Updates on Sara's life

Last weekend at church we had a Network seminar. Network is a program that helps you identify what your spiritual gift is, such as creative communication (worship band, drama, etc), intercession, mercy, teaching, etc. I found out that my top 3 were administration, hospitality, and helps. It wasn't that much of a surprise to have administration as my top one, since I love to organize and coordinate things. I also found that I'm a task structured person. There are 4 categories....people vs. task and structured vs unstructured. You can make 4 combos out of that. I focus mainly on the task at hand, and are very structured doing so. I also discovered that a passion of mine is getting new Christians plugged into Bible studies. When people first become Christians, they often don't get themselves plugged into Bible studies, probably because they don't know what to expect, are scared, etc. It's so important in their growth and we as a church aren't good about focusing in on those people. I also think we should be having GIGs (InterVarsity term for Groups Investigating God) for the non-Christians in our church, to have a safe and comfortable place for then to learn about who God is. For awhile I've been expressing this to leadership at church, but in a way felt guilty because I wanted it yet, was not willing to teach it. Through Network I realized teaching is not my gift so I shouldn't feel guilty for not leading it. I can take my gift of administration and help get these started and organize them. I am also going to help our assimilation pastor implement Network at our church. The goal is to get people through a 3 step process...first is a Bible study learning how to spend time with God, the second is learning about Jesus's characteristics and how to apply them to your life, and the third is Network. Once people complete Network we will be able to see what people's spiritual gifts are and be able to place them in tasks where they will flourish and be the most satisfied. I'm very excited about this because although I'm considered "leadership" at church, I often feel a disconnect since I can only be there 2 out of 4 Sundays a month. Some of the tasks I've been given can be easily done from home and I'm excited to do it.

Last night Ryan and I got to spend some time with our good friends Joylynn, Thor and Laura. Thor had a concert at a coffee shop so we went to that. Joy's such a good listener and let me vent about my job. It's been very frustrating, especially this past week. Decisions are being made about our animals that don't make any sense. I'm going to stop here since this a public blog and I don't want to get all worked up again. Ask me about it if you'd like. Today Joy is having tea party at her house. I'm super excited because she let me know she is making spring rolls. I'm going to go early and eat them all before everyone else gets there. :) I created a tea party hat yesterday. It's pretty funny. It'll be nice to hang out with the girls, even though I won't know most of them. Then tomorrow we are going to a friends house to watch the superbowl. Go Arizona! (I really don't care...I just say that because their quarterback openly talks about his faith and that's awesome).