New Church

Hi blog world.

It's been a whole week since I last blogged..whoops!

Not sure why that happened, because I didn't get sub jobs allll week. (with the exception of Friday when I subbed in 3rd grade!)

I'm feeling a lot better than I was feeling last Sunday. That was tough...

Later on I was thinking and praying and I think it was sort of God's way of telling me that I can't MAKE things work that just don't, even if it's what I would want to happen.

Me feeling so badly about it was kind of a sign I think, or a door closing, so that I would have to try something else there. I really have nothing against that church but there really isn't a place for me to grow and be involved.

God was like..."Can't you see Kari? Try something else..."

He has something better for me than that.

This morning I went to a church called CBC and I really enjoyed it.

On their website they have a lot of Adult Fellowship Groups listed and it said they had one for ages 22-29. I had emailed earlier this week to see what room it was in, and I went there before the service. (it was like a Sunday school class). At first I wasn't so sure because, except for one other woman, I was the only single person in the room. haha. BUT I still really liked it and enjoyed myself. The people seem really awesome. Some are older than me (well, most) some are pregnant, one couple even has a couple of kids....but I felt SO welcome there. After we were done, a lady talked to me and they were saying there are other singles, but they just weren't there... I said is it okay that I'm here? And they were like "ohh yeahh!" , I'm not uncomfortable with it so if I can go there I want to. They seem like a group of people that I would love to be friends with.

She told me they do a lot of things together and that she would include me in the emails if I gave her my info.

The church itself is a really big church. They have two services, and there are a lot of people....but I really liked it. I think I'll go there again next week.

During the message this morning, the pastor was talking about how WE, as the church body, need to be Jesus to people wherever we are. It was a really neat reminder. He had a bunch of stories that he read to us as examples.

WE need to share the truth that we know with others. With everyone we encounter, we need to be Jesus. (our co-workers, friends, family, neighbors, anyone we encounter)

He gave a couple of reference verses, my favorite was John 1:14

¹⁴And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.^(E)

He discussed us being "incarnational" rather than "invitational"...Meaning it's good to invite people into OUR Christian environment, but at the same time we should BE Jesus to the people around us. Just like when Jesus CAME to earth in the flesh.

In other news, I named another one of the kittens. ha. Yeah. I did that. Her name is Sydney (Bristow). So there is now Beatrice and Sydney B. :)

hahah

I've also been doing a lot of crocheting lately. I've learned how to read patterns and it's so fun!

Here is a hat I made that I am pretty proud of. :)

I will be making many more things in the future. :) I really want to try to make some booties! There are so many fun ideas on Pinterest.

Hope you had a relaxing, enjoyable weekend!

Weekend reflection and some life updates :)

Hey there...

It's Tuesday...and I am home once again. ;) Oh the life of an aspiring substitute. It helps that I know a lot of people are in my shoes.

I had a really great weekend! For some reason it seems a lot farther away than it is..ha.

Friday Kasey and I hung out, and then Friday night some friends got together for my birthday at Olive Garden. :) It was soo fun. We went to Border's after because they were having an intense going out of business sale... I got two good read a loud chapter books for pretty cheap, so that was exciting.

Saturday morning I went to R and R. (women's retreats that last for about an hour an a half once a month on Saturday mornings.) It was awesome as usual.

Jenny talked about how we so often cover ourselves up from people and God with "fig leaves" or people pleasing. BUT there is nothing we can hide from God. She sent this email about a book called "grace for the good girl" and included this excerpt that I really liked... it can be true for me or has been at different times in my life.

"I hide behind my smile and laid-back personality. I hide behind fine and good. I hide behind strong and responsible. I hide behind busy and comfortable and working hard toward your expectations. And if I do not meet your expectations, I hide behind indifferent. And though the purpose of my mask is to fool you, don’t be fooled.... I feel fear. It washes over me with its lies and half-truths. The lies aren’t blatant. They marry themselves with a little bit of truth so the distinction is blurry at best. And so I practice the presence of fear and refuse the presence of Jesus. I lived this toxic way for many years before I understood about The Rescue. I live it still, when I forget that I’ve been found. Even for those to whom truth has been revealed, fear can be a loud and abusive motivator. Fear drives. But Love leads."

