A Very Busy Weekend.

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

It was such a busy weekend at the Vicarage, I haven’t finished all the work it created yet…and it is almost Thursday. Part of that work is this post which I started writing on Monday morning and had to keep putting off until now.

The sad thing about getting behind like this is that life events don’t just stop so you can catch up. Oh no! They just keep rolling in so the work you didn’t get done when it was supposed to be done, keeps getting pushed back behind the work that you have to do today until saying things like “It was a very busy weekend”, really don’t matter because it is almost next weekend.

But I really want to tell you about the weekend we had here at the Vicarage.

Amanda started the weekend off when one of her friends who works at an adult dayhab in our area was burned out of her home. Amanda put out the call for clothing and essentials and spent a good deal of time gathering those items for delivery this week.

In the meantime Brenda left for a weekend tour of Connecticut. She performed her show, My Hiding Place, in Bristol on Friday night, taught a teen seminar in Greenwich on Saturday, and then preached twice on Sunday in Farmington.

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Monday she started jury duty and got selected for a case she has been sitting panel for since.

For myself, I have been holding down the home front. Saturday our artist’s community set up an art show at one of the local libraries.

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Sunday of course was church and then housework. I think I did something like nine loads of laundry this week! Of course none of us including the people who stayed here in Massachusetts have yet recovered fully from our trip to the Philippines. Some things have changed with Mom since we left and that leaves us all a little worried about her health.

So we watch and wait and work and wonder what is coming next for the ministers of the Vicarage. In the end, we can only deal with things as they come along. All of us are learning to just live in the moment and rejoice in the busyness and the blessedness of serving God in it.

In a Haze

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

I awoke again this morning at 2 A.M. and finally rolled out of bed at 3. The dogs yawned sleepily as I rousted them from bed. Mercedes snorted at me with disdain as I put her in her crate so I could get ready for the day. Her white fur stuck out at indignant angles and she glared at me with the one eye which was not blocked by her wiry hair.

I filled the food bowl, got dressed and shuffled downstairs to finish getting the dogs’ breakfast and mine made. As I spooned the wet food into the dog dish and popped it into the microwave to warm (my dogs like a warm breakfast) I found myself wondering if I was ever going to get over jet lag.

It’s a week today and my days and nights are still reversed. I kind of thought I had it licked the other day when I stayed up until 1 A.M. to pray and then slept until 6:30 A.M. That is until noon rolled around and my body once again spontaneously shut down. It doesn’t really matter where I am when that happens. I just fall alseep!

That all said, this has been really good for me concerning this season of prayer we are having at the church. I have been able to go in at 11 at night and pray through until 1 A.M. without a problem. This morning I am in the church by 4 A.M. catching up on some writing until 5 and then I will pray until 7. No worries folks I imagine I will be taking a nap by 1 this afternoon anyway. Maybe this is my new normal.

Home Again! And Ready For A Fight!

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

Amanda picked us up at Boston Logan Airport at 9:30 A.M. yesterday. Because of the time change we arrived in Boston at the same time we left South Korea! Can you say jet lag?

Actually it hasn’t been that bad. We got home at noon and visited with Melanie, James, Daniella and Mom for a bit. Once the Franklin family headed home to Lynn, Brenda and I took naps for a few hours. Once I was up I pushed myself to stay up until about 11 P.M.

This morning I began getting back into routine. I was up for prayer at 4 A.M.. I walked the dogs and then went to the store for mom’s papers, scratch tickets and morning cigarettes. Then Amanda and I headed off to the church for staff/ board prayer.

Cornerstone is in a 21 day season of fasting and prayer. The church is open to those who sign up for prayer 24 hours a day. So I prayed for an hour and then had meetings until about 10:30.

Then it was home for some lunch and a nap before walking the dogs again. I did a little house work and then sat down to catch up on some writing. Which of course brings me here.

As I prayed this morning the Lord really impressed upon me, through the writings of other congregants in our congregational prayer journal, that the winter season of our church is over and we are heading into a Spring time season.

The Scripture the Lord gave me to meditate on as He impressed the idea of Spring on me was 2 Samuel 11:1

“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.”

The word of the Lord to me was that Spring time is a season of spiritual warfare. In this Spring that is upon us we will have to fight as the armies of Israel did. If we do we will possess the land. Conversely, if we make David’s mistake and do not join the fight then we will be taken.

Lord find me ready for the battle!