...what a week...& my ministry opportunities...

What a week. Just to recap a little of what has happened this week...
Sunday- Regular Sunday morning services but we had a huge international banquet with foods from all over the world and a wonderful speaker named Sterling Young who is a church planter in Tallahassee. The people really enjoyed him and it was a perfect start to the missions conference.

Monday- Had a wonderful day off before the week began. Ben had a meeting in Titusville and so I had the house to myself. I slept in, wore my pj's most of the day and then cleaned and watched as much HGTV as I wanted to with no complaints from a soul. I went out to run some needed errands and stopped by my best friend Katie's house to drop off her birthday gift and to spend some time chatting with her. After about an hour and a half I came home and relaxed for the evening and waited for my hubby to come home.

Tuesday- Worked the normal day in the office (not a difficult day by any means) came home for about 2 hours and made dinner, finished up last minute house details and went to a Missions Prayer Meeting at church. Ben and I drove up to Tampa after church to pick his dad up from the airport at 9:45pm (after we stopped at Sonic on the way for some drinks!). Got home at 11:30 or so and went to bed.

Wednesday- Worked in the morning, had lunch with all the speakers and missionaries with our staff, finished working after lunch and came home around 3:45. I rested for a short while and then had to be back at 4:30 to assist the teens in preparing for our meal. Served the meal at 5:30 cleaned up until 7:00 when the service began and then finished cleaning up after the service until 9pm. Went home and spent time with Ben and my F.I.L. (Dennis) and finally went to bed around 11:30 or so.

Thursday- Rinse and Repeat to what happened on Wednesday except that my friend Katie had her baby boy (Will Ethan Tomlin) at 2:20pm. We have had so much going on that we haven't been able to see them yet.

Friday- I was in the office for about an hour this morning to make sure things were ready for Sunday. After that Mrs.Bales and the two other ladies we had for our missions week went shopping. I got home at about 3:15 and came home. I had worn the same cruddy shoes all week while being on my feet so much and my body couldn't take it anymore so I laid in bed just relaxing trying to get my feet to stop swelling. Around 4:30 went back to church for the same exact thing with all the food and cleaning.

Saturday- We are helping one of our friends at church move tomorrow morning at about 8:00am and after that we are driving to St.Pete probably to see some friends. On our way back we plan on stopping by the hospital to FINALLY see little baby Will!! After that I am probably going to crash before Sunday happens.

Sunday- We will have Sunday School in the morning and then my F.I.L will be speaking in the morning services and we will be doing missions commitment cards. :) I love doing what God wants you to do and see throughout the year at how He allows it to be possible! We are then having one service at 5pm and then from 6-8ish we are having a teen activity to plan other spring teen activities.

Thank the Lord our pastor is so good to us. We have Monday and Tuesday off this week and a half day on Friday cause Ben and I are going to Jacksonville to see this guy in concert. That is part of what I got Ben for his birthday!

So that was my week and what's left of my week... on another note.... Man to I love hearing about missions. Every time I see missionaries or hear about what God has been doing through missionaries around the world it makes my goosebumps have goosebumps! Missions has been God's design from the very beginning and even Jesus was a wonderful example of missions. I am so excited about Sunday and making that commitment and I pray that everyone else in our church will be seeking God and what He would have them do for world wide missions. I think that if God doesn't call our family to become missionaries overseas that He has something else great in store for us to get involved in with missions. Maybe Ben will Pastor a church that will have missionaries coming out of the woodwork someday. I just know that if we are not called to Go we have always been called to do our part by sending, praying, and doing everything that God would have us do to make sure missionaries who are called are able to go.

Future Project- I am really excited... We are having a ladies tea at the end of April and I am really looking forward to it because Mrs.Bales has asked me to speak. I have been excited about it since the time I heard we were having it. I have been pondering what the Lord would have me speak on and Mrs.Bales told me that the theme was going to be "Home is where the Heart is". I had no idea what I would talk on with that. I have barely been married for 1.5 years and have been in ministry a little less than that. How am I going to teach and share MY story with ladies who have already lived most of their life? God has really placed on my heart that if our heart is where our home is that we should be focused on spiritual things because as believers our home is really in heaven. I am not going to say too much more about that but I am pretty excited with the direction that I believe God is leading me toward. Ever since we have begun ministry Ben has shared some of his passions and goals that he would like to achieve in ministry and I hadn't really thought too much about the long term but I would really like to be used wherever God would have me and for some reason I'd love to do it through women's ministry or conferences. I know I am not qualified but I also know that God can use me if I just have a willing heart.