Hey everybody!
So I have to say that having a computer of my own has been great. I've had a couple opportunities to use it for Keynote (Apple's far-superior Powerpoint-like program) presentations, and has performed beautifully. Today I got the opportunity to present my Pioneers information at my dad's church here in Bend, OR. It's just been one of those things where scheduling didn't work in my favor, and months went by before being able to share with the church body. Feedback said that the presentation went well, which is good because it seemed like it went well from my perspective. (Ever take a test in school and think you did really well only to discover you completely bombed it? I've had enough of those happen to give me a tiny twinge of fear when things seem to have gone well. You just never know. I had a handful of conversations with people about my upcoming Pioneers duties, and gave out 7 or 8 support letters. I need to work on being a bit more aggressive in giving out and requesting information from people. Someday I'll get there.
Last weekend I got the opportunity to lead worship at the Evangelical Free Church's Northwest District Pastors and Wives Conference (I wanted to abbreviate it to EFCNWDPWC, but it never caught on) held in Sunriver, about 25 minutes from Bend. There was a lot of work getting 5 sets of music together, and then the problems involved with half of your band living 3 hours away in Portland. But, despite all the complications, things went relatively smoothly. Actually, this was the first major worship event I've led in a long time, and a good reminder that I do indeed enjoy leading worship. I got the opportunity to share a little about my Pioneers work at that event as well, and hopefully God will work in people's hearts, reminding them that despite the crappy economic times, there are people out there working toward full-time ministry. It's just been great to have a couple weeks in a row where there was at least opportunity to increase support numbers.
And actually, now that I think of it, two weeks before that conference last weekend, I got to give an update to my home church in Portland during the Sunday service. I made a couple of very important connections that Sunday, which is both unexpected and fantastic. As a result of one of the new connections, I may at some point in the future have the opportunity to lead worship at a church in Hong Kong. I'm not going to count on that working out, but the prospect is exciting. The other connection is with a person in a nearly identical life situation, also heading towards missions, a new and valuable friend.
My work has gotten more regular, and I've even had a couple chances to substitute as an Educational Assistant in the district here in Bend. This last time substituting involved a pretty incredible happenstance, something that rarely if ever happens to me. So I got a call just before 7am that there was an opening for a sub in an all-Autistic classroom at a nearby school. So I showed up and was being shown the ropes when in walks a little girl that I could have sworn I knew. However, knowing I'm now in Central Oregon, I know that I hardly know anyone, let alone random child walking through the classroom door. So I kind of blew off that sort of weird deja vu feeling and went on with my business. A couple of minutes later in walks one of the classroom teachers, and I get the same feeling, like I knew who she was, but couldn't figure out for the life of me who she was. I went back to orienting myself to the room, and the little passes by again, staring at me like she knew me, and then she left the room. Then it hit me: I knew this kid from the school I used to work at up in Alaska more than 2 years ago. I even remembered her name, and asked the other assistants if I had the right name. I did, and as it turned out, the teacher was her mother, and I knew her from the afterschool program at my old school, because she would pick up her kid every day from the program. I re-established that connection with the mom (and the girl once school was over for the day) and she let me know that her daughter, even a year after I had left Alaska, had still talked about me and how much she enjoyed me as a staff member. So now I have a top-notch connection with someone in the district, and I can only imagine that I'm at the top of their substitute list, or at least close to the top. Anyway, this was one of the strangest connections I've had in a long time. What are the odds, really?
1 comment:
Thanks for your update, Dayn. Though we haven't sent you our letter yet, please know we're thinking of you and wanting to support you with prayer at a minimum, and maybe some cold, hard cash. Like $5's worth. Actually, maybe an extra prayer would be more beneficial than $5. In fact, we will pray that God will prompt OTHER people to give you money. Then, other people's money could count as coming from us, indirectly and technically.
In truth and conclusion and with all silliness aside, we are excited for you and hope that, for now, our well wishes and sincere belief in your God-given abilities will encourage you along the way.
Very interesting connection with the student and her mom. That kind of thing is just fabulous.
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