Tennis Shoes vs Flip Flops

Top Five Reasons to wear Tennis shoes vs Flip Flops to Youth Group:
5. It is easier to run when playing games
4. If you have not clipped your toe nails in a while no one will know
3. No one has to smell your feet unless you take off your shoes
2. It is not as easy for anyone to try to take your shoes
And the Number One reason to wear Tennis Shoes vs Flip Flops to youth group is....

1. When you and are another person are both going for a Frisbee and their shoe runs into your toe you are less likely to have a black and blue, swollen, possibly broken toe!

Danger Will Robinson

Whew so much has been going on. Yesterday was the HS kick off and Wednesday is the MS kick off. And just last week we added a new youth service on Wednesdays. Plus add a parish picnic and planning a 3 day conference for the whole diocese I am feeling a little bit on overload. A good overload but overloaded none the less. Ohh wait as if I did not have enough on my plate I am now officially the head of the Youth Ministry Commission (YMC). Maybe that is why I felt the need to stick my face in a pie at our parish picnic.

At least I have people watching out for me at church. I have gotten a gold star from the front desk for my ability to sign in and out on the sign board. Someone else has taken on making sure people are not wearing high heels that are to high... Yes you read correctly the height of peoples shoes are of debate among some people. Then there was the nice parishioner that found the boxes of condoms in the kitchen that removed them before any of my youth could find them. So many nice people so little time to get out all of my thank you's. It has been a fun couple of weeks and I know it is only going to get crazier, busier, and a whole heck of a lot more fun.

Being reminded of how to be a good steward

I will say that my last few posts have been a bit more on the negative side. Or a lot more on the negative side. For many reasons that I will not get into nor would it be appropriate. What I will say is that I was not being a good steward nor a good christian for that matter with my posts. This blog should not be for me to go on rants about my church. As much as it might not seem like it I DO like my job, coworkers, and parishioners at my church. Even those that I have ranted about lately. Thank you my wonderful friend for reminding what being a good steward is about. : )

In a time of transition...

Currently my church is without a permanent Priest. Instead we have what we call a priest in charge. This means, at least in our case, acts as if they are our permanent priest but is only contracted for so much time. Meanwhile we are looking for a permanent priest. Well as permanent as they get. I have noticed that in this time of transition people are trying left and right to "get away" with things that they might not try if there was a permanent priest. Funny thing is that we still all have to be a part of one community so for me I do not understand it. If you know a priest would normally tell you no, because of the effect it would have on others in the church, why you think it would not have the same effect now that they are gone? Maybe it is the rule follower side of me but I just do not understand it. What is worse is that one of my coworkers is doing it too. The even worse part is our priest in charge is doing nothing to stop him. So maybe they have talked before staff meeting and I just do not know it but it is frustrating to have him running the show when he is just our music person. There are some things that he should run the show on and I do not mind suggestions and ideas. I think there is a difference between suggestions and ideas and just plain ol' taking over. I think we are running a thin line at my church in some areas but at the moment I am just going to pray that it will all work out for the better in the end.

Wondering what is going on in peoples heads!

I have the feeling that no matter how long I work at the church people's thoughts and opinions about what is going on at the church is never going to cease to amaze me. Like the other day. I was talking with a parishioner who mentioned that she knew of someone who was going to apply for our financial administrator position at our church. We recently cut the number of hours from full-time to 25 hours (due to budget reasons) and well our current administrator needs full-time (it is a crappy situation for her). Anyway I mentioned how the whole situation was to bad. This is when the parishioner informed me that our financial administrator spent more time working on other things for the church that she did finances. Hmmm Last time I checked our financial administrator did our finances first. And the other duties she does we told her to do. At any rate when I told the parishioner that she did indeed spend most of her hours on our finances, she was a little surprised, but glad to hear it. I mean really who did she think was doing our payroll, budgets, reimbursements, paid our bills, etc. It certainly is not me!

Then as the week progresses I got hear all about how dirty our kitchen is by another parishioner. Now granted there was things that need to be cleaned but he and I were cleaning them at the time. What was interesting to me is as he is complaining about how dirty things are he chose to focus on the floor and never wiped down the counters nor cleaned the grill. Since the parishioner cooked in the kitchen earlier, used those things, and was complaining how dirty the kitchen was, I thought he would also take care of the rest. I assumed wrong. I guess this is all a part of being in ministry. Listening to the gripes and wondering what is going on in their head.

Always think twice

I chose to house sit for parishioners at my church. And they are a lovely couple. But I have learned something. I would never want to live in a really small old house with two dogs and 4 cats. All indoor animals. Not to mention that every time I see them all I am going to think about is their small house with all those animals. Really I think part of what it comes down to is I am not an indoor cat person. I do not like cleaning their litter box and nor do I like the kitten attacking my foot every time I move it at night. All I am trying to do is sleep and all it seems to want to do is bite and scratch my foot. It has definitely taught me to think twice before saying yes to things.

How do you get them there???

So I have a MS beach trip tomorrow and in the true tradition of my church I have 1 count them 1 MS that goes to my church coming. She is bringing a friend so that brings my grand total to 2. I am planning on going to go and have a good day with them but man it would be nice to have more coming with me. The good news is when there is less of them I get more one on one time with them. Someday I will have many, many youth on an event with me but at the moment I am happy with 2.

Plus I love the leader coming with me. She is the nicest person ever and the youth all seem to like her too. Yeah for Mother Hen filling in for me! She thinks that she is getting the better end of the deal by having me house sit for her and I get to have her on my beach trip. Trust me I am getting the better end of the deal!

So while I have not found the recipe for getting 100's of youth at an event with me but tomorrow I am going to go have fun with 2 and my leader.