Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
Ellen Nearman stayed with me at my house. She arrived on Wednesday night traveling down from Oklahoma with Sheila Harp and her kids. I picked her up on my way home from work at the Grove's about 09:30pm. We got in and pretty much called it a night within the next hour after unloading and getting her settled.
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
Thursday we slept in and had a good time just lounging around. I wanted a fire in the fireplace and seemed to work all morning at trying to get it coaxed along! No sooner would I get a good flame and it would die out and smoke away. :( We had a late breakfast...I fixed us a large omelet that we split made with tomatoes, feta cheese and artichokes. We sat around and visited and I stayed in my pj's most of the day. I cleaned the filters on the pool and the skimmer basket, other than that I didn't do any chores! Then, I took Ellen to later lunch for her birthday (which was in November) to Sushi Tao, one of my favorite restaurants where we ate the lunch special and I also ordered the Mango Lobster Roll, one of my favorite signature rolls there. She loves sushi and was very impressed with the restaurant. We came home and relaxed a bit and then got the bags made up for the knitting students at camp (we stamped knit on it with a design) and then went to camp for dinner and meeting. Russell Ross spoke and I will relay a couple of my notes that were reflections that I took from his message: We have a God of order and He orders our life by the things He ordained. Keep your focus on God and let Him be your priority, this will make you a successful Christian. Are you enjoying that more abundant life? Where is your zeal? God wants to use you. Anything that interferes with your relationship with the Lord, are you out with it?
Friday, December 26th, 2008
Friday we were there for breakfast and the rest of the day, except came home for a short nap in the afternoon after lunch. Weyman Zelder gave the morning message on The Promised Land. It was good, but I had heard it before so I won't give you any of my notes. Jeff Grove spoke in the evening. It was a continuation of what he has been speaking on lately, Our Assignment: #1 Work (to eat), #2 Raise Children, #3 Be Clothed (w/Clothing), #4 Hospitable, #5 Grow in the Lord, #6 Sing, #7 Bear the burdens of others, #8 Stir up love and good works. On the drive home that night from camp, I shared with Ellen a song that had been really touching me latel and when we got home about midnight, we ended up singing until 2.00am... and didn't get to bed until 02:30am...what fun!!!
Saturday, December 27th, 2008
Saturday we slept in and had oatmeal here at the house. Saturday morming Mike Lundy spoke on Layers for Peace in Winters of Conflict. Here are some of my notes: Conflict must be dealt with. Clothe yourself in Gods behavior...compassion, kindness, humility/meekness, a quiet strength, bearing/forgiving, love. Love = your basic all purpose garment, a predisposition to accept somebody. Kindness = action behind compassion, constant kindness can accomplish much...have it and act like it. To suffer long requires strength. Forgivness is granted, trust is earned. Colossians 3:1 must be your focus or you won't be able to carry out these things. Saturday afternoon was when I taught knitting lessons for any of the girls ages 8-13 that wanted to learn and we had a blast for about an hour before other events took place.
knitting class on the stage
Abby King and meEllen and I skipped dinner and went back to the house for a short nap and a cup of earl grey tea with honey. Jerry Grant took the evening meeting and he spoke on prayer. I found this message very interesting. Prayer, is it a habit? or a place you go to meditate and pray? Jesus did. Having a lot of zeal is good, but you need to prepare your heart for times of trouble. What will you do to prepare? Where do you get your strength? Be on guard, don't be shaken, solid, not enfluenced by surroundings, not stagnet. Pray to the Lord and leave it there. He mentioned his dad (Gordy Grant) gave him a tip: Listen = Silent (he noted they have the same letters just are rearranged). Another tip: Never give up. Ellen and I sang that night a song that has been on my heart and mind lately. It is called Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone). I guess the San Luis Assembly sang it because it was on the CD's they were selling at camp, but our version is different and of couse just the two of us. We had fun practicing this up the night before. We have never sang together and we should do it more! I love to sing!!! Ellen and I visited around that night for awhile and we finally decided to head home about 1am. When we got home we were hungry so we fixed snacks and sat in the living room talking until 3am!
Sunday, December 28th, 2008
We were struggling after being up so late and were a bit late to meeting, but we still made it for most of it!
Tom Collins spoke and here are a few of my notes: God is care and is consistent. His value of us is different than the way we look at it. We have value even with our sins and our faults. Greater is He that is in you then he that is in the world. The Lord God is our strength. Maturity is getting past our "feelings". After lunch, I spent most of the afternoon knitting with the little girls as they were needing help with their knitting off and on all day. I ended up staying later than I had planned, but I figured it would be good for me to stay plus it was fun to interact with the little ones that I normally have no contact with. They asked me to eat lunch with them on Sunday after meeting which I thought was so darn cute! I hung around until dinner time, mainly helping the girls with their knitting, then I went home to do some laundry and crash in bed so that I could be ready for work the next day.
