Young Firefighters

 Last night was the graduation ceremony for the YVTech Firefighter Cadet class. It is one of the programs offered by the Yakima Valley school District.

This is the 3^rd year that James has been in this program and he has learned so much. He is has hopes of being hired on with a fire department as either a fire fighter or EMT. The students in the class were awarded their certificates stating that they have completed 1 year of firefighting training.

A firefighter has to be able to put on his (or her) bunker gear/turnout gear in one minute or less. The students all did a great job with the slowest time of 52 seconds. Way to go!

Alex adores James and want to be a "super hero firefighter" just like James

   

Procrastination …

Psalm 90:12 "Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom" (NLT).
Why is it so easy to waste time? I have a list a mile long of things that I need to get done. I feel overwhelmed and rushed to accomplish all the things that need to be done in one 24-hour period (which really isn't 24 hours because we have to sleep). So how do I deal with all the things that need to be done? I get on the computer and play farm town or Christmas Crunch. I tell myself that I need to relax and wind-down just a bit before getting to the things that need to be done. My "just a bit", turns into hours… Then it's the rush to do the surface things so that it appears that I have done something with my day. Then more guilt sets in. When guilt sets, in it seems to paralyze us to where it becomes close to impossible to do anything more than wallow in our ineffectiveness. Wow!
But wait! … This is not how God wants us to be or react.

We are to make the most of the time that God has given to us.  We are to come quitely before God, listening to what he wants for us.  If we listen first, and then write out our to-do list, the day goes much easier. 

During this time of transition and not knowing what all the plans are, it's easy to get distracted and I find myslef running around like a crazy woman.  I was up in our home-office yesterday, trying to pack up books.  I came across Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life".  As I was thumbing through the pages, I felt God saying "You need to do this"  My first reaction was "I don't have the time!!  With all that I have on my plate... one more thing would be crazy!"   But then, it hit me.  This is a PERFECT time to go through this book.  

So... on with the adventure! 

Packing 101

We are embarking on a new adventure… a new chapter in our lives. A new city (or town), a new church, a new home. The problem is… we have no idea exactly where or when. After a 9 year leave from full-time ministry, we feel God moving us back into full-time ministry. Steve has been re-ordained and re-instated as an iterant pastor. We both have been on unpaid staff at YEC (Yakima Evangelical church) and are awaiting placement as a full-time pastor in a paid position. The usual time for placements of pastors in our conference (Pacific Conference of the Evangelical Church) is in August. Our "Annual Conference Meetings" are held in late July. This is where business on the conference level is dealt with. This is also were ministerial students are recognized, missionaries are commissioned, and pastors are ordained. This is also where the assignments for the "new year" (August – July) are read.

In years gone by, the evening of the reading of assignments was the first time that anyone (besides the superintendent) knew who was going to be placed where. The pastor, his wife and family, and his congregation heard of the change that evening. They then had about two weeks to pack up and be moved.

It is different now. There is more forewarning… We know that we will be placed, which means there will be a move, we just don't know where we are going and exactly when we have to be there. We do know that we will know "soon" or at least before conference. This is driving me nuts! I think that I would be a total basket case if I had to wait conference to find out.

For now, I am de-junking, sorting, organizing and packing up non-essentials. I'm using the packing/moving system of idea brought by Fly Lady at www.flaylady.net She has many good ideas that make a lot of sense. This is going to be a big move, so I am trying some new things to hopefully help this ordeal go as smoothly as possible. One of the ideas she has, that I'm not totally using is the color-coded system. Although it makes a lot of sense to me and I liked the idea of a color-coded system, Steve is colorblind and using many different colors just makes things more complicated for him. Instead of making it something that he can simply glance at, it becomes a chore to figure out what color it is and where it belongs. So… I am simply going to use a black marker to write the name of the room the box belongs (or the person it belongs to… if going into a bedroom). Then… (and this is one of Fly Lady's ideas) I'm numbering each of the boxes starting with #1 for each of the rooms. The lower numbers will contain items that are less important. When we arrive at the new house, each room will have many boxes numbered 1 – however many boxes are needed for that room. The items that are most essential will be in the boxes with the highest number, so when we stat unpacking, we will start with the highest numbered box for each room. Also while packing I am taking a 3x5 card, labeling it with room and number and then listing all of the contents. This way, if there is something that we need, we can look through the cards, find the item, and open that box.

So for now, while I don't have the exact plans in front of me, I will do things to prepare and keep busy, knowing that God knows the plans for our future. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV) And it will be good.

 

Computers that Won't Speak to One Another...

I know that it was over 30 years ago(wow! that's a big number!)  when I was going to community college, but I really don't remember having this much trouble when working with the financial aid department. I'm still not sure yet, what the problem truly is... Is it incompetent people, or is it pouty computers. Back when I was in college, there weren't many computers, so things were written down in notebooks and on forms.It seems like we had far less problems.


My daughter, Emi is attending her first year at the community college here in town. I am getting really tired of dealing with financial aid every term. Here it is Spring Quarter, and we are still battling problems. Emi and I had gone into the financial aide director’s office last Monday. There was a “small problem” with the money. The director promised us that he would fix the problem and a check would be sent out to us on Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. Yesterday (a week later), the mail came, and still NO check. So… Emi and I went back down to the director’s office. Yes, he knew there was a problem, and it wasn’t his fault... He assured us of that. You see... They have a new computer program in financial aide and an old program in the business office and the two programs aren’t speaking to each other. So here we have pouty computers that can't get along.

After digging through all the mess, he finally saw that they did send out a check on Friday, but oops!! It was for $575 less than what it was supposed to be. The money was floating somewhere in cyber-space. An hour later, they tell us that that have it all figured out. I’m not going to hold my breath, I’m afraid that if I do, I will turn blue and die!

Stepping into the 21st Century

Oh my goodness... Two months ago I only had an email account. Now I have 2 email accounts, facebook, and 2 blogs! I feel like Jane Jetson!!


In this blog, I am going to write about the world around me, as I see it. I'm also wanting to borrow a cute idea called 'Flashback Friday" from my sister-in-law, Wendy. On Friday's I'm gonna write about things that happened when the kids were little.