Yes, I mean it.  I have moved yet again.  You can now find me here at www.helenfuller.net  Come by and visit soon!

So yesterday I battled the bad attitude ALL DAY for no good reason, but today I found my happy place.

A dear friend met me at work today to help out with organizing stuff and talking through some ideas…hears what we accomplished.

• Organized the entire section of craft materials in the storage room
• Got props and materials for Club ROCK’s next series Ten Hut – I can’t wait!  It is gonna be so much fun!
• Discussed and planned out how to make going to Kid’s ROCK so much fun that the only time we see tears are when we tell them we have to leave.

Now all I need is

• a lot of wood
• a lot of paint
• a john boat (or some other kind of boat and a way to fit it through a door)
• velvet curtains
• did I mention – a lot of wood
• old instruments (drums, trumpets, flutes, guitars, etc)
• some carpenters
• some painters
• some artist
• some time

And poof…we will have it!

Lesson of the day – What a difference a day can make!  I can’t wait to see what God is gonna do in Kid’s ROCK.

Ever have days when everything and anything rubs you the wrong way?  If you don’t then please make sure to tell me your secret.  I don’t get like this often (at least I don’t think so – Johnny may disagree) but when I do you may want to keep your distance.  Today I was there -  just down right grumpy.  No real reason…lots of little reasons but nothing that would have constituted the state of  my grumpiness.

Made me wonder – wonder what people in the Bible were like when they had this kinda day.  Did Elisha want to call down fire from heaven on his bad days, did Moses want to hold out his rod and silence everyone?  Did David want to break his harp over someone’s head or did Paul revert back to the thoughts of beheading people?  Just kidding – I wasn’t that bad today.

We have joked all week about finding our happy place.  My happy place is when I am alone, it is quiet and I can think without interruption.  I can be alone at my house, alone at work, or alone in my car…but sometimes I just need the world around me to stop making noise so that I can hear myself think and more importantly hear what the Father is saying.  When the girls go to bed, I will enjoy my happy place til the boys get home from football.  Hopefully by that time I will have found my happy place and gotten my attitude adjusted!

Do you have a happy place?  Where do you go when you need your attitude adjusted?

If you know me, you know that I love the story of Joshua and Caleb in the Bible.  Probably not too terribly hard to figure out since our son’s name is Caleb. 

Recently, however, it seems the story of Joshua is popping up everywhere.  I mean everywhere.  We use 3 different curriculum in Kid’s ROCK right now.  They all come from three different organizations yet as I have been preparing for the lessons, Joshua keeps popping up in all of them.  Wee Rock is studying Joshua and how “God takes care of us”, and Rock Stars and Club Rock will both be starting a series on Joshua in August.  That seemed a little odd cool to me then…

Tonight I picked up the book I started reading about a month ago and opened it to the page I left off only to see the story of Joshua leading the children of Israel across the Jordan.  Cool didn’t seem to be the right word to discribe what I was thinking then.  Hmmmm…is God saying something?

When I think of the life of Joshua – here’s what I think about…

1. He was a man of faith-not moved by what he saw
2. He was humble – did not demonstrate an “I told you so” attitude
3. Before he lead, he SERVED and served LOYALLY
4. He was not afraid of looking stupid
5. He made mistakes
6. He lead with clear direction and vision from the Lord
7. He lead differently than Moses – Moses did what God told him and the responsibility to do it was on Moses.  Joshua lead be empowering the people to follow the directives the Lord had given Joshua. 

I know there is more.  Give me your insights.  When you think of Joshua in the Bible, what do you think of?

Last night we had an Ordination Service at ROCK Church and I had to coordinate volunteers for Childcare.  I told them they would need to be there around 5:30 but that it would be over around 7:30 so by 8:00 they should be done.  Well, needless to say, I was wrong and things ,I’m learning, rarely go as planned.

I went down to the classrooms around 7:15 to let the teachers know we were running behind schedule and it would be a little longer.  They smiled and said “no problem”.  They didn’t get finished and cleaned up until around 9, yet not once did anyone grumble or complain.  They left smiling and saying “your welcome”.  What an amazing group of people to work with. 

Today I thought about that and realized there have been times where I have served and things didn’t go as planned and I was not as gracious or forgiving as the volunteers that served last night were.  Because of their gracious serving families were able to participate in an event that they may have missed out on otherwise.  Parent’s got to experience an amazing ordination and children got ministered to in their own special way.

Thank you volunteers for being so gracious and loving to ROCK Church and the community we live in!  I love you guys!

Today I was faced with a choice…an opportunity to be offended or an opportunity to chose NOT to be offended.  I am thankful that God gave me the grace to choose the latter. 

