrated. Instead of just fixing the problem I need to be proactive in listening.

I will do the same for friends. At least that is my prayer. That they know that I care, that it matters, that they matter. I have had conversations where I feel like a person hasn't heard a stinkin word I've sad. Truly it just made me not want to share again. They have been more concerned about what they want to say then listening to me. I don't like the feeling. I don't want others to feel like that around me.

People are important to me. Relationships are important to me.

I want to

Just Listen.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

What else have we been doing?

Life has kept on going on even as it has changed quite a bit for us. I'll blog more about ministry later but I thought I'd post a few pictures from our adventures over the last couple weeks.

Kale had baseball tryouts a couple weeks ago. 80 8yr olds were on the field to hit, and field a couple grounders. He wound up on his old team, The Red Sox, but we decided to move him to a different team because his old coach, Jerome, wasn't coaching. He's now playing for the A's. A whole new team. All new kids. A new coach. This will be an experience for all of us.

A random picture of my littlest with eye black on during naptime...

Mark's parents were in town for our busy Easter weekend. We had a Good Friday worship service and then our church hosted our first Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning. It was a great success. Over 200 people came.

The hunt itself was total chaos however! And unfortunately some kids didn't get eggs. So we talked to our kids about sharing what they had found with those who didn't have any, and much to my surprise they willingly shared almost all their eggs. We talked to them about how God takes care of us when we give generously. The crazy thing was after they did that, God proved this to be true. Both Kale and Kate won cupcakes in the cake walk and Kale won a bag of chocolate mints from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...I finally asked God to hold off on the generous amounts of sugar he was blessing my kids with....But I smile to think of God showing my kids what it means to be generous. What an awesome God!

Easter itself was wonderful. They announced our new job to the congregation like I mentioned before. Mark did an awesome job with his sermon. We had a delicious dinner of pot roast and potatoes and pink "salad" afterwards. And another egg hunt in the back yard. I have no idea why I have no pictures from any of it. I think Mark got them all on his phone. Bummer.

Mark's 38th birthday was last Friday. We got up and went out to breakfast. Here's our proof of that. After breakfast, we walked around downtown for a bit and found Mark his birthday present (new hiking boots). I had to work that afternoon and we had small group that evening so this was the celebration for the day. We did have pie and ice cream and played spoons at small group though!

I posted this picture on facebook last week. I took a picture of the map I'm using, in addition to Kale's curriculum, to teach him about the US. This isn't the actual map - it's the outside picture that you see through the packaging. But I laughed at the state we supposedly live in...Thankfully the actual map is much more accurate.

And lastly I thought I'd share another issue we had with our trampoline. Last year we had a huge gust of wind that just turned it over. Kinda crazy. Well last week we had another huge gust of wind and when I looked outside to where the trampoline was supposed to be I found this. The brown spot is it's normal location.

When I looked around I finally saw it over on the other side of the fence! Can you see it there behind that tree? Grrrrr! Unfortunately it got a small hole in it. We've got to figure out how to patch it :( Apparently we need to stake it down with tent stakes or put sandbags all over the bottom. It's a huge, heavy sail and I'm afraid someday it'll wind up in our neighbors yard!

And that's what I had on my phone for now. Don't you just love how I come up with posts for you based on what is on my phone?

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Future Fun Friday Adventures!

Thanks to Uncle Sam, Craig's List and a little deal hunting, we were able to finally (after several years of wishing and hoping) to get ourselves a little trailer!

It's not a 30 footer with slideouts and tempurpedic beds (haha! as if!) but it's our little cabin on wheels and we're thrilled :)

We are looking forward to camp outs, marshmallows by the fire, hikes in the mountains, creek walking and little mini-vacations. The possibilities seem endless to us at this moment.

We realize this ain't tent camping no more! It's a bit more work than just setting up a 5 person tent. We figure give it a couple tries and listen to the advice of the numerous wise campers we have in our life and we'll survive and have a blast getting out of Dodge every now and then.

Adventure numero uno is at the end of this month for Mark and Kale. There's a men's retreat in Moab. The maiden voyage is coming up!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Believes All Things

I was reading through 1 Corinthians the other day and the middle of chapter 13 stood out.

"[love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" 1 Cor. 13 7 NASB

Love believes all things? What does that mean?

