I freewrite every single day on Penzu now. It was good to write here for all those years, but I also love the privacy of Penzu. I am able to express more of my raw emotions. Although, I did express a lot of raw emotions here for many years, and sometimes I would have people say, "Are you sure you want to say that?" Others came to me and said, "I read your blog, and it helped me work out my own pain of a church difficulty." I was pretty raw about that church dysfunction. What is so amazing it that that church transition was 20 years ago on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend! WOW! What a great fly away to freedom! I celebrate it every year! It was one of the best decisions we have ever made. All the dysfunctional leadership of that time is long gone, and all is forgiven. (They were "precious but confused" as my friend, Miranda, would say.) and I think that former church is a lot better now.
So, I didn't realize that Memorial Day Weekend marks that. Although I celebrate the FREEDOM on June 16 every year because George still had obligations there after we had decided to leave. Even though I had left, and we had visited our present church, Suburban Christian (much healthier), on Memorial Day Weekend. He still had to endure a few more weeks. But he loved this group of kids that he was leading, and he loved the leadership in the 4-5th grade class. So, it wasn't hard for him to go and serve there. Those people that led there were the best.
Actually, there were such pockets of health there, and that is why we stayed so long. But when the top leadership (and elders) are really unhealthy, it is not a good place to be, and me training leaders there for that final year helped me to see that I could not stay there any longer! Now that I have read more about things like this and what motivates people in ministry, I am not surprised at the dysfunction.
So, here I sit in a much better place. I know that my present church is not perfect, but it is much healthier. I am happy there even though most of my ministry is outside of the walls of the church. They are very good at supporting that.
Ok, I am so glad I didn't go for a walk. It is POURING down rain. WOW! I heard it start at 3 am, but it is a torrential downpour now!
So today on my plate:
7 am Fran spiritual direction
8:30 D mid-year training evaluation and supervision of one of her spiritual direction sessions.
1:30 B for a session.
That's it!
