Deja vu at church

David and I have been getting a lot more involved in church this year. He's recently become a deacon, and so far that has meant he gets to attend a lot more meetings and serve communion on a very frequent basis. Plus, we both sing in the choir and have both signed up for monthly praise teams. The choir sings one Sunday a month, so on that week, we both sing in both services (8:30am and 11:00am). Then, on our praise team weeks (which are on different Sundays), we're each singing for both services again. Then, finally, one Sunday/month, we both volunteer in the nursery for our 2nd service. That means we've got something scheduled every Sunday of the month, except for the few months a year that actually have 5 Sundays in them. Plus, we've both joined small groups (separate mens and womens groups) that meet once/week. That has been a great way for us to develop deeper friendships, get advice/encouragement, and really grow and have accountability.

We're really enjoying being able to serve more and are happy that God is starting to use us more. It's definitely an answer to our prayers to have found a church that we enjoy and fit into so well.

But, we're both being challenged this month with additional opportunities to serve God in ways that are out of our comfort zones. David has volunteered to give his testimony at our Men's Breakfast next weekend. It will involve really opening himself up in a very public way, but will be an awesome opportunity to minister in a very powerful way. Please pray for him as he prepares to do this.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I was approached and asked to teach our High School girls' Sunday School class every other week. At first, I just laughed. To be honest, I didn't feel I had much to offer the group. It's been a long time since I was in High School, and I really didn't think I had much in common with the girls. My memories of my own high school Sunday School class are not very good. At the time, we had a very small, disinterested youth group at church, so I remember lots of Sundays when we only had 3 people in our Sunday School - one of which was my older sister, who I had a mutual hate-hate relationship with. Add to that the fact that I was a pretty rebellious teenager, and my experiences/choices were much different than the ones I would hope these young ladies are going through. But, I'd been praying that God would open up additional opportunities for me to serve Him, so I didn't want to slam the door outright. So, I agreed to pray about it, then agreed to sit in on one of the classes to get a feel for it.

My first class was last Sunday. It was utter deja vu for me. I didn't realize it, but I had started on the day following their long trip to a conference, so they had all gotten in very late the night before and were dead tired. At the beginning of the class, there were only 2 girls in there. I made the joke to them that it reminded me of my own Sunday School class from high school, except my sister wasn't glaring at me from across the room. Then, the most hilarious thing happened. The door opened and 2 sisters walked in. The older one had red hair, the younger one had brown hair. Then, the older one made a fairly snippy comment to the younger one, and stormed out to do something she obviously thought the younger one should have done. It literally could have been me and Amy from almost 20 years ago. I guess some things never change, huh? That's when I realized that I might understand these girls more than I thought I would, so I've agreed to sit on a few more classes and will most likely start teaching every other week very soon. Wish me luck! Also, fortunately they tell me that usually the group is much better attended and more involved and lively - especially if they've had a decent night's sleep!