What Do I Do?

This is a funny question. People ask, "You're a children's pastor? So, what do you do during the week?" I try not to be insulted. :-) But seriously, I kind of wonder, too: what do I do? It varies so immensely based on the season, the activities that are going on, etc. And if the senior pastor asks you to do something, then you do it regardless of whether or not it's on your "job description." So...I thought I would take a sample day of yesterday and see what I actually DO.

• We are beginning to switch over to a new church management system. More than just a database, it will help us track volunteers, assign kids to classes/events, securely check them in and out, identify students by school/grade/birthdate, and a host of other items too detailed to list here. I am in charge of the implementation project with the awesome T as my sidekick (seriously - that's what they call it, a sidekick). We're very superhero-ish. Anyway, yesterday we had some problems entering data, so I worked on that. I also reviewed T's bunch of e-mails about a meeting we have scheduled this week to train data entry volunteers and attempted to line up child care for the meeting.


• I entered into this same program a list of as many schools as I could find in the phone book if I knew that we have children who attend there. I also set security rights for all the staff who are the only users we have entered at this point.


• I counted the offering from Sunday's kid's services.


• I cleaned up some curriculum that was returned to me and took it to a closet upstairs.


• I met with the leaders from our Sunday morning kid's church program. They have kicked off a new program in the past few weeks, and we talked about getting schedules put together for those volunteers. I helped them make one up in Excel and I will follow up with them next week to see if they were able to plug volunteers into all the spots as needed for the next 3 months.


• I updated a quarterly schedule of youth volunteers for my pre-school classes. Each quarter, I get new curriculum for these classes. I have to update and copy new schedules, list the quarterly Bible verses, schedule youth volunteers, assimilate and distribute the materials (6 separate sets of teachers during those 3 months), and create a quarterly calendar for the entire children's ministry with a note to parents regarding that quarter's lesson themes and other activities or news. I am going on vacation at the end of May, so I need to finish all this work ahead of my regular schedule.


• I made a few phone calls and sent e-mails to find substitutes for next month.


• I have a meeting on Tuesday, so I printed off some materials to go over with a new teacher so I would be ready to meet with her.


• I looked over the VBS volunteer list and considered who to ask for some of the empty positions still to be filled.


• Last year's VBS materials were on a hard drive that crashed, so I have to create any documents used from scratch. I began yesterday with the creating schedule for the week.

I don't know if that sounds like a day's worth of work or not. I may have done a few other things in there, but that is the bulk of what I can remember. Anyway, it seems as though it's never a regular "to do" list but rather a constantly revolving door through which many events and people pass. There is no "typical day" in ministry. Not that I have ever experienced, anyway.

The Great Getaway

We are beginning to plan our summer vacation! We have purchased our tickets and are going to spend 10 days in the San Jose/San Francisco area next month! I can't believe how quickly it is coming. Matt has a list a mile long of train and railroad-associated things to see and do. My list currently consists of malls and coffee shops to visit, but I hope to check out some of the tourism sites and find some other things that appeal to me. What I enjoyed so much about our honeymoon was the opportunity to just chill and relax - no pressure to go anywhere or do anything. Hopefully we can take at least a day to just do that. We are staying with some family friends of the Gidley's, and they have a separate guest home that will I'm sure be awesome! I've seen a few pictures - I'm not sure if they're still on Matt's website or not.

That is my exciting news - our first year of marriage was filled with so many fun trips and outings, and I'm looking forward to starting the second year off with a bang!

The more of this that happens on vacation, the better! Who wouldn't want to be doing this right about now? Bet it's not snowing there!

The First of Many

What a year of firsts! The first year of marriage has been just wonderful, and we celebrated our first anniversary on Sunday. It was so special to spend time over the weekend reminiscing about our wedding and everything surrounding it. We have done so much in this first year - it's really been full of a lot of fun trips and memories. God has blessed us incredibly. He has kept us healthy and provided for all our needs and given us the ability to travel and enjoy our "DINK" status. I have learned so much about my husband and about myself this year. I am determined to be a better wife in the second year than I was in the first. I am so excited to see what God will bring our way as we grow closer to Him and to each other.

Thanks for an amazing first year, baby. You have shown me more love than I ever imagined I would experience in this year, and I believe God has blessed me with the most incredible husband - even more than I could have asked for. I know the best is yet to come for us!