Getting Pumped for those Tiger Cards!

Every year our athletic boosters sell Tiger Cards, which is a card that you can get discounts around town with-exciting right? Well it gets better, we sell them after school for one day and one day only. Yes, that's right. For 3 1/2 hours after school, our little town is swarmed with crazy high school kids driving around and freshman desperatly running all around town in a frantic effort to sell the 10 we are given. Just when you think you've found the best place to ask people, you're told lots of kids have already been to. When you finally get a sale you're excited! By the end of the night hundreds if not a thousand people have a Tiger Card. Aren't you glad you don't live here?

What if for one day, or one afternoon, we all went out in a similar swarm, but to go help people. I know what you're thinking; another one of Carly's crazy mission schemes-but stick with me. What if hundreds of kids frantically ran around in efforts to help someone? What if people had multiple students ask them not if they wanted to buy something, but if they could help them? If we can make all that money for athletics in that short time, how much could our community be helped? I realize its a lot more complicated than that, but I just thought it was a cool thought. Mission Raid 2011. Ha.


No Pineapple stuff for today-the people at the Sno Cone Shack didn't buy any Tiger Cards from me.

Deacons, Elders and all that good stuff

Monday Night
Elder or Deacon? That is the question posed tonight at spelling practice. I know I've got time, but there's no better time to explore than the present! I'll post more later.
......
Tuesday
Spelling practice is always fun (if you exclude the fact that I'm actually on the spelling team.) Especially since Coach Dye, who was a "Temporary Deacon" in the Episcopal church himself found out I want to go into the ministry. Now as we go through the list of words during practice, he points out any word relating to God, religion or the church (which makes going to practice a bit more worthwhile.) Last night we got into a conversation about the cloth that covers communion, which eventually lead to the different ways to serve God through ordained ministry in the UMC...Elder and Deacon.
I mentioned that I was considering becoming a Deacon and explained what it was, Coach Dye quickly remarked something like "Oh no, I want you to serve in a church and lead a congregation." At first I thought that maybe this was a sign from God, that He could be speaking to me through Coach Dye, until he said "If that's what you want to do anyway...." So I'm not completely sure anymore, haha.
Nonetheless, this brings me to a decision I've been contemplating; elder or deacon? I find that I'm pretty passionate about mission trips and missions and general, and I love working with children and youth in the church. These are some reasons I've considered the deacon route, because the possibilities are endless! I could choose what I want to do, and and if I get married and have children I could adjust (nothing like planning for the future I guess!) On the other hand, if I go the elder route; would I like serving a congregation? I've preached before, liked it, and felt that I did fairly well, but I don't really know if my call is to preach every week, I'm still discerning how I feel about that. I know there are lots of places to serve as an elder, but will I be able to serve God to the best of my ability if I'm appointed as a lead pastor to a small church while my passion is ________ ministry?
I realize that things will change and I'll explore new options as I get older. Believe me, I realize I don't have to decide today. It's something I pray about and will be very careful as I start getting into it more. But for now I figured there were lots of people who have gone through more of this stuff than me, and I want your opinion!




Additionally, It was suggested that I incorporate more pineapple into my blogs, so today I pose the question "Why a pineapple? Why not an Oakgrape?

DSLT Devo for March 21

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." -Psalms 37:4

So God's going to give me what I want, all the desires of my heart? Because I'm a Christian, I'll eventually get what I want, as long as its something really important like patience and not another vanilla sno cone? That's some weird theology, huh? A lot of times we seem to ask what God has done for us and seem to be looking for our answer.

I know there are lots of times when I wonder why things are going the way they are. This break, for example; after my "procedure" I expected that I would be able to walk in a few days, but here 7 days later I still look like Bill Cosby dancing when I walk! As a result I spent most of my spring break laying in bed watching tv or bruising my knees crawling to another room.

But if I take a look at the first part of that verse, if I remember to delight myself in the Lord, a lot more happened this Spring Break; I went to my grandparents, I learned to walk again! I got a new iPod and traveled to Oregon-thrice!

As long as we remember to delight ourselves in God that crazy stuff I mentioned before isn't so crazy. Doesn't God already know the true desires of our hearts, and have a better solution?
Delighting in the Lord doesn't just mean looking at what is obviously good, but also coming to the conclusion that the good will ALWAYS be there when we look.



This is for a devo I'm doing at a meeting, so I'm open to any comments, suggestions or objections!

