The Long Day

Well, there was nothing way out of the ordinary today, and, like always, going back to the "normal" routine was great. I've only been at St. Mark for 14 weeks now, but there's definitely a feeling of normality when I'm there. I know what I'm doing, I know how the service works, I know most of the people, and everything just seems comfortable...Just in time for me to take two weeks off for Christmas. The field education is set up so that we don't work over Christmas break, and we don't have to work during our J-term. When you start back up determines when you finish in April/May.

So all of the worship stuff and class was business as usual. The kids in Sunday School were actually pretty excited yesterday about playing their game. We read the stories for the day, and then played "Password" based on those stories. It went well, and it meant they read over the stories a few times, rather than just the one. Hopefully they'll remember them a little bit better. I'm going to be teaching at least once in the spring semester, so I'm trying to pay really close attention to what the students seem to enjoy.

After all the normal stuff, we had the budget meeting. Easily one of the most interesting and most boring parts of the church life all rolled into one. I enjoyed learning about the money flow in and out of the church, the pastor's salary and benefits, the challenges of how to balance the budget, especially when there's a big change, and the general finances of the church. On the other hand, if I never had to talk about/worry about money for the rest of my life, it would be too soon. Not that I feel the need to be a millionaire or anything. I just don't like discussing money. It's just no fun.

Then I went home. On days like yesterday, Linda just hangs out at the church for the next event. She gets some work done and spends some time alone (which I'm sure she enjoys wholeheartedly). I, on the other hand, had work to do at home. Wes' parishoners were coming over for a Christmas cookie party. So Wes, Josiah and I headed to the store to get some things we needed, came home and cleaned up, made peppermint bark, and got everything ready. By the time we got everything together, it was time for me to go back to the church for Confirmation, where I was glad to sit down.

I'm really starting to enjoy my time at Confirmation. I was really worried about working with the youth, because I don't particularly like groups of middle and high school students. But I think the groups are small enough that they don't get hive mind as much. Plus, the girls in the Confirmation class are absolutely hilarious. I love listening to their conversations with one another. I hope that I can continue to develop my relationships with them, and get more comfortable with the youth. Or I can just let Wes teach my Confirmation classes...