The Catch-22 of a Poor Economy

I have been without a job since the beginning of August.
I have been actively searching for a job since January.
I am still unemployed.

Michigan is truly suffering as far as the job market goes. So it would make sense to search elsewhere for a career, right?

Here's where it gets funny - It costs money to purchase a home/move elsewhere. What do you need to have to afford that? A job.

On that note, where should we go?

When God talks, you'd better listen!

It's been an interesting and surprising week for me, to say the least. recently I'd told you about the position that I was looking for and how they chose somebody different.

I was very upset by this. I thought God had placed that position there for me to take. After I was passed over, I struggled with understanding why this had happened. I thought it was unfair and cruel that I was not chosen.

after this happened, a series of seemingly random circumstances brought a new opportunity to my attention. a new church is forming in Muskegon Heights. It is the daughter church of Watermark in Grand Haven, and the granddaughter church of Spring Lake Wesleyan Church. as I was looking at their website. I decided to contact the community pastor, Nathan Beals. we sat down and had coffee, while he explained the church's vision and mission in our area. He has such a passion for what they're doing. Everything the deep is about lined up with my heart. As we were talking, he shared that they did not have anyone who had experience with outreach volunteering and things of that sort. They wanted me to think about joining the team in a volunteer capacity.

It was stupid, and I admit it - I held off on saying yes. I held out for over a week, sitting on my hands and evaluating all the silly little material things that could go wrong. I'll admit I was hesitant since my last tour of ministry. These guys didn't give up on me. Nope! I got several emails and calls in that week.

Thankfully, my husband talked some sense into me. "Why are you saying no to exactly what you have always talked about doing?" duh.

So I sat down with Nathan yesterday, and joined the party. I'll invite you to our preview service this Sunday -- and we'll launch weekly services in December. the deep is where you'll get your hands dirty showing the love of Christ.

So, yeah. God does have great plans even when we're disappointed in our circumstances. Sometimes he has to yell to get it through our thick heads!

12 questions to ask at your Thanksgiving Tables

It's already November! One of my favorite publishers of games, Cranium posted the following on their blog... and I wanted to share these great questions to get conversation started at Thanksgiving dinner:

1. If you could stuff a turkey with anything, what would it be?
2. If you designed a giant balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, what would it look like?
3. You can pick anyone to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for you, who would you choose?
4. What invention are you most thankful for?
5. What’s the best part about sitting at the kids’ table?
6. If you had to eat only one kind of Thanksgiving food for an entire week, what would it be?
7. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving memory or tradition?
8. What’s the one thing that could make you brave day-after-Thanksgiving shopping?
9. This fall, instead of a pile of raked-up leaves, I’d like to jump into a pile of _______________.
10. A Thanksgiving food I wouldn’t want thrown at me in a food fight is _______________.
11. Next Thanksgiving, everyone should wear _______________ to the dinner table!
12. How many times can you say the word “cornucopia” in ten seconds?

I'm curious... what are YOUR answers?