Reliving the Past

You might be thinking to yourself, "I wonder what Carly has been doing during Spring Break," but chances are you aren't. However, because you came to look at my blog, I'm obliged to tell you anyway.

While my friends went and saw movies, hung out, went on vacations, I relived the first 9 months of my life, starting with waking up in a hospital, proceding with the wheeling-out-of-the-patient via wheelchair. Oh but wait, it gets better...

After I got home the real test began. I found that after the anethesia wore off I found it impossible to walk, or stay awake for more than an hour at a time...therefore spending most of the day in my bed. After 24 hours of that nonsense I was wheeled out to the garage, then engaged in a failed attept to ride "piggy-back" style to the car (nice try though, Dad.)

The car ride took me to the perfect place to recooperate- Top and Grandpa's house. What a better place to heal from "surgery" than a household full of grandparents with lots of couches, extra walkers and an extra handicap-accessible bathroom?!?

Anyway, it was there that I learned to crawl. It happened late at night..... I..... I just couldn't hold it any longer..... I should've gone before bed....but I didn't have to then! The only thing stopping me between my bed and the bathroom were my feet! So I then took my first re-crawling steps....and I'm sure I made my mother proud because she didn't have to wake up to help me hobble into the bathroom....that time or the twenty others that night.....

I eventually got tired of hurting my knees on the tile and began to walk...what a glorious moment....ha. Yea, I used a walker-don't judge, it helped. And it was always nice to have the support of my sister G dangling whatever I needed just out of reach for me.....how empathetic.

Even though I still have the balance of a Mexican-Jumping Bean, I'm happy with that. I've made progress...that I can very much relate to that of what I saw during my sister's first year of life....hmmm. I guess I'm pretty happy that God doesn't let us remember too much of being babies-I don't think I could handle doing all of it over again!

A Pitcher of Margaritas?

Maybe I'm just on a blog-writing high, but I told my friend I'd blog about what happened to me today. So just una mas for the posting tonight. This one's for Tayler!

As I sit here writing this at 12:30 I myself am wondering why I'm up this late. Is it because because of the time change or the fact that I slept half of the day and have giant hospital boots going over my bandaged feet, therefore making it hard to get up? I'm going with the latter.

Today I went to the doctor at 6:30, yea, on Spring Break. Fun, right? I had to get a procedure done on my feet, and so they were nice and squeezed me in this week so I could play sports next week. I'd never had a surgery, procedure, or even put to sleep at the dentist, so I was kinda nervous today. It wasn't anything big, they just had to fix what I'm gonna call the "holes" in my feet, ha ha.

So I get there and they take me to my little prep area where they tell me the game plan. I started to get nervous when they put the IV in, and I definitely didn't believe them when they said it was the worst part. Next the Anesthesiologist came in and told me what he was gonna do. I guess he could tell I was being a baby because he told me he would give me something to make me relax. He told me it would feel like I just had a pitcher of margaritas, which I quickly responded I did NOT know what that was like. As he gave me this "anti-nervous" stuff I realized how ridiculous it all was. There were 5 people crowded around me just to fix some stupid holes in my feet- RIDICULOUS! I started giggling at this thought, I tried to hold it in but I couldn't. I felt rude because the doctor probably thought I was laughing at him, but I wasn't! Anyway, my mom asked me what was so funny and I couldn't answer her because by this time I was belly-laughing and could do nothing to stop myself! As they wheeled me away to the "surgery" area, and I'm sure I looked and sounded like a crazy person!

Apparently it was laughing gas they gave me.

To top it all off, I woke up to breakfast in bed (meaning a glass of orange juice)!
And they had let me use one of their short-sleeve Snuggies (meaning a hospital gown)!
Plus I got a cool bracelet with my name (called a hospital bracelet)!
And even a brand-new pair of shoes (which I don't think I can explain what they really are)!

So, once more I come to you, now 1 o'clock in the morning, telling you this ridiculous yet true story. Maybe you got a laugh from this, if not, maybe you can pretend there is some life-lesson attached. I'm gonna go wobble to bed in my new shoes :)

March 14: Part II My New Friend Michael

"And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 1:4


Since some of the youth group was on ski trip, my youth director let me lead youth this past Sunday, and I invited some DSLTers to come and help out. My friend Miller and I by chance came super-early to get all the tweaks out of our lesson. We were sitting under a tree in the Preschool yard planning out our lesson on getting to know the poor when a man came up. He had a shaggy beard and was wearing clothes that were somewhat dirty. He leaned over the fence and asked if the pastor was around. I told him no but that he would be there in about 30 minutes, and invited him to come sit down with us.

