In my last post, ‘Life Changes’, I told you that I will be scaling back my volunteer time because of some recent life changes. It is mainly one life change.

That life change is the start of a part-time job with a local crisis pregnancy center organization (CPC). This is the same CPC organization that I had already been volunteering with at the Centers on a weekly basis. The administrative office had an opening for a part-time Administrative Assistant. I applied for the position and, after an interview and prayer, I was accepted on team. I start my first day tomorrow, the 14th of July. Thankfully, they generously allowed me to re-work my hours so I can still volunteer at a center every week.

So how will this change the way my life is right now? Besides scaling back my volunteer time there are a few other things. Here are the pros and cons:

Pros:

-This job provides a godly, wholesome work environment where I can work with other Christians.

-Having this job gives me the ability to support one of my favorite ministries and improve my skills in various areas of life.

-I will still be able to do 2 of my 3 jobs. I babysit early in the mornings and that job is on my way to work and let’s me get to work with about 40 minutes to spare. In those 40 minutes I can work on my online job with Rawlife.com. Also, I can spend my 30 minute lunch break processing orders. However, I can no longer nanny the 4 year old boy because I’ll be working until 2:30 most days. So, now Emily will be his care giver.

Cons:

-More time working means less time cooking. I love cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.

-I probably won’t get to do the grocery shopping as often.

-It will be harder to make time for special events and traveling.

I am excited to start this job because I believe this is where Yahweh wants me right now. Or to put it in Christianese- This is where the Lord has me for this season of life ;)

Shalom.

Bethany :)

Hey, it’s me, Bethany. Remember me? I’m one of those girls who wrote for this blog a long, long time ago.

Here’s an update on what has been going on here.

At the beginning of March, my dad informed me that Paul Nison (an acquaintance of ours) had posted a job opening on his Facebook page. The job was part-time and could be done from anywhere as long as internet is available. After prayerfully considering the position, I shot Paul a private message to let him know of my interest in the position.  Paul quickly got back to me and hired me after a phone interview, sharing the job description and hours I would work. Working for Paul these past few months has been fun and somewhat challenging. It can be difficult to work-in time to ‘do the orders’ but I’m getting the hang of it.

 Last fall, Emily and I had signed up to attend Purify 2014, however, not enough people signed up for the event and it was cancelled. As bummed as we were that it was cancelled, we were excited to learn that Jocelin was organizing a ‘Singles mini-weekend’ over that same weekend. Attending the mini-weekend was such an encouragement to me and my single sisters (Lydia went with us!). We carpooled with our friends and shared some fun times together (including a stop to horse back ride). As sole driver to and from the weekend, my right arm was noticeably darker then the other for weeks!

Speaking of sun exposure, we Potts kids had the wildly amazing opportunity to go to Florida for the first time in our short lives! We went to Jacksonville for the Revive 2014 Conference and made a great time of it.

My dad planned for us to leave a day early so we could play in the ocean, which we did, it was a very enjoyable outing. Of course, for the rest of the conference we all looked like lobsters… but it was worth it.

Revive is a Hebraic Roots conference hosted by HRN (The Hebraic Roots Network). It is a conference that has speakers, worship, and fun activities. Every day there was a general session which would consist of Praise and worship (through song and dance), a speaker (the speakers included; Rico Cortez, Ed Harris and Brad Scott) and various breakout sessions. Many times it was hard to pick which breakout session to attend!! Who wants to be forced to pick between dance class or listening to John Diffenderfer give a breakout session called “The Marriage Commandments: Ten Keys to Bliss” (I picked the dance class, by the way. I can always buy an mp3 of John D’s message). One of the activities I attended was the Youth Pizza Party, even though I’m not a youth and I didn’t eat pizza. All my siblings are youth and they did have pizza, and most of my friends were there, so I got permission to attend and had a great conversation with my new friend, Rachel D.

Paul Nison also attended the conference and I was able to help him run his table in the marketplace… actually I just stood around and watched Paul run it. It was really just a one person job, so Paul said I should just run along and socialize.

On the last night, as group of us sat socializing near the top of the escalators, we were throwing ideas around about starting a ministry that focuses on the weightier matters of the law without neglecting the rest (Matthew 23:23). One of the main goals is to encourage each other to be actively involved in our communities. It’s so refreshing to know that it’s not just me and my friends, in our little town, who have these desires and goals. As we were formulating ideas for what this group would be and do, someone suggested we go to the Father in prayer and ask that whatever we do would bring glory to him. We joined hands in prayer as one of the guys prayed aloud and the rest of us joined him as one heart. Less then a minute after the ‘amen’ was said, a woman came up the escalator and informed us that there was a homeless man outside who was asking for eight dollars. She told him that she knew of some people who may be able to help him and that’s when she came to us. We all knew what we needed to do and we followed the woman outside and to the homeless man.

 As I walked to the bench he was sitting on, I could see the troubled man; he looked discouraged, head hanging as he looked into the palms of his hands. I followed the others as, one by one, we shook his hand. His name was James and he needed eight dollars. We all knew that he needed more than eight dollars, but he softly insisted that he only needed eight dollars. My friend, Caleb, took the lead communicated our collective desire to share what we had with him. Christian also spoke, telling James what had just transpired upstairs. We asked James if and how we could pray for him. As Caleb prayed, I was overcome with a feeling to give my bible to James. I thought, “Is God asking me to give my bible away? My bible? I can’t do that!”. Surely he wasn’t asking me to give up my bible, it had been mine for years, ever since I was a Christian and was filled with all sorts of notes, dates-to-remember and even pictures. My heart sank and my eyes filled with tears, as I protested in my heart the feeling would not go away- so I prayed “make me willing”. Then, after Caleb finished praying, we all gave to James some money. I then knelt down next to James, where I was standing, and asked him, “James, do you have a Bible?”.   I prayed that he would say ‘yes’ and I could keep mine. “No”, he said quietly. I pulled my cherished bible from my bag and gave it to James. I felt relief, joy and sadness rush through my heart as that book left my hands. I told him that he could have my bible if  he promised to read it.., he solemnly promised he would. Soon others were giving from their hearts as well, Shanteyl gave a small bottle of anointing oil and Chris gave a bottle of essential oils. After another prayer and some encouraging words we returned to the hotel, believing in our hearts that we had just left James with more then eight dollars; we left him with hope.

In awe of how God had just worked, we continued the late night planning until the group dropped off, one by one, each person needing sleep for their journey home the next morning.

We are still in the process of organizing this ministry, but already this group has provided young adults with a place of encouragement from their peers. These peers have the same desire to serve as Yeshua served; the same desire to love as Yeshua loved; and the same desire to give an answer for the hope that is in us, to anyone who asks.

Ironically, even though I am now a part of a ministry that encourages people to be involved in their communities, I must scale back my time spent volunteering because of some recent life changes. I will be writing about those life changes in my next post.

Until then,

Shalom,

Bethany :)

Some of us participated in this flash mob at Revive 2014