2010 is not the year I thought it would be…and this statement is not necessarily a bad one..but things have happened this year that have shaped my life in extraordinary ways. There have been intense blessings this year and a few intense hurts this year. I have laughed hard and cried hard this year. It’s really been a roller-coaster of a year, but if it wasn’t for my Heavenly Abba and my Savior who walks with me daily, I NEVER, I repeat NEVER would have made it through.
If I had to encapsulate 2010 in one word, it would be trust. Trust in God, for sure, but also trust in myself and trust in others. I will admit, this year I have seen how misplaced trust can hurt and how full-fledged trust can save your life. It’s really been an unforgettable year.
School
School was a whirlwind this year. In the spring semester, I had my Education methods classes...and I thought at the time those were the hardest classes I had up to that point…ha ha…looking back, I’m going to make that the fall semester J In all honesty, my spring semester helped me immensely. It shaped the way I student taught in the fall and, looking back, I am grateful for all we did in methods because it truly prepared me for student teaching. I had a precious 3rd grade class and learned a lot from my cooperating teacher. In the fall, I started student teaching. Student teaching was the hardest thing I’ve ever done educationally & there were a couple of meltdowns here and there, but I’m writing this blog so I obviously survived! Ha ha! There were moments where I was convinced that I wasn’t going to make it, but God reminded me “Trust Me. Don’t lean on your understanding. Acknowledge Me! I will direct your paths (and pull you through)” (Prov. 3:5-6…paraphrased)...and He did! I remember last year asking you to pray for my placements- the students and teachers and I have to just thank you so much because God answered your prayers. I found out at the end of spring semester that one placement would be with a 2nd grade class and the other would be with a 5th grade class. I was placed with the most kind-hearted, loving, passionate teachers who helped me immensely. God purposed these ladies to be my cooperating teachers because we all had things in common (for instance, I had worked with one of my teachers before and the other teacher & I shared a common love of technology) J The 2 classes were just incredibly precious and I love and miss each child I taught. My student teaching experience, however, helped me come to the realization that I need to professionally teach kids or help teach kids on a spiritual level. My heart was burdened for students who didn’t grow up in a Christian home and just simply hated their life. I felt God wanted me to work for Him in more of a ministry setting. A lot of people say that God’s called them to ministry, and I know that God does call people at some point in their life. I, however, feel like I was born called to the ministry. I have been in church from the moment I was home from the hospital back in May of 1987…it is where I feel the happiest and at home. I can’t imagine not being in ministry. Anyways….I decided mid-way through the fall semester to look into Children’s ministry graduate programs. I looked a bunch of different Children’s Ministry programs and decided that Liberty University’s was the one for me. I talked about this in my last blog post, so I’m not going to go into those details again. (If you’re interested, though, click here to read that post). So as of Jan. 2011, I will be a graduate student at Liberty University (although, I will not move to Virginia until the fall of next year). Like I said, school has been a whirlwind…I’ve definitely learned A LOT! I graduated in December and it felt great to walk across that stage and get my diploma!
College graduate with her happy parents :)
May 2010
For a month that was supposed to be the best of the whole year…my birthday month, end of school month, beginning of vacation month…it sure turned out to be the hardest, most difficult month of my entire life. In early May, it was discovered that the financial secretary of the church (who had worked there for 50+ years) embezzled 1 million+ dollars. This was a time of great hardship for our church and my family. There were things that happened that I can’t talk about because of legality issues that were just difficult to hear, understand, and go through. May 11th is my birthday and the secretary was arrested the day before. That week…a week that was supposed to be the happiest of my year because I was turning 23…was such a valley for us all. I cried so much that week and just did not know what was going to happen to us, but I am soooooooooooooo thankful for sweet friends who were there for me, encouraging to me, praying for my family, and just let me cry on their shoulders…your kindness will NEVER be forgotten. Honestly, when I first heard the news, I didn’t know how our church was going to make it, but what Satan meant for evil, God meant for God and I am sooooooooo happy to report that our church has been the best it’s ever been and God, through our pastor, has carried us through our valley and is giving us mountainous opportunities to glorify His name. Looking back, though, the saddest part of the whole experience is that someone who we placed such trust in with the church’s finances let us down. This was a woman that I said hello to each day I was in the office, a woman who asked me how school was going, and just a sweet, kind lady who seemingly loved her job and was dedicated to it. I don’t understand how such a sweet woman could do such a deceptive thing. It makes me sad to look at her booking picture because I don’t want to remember her like that because for the 5 years I knew her…that wasn’t her, but unfortunately, the evidence doesn’t lie and we have to face the fact that she committed a crime and will have to suffer the consequences of that. Pray for this situation still because it might have to go to trial in 2011, so pray for all those involved in that. I guess my outlook on May 2010 now is don’t place your trust in material things or other people, place your trust in God…whole-heartedly and will full abandon.
