Year 4, January 5th-6th, 2018: Regular Weekend Vibes

Ah, back to the normal weekend vibes!  Benaiah worked, despite being sick.  He went to bed at 8pm, got up at midnight and took tylenol, went back to bed, went to work at 7am and took more tylenol sometime during his shift.  He said it was a lighter day, and I concurred because Keturah and I stopped by at noon and there was no wait in line inside! He was pretty bouncy, too, when I picked him up.  He had just had a meeting with one of the staff about his leadership goals.  He's currently being trained to be a trainer, but he also wants to move up the ladder of command.  And the staff member agreed and said something like they have seen him continue to work hard and want to help him get there.  Yeah!  He was also excited to play his video games after 3 days of not having the time, going to bed early, and feeling sick.  He had spent a day and a half or so at church, plus helping out at school.  Plus working earlier in the week.  So, that's how he spent the rest of his day on Saturday.  On Sunday, he had a normal schedule of drumming at Franklin Rd. campus and youth group in the evening.

Keturah had a basketball game on Saturday, so Justin stayed home and typed up an assignment and Abishai spent a couple of hours at Grandma's house.  He and Grandma played "vacation" on the "board game" where they visited Everly and Nora, took naps, and watched the Lego movie.  He also ate a croissant roll and he even used that word!  Before we left, I had gone out to the van and found that a) my key fob didn't work (but we knew it wasn't working) and b) the manual lock wouldn't open!  Jared had gone to a funeral an hour away for previous professor's wife's funeral (and Bible Bowl coach) where over 500 people showed up at this small church!  That's pretty sad and cool that they've been faithfully serving a community for 30 years and the impact that their ministry has had.  So, Keturah had the idea of asking to borrow Grandma's vehicle.  She and I walked over to Grandma's while Grandma and Abishai (Grandma had picked up Abishai) drove over to our house.  Whoops!  Well, they drove back to Grandma's, while we waited for them.  Keturah was just a couple of minutes late, so she didn't get to play in the first quarter.  Oh well.  She played in the 2nd and 3rd quarter though. The game went by quickly, and I didn't hear too many parents yelling after their kids.  The one mom beside me made some quiet comments, and then told her daughter some things when her daughter came up to talk to her, but that was it.  Coaches were fair and approrpriate.  Well, I don't know all the ins and outs of basketball, but the score was 15-14, with Keturah's team winning.  And I was happy when both teams scored.  A few girls are more aggressive than others because they've been playing longer, but there's one other girl who is playing for the first time, too.  Keturah doesn't know how to guard other players, and she only touched the ball once.  She did run back and forth though!  Afterwards I took her to CFA for lunch, just the two of us, where I spent the time on the phone with my brother, who is going through a nasty divorce.  He had called twice already that week, and I know Keturah wasn't going to say much, so answered the phone.  She and I did talk in the car though.  A quick stop at the library and then we picked up Abishai.

Daddy had arrived home as well.  Then I picked up a couple of things we forgot at the grocery store, picked up Benaiah, took him to the other grocery store, and finally came home to chill for the afternoon.  And that's what we did.  I finished my puzzle, while Jared rested.  He had spent an hour outside on the trampoline with Abishai.  Then after supper, Keturah, Justin, and Abishai spent another hour in the dark and 45 degrees jumping on the trampoline.  I even helped Justin scare the others on the trampoline by going outside through the front door and then through the gate, although Socks' barking gave him away a bit.  It did it a couple of times.  At one point, he was taking too long, and Keturah wanted to come inside, so I sent her to check the gate.  Well, Justin scared her well.  Her scream was terrifying!  Poor thing.  I'm so mean sometimes!  We scared Justin when he came inside though, so all is well.  Thank goodness Keturah doesn't have nightmares!  Pizza for dinner and another round of sweets since we have so much of it still (thanks, Grandma, for bringing all the sweets to our house so you wouldn't eat it, but we don't really need it either).  And you wonder why I never bake anything?  She had brought over doughnuts, too, today.  So, it was a good Sabbath.