We introduced ourselves and he told us about himself. His name was Michael and he was headed down from AR (and originally TN.) He was down on his luck and was hoping to find a job on the coast. We asked him how we could help out and after discussing ideas came to the conclusion that Pastor Billy would know better than us.

So we sat and talked about the Bible for a while, he mentioned he liked Proverbs and John (which is where the verse is from.) We talked about the books we liked, and he told us how proud he was that we were involved with church. He spoke to us almost as if he had known us for years, and we carried on conversations for about 20 minutes. Before our pastor got there we told him thanks for talking with us, and joked that we had been hanging out together all day and were glad to have someone else to talk to. At that he responded that he was glad not to have to talk to himself anymore.

When Pastor Billy came the two went into his office and Billy took care of everything. Later when he came down to youth (where we were having our lesson on getting to know the poor) Billy remarked "you just never know when Jesus is gonna show up."

When I look back I think of all things that happened that day, all the intricate details in God's plan that led us exactly to where we were at that specific time, all I can think is "what awesome God." Sometimes God puts us in weird situations that are hard to comprehend, but if we live as children of the Light and not of darkness we can more readily understand and embrace it. So to wrap it up- is this a story about how Miller and I got to know the poor and help Michael out? I guess it could be. But I think it's a much better story of how God showed Himself to us through our new friend Michael.

March 14: Part I-Sweet Spirit at Waples

Going along with my pineapple theme, yesterday I found a whole can of pineapples God had left for me. And no, not those little one-serving cups, I mean the family value can! Therefore, this day is being split into at least two parts. Here it goes...
Last week I got asked to preach at Waples UMC, which is a small church in Granbury. It was a little bigger than Temple Hall UMC, and I was excited that the DS was still thinking of the youth lay speakers when asking people to fill in. When I got to the church I met some of the congregation that was getting ready for Sunday school. They told me there were three classes and showed me where the young adult class was. I thought it was pretty awesome that they made a point to have these classes in such a small church, and even though I was the only young adult that day (the others were sick or away) it made me feel important.
When we got to the service I felt even more the energy in that little church. They were alive in their ministries, talking about the baby shower they had and the "field trips" they were going on-it was impressive. Even more impressive was at the end of the service when they all circled up and sang "Sweet Sweet Spirit." And this was not the normal singing, this was like revival-time singing! We literally lifted out arms in praise! The man next to me and the little boy across were dancing! And I don't care how cheesy or cliche this sounds, but it was just like the song says-there were sweet expressions on each face, and after that song we were revived because the Holy Spirit had filled the place!
I used to think of little country churches as the ones with a bunch of older people sitting around not changing their ways for anything (maybe not to that extent but you get the jist.) But these past few weeks have shown me that there is much more. These people don't go to church for the fru-fru of it all, they go because they want to have church, and think its important. Its people like the members of Temple Hall and Waples UMC that keep churches going through their servant leadership.

Take it as you like, it's just a tidbit of Christ I saw and wanted to share :)

Not Quite Sure Where It's Going-But This is a Start

Blogging seems to be the thing to do these days, so I decided I'd give it a shot. I don't know what I'll end up posting on here, but I thought I could more effectively share my thoughts than with a tweet of status-update.
I decided to name this blog Pineapple Tidbits yesterday as I was thinking about all the things that had happened that day. It had been a pretty awesome day, and I was in awe of all the ways Christ had been shining through when I came up with somewhat of a silly analogy; God is like a pineapple.
Now stick with me here- As Christians, it's important we always have that "Jesus juice" running through us to keep us going. We get that by reading our Bible, going to church and being spiritually discplined. However what I like the most, is when God shows up in our random and everyday lives, giving us tidbits of Him that rejuvanate us and renew us in His awesome wonder. I get those when I go on mission trip or Glen Lake Camp. I get that when I see my friends and my youth group growing deeper in their journey, when I see any group get together with the goal of making the world a better place in the name of the Lord.
So why did I choose a Pineapple, one of the weirdest fruits in the supermarket? What made the connection between God and that piece of fruit?
Simple, I had just eaten a Pineapple sno-cone that night. :)