Today (May 29th), being Ascension Day, our church is beginning a season of concentrated prayer which will go on until Pentecost Sunday.
That means getting the projects done at the Vicarage took front burner status as we approached the holy days. I wanted to get the gardens at least partially planted. I wanted to get the chicken coops finished. We are pretty close with the coops.
Sunday, Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday the fam worked hard.
The tomato trellis is now set up.
Once all the vegetables and herbs are in I will start building the stone walls around the box gardens.
It was a very productive weekend. Now on to prayer!
I believe that part of gardening is looking at the landscape you have around you and figuring out how that works into your garden plan. My garden just happens to be filled with lots of invasive things. On the surface that would seem to be a drawback, but as I think through it all there are lots of advantages that the invasive species bring.
One of the species I deal with is Japanese knotweed.
It grows fast and takes over. I do cut it back every year and I have often thought about getting rid of it altogether, but the birds and the rabbits love to nest in the dense foliage. There are always an abundance of nests wedged into the close growing bamboo-like stalks. In the winter it attracts hosts of sparrows who use it to hide from predators during the day and night. This year our rabbits have built their warren in the heart of the knotweed jungle.
This beautiful fellow has been hunting on our property all this week.
This winter I am trying to learn more about forest gardening and the plants I already have in the forest as I lay my garden plan for the Spring. Here is something I have learned about knotweed.
Birthdays have never effected me much. Mostly they were just numbers in a series. 16 didn’t feel very different from 15 other than the fact the State recognized I was old enough to start driving. Honestly, that didn’t excite me much. 18 was the same as 17 except for the whole registering for the selective service thing. 21 passed me by without even a tip of the hat. I was married and in Bible college. The “BIG 21”. celebrations so many people make of that birthday never even crossed my mind.
I do remember 35, though. It was a tough birthday. I wasn’t prepared for it. I thought it would just pass me by like every other birthday, but it didn’t .
I can only speculate what changed, but when I turned 35 the weight of what I at first called “adulthood” suddenly fell on my shoulders, and that weight was HEAVY. In fact it was crushing.
By 2002 I had 3 kids ages 13, 12 and 11. I had been married for 15 years. I had owned two homes and been through three careers, finally settling on the work of ministry. It’s not like I was suddenly introduced to adulthood that year. I had been adulting as far as I understood it for over a decade. But honestly….
Maybe, it was that, in 2002, for the first time I felt a sense of permanence. Maybe, it was at 35 that I first understood my course was set and I had passed the point of no return.
Maybe, it was at this point I understood that I was going to follow the call of ministry no matter where it led me.
Maybe, for the first time I was clear on the fact that the calling was not about “professional ministry”, but about a walk of faith with God that would cause me too fulfill an office of the church no matter what my job ended up being.
Maybe, it was in this year that I began to fully realize I was answering destiny’s call.
Maybe that was what felt like a weight.
Maybe it wasn’t the weight of “adulthood” I felt at 35, but the sudden realization I had been caught in the full influence of destiny’s rip tide.
There are a lot of maybes as I look back. I am certain that whatever hit me at the age of 35 almost drowned me…. could have drowned me with all that it set in motion….maybe even should have drowned me….BUT GOD.
35 was an inflection point for me.
2002 was not the year of actual change, but as I look back it was the year when all the changes that have played out since became certain. I felt it back then. I just did not understand what it was I was feeling.
I only mention all this because here I am having just passed a birthday…my 57th birthday and I am feeling 35 again…not in a “I am returning to my youthful self” way…but in a “Here I go again” way.
I sense that the tide of destiny is about to take over again. I sense that this time it may be more than just me standing at an inflection point. I sense we not just me are at an outpouring and upsurging all at once of ….BUT GOD.
It is definitely winter at the Vicarage now. I am feeding the birds everyday and just keeping ahead of their feeding frenzies. It tells me the last of the edibles in the forests are gone. The chickens are moving the hay I am providing for them, from one end of their enclosure to the other as they have need to keep the coop warm for their feet in the colder temperatures, and I am changing out their water twice a day now to keep it from freezing.
We are into the season of storms. Each day brings its own display of wind or precipitation and the sky is more often rheumy than not.
The day starts at 7 A.M., is gone y 4:30 P.M. and is bordered by several hours of wintry half light on each side. As we head towards the longest night of the year, I have to admit I am feeling affected by the darkness more than ever before.
To cope I am feeling led into still another deeper place of prayer. When not doing people work, I find myself bouncing back and forth between prayer and administrative work in about half hour increments.
I am feeling this necessary to keep my head on straight… and as a final work of preparation before the new year brings what I am sensing it will.
2024 has been a hard fought battle with many large changes. It began with my mother entering hospice care. Mom passed in April. Shortly after that my daughter was diagnosed with cancer and the summer was given to hospitalizations and treatments. My sister went back to her ministry in the Netherlands and my son and his family bought a condo and moved out. Lots of changes. I think part of the reason for this prayer rhythm is to help me grieve all the change and trouble. There is a piece of me that I think is just entering into the grieving process now. I feel like I have said that before. Maybe I am not just entering the process. Maybe I am just in a new phase, a phase that is going to require a lot more prayer.
BUT … these depths of prayer are not just about grieving the past. It is about preparing for the soon to come move of God. My daughter, Melanie, was telling me about a vivid dream she had the other night, and how she believed it was a word from God about how He was going to bring breakthrough in certain areas of our community. She also believes that we are being called, as a church, to partner with Him in these areas.
It reminded me of a conversation I recently had with another minister about the body of Christ needing to spend enough time in abiding prayer to bring heavenly realities into the earthly realm. I realize this is not just about me personally. God is beginning to call the church into deeper prayer because that is what it is going to take to bring forth the miracles we are going to need in the days ahead. We are heading toward the world’s longest night.In that space of darkness the church is going to need to bring its brightest light.
“Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever….The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness,a light will shine.” Isa. 9:1,2
Notes From the Vicarage 