As Jesus is my perfect example I look to Him to show me what it means to believe all things. To hope all things...I was reminded of His betrayal.

Jesus knew that Judas was the one who was going to betray Him with 30 pieces of silver and yet Jesus trusted him with the money. Whoa! Jesus believed the best of Judas even though he knew what he was going to do. Jesus believed all things. He hoped. I'm pretty sure I would've said 'Hey Peter you handle the money. I know I can trust you with it.' Judas? Not so much.

Jesus trusts us with His name. Christ-followers. Boy have we blown that. Yet He still believes in us, hopes for us, endures for us....He doesn't take away His name. He doesn't go back on His promises to us. Amazing!

Can I do that? Do I do that? Do I look for the best in people even when the worst is what screams the loudest? Believing the best is hard. Especially when we've been hurt or betrayed. But that is perfect love isn't it? To not look for trouble but to look for the best? To not be fearful of what people can, and may very well, do to us but to believe in them. To love them. To reach out to others no matter what. Even if it means getting hurt. Love endures all things....

I'm not saying that this requires us to blindly trust everyone and give out our social security number to anyone who asks :) But I'm challenged to believe in people. Believe in what they can be through the transforming love of Christ. What a different way of looking at love!

Monday, April 9, 2012

The Beginning

I realize that it is now April. I realize that March marched right on by without many peeps from me. I realize that I have much to update you on. Hence my presence at this time :)

Yesterday was the first day of the rest of our lives. At least the first day of this season of our lives. It was our first official Sunday as the lead pastors of the River Church! Overwhelmed is an understatement!

Let's back up a couple weeks so I can catch you up on this process that I haven't been able to share much about until now.

A week ago last Thursday (almost 2 weeks ago), Mark got a call from our regional supervisor requesting a meeting with our district supervisor on Monday (April 2nd). We had a feeling we knew what the meeting was going to be about but we weren't given many details so we didn't share with many people what we were doing. The staff knew and a few others but that was it. We just didn't have enough info.

My mental state was excited, confused, wondering....

To be honest, I had prayed just a week or so before (again) that I was ready and willing to submit to a new pastor in a new season. I had figured that because we hadn't heard anything new in a long time that it meant they were in the process of talking with other people. And truly, I was ok with that. My dream hadn't really ever been to senior pastor. A year ago if you had asked me, I would have laughed! I truly thought that Mark and I were doing what we were supposed to be doing and senior pastoring may be in the distant (and I mean distant) future. Not in a year! Never crossed my mind.

After we found out about our pastor moving was the first time we even talked about it. And even then it was hesitantly. Only as the process went on did I really begin to see the possibility and some of what God could do through the visions He was sharing with Mark and I. But then with no word, I figured we would wait.

Then we headed up to Denver last Monday. You can't help but wonder and plan and hope and at the same time hold back not wanting to assume....We met with Chad and spent 3 1/2 hours interviewing, another hour taking a personality profile type test and then having dinner with he and his wife. All great stuff but we still weren't sure what it all meant.

Tuesday morning we met again to go over the testing and Chad asked us if we had any questions for him. Being the up front people Mark and I tend to be, we said yeah, why are we here? :) Chad smiled and told us that we were their choice for the position but that the interview was to see if any red flags came up. He also said that he'd been up till 2am the night before praying for the decision and that he felt confident offering us the job.

We were elated! All I could think about was how not even 6 months ago did I see this coming! But looking back (2, 4, 10...even 15 years) I see how God orchestrated things, refined us, taught us, prepared us. I fully embrace this new season with excitement and hope. The peace and joy are, by far, greater than the little pee-my-pants feeling I also am experiencing (yes I totally admitted that and I'm fine with it cause it's the truth!). The Lord reminded me this weekend of scriptures that were given to us over the years that we've clung to. His promises to us. So humbling.

It's a privilege and a great responsibility and we don't take that lightly. But it is with great joy that we look to our future and the future of our church.

Our regional supervisor came down yesterday to share the news with our church. We were humbled by their response. And so happy for the support and encouragement we received. We really could not be working at a better church. These people are above and beyond. They are our family away from family.

And that's the story! Of course the story is just beginning now, again, but that's the way it played out. I have more pictures and more things to update you on coming soon. I'll end with a scripture that Mark's mom shared with us after she heard the news. I love this translation!

"Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Eph. 3:20 NLT

Pages