A Busy Season

We all have busy seasons in our lives: Young children, Teenagers' activities, Major celebrations, New jobs, Etc. Yesterday I realized that I haven't blogged in well over a month... And the only excuse I have is that it's been a busy season.

Of course, school started. That brings only 2 full-time students for me these days, but there is still preparation to make. And I had a third student for a while, trying to help a child in need of a safe and nurturing space. Plus, I'm teaching Science to my 8 kiddos and New Mexico History to 5 students. I'm having a blast, but it's keeping me very busy!

We had a visit from five top leaders in the RCA, our church's denomination. They came to talk to our congregation and leadership about the changes in funding that are coming our way. The denomination has funded this mission church for 102 years, through the years of the sanitarium, the boarding school, the mission house, roller skating, until today's church mission here in Dulce. Over the next three years, the denomination will lower funding to zero. The group that came to speak to us was addressing how we meet our financial needs through fundraising within the denomination. It was a good visit, with many great ideas that are exciting, but it was... well, busy.

AWANA started this past month, also. I love AWANA, a multi-church youth ministry held at our facility. But it certainly adds to the craziness of our world. We serve between 20 and 35 youth each Monday, teaching them Scriptures, giving them an anchor for those times in their lives when they face difficulties.

During this same period of time, one of our adult siblings and his dog came to live with us due to life circumstances. Adding another human to our household hasn't been too difficult, but the addition of a large dog has been challenging for our two cats! We've had everything from cats-hiding-in-the-basement-for-days to the dog clambering down the stairs so fast (on a leash!) that he rolled down the final couple of steps. We rigged many of the doors in the house to be open just far enough for a cat, but not wide enough for a dog, and we're starting to see the cats more often.

The dog created another set of craziness this past week. A couple of Rez dogs have been hanging around watching him, and they finally decided to come and bug our Smokey. Smokey took off after them, breaking his leash connection and dragging his rope. The rope got entangled around one of the Rez dogs and he got hit by a car. Smokey was tangled, of course, and he was whipped around and hurt, too. We didn't know which dog lay dead in the street and which hobbled away until we ran down the street to find Smokey. Smokey is recovering, but he's a little slow and quiet! (Our cats are enjoying this part of it.)

Add in the normal tutoring, dentist visits, putting in a new dishwasher (which was donated by a friend of the church!), taking down the pool, funerals and potlucks, revivals, marathons, glasswork, and tween sleepovers, it's been pretty busy.

One thing I've learned in the past three years in New Mexico, is to go-with-the-flow and pray for peace. Fifteen years ago, this busy season would have stressed me out! Not so anymore. I am able to adjust and accept the chaos, leaning on the peace that surpasses all understanding. This busy season has had many blessings!

Please pray for our church as we make the transition to raising our own funding. And pray for AWANA, that more children and youth will attend and that we have sufficient adult volunteers each week.

Thank you!