I just think that message is so powerful...

I try not to hide behind any masks but I'm sure I do. As I was journaling I got the feeling that I do try to DO and SAY things to be more pleasing in God's eyes...but there isn't anything I can DO because the price has already been paid.

After RandR I had breakfast/lunch with a good friend and we were able to catch up on life. She is in a semi-new relationship so I was asking her about it. She said they actually met online.. which I think is really neat!

I think I might try some sort of sight and see where that goes. I think it's definitely less creepy, and more acceptable these days. What do YOU think?

On Sunday night I went to LCBC (a big church) for something that they call a life group link. It's basically a way for people to find a small group. It was really neat the way they did everything. I ended up with about 7 other girls who live around my area... I'm not good at forming first impressions of people that are very correct... but we'll see. I'm not sure I'll be "BFFs" with all of them...but it could be a good experience. We decided to meet on Sunday nights. The life group people suggest that this be a six-week trial, and that if you don't feel connected or comfortable after six weeks you can pull away. So I guess I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Something really neat that came out of it, is that when I was in the midst of figuring out my group, I saw a girl kind of standing by herself and she looked young. Since I was looking for other young people I went up to her and asked her if she had a group yet...and she just said "no...", and I told her that we were kind of trying to form a group over in another area for people around where we live, and she came to join us. Then at the end, as we were walking out (we ha parked RIGHT near each other) she said "thanks for coming up and talking to me". I told her sure..I wasn't really sure what she was doing.. and she said "yeah...I'm not good at that, I was about ready to walk out."

So that was AWESOME. It was totally God working through me to help her find a group, and I'm so glad he did! Times like that are awesome.

So that was my weekend :)

Today I went to a school district office (hempfield) and started the process of signing up to sub with them. I'm supposed to call this lady at an Elementary school around Thursday to set up an informal interview. Then I have to wait for the board to approve me and they don't have a meeting until Oct. 11th.

Oh well... hopefully that works out.

Hope y'all are having a fantastic Tuesday!

Mary Poppins and letting go..

Thanks for the encouragement on my other post. :)
I don't feel quite as bad as I did then, but I still am really, working on letting things go to God.

I've been realizing from friends, and God's gentle whisper on my heart that I really need to let go.

I know exactly what I want for my life right now, in a perfect world. I want a JOB. I want roommates and an apartment. I want to feel secure in those things, but right now none of those are set in stone. They are wavering frequently ALL the time, and it drives me crazy.

It's so hard for me to let go! I keep hearing God whispering to me that I need to release these ideals that I have in my head about next year, but it's really realllly hard for me. =/ Why can't it be easy?

It's especially hard because I need to be active in the job search, living search, and roommate search but how will I know if I'm doing the wrong thing? If I go for what I want does that automatically make it wrong..? I feel like it does but I don't know.

I just feel so lost when I think about those things. I sort of feel like God is mad at me because I'm so selfish and I just want to live where III want to live. I want to work where III want to work. I want to please Him, but can't those go hand in hand..?

It's confusing.

Those things aside, I had a really fantastic weekend. I went home for the weekend and hung out in Philly on Saturday. My best friend's family and I went to see Mary Poppins. It was SUCH a fun weekend, the show was awesome!
I feel so blessed to feel so close to her family. I honestly feel like they are my second family and it's a huge blessing. Here's a picture of my bff, her sis and me (it was hard to get one with all 3 of us in the car..ha)


We also walked around before the show and went to this DELICIOUS chocolate cafe. We shared lots of sweet treats.



We also went to LOVE park and got lots of pictures with those big game pieces. :) It was so much fun.



The weekend flew by. I'm not sure I'm ready for Monday yet.

My Japan relief idea is going in a really awesome direction! I sent a message to a lot of friends on facebook to get a general idea of interest and 9 or so people want one! So I've been a busy little bee on my sewing machine. :)

Well, I really need to stop procrastinating and think through my lessons for tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a lovely week!