life issues

I interpret for the Deaf at my church. I love doing this. I normally only interpret the music, which God has blessed me with, but this past Sunday I was able to do the entire sermon. Let me say, I love how God is at work before we even know about issues. I go to West Hills Community Church in St. Louis, Mo. If you are ever in town, please come visit. It is such an amazing church. Same as many, but different in the way our Pastor teaches. Gary Brooks is an amazing teacher. I have grown up under some "fire-and-brimestone" preachers (not my preference) and under some other preachers who were good as well. But, Gary has a way about him "behind the pulpit". He is tender, and sensitive to what the Spirit is doing. He is heartfelt with his words and his emotions are evident to all. I knew that the preacher at this church was something special from the start.
So this sunday, Gary preached on "The Why? of your life." When you interpret a sermon, you really understand what is being said. In order to correctly interpret the meaning, you must understand what the speaker is saying/meaning. In ASL there isn't always a specific sign for a word used, so you must quickly change that word to a synonym, or the meaning of the sentence, and sign that. I really seem to get so much more from the sermon when I sign it. I also have to portray the emotion of the speaker. Gary gets choked up, then I must somehow portray that to my listeners. This week it was like the sermon was written just for me. Isn't that cool! All those people were sitting there listening to a sermon written just for me! haha. I think it is amazing how God works.

This is going to be long, so if you don't have time. Cool. Just understand that God is good and at work in all of our lives, even if we don't know that.

Life is good. God is good, all the time! I believe that with all my heart. I think if you know me personally, than you would say that my life has been good, blessed. I have an amazing family and am blessed with a great church family. I lost my Mother 8yrs ago to liver cancer, but have all the rest of my family here. I am blessed. I could list things, but just know that I am aware of the fact that what I have is a direct result of God's blessings in my life. I work hard, but it's all God.
I graduated from college with a degree in Elementary Education. I moved to California and taught 6th grade for four years. I loved my kids. They were and are amazing. I am blessed to still keep in contact with many of them. I love seeing what is going on in their lives. It saddens me when they are hurting, but I know God is working in their lives, or waiting for them to ask him back into the day to day. After 4 yrs there, my mother was ill and needed more help than was able to be given. I missed being near my family and so decided to move back in with my parents to help care for my mother. It was a great choice. I had 2 amazing years with my Mom before she went to Heaven.
When I moved home, my sister-in-law helped me find a great job at the Genome Institute, where I have been for 10 yrs now. This is an amazing opportunity to be at the research level of helping people medically. The research that is done at the GI is crucial for cancer research and many other things. I really love seeing what happens with our research. However, I am not a scientist by trade. I am good at what I do there, and am constantly learning, but it took a while to accept that I wasn't a teacher.
I attempted to get a teaching job for about 3 yrs during this time. I found nothing. I had interviews, and that was all. I really believe that God was closing that part of my life. I loved teaching and still am a darn good teacher (only because God gifted me), but classroom teaching I don't believe is ever going to be for me again. I do however tutor and LOVE it. I like being able to see right away that they do or don't understand me, and the challenge of changing things up immediately to enhance their learning experiences. I will, hopefully, always be a personal tutor. I'm good at it and love it.
If only we could all make a living doing what we are passionate about. That is a challenge to me. I want to tell young kids just starting out, that they should do what they love, but the hardness of life makes me want to tell them to do what will provide for themselves and their families. That is awful. Really? Make money and then add in what  you love? How horrible. But fact is... you need money here on earth. Sometimes, what you love is not money making. Well.. enough of that, still processing how to express that stuff to others.
Back to the sermon..... Gary talked about how we focus on the how and what of life. How do we make money? What do we do for money? but most of us don't think about the Why? do we make money? or whatever it is. Why? do we take care of our houses? Why? do we do what we do? why do we pray?
Most of us focus on the how and what? how do we pray? how do we love others? how do we take care of our church? how do we protect our families? but not the Why????
It's important to know why we do the things we do. How do I work? I give all I have when I'm there. What do I do for work? I work in a research lab. But why? Why do I work? that's another question.
How do I pray? when things are tough? when I am going to sleep? when I wake up? when I am scared?
What do I pray? thanksgiving? requests for others??
Why do I pray? hmmmmm. God loves me more than anything and I love him the same? I'm scared and need help above myself? Why DO I pray? good question and one for me alone to know the answers to right now.

Here's the question of my day. Why? Why do I love my neighbors? Why do I think about going back to school? Why would I want to be a nutritionist? Why do I want to pursue my ASL training and certification? Why do I own my home? Why do I put my family first? These are what I am dwelling on right now.

If you are interested, Gary's sermons are available online. http://www.westhillsstl.org/
Not pushing, just putting out there if you are interested.

Thanks for listening!