Changes

Wow, long time, no post, huh?

Well, some things are changing. I'm still going to bible study twice a month. Our current book is called Too Blessed to Be Stressed. I have no opinion really on it yet. And I've been in choir since last year, we're actually just about to start back up for the fall (and CHRISTMAS!) season. So starting next week, I'll have choir practice every Wednesday, and I also plan to change my schedule so I have Sunday mornings (at least) free, so I'll be singing in service most weekends as well. I go to services most weekends.

And I'm going to start working with the youth group.

This is the new. This is the change.

Months ago, I felt the pull to work with the youth and after a while I prayed about it. I told God that if he wanted me to do it, then I needed to get a raise since I'd have to cut and change my part time job hours.

I got a raise.

This was towards the end of the school year I think, so I wanted to wait until the next year was starting. After trying to talk to either the youth pastor or one of his helpers (both of whom are friends, but her more than him), I finally cornered my friend N recently and got a chance to discuss things. Once she found out I was changing my work schedule to be free on Sundays, she was all over it. I was given two choices: Sunday mornings for the 'traditional' youth or Sunday evenings with the small groups called D teams.  Morning is less of a time commitment, and probably better for me to start off with. But I have vacation coming up so I told them I would definitely be there on Sept 14th, and maybe on August 24th depending on my work schedule since I hadn't been able to change it yet. I finally got my schedule for next week yesterday.

I have the morning of the 24th off.

Talk about answering prayers! And I know people who don't believe in God. I don't understand. I really don't.

On an unrelated subject, I have a friend raising money for a transplant for her son. He has several health problems, and a new liver is necessary. Part of me wants to donate and support. But the other part of me, and probably the part that's winning, ... ?  Well, I don't really believe in transplants.  What he has is not curable. A transplant will prolong his life, yes, but is it really worth it? Granted this is obviously not my decision, it's theirs, but I don't think that my conscience will allow me to donate money when I am so opposed to the very idea of transplants. One of the tenets of the movement I belong to is faith healing. Yes, I go to the doctor for curable things, like a sinus infection. But for the incurable? Pray. Prayer is the only thing that is going to heal you. Medicine has it's limits, always has, always will. Depending on the severity and the survival rates, I honestly don't think I would go through chemo if I had cancer. I had a great uncle die from stage four colon cancer fairly recently and he went through chemo, which I just could not understand. Anyways, I really didn't mean for this to turn into a rant, I just wanted to get out my feelings on the transplant thing.

Also, there are reasons I don't share my beliefs with a lot of my friends, a good percentage of whom are not Christian. I realize that I'm getting more fundamental as I study the bible more (which I am VERY behind on) and as I age. So here we go: I believe in faith healing. Part of that is that I don't believe in transplants. I don't believe in abortion. I have no opposition to same sex marriage but all marriage should be civil as to not force a church into preforming any unions they disagree with. I really don't have an opinion on evolution vs. creationism, I probably lean towards the idea of intelligent design. Even though I do need to work on it more myself, I believe that everyone should dress modestly, male and female alike. I think poly relationships, open relationships, and promiscuity are wrong. I have no objection to drinking occasionally, but I don't understand drinking to excess, but I don't know if I think it's wrong necessarily. I also don't understand doing drugs of any sort.

Okay, I'm really done now. Just wanted to get those off my chest, even if all it's doing is going into the depths of cyber space where pretty much no one will ever read it.