Yes, it has taken awhile but finally I am feeling a little bit more involved here. I fought it for a long time—–I was quite honestly enjoying being an empty nester with no responsibilities and honestly—I think that was what I needed to do for awhile. But I am moving on…..kind of. God has been working hard on me and sometimes I don’t listen….I need ears the size of this guy above!!!

So what am I embarking on ?? Adventures, I tell you! Next week I will be going to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota on a mission trip for the WHOLE week. Our tasks preliminarily sound like they will be painting, doing odds and ends around the newly constructed youth center, facilitating a craft ( nothing fancy) card making class for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters and filling in wherever I am needed. Not really quite sure what to expect but I am sure I can go with the flow and find something to do. I am not one who just wants to sit around on these things when there is work to be done. One of the neat things is that a big part of the trip will be educational for me—the Lakota tribe does a lot of educating the volunteers who come to help so that will be an awesome part of it. I know so little about our Native American brothers and sisters and I am really looking forward to that part of it. Should be fun and enlightening and hopefully I can be of some help while I am there.

I am also getting involved with the organization of a health ministries program at our church. It may end up being more of a congregational care approach and we are going to try to just identify and organize what is already occurring in the church and then identify the greatest needs. I am excited about this—I think it is something that should be fairly easy to get going. AND I am already signed on in a way to do visitation—Pastor Jim and I are going to go visit a lady tomorrow and I am hoping that I can take on a weekly visit with her and help her out in just having some social interaction. It will be good for me too! Win Win!!!

So I am trying to listen again. I think I had an earwax issue for awhile but I am trying to clean those out and listen to what God has for me. Since it looks like we will be here awhile (not a lot of house hunters right now) I finally came to the conclusion that I need to do something more than I am doing. The first step was listening to what He was telling me……I keep praying for those giant Qtips to keep working.