Sunday was full on normal with Benaiah drumming, Justin and Keturah going to church early with Grandma, lunch at Grandma's, Benaiah drumming again while I was in nursery, Crave for Justin in the morning and for Benaiah in the evening and small group for Justin in the evening.  Choir won't start for another couple of weeks.  Grandpa is away this weekend doing 10x the amount of speaking he normally does.  And he's just getting better after being sick, too.  No fun, but that's life when you are a popular speaker.

I asked him to get a bowl....

She looks more and more like me all the time, except her ponytail is twice the thickness mine is!

Running,...a lot....and yes, that's a very tall girl on her team, maybe a 6th grader?

Lots of great tries!  But it also brought back memories of watching my brother play basketball when he was 7 or 8 in our local elementary school.  Kind of painful sometimes because they can't get the basketball up to the hoop!

Coach's talk! He's very encouraging and very fair.

Some of the girls are much more aggressive than Keturah, and that's ok.

Having fun!  But we've realized that we need to do a bit more conditioning at home.  She needs more stamina!

Final score!

Wow, I've never seen Aldi's cart holders empty!  It was very busy in there!

Almost 55 degrees today!  But I still wish for snow!  Check out her hair on that flip!

Crazy fun!

Tada! (should have given a thumbs up, too.)  I could have organized the craft supplies today,.....or,....relaxed and finished my New Year's Eve puzzle.  A New England friend said that this is the Hubble Lighthouse, sits on it's own island and is her favorite!

The rocks were the hardest part!  Especially with the angle of the light and such.  So, yesterday i did the clouds, and then tried the rocks again, looking very closely at each piece.  I did it!

These are some of Justin's drawings that he was going to throw away, but I insisted that he keep.  Don't worry, we threw away plenty of others.  Pichau from Pokemon.

Fortnite map of Daddy's office.

Some kind of map or world he made up.

I have no clue what this team thing goes to.

Symbols for teams on video games?

A funny meme?

He insists that he drew this.  I don't think he traced it, but looked at picture and drew it by hand.  Pretty good, eh?  At least someone in our house likes to draw!  Keturah crafts, but she's not great at drawing, yet.  I don't draw but Jared can a little bit.  We, Johnsons, aren't much into the drawing/painting arts, nor sports.  We are educators and actors, and musicians.  Different talents and I love it!

I already wrote down what we were going to do on Sunday, and it all happened as usual.  However, I'm going to copy and paste a couple of posts of mine from Facebook here, to kind of explain a few thoughts I've had in the last 48 hrs that might be a turning point for me and us.  And then I'll share the pictures of the day, which will include a couple of funny stories.  Here goes:

(not on FB or IG) At some point, and maybe to some people, maybe Instagram, I was whining about having baby fever.  I've been watching some vloggers go through their pregnancies, and our pastor's wife (and others) has just had their first baby, and well, I love pregnancy and birth and all that.  I feel like I'm feeling getting the grove of raising children and homeschooling, and want to raise more!  Jared says no, we can't.  Some women say they know when they are done having kids.  I don't think I will ever say that.  Of course I would never have a kid just for the infant snuggles, and for a long time, it's helped me be content because sticking with a kid for 18 years is tough.  But now that the end is near for one of them, I feel like I've survived all the stages of parenthood (ok, not all, but getting close) and yes, I can do it again, and again, and again.  So, I'm going through a baby fever stage, which yes, I did have after Keturah for many years until Abishai came.  And he'll be 4 in February.  Anyway, random thoughts on that part of life. Now onto some serious posts.

