Wednesday, August 27, 2014

"That Place"

Tuesday was spent preparing for Wednesday. Wednesday we left home at 0740, arrived back at 2030, ran out to pick up some donations for the new chapel facility.....

We kicked off our PWOC Bible Studies today. We had a combined study with the Catholic and Protestant women and learned about spiritual gifts and how they should function. It was GOOD STUFF. I should have taken more note of all those saying they have the gift of admin. It's a running joke around those who know me well that  God ALWAYS stacks boards I lead with lots of admin types....and he has this year.  Unfortunately, one of our sweet gals is going home for an upcoming deployment. She's been amazing at her role...God will provide.  One thing we've implemented this year is moving the participation tables to the parking lot and having "greeters." Think the OLD SCHOOL Walmart.  It was fun to see our women out front welcoming new gals.....I smiled when I heard Gen's cheery voice ring out, "Welcome to PWOC" at Rally.

Honestly....God is screaming at me that self-care is not selfish. August has racked up 109.5 PWOC volunteer hours - not total hours; just PWOC hours, we're also moving chapel facilities. The Rally and Kick Off are over. Things should begin to settle down....

But I've not worked out on a consistent basis since right before the Board training retreat..... I realize much of "this pace" has had to do with moving things from two chapels to a new facility, setting up for a new year, having a "retreat" without a retreat coordinator....but I'm aware  God worked drastically in my life to teach me margin and self-care....and I need to do better to carry those lessons into this season of service.....

Not much more to say about the past two days. It's been wonderful. It's exciting to see a new team begin to pull together - I've seen that. God's moved. Women have shared some of  what God is ALREADY doing in their lives this year and it's exciting to be a small part of it. I'm excited about our upcoming studies.... I just know I need to dial back the volunteer hours now that things have "kicked off" - or I will end up burned out as I was 2 years ago - and I'm not going back to "that place."  Or maybe I have gone to the outskirts of "that place," but my eyes are opened and I'm pulling back.

The other big thing happening this week is our Protestant Ministries/Service and some Catholic Ministries are moving into an old school. We've worked a lot already but the final push is this week and next....and then we'll have a spacious facility, in housing with room to grow. PWOC and CWOC meet together here and we've really maxed capacity at both of the current chapels.  We knew in the spring we'd have to make changes or find a bigger place to meet. At that point nothing was on the horizon. We prayed. God was already working to provide the answer.  It's worth a few busy months to see the fruit for the upcoming year.

PWOC and CWOC are women's ministries of the Chapel. Protestant Women of the Chapel and Catholic Women of the Chapel.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Proud of you for your volunteer hours but also PROUD of you for know when to pull back. A wise woman..

Sounds, like a read exciting year about to happen in women's ministries. love/prayers - mom t.