Maternity Leave

Well, after having high blood pressure this week, my doctor has told me that if I want to keep her in there a little longer, I need to quit working. So I am officially on maternity leave.

All of her non-stress tests results have been great and her activity and sonograms have shown that she is doing great! After thinking about it all afternoon and night and talking it over with Kanyon, we have decided that I need to stay home like my doctor advised. I used to want her to come a little early but now that its getting closer, I want her to stay in there for as long as she needs and not have to come early because I can't sit still and keep my blood pressure down.

I had mixed emotions about it all until I talked to my boss about it and he agreed that he wanted me to do what the doctor says. I felt like maybe I could still work and have my co-workers run my errands for me but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it won't happen. Not because they wouldn't be willing to, but because I know how I am and will want to do things myself. Besides, all my high BP readings have been after I was sitting for 30 minutes or more so I know its going to take me actually resting more to get it down.

I also keep starting to make a to-do list of the things I still need to get done and am forcing myself to stay away from the notepad! This is going to be a new experience for me. But it will be worth it to keep her safe.

So since I will be home now, I'll finally be getting to post pictures of my baby showers and updates on the nursery! Those will be up soon!

My job at First Baptist

I said a while ago that I would do a post on what I do at first baptist, so here it is!

First Baptist Church in Lamesa had an ad in the paper in early April for a "Ministry Assistant." I was working in Brownfield at the time (40 minutes from Lamesa) so I couldn't go get an application. So Kanyon got one for me. He ended up staying there for about half an hour talking to the pastor about me, ha!

About a week later, I came back with my completed application and sat down with Chris, the pastor. The job sounded too good to be true. All of the job descriptors were things that I like to do or things that I'd like to learn to do! It was a variety of responsibilities, which appealed to me since I'd get bored doing the same things everyday. Not to mention the job included benefits - something Kanyon and I really needed for me to have with him being self employed and insurance premiums being out the wazoo.. I left the interview seriously wanting that job.

The next week, I got a call from Chris that I could have the job if I wanted it!! I was thrilled. I started that next week and settled into my new (huge for me) office:

My desk

Harris, the youth minister, brought me down this bright red couch 

from the youth room! Doesn't match but its funky :)

The door on the left leads to the lobby where our secretary is and the hallway to the rest of the offices.

Obviously, I haven't done much with this side of the office.. I don't even know how to open that safe lol. But I did get decorations on the wall at least! My books would fill up about two of those rows of shelves..

So what do I do? Well, since my job title is new to this church, the members sometimes call me other titles of former employees whose jobs they fused together to make mine: Administrator or Financial Secretary. But I'm not the administrator because our pastor, Chris holds that position pretty much, and I'm not the Financial Secretary primarily because we now have an accountant and I do more than just financial.

Financially, I handle our Purchase Order system. All purchases go through the Financial Committee and/or me. I sign all of our checks, along with a FC person, and keep records of all of our purchases. I am the go-between for the church and our accountant. Sounds quick and easy but its more extensive than that. I never thought I would like working with money but my need to be organized is satisfied through this!

Administratively, I am the contact for all of our many accounts such as our utility providers, our service providers, etc. I keep all the records of any relationship we have with another company. My job is to make sure we are being responsible with our money and getting the best rates, etc.

I also am the editor of our 8 page monthly newsletter. I have really liked doing this! I get to be creative and make it look pretty. A few pages, I get to design completely myself.

I am the editor for our website, also. Harris, our youth minister, thankfully had it all set up for me before I started working so I didn't have to build it, lol. It is a pretty fancy website so I was impressed. But I keep it updated with events and load documents or videos and stuff up so people will have access to them. I've learned a lot and have been able to put up some more info and pages on it since I've been working here. The website is www.firstlamesa.org if you'd like to look. (If you look at it today, it won't be updated, cause I've been out with Mission Lamesa, but it will be back up this afternoon!)

Those are my four main responsibilites and they keep me busy. But the variety comes from all the events and projects that we always have going on at our church. For instance, a couple weeks ago we did a missional event called Mission Lamesa. Joyce, a member, and our pastor wanted to put out a 40 day devotional leading up to it so Joyce collected devotionals from people. I designed and created a booklet for it and inserted all the devotionals. That was a big project and lasted all week but I got to do something different!

I work with Chris (pastor), Harris (youth minister), Andi (children's minister and Harris' wife!), Wayne (education minister), and Lanette (our secretary). I really do love our staff. We have a lot of fun together.

Hope that answered some questions! I am trying to get out the newsletter this week and update the website so gotta go!

mission lamesa.. almost done

we didn't finish the house by friday night as planned.. (see first mission lamesa post) but we got really far. we are hoping to finish it by tuesday so amanda and her kids can finally move in!

where we are now:

walls are insulated and sheetrock is all up! on saturday, a man volunteered to use a fancy sprayer thing to texture and paint the wall so hopefully when we come back tomorrow morning, all that will be finished. then we will finish painting the outside, hang the cabinets and put the appliances in. then this week, another volunteer is installing the carpet. then we're done!!

we painted the outside white with blue trim. it looks so much better!

friday night, we had a pool party to celebrate getting (most of) the work done! we were all pooped and needed a night to relax. this is andi and harris' (children's minister and youth minister) baby Silas. such a chunk of happiness. he thinks everything is hilarious.

my kind of man.

mission lamesa

this week, the church that i work for, is doing something really awesome.

i work for first baptist church in lamesa. the pastor there, chris, decided this year was the year that instead of leaving for a mission trip, the church was going to be christ to our neighborhood. and oh, have they.

we have several projects going on. some are paint jobs, one roofing, some landscaping, most are construction. the house that i am at is considered the biggest project.

the first day, sunday, was demolition day. we tore down the ceilings, walls, and ripped up the floors. all while inhaling probably dangerous amounts of insulation.. all in the name of jesus right?

its turned out to be a much bigger job than we expected but we are all really excited to give this woman and her children a THOROUGHLY sound house. (the guys have been extremely thorough..) its gonna be great. she didn't even have running water before not to mention the rotting structure and the not-even-close-to-level floors. she could have had a great slip and slide on those floors before.

much to chris' (the pastor) dismay, the guys felt that the best way to level the floors was to tear down one of the walls! i don't have pictures from today yet but this afternoon, they had the new floors in and a brand new and sturdy wall.

i'm proud to be associated with this church all the time but especially this week. i don't attend here because we are members at our church in welch (which i am also very proud to be apart of), but i love being a part of this staff. (and that's the jesus type of pride, ya know.)

this week's theme is 1 john 3:16-18... "to love is to serve".