Saturday afternoon I posted this on FB: Thinking ahead to all the April’s I’ve had. 1999-Jared proposed, 2010-my mom died. 2016-we were told we were leaving Canada bc the job had ended 2019-Gary retires from the Creek and transitions to the e2 Effective Elders ministry he cofounded. (Mixed emotions on that one). I always miss PEI this time of year. I’m sitting in 45 degree gorgeous sunshine but I miss the bitter cold temps and snow. The way the sun glistens off the top of snow is incredible. The sound of snow falling or crunching under your feet. Wearing winter gear. The sea ice. Being near the water any time of the year. And then all our friends, my best friends, the friends I have been closest too. I miss you all. Every time I see your posts, a piece of me aches. Sometimes I still cry. The kids won’t remember but it was an important chapter in my life. I grew up a lot during those 4 short years. I miss my Island.

Sunday evening I posted this on FB: 
Jared attended her (Carol Jackson, wife of Jerran Jackson, pastor Clarksburg Christian Church for 40 years and counting and come to find out, his dad died the same day) funeral yesterday and said there were nearly 500 people there. (Edited: Jerran has taught at Maritime Christian College and conferred Jared's masters' degree hood to him) but we knew them a bit from Bible Bowl and even postponed yesterday’s competition bc of the funeral. I share this bc those in our movement might want to know but most importantly, two things:
What legacy are you leaving, especially in light of your Christian faith?
And you never know when it will be that you hug and kiss your friends and family for the last time, so do it often.
As I told Jared last week, I’m done going to funerals for awhile. I want to focus on attending baby showers and weddings and enjoying my own family now. Life is so cruel sometimes, and so short. So what can we do to join God in what he’s already doing? Well, our pastor Dan shared several things that are on the minds of our church’s elders and staff, specifically financially like getting out of debt, sacrificial giving from everyone so that we can upgrade our campus without taking out loans, etc. I thought the message today was directed at our congregation but think about it, what resources of time, talent, and money are you willing to continue the legacies of those who have come before us like Carol Jackson, all for the advancement of God’s kingdom? This isn’t just for the big churches, it’s for you small churches too! Dig deep and dig often! Don’t let the 20% do 80% of the work! And yes I have dozens of small and large congregations specifically on my mind.
One more takeaway: stay faithful to your local congregation. Don’t church hop for silly reasons like carpet color and music choice. And when there’s a split, don’t hightail it and run. If the elders and staff are genuinely trying to follow God’s lead, stay with them through the hard years. The Jackson’s have been there for 40 years. Gary and Leah have been at the Creek for almost 30. Those are rare numbers for pastors and congregants to stay in one place (if you continue to live in the same area of course). Every church has hard times, lean in and work with people and not against. Stay faithful. To God and his church.