Summer Opportunities
May 2010 changed the landscape of our summer. Things we had planned to do were put on hold or all together cancelled. It was hard, but it was necessary. The summer of 2010, however, included some of the best parts of the whole year for me, though.
Southern Baptist Convention – Orlando, FL
For the 2nd year in a row, I had the opportunity to serve my Convention as a page. While my entire family was supposed to go to convention this year, my parents were unable to, so Meredith and I flew by ourselves to Orlando and met up with the team of pages there. We both got to serve on the page team. Now, I’m not trying to sound boastful or anything, but without pages at the convention, business would be extremely slow and long. Pages are the cross-country runners of the Southern Baptist Convention meetings because they deliver the motions and point-of-orders and all the paperwork in record time to the…well, let’s just call them “big-wigs”. The “big wigs” look it over and make sure all the bases are covered and then all that goes to copy for all the lawyers and such to review and discuss. Depending on the year, pages are used over and above the call of duty…it depends on the business and the location. This year it depended on both. Business-wise, we were voting for a new Convention president and we were also voting on a controversial Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) motion. I’m not going to go into detail with all that, but you can look it up on Google if you’re interested. All I know is that this topic was making the Orlando convention one of the biggest conventions in a while and over 15,000 people were expected. Location-wise, the convention hall was one big-normous flat room. If you remember last year, my job was “copier”…I actually ended up having this job again because I was requested by the Recording Secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention to do so. That was a complete honor and I was so humbled that he remembered me. I also ended up being a stage page, so I got to sit on stage with the “big-wigs” and run errands for them and meet the speakers and such. I’ll tell you when the vote was taken on the controversial GCR topic, I will NEVER forget standing at front of the platform and seeing the sea of ballots that went up in the sky…both ways. If you Google an image of GCR, you’ll probably see a picture similar to that. It was the exact image I saw from where I stood. I felt part of Convention history. On the last day, Dr. John Yaets (Recording Secretary for the SBC) told me that he was incredibly impressed with my work ethic and asked if he could throw my name out to his convention contacts if I was one day interested in a job. Wow. I was kind of floored and amazed and humbled. Dr. Yaets & his sweet wife/assistant begged me to come to Convention next year in Phoenix and I am praying that God can open the doors for me to go.
For the 2nd year in a row, I had the opportunity to serve my Convention as a page. While my entire family was supposed to go to convention this year, my parents were unable to, so Meredith and I flew by ourselves to Orlando and met up with the team of pages there. We both got to serve on the page team. Now, I’m not trying to sound boastful or anything, but without pages at the convention, business would be extremely slow and long. Pages are the cross-country runners of the Southern Baptist Convention meetings because they deliver the motions and point-of-orders and all the paperwork in record time to the…well, let’s just call them “big-wigs”. The “big wigs” look it over and make sure all the bases are covered and then all that goes to copy for all the lawyers and such to review and discuss. Depending on the year, pages are used over and above the call of duty…it depends on the business and the location. This year it depended on both. Business-wise, we were voting for a new Convention president and we were also voting on a controversial Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) motion. I’m not going to go into detail with all that, but you can look it up on Google if you’re interested. All I know is that this topic was making the Orlando convention one of the biggest conventions in a while and over 15,000 people were expected. Location-wise, the convention hall was one big-normous flat room. If you remember last year, my job was “copier”…I actually ended up having this job again because I was requested by the Recording Secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention to do so. That was a complete honor and I was so humbled that he remembered me. I also ended up being a stage page, so I got to sit on stage with the “big-wigs” and run errands for them and meet the speakers and such. I’ll tell you when the vote was taken on the controversial GCR topic, I will NEVER forget standing at front of the platform and seeing the sea of ballots that went up in the sky…both ways. If you Google an image of GCR, you’ll probably see a picture similar to that. It was the exact image I saw from where I stood. I felt part of Convention history. On the last day, Dr. John Yaets (Recording Secretary for the SBC) told me that he was incredibly impressed with my work ethic and asked if he could throw my name out to his convention contacts if I was one day interested in a job. Wow. I was kind of floored and amazed and humbled. Dr. Yaets & his sweet wife/assistant begged me to come to Convention next year in Phoenix and I am praying that God can open the doors for me to go.