It would have been very easy for me to become defensive and feel attacked with the situation I was dealing with but that’s exactly what the enemy wanted me to do.  He wants us to turn on each other, bloody each other up, and forget what the fight is really about. 

Why was I able to look past the offense? 

1.  Because I prayed before hand that God would give me grace. 

2.  Because I knew the heart behind the words.  (Note – importance of building relationships with people)

3.  And because I know there have been countless opportunities for God to be offended with me, yet all those times, He, in his mercy,  has looked past my humanity to the heart He created me to have.  And I am grateful for that.

I didn’t walk away offended.  I walked away reminded of the awesome responsibility God has entrusted me with, humbled by the fact that He trusts me with it, and determined that the enemy will NOT have his way!   I am so blessed.

I started my new job this past week as Children’s Ministry Director at Rock Church.  Today as they prayed for me in the adult service and back in Club Rock, I was reminded of the fact that my greatest job is taking care of my family.  Fully aware of my imperfections in all areas, that in and of itself can be a little overwhelming…especially when you take a facebook quiz about how well you know your son & fail.  (In my defense I scored higher than his father and his teacher so I can’t be that bad)

We tell our kids often, we aren’t perfect, but if we realize we’ve made a mistake we’ll be big enough to own up to it and know that if you will honor God by respecting and being obedient God will take care of our mistakes. 

After I finish that lecture, I have to remind myself that not everything I do is wrong, kids are kids and well….teenagers are teenagers…enough said.

I read this amazing post today, if you are a parent, check it out!  It was one of the most incredible things I have read recently.

So I have not yet finished my first full week at the office as Children’s Ministry Director at Rock Church, but I thought you would enjoy a list of things I have managed to do in 3 days.

First 3 days Top Ten

10.  Had my first meeting with my Senior Pastor canceled and rescheduled

9.  Planned my first volunteer meeting

8.  Narrowly avoided stepping full force into a fire ant bed

7.  Averaged 4 hours of sleep a night

6.  Moved 300 lb (jk) desk around my office only to move it back to within 3 inches of where it started

5.  Drove the Senior Pastor’s wife to the hospital to visit Founding Pastor who was there sick.

4.  Record my voice message 6 times (still not happy with it but I was afraid someone would be able to detect the frustration in my voice if I did it again)

3.  Locked myself out of the office when going to the bathroom not once but TWICE in 2 days

2.  Set the alarm system off

1.  And finally…are you ready

I brought my home phone to work with me in my laptop bag…not my cell phone – my cordless home phone

Now that I had said “yes” to God’s call, the hardest part was keeping quiet and waiting.  So much was racing through my mind.  I was so excited.  I wanted to tell the world the entire story of what God had just done in our lives, but I couldn’t.  I wanted to shout it from the rooftops about what God was about to do in our lives, but I couldn’t.  I just wanted to tell…but I couldn’t.

I began working in Kid’s Rock every Sunday.  Watching what went on, getting to know all the volunteers, learning how things work.  Was this an easy thing? No!  Was it a God thing?  Yes!  As I watched, listened and learned, I gained valuable, needed information that has helped prepare me for what is to come.

These last 6 months have taught me lots of things

1. God’s plan is always better than what we could have planned.
2. Sometimes it’s time to “ponder” things in our heart so that He can bring it to pass
3. Waiting is never easy, but if we will learn to treasure the times of waiting, we will find the lessons in the wait.
4. Sometimes we don’t always understand the “whys” but the truth is we don’t always have to.

I am less than 12 hours away from the completion of my marathon ten days and I have to say the last 2 days of this ten day craze have been so much fun. 

On Friday I walked out of J.C. Roe as a teacher for the last time.  I cried briefly…mostly because I was amazed at what God had done in my life and because I’v never been good at saying good-bye.  But I left so excited about what was about to take place.  As soon as I got home, we headed out to a weekend adventure in Boone, North Carolina.  Caleb was going to football camp.  We had a blast – watching Caleb work his butt off, freezing at the top of Howard’s Knob after leaving 95 degree weather here, hiking in flip flops all the way to the top of Rough Ridge and well, trying to all sleep in a hotel room 2 nights without hurting each other…especially when one of us snores really loud and one of us doesn’t sleep well anymore!

Tomorrow morning Caleb leaves with a bunch of other crazy teens to head to Healing Place in Baton Rouge for a 10 day mission trip.  Once I get him off my plan for the rest of the week is to rest, clean my house, enjoy my girls, maybe visit a friend, and enjoy the beach because in a week I start the job of a lifetime.  The thing I know God created me for, but the very thing that seems a little overwhelming at this particular moment.

There are so many things running through my mind, so many ideas, so many thoughts, so many things to do, I know once I start it will be hard to slow down, so for now…I will enjoy the rest.