(Sort of a follow up post to the one about missing PEI that I may or may not post after most people have seen the Carol Jackson one): As a follow up to the post about missing PEI the other day, that also includes points about what I wrote in the Carol Jackson post (I'm not trying to be demeaning to her life, but just sharing some connections I've made through hearing her story), I'd like to say this.  I didn't expect the type of sermon I heard on Sunday because most of the time, when you start talking about vision, especially finances, it's done during our annual meeting, or at dessert nights, or some other time, not during Sunday morning sermons because of the guests in the room.  But, this leads right into my main point of this post.  THINGS ARE GOING TO CHANGE come April 28th.  There is a definite shift in ideas and vision as the leadership has been changing from Gary and Dan.  It's a bit scary, but at the same time, I'm very, very excited.  I know that the biggest things won't change, but there's going to be a shift in how those things are carried out.  I have absolutely no clue as to what and how, but we can feel it.  Dan didn't say this, but this is something that I took away: there's a recommitment to some practices/focuses that we've had before and there's going to be some other changes that are totally different than anything we've ever done.  The greatest thing is that there are some of the same elders that have been on the elders team for longer than Gary has been preaching at Indian Creek, so they know the Creek's history inside and out like no one else does.  They've led us through tons of changes already.  So there's confidence in that we are still going to advance God's kingdom by joining God in what he's already doing through our church body.  We are going to have a huge focus back on small groups.  I feel that over the years, we have had a couple of times where the focus has been on being connected in small groups.  That focus has waned drastically, in my opinion, while we were gone and in the 2 1/2 yrs we've been back.  I'm glad to see it resurface again.  And I'm excited that Jared and I will hopefully be joining the initiative.  Which, brings in my point about PEI.  In the last couple of months, I've seen a huge heart shift in myself.  I'm ready to join a small group.  I've accepted more deeply why God has us here, back at the Creek, during this chapter of our lives.  It's because our children needed a better environment for their spiritual growth.  When you go on a "mission field" your family sometimes sacrifices in ways you didn't think about until you got there.  I feel bad saying that, but we didn't see much spiritual growth in our kids while we in Canada.  I grew.  Jared grew.  But the kids did not.  And some of that was our fault.  We didn't know any better.  We had relied on the Creek so much (which is weird because we knew it's our responsibility to raise our kids, not the church) for spiritual teaching and growth.  I'm not saying that our beloved friends didn't positively influence our kids or help them in their faith journeys in some ways, but I think that more could have been done.  And that makes me sad for the children and adults still in the Maritimes.  I long for all the churches to be healthy there.  I long for them to outgrow their buildings and to spread the Gospel. And I'm sure there IS spiritual growth among some of them.  But if others would just put aside their preferences and egos and old ways of doing things, even MORE could be done there.  And same goes for the Creek.  That's why Dan said what he said today.  Like some of the churches that Jesus talked about in Revelations 2-3, there are some great things being done by churches and there's some areas that need improvement, the Creek, Manchester Christian Church, Traders' Point, and all the hundreds and hundreds of small churches all over our continent.  And so, God wants us here, in Indianaolis, right now, as Gary makes his transition, to put our stakes in the ground and say, we are still staying here, no matter who is in the pulpit.  We agree with the Creek's view on young people, that THEY are the most important asset to the church, not the wealthy people that pay for the church.  Our children are THRIVING, yes, in programming, that yes, we help and pray for and encourage all the other leaders there.  We still do our part at home.  But we cannot provide it all.  At the Creek, all our kids have leadership opportunities.  They can all serve and are encouraged to serve and are mentored to serve. And as I metioned in the other post, let our ceiling be their ground floor and let them take God's kingdom even further.  And with that, we need to reach deeper into our wallets, pay off the church's debt, fund new projects like a better youth area and updated technology (only paying in cash as we have been for projects since our last capital campaign 17 years ago), and stay united in the process.  And of course, it's equal sacrifice, not equal amounts.  He even suggested if you already give 10%, give 15%, which is what I wrote down before he even said it.  Jared and I didn't make a knee jerk commitment because we hardly never do on these things.  So, all that to same, I'm pretty excited about the future.  I'm content to be here (except I want more snow and less heat) for such a time as this.  And then, maybe when the oldest three are in college and beyond, we'll be ready to make a change again.  But then we might have grandchildren, so who knows! Will Gary's last day on the job be a very bittersweet day? Absolutely, we are already feeling it and preparing our minds for it.  But we are also very, very excited about what's next, both for e2 and for the Creek.  And we wish, and hope, and pray that ALL the churches, Restoration Movement and beyond, would be vibrant lights in their communities by sacrificing their wants, desires, talents, time, and treasures for the greater good of advancing God's kingdom.  By setting aside the old ways of doing things and making the necessary changes to reach the next generations.  Like technology, if you don't keep up to date, you will be left behind and will eventually die out.  And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what I think about usually when I'm in church and thinking about what my friends in the other various churches are doing and hearing in their sermons and what they are doing with their ministries in their communities.  It's not a race, it's not a competition.  But we want to spur each other on to the next best thing in their congregations.  And I've seen it and heard about it firsthand how so many churches won't do it.  They refuse to change.  They will split over the little stuff or the big changes.  And it breaks my heart, not because we were part of a situation, but because so many are hurting because of their situations within the churches.  It breaks my heart, because it's not what God wants.  The funny thing is, I'm sure the church leaders have read about and heard this and have been taught this in Bible college and I've had zero training.  I've gleaned all of this from reading The Christian Standard magazine, from hearing Gary and Jared talk about it 1,000 or more times, from LIVING IT, and seeing it with my own eyes, and by listening to other leaders tell their stories of their congregations and attending other churches and being invested in who they are (even if I can't always remember who's who).  I'm still an outsider looking in sometimes.  And I don't think the average church goer thinks about these things.  So, I'm here to share it, from behind the scenes, affirming what is said from the pulpit, and doing my part to keep moving ahead, which I can finally do after trying to heal for the past 2 1/2 years.  Recommit to old truths and healthy habits, and change or start new healthy habits.  Both/and, not either/or.  Affirm the good, keep the good, and slough of the bad, replacing it with good.  That's what I learned today.  That I'm excited to be here and to be a part of things, especially behind the scenes, praying for people in the pews to hear the message with open hearts, and thanking God for those who have been faithful to one church for 20 or more years, through thick and through thin, especially those that go unnoticed.  God notices you.  I notice you.  And when I see you, or your FB status, or something else, I pray for you.  One last note: I saw several ethnic minority groups represented today, including a black woman on stage for the first time!  (She may or may not sing at the Shelby St. campus though).  How exciting that our community is fairly reflected in our congregation!  No more just middle class white suburbanites!  I saw several new black families, Latinos, Arab/Middle Eastern/Indian (sorry if there's a better name for these people groups, I don't mean to lump everyone into a category when I KNOW it can be offensive to those groups), and I know we have a few Asian people as well.  It's pretty exciting!!  (Wow, if you've read all of this, I owe you something for the eye strain!)