The 2010 Southern Bapitst Convention Pages
Mission Trip to Hong Kong, China
In July, I went for the 3rd time to a place that is so close to my heart…a place that is home to me and where I just love being…Hong Kong. I will admit to you…I was really troubled about this trip before I left. I was worried about everything…traveling by myself, money, getting lost, and just about everything else. God showed me that I needed to place my trust in Him and He would carry me through. It was a hard realization, but when I let go and let God…I saw some pretty incredibly things happen that made this visit the better than the last (nothing beats my first “visit”, though, because that’s when I lived there J). I traveled with Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville, TN to do VBS- Saddle Ridge Ranch with my International home church, Clearwater Bay International Baptist Church. It was a complete dream-come-true to work with my close HK friends and make new ones at that. I worked with an incredible team and we were able to see kids come to Christ. I had the opportunity to be one of the main leaders of the 3rd & 4th grade class and led the plan of salvation to my kids. Out of our class, we had 1 boy accept Christ and 2 others who had questions. It was so humbling for me to plant the seeds of salvation into these students and help mature one that was ready to accept the greatest gift he’s ever received. I also got to use my media gifts to do screens for VBS too…and ended up being a worship rally back-up (I mean literally, I was the back-up in case the real leader couldn’t do it) dancer…ha ha J I look at the photos from my trip and am just so homesick for that time. I miss each child and just pray that God is working in their lives and showing them His love. I am so thankful for sweet friends who helped me when I traveled to HK by myself the first week and in order to look at some possible future job opportunities and were there at the airport to meet me and help me get settled. I am also thankful for sweet memories with close HK friends…like eating my first bite of jellyfish and getting a free birthday cake…when it wasn’t even my birthday J HA HA!
In July, I went for the 3rd time to a place that is so close to my heart…a place that is home to me and where I just love being…Hong Kong. I will admit to you…I was really troubled about this trip before I left. I was worried about everything…traveling by myself, money, getting lost, and just about everything else. God showed me that I needed to place my trust in Him and He would carry me through. It was a hard realization, but when I let go and let God…I saw some pretty incredibly things happen that made this visit the better than the last (nothing beats my first “visit”, though, because that’s when I lived there J). I traveled with Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville, TN to do VBS- Saddle Ridge Ranch with my International home church, Clearwater Bay International Baptist Church. It was a complete dream-come-true to work with my close HK friends and make new ones at that. I worked with an incredible team and we were able to see kids come to Christ. I had the opportunity to be one of the main leaders of the 3rd & 4th grade class and led the plan of salvation to my kids. Out of our class, we had 1 boy accept Christ and 2 others who had questions. It was so humbling for me to plant the seeds of salvation into these students and help mature one that was ready to accept the greatest gift he’s ever received. I also got to use my media gifts to do screens for VBS too…and ended up being a worship rally back-up (I mean literally, I was the back-up in case the real leader couldn’t do it) dancer…ha ha J I look at the photos from my trip and am just so homesick for that time. I miss each child and just pray that God is working in their lives and showing them His love. I am so thankful for sweet friends who helped me when I traveled to HK by myself the first week and in order to look at some possible future job opportunities and were there at the airport to meet me and help me get settled. I am also thankful for sweet memories with close HK friends…like eating my first bite of jellyfish and getting a free birthday cake…when it wasn’t even my birthday J HA HA!
Me & my 3rd & 4th Grade Class...Love them! :)
Church
Last year, I think I said church-work increased 1,000-fold…well I guess this year it was like 2,500-fold! Goodness, gracious….I’ve had a BIG year church-work wise, but every moment’s been a blessing and I can’t imagine doing anything else. Each Sunday is a blessing and I have run screens/multi-media for some pretty amazing people this year – Bro. Dean Haun, Rabbi Greg Hershberg, Dr. Richard Holden, and so many more people that I just can’t think of right now. I view my position as one in which I help others worship God; when everything flows together and people are able to sing to the Lord with their heart by reading the words off the screen or learn new things as they have read from the screen…that is all part of how people worship God through the screens. This is why this job is so important to me and why I value and am humbled in the position that God has placed me in. I’ve had the opportunity to help facilitate worship for so many people which is an honor and privilege. This year I created multi-media experiences for the Spring musical and Living Christmas Tree. They both were great performances and I was so humbled that God had given me the inspiration for these performances. But my most favorite experience this year happened just recently. I had the opportunity to help coordinate on the church’s end a DVD taping at the church for a Southern Gospel recording group called Greater Vision. It was a task that was bigger than I expected, but God gave me the help I needed for it. I ended up getting to be on the crew because the producer wanted to utilize the screens for the recording; I got to be on a headset and hear what all was going on. I am extremely honored to be a part of this project & CAN’T WAIT for the DVD to come out…from the shots I saw from the screen…it’s gonna be beautiful J I am so thankful God has given me a love for media…it’s certainly something I didn’t know I was in to until I moved to Morristown, but now I can’t imagine my life without it. I’ve also been able to use my love for teaching by getting to teach the Awana kids about missions once a month. I’ve been able to teach them about lots of different things in unconventional teaching ways. It’s been fun & I love watching them learn!
Working at my media post!
Work
Work has been here and there this year because of my Student Teaching schedule, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of when I have been working. I work for a fantabulous company called Megan’s Corner Catering and More. My boss is one of my close friends and I just love working there! I’ve worked for Megan’s Corner for about 4 years now as a server, and last year became “Team Leader”…which I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to be doing with that title, but that’s a different story…but this year I became Webmaster! That’s right…I designed the Megan’s Corner website. I think it turned out great, especially considering I am not a web designer, but with the advice of others, I was able to get this turned out. We’ve heard nice complements about it…that it is easy to follow and very helpful- comments that truly mean a lot to me. God is truly blessing this business and I am so honored to be a part of it. I am looking forward to the 10 year anniversary of the business in 2011.
Me with my boss & her husband & dad (co-owners of Megan's Corner)
Prayer
Pray for me next year. New opportunities and experiences are going to come up for me. Pray I will make the best decision. I will also be transitioning to new places, pray for smooth transitions. Also, pray God will open doors for me in the summer, with the Southern Baptist Convention and also I would love to go on another mission trip if it’s God’s plan for me to do so. All I want to do with my life is be a servant to the King and live with that servant’s heart…pray that God will give me opportunities this year to continue serving Him. I value your prayers and your friendship. Thank you in advance for them.
---------------
I know this has been an extremely long blog post, and if you’re still reading, BLESS YOUR HEART! J But really, this was good for me to sit back and write about this year and remember all of these memories and how God has seen me through it all. I am so grateful to Him for holding me in His arms and never letting me go. I sang a song this past July, the Sunday before I left for Hong Kong that..to me…encapsulated God’s message to me this year.... “Trust me, Allison. I will never leave ‘your hands’”. I share this song with you now…let it be an encouragement to you for 2011…If in 2011 your world is shaking or your heart is breaking, He will never leave your hands.
I know this has been an extremely long blog post, and if you’re still reading, BLESS YOUR HEART! J But really, this was good for me to sit back and write about this year and remember all of these memories and how God has seen me through it all. I am so grateful to Him for holding me in His arms and never letting me go. I sang a song this past July, the Sunday before I left for Hong Kong that..to me…encapsulated God’s message to me this year.... “Trust me, Allison. I will never leave ‘your hands’”. I share this song with you now…let it be an encouragement to you for 2011…If in 2011 your world is shaking or your heart is breaking, He will never leave your hands.
2011…You will be a year of new transitions and experiences and frankly (judging from this year) I have no idea what else you will bring, but what I do know is that God will be with me every step of the way! J