Well, there you have it.  My thoughts in a nutshell (or not, sometimes I think I need to be a real blogger, not just a family blogger!)  And now that I'm mentally exhausted, let's tell the funny moments of the day.

Morning shenanigans!

We told him he couldn't eat in the bedroom.  So, he set himself up just outside the bedroom.  I'm not looking forward to the teenage years with this one when he pushes all the boundaries to their max!

Because of reading the Star Wars visual dictionary every night with Daddy and asking "who's this?" about every character, Abishai has now learned some of the characters' names and which side they are on.  So, he got out Justin's bucket of figurines from all kinds of genres, and started playing with the Star Wars ones.

Grandma with one of the 1 yr olds of another nursery volunteer I've started to get to know better.  Aren't they cute sitting side by side?

Abishai was curious as to why the Han figurine was stuck in the cement (carbonite) so Daddy showed him clips of Han getting frozen and unfrozen and then they moved onto fighting sequences like the one with Yoda bouncing off the walls in Episode 2.  I laughed at that scene when I first saw it years ago.  And yes, we think Abishai is a bit like Yoda, but he likes to call himself "Baby-8" and Justin is the BB-8's pilot Po Dameron (sp?)  Why yes, I know too much pop culture trivia. 

Thinking hard and deep about Star Wars, Han Solo and carbonite.  Oh, and I asked Abishai why one of his favorite shows is "Stinky and Dirty" and he said, "Because they think!"  Yes, the bulldozer and trash truck problem solve by saying, "What if?....." which is awesome!

Bedtime snack with the kid I've barely seen today because of church and I volunteered in nursery.  He also had my phone earlier because I heard him singing his Sunday School songs to himself and I looked up the videos that go with those songs.  He then got in his garbage bine fulll of balls, lied down, and listened to some more music with the lid closed, right in the middle of the kitchen like it was normal to do so.  Oh this kid!

One last note, Benaiah, of all people, came home wired for sound tonight in a great way.  Well, from his encouraging and affirming talk with his supervisors at work yesterday, to his great drumming at church today, and finally drinking two Red Bulls over the course of the day and spending time with his BFF and other peers, he was over the top giddy!  Like seriously, on a caffeine high with arms flapping and huge smiles.  He even said he was hyper.  I hope he's like that when he goes back to school tomorrow!  Hehe!

Taken from an article about Mrs. Jackson's death, but I thought it was an appropriate quote you could use with anyone.  I thought of Gary when I read it.  We can walk behind him, beside him, and then continue to walk on in front of him, but never fill those steps completely.