I think I’ve told you before about Square Peg Ministries. It’s a ministry to at-risk kids started by my mom, one of my bffs and my brother/sil. They do after-school programming, Bible clubs, summer camp, special events and more for Hispanic kids in low-income apartment complexes around metro Atlanta.

A few weeks ago, they had a big silent auction. Several wonderful people donated some great items and luckily for you, they weren’t all snatched up. So, we’ve put them up on ebay to offer to the general public. Well, almost all of it’s up. (I’m still working on it! *whew*) Right now, there’s some Mary Kay products (lots and lots of Mary Kay). Pretty soon, I’m going to put some Starbucks giftbaskets, memorbilia sportswear, some touristy-event tickets in the southeast and more. ***just listed 4 tickets to Ruby Falls in Chattanooga AND an NBA All-Star jacket!***

All the proceeds from these auctions will go straight to Square Peg. I’ve got a button up in my sidebar or you can click here! Please look around and bid!

Square Peg Auctions ***updated*** is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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…God spoke to me. He did. I know I’ve mentioned if a few times, but my husband and I are very uncertain of our future. We’ve been out of full-time vocational ministry for over a year. We’ve always always always known that’s what we were supposed to do with our life. But after two very hard ministry positions, we’re just at home in Atlanta being “normal” people.

And I struggle with it sometimes. I don’t feel like I’m doing “what God wants”. In fact, I don’t even know what God wants. So, today, after too many days of not spending time in my Bible, I picked up my nouveau devo, Take Flight and began to read. This book is written by one of my favorite authors, Robin Jones Gunn. I know I’ve blogged about her several times, her books gave my friends and I the great title of “sisterchicks”. But I really started reading Robin Jones Gunn’s teen series about Christy Miller when I was in 6th or 7th grade. I identified so much with Christy that I wrote Robin Jones Gunn a letter that said, “I think your books should be called the Amanda series!” Even today, there are things I think about that come from those books.

Anyway, here’s what I read today from one of my far away mentors, Robin Jones Gunn…

“I was convinced that the best–and probably only–way I could honor God with my life was by devoting myself to full-time ministry.” And so Robin applied to be a laundry supervisor at a mission in Nairobi, Kenya. But was rejected because she lacked “sufficient experience and abilities for this position”. She says, “I never expected such a response. Apparently I was too ungifted and untalented to wash clothes for Jesus in Kenya. What then, could I possibly do for Him?”

That Sunday she went to the junior high girls’ Sunday school class she taught to tell them she wouldn’t be going to Nairobi. The girls suggested, “You should tell stories…Your stories make us think about God in a new way.” Robin was devastated. She “needed to do something tangible for the Lord. Something solid. Not something airy and capricious, like spinning fanciful tales.” So, she stayed at home, got married, had kids and continued to teach junior high Sunday school but “in a concealed part of my spirit, I felt as if I had turned out to be a big disappointment. Yes, I was serving God with my husband in full-time ministry, but I wasn’t like…a missionary in Peru doing great work for God.”

Robin continues, “Then, on a camping trip with our youth group, a tent full of thirteen-year-old girls challenged me to write the kind of stories they wanted to read. They even volunteered to help me by telling me everything I did wrong. It took two years and weekly critique sessions with those teens before my first novel was published in what became the Christy Miller series. That book, Summer Promise, has been translated into five languages, and mail has come in from girls around the world saying that they gave their hearts to Christ after reading that story.”

(I was in tears at this point…)

One of the girls that read Summer Promise was a girl named Wambura. Robin met her at a writer’s conference. Wambura was a young author who wanted to write similar stories for the girls of her home in…wait for it…Nairobi, Kenya. Robin told Wambura that she had wanted to go to Kenya but never got to go. Wambura replied, “Ah, but your story did come to Africa. Perhaps you were never supposed to come. Only your stories. You sent your stories, and they have washed the hearts of many young girls just like me. In Nairobi and around the world. Do you see? God’s will has been accomplished. You have been a supervisor of laundry.”

Did you see that? Did you hear it? God’s will was accomplished! Robin thought it was in this big, hard ministry to Kenya. She even felt rejected and disappointed that she wasn’t doing what God wanted. When in fact, he had been leading her step by step into his perfect and amazing will.

It’s hard to imagine that God is at work in us when we are waiting. It doesn’t seem possible that the places and things I think I should have accomplished by now are not the things I should have accomplished. You remember the story of Joseph, right? The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat guy? Well, his brothers hated him and his big dreams. They said, “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams!” And I picture God just shaking His head saying, “As if that would throw off my plan! Joseph’s dreams will come true because I gave them to him.” God had to lead Joseph through several terrible situations. I’m sure there were times when Joseph wrestled with disappointments and rejection. But through it all God was leading him step by step. God’s will was being accomplished.

And one day when hindsight is 20/20, I’ll see those steps. And I’ll see that God’s will was accomplished. I’ll see my “laundry supervision” morph and develop into the big plan that God planted in my heart long ago.

Thank you God, for not seeing us as rejected. Thank you for not being disappointed in us. I pray we’d say with Mary, “I am the Lord’s servant…” Amen.

{ps–read the comments to see a special comment from Wambura!}

Something Beautiful Happened Today… is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Does change make you quake in your boots? I’m not talking about pennies and quarters. I’m talking about that yank-you-out-of-your-comfort-zone change.

I kinda have a thing about change. I’ve had a lot in my life. I’ve lived in 5 states since I’ve been married. I’ve had two “real” jobs and a few other mini jobs. Last year, like I mentioned in one of my last posts, I experienced so much change, I could have been a psychological study! But the thing about change, for me, is that with each change, it somehow changes you for that next phase. blahdeblah. What I mean is, with each change in a certain area, I feel like it’s harder to change in that area. Hmmm…I can’t say this clearly, let me give you an example:

I’ve mentioned before that my hubby and I were children’s pastors at two different churches. And both of them ended badly. (The second one started badly, but that’s a different story.) When those BIG changes came–of us leaving our homes and churches, it was hard! We didn’t want to. And now that we’re on the other side of those changes, when I think about going into another church, another job, another change–it gets me nervous! I have insecurities that weren’t there before. I have doubts and baggage and (ahem!) unforgiveness that plagues me!

(Wow. We’re letting it all hang out today on Oh Amanda!)

My husband and I go up and down about these changes. Sometimes we talk about it a lot. Sometimes we go weeks without discussing the changes that we know will come in our future. I am in such a comfortable position now, I don’t like to think about change! I don’t want to feel out of control and unsure and vulnerable!

Which leads me to the whole purpose of this post…a book. Yes, a book, Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh. I received this book from the wonderful people at Multnomah. As soon as they asked me to read it I said YES, PLEASE! It was practically written for me–it’s about PK (pastor’s kid), involved in church and dreading the changes in her life and her church. The heroine, Harriet, is a reformed rebellious teenager who’s afraid to do anything fun because she thinks she might be tempted to sin again. This isn’t really me, but the whole “I want to be in control” and “I want to have a plan” is VERY me.

I just loved reading a book about someone who has REAL issues. Not like other chick-lit books which are mainly, “OMG! Should I marry the uber-hot missionary or the kinda hot pediatraician?” (hey, I still like those, I’m just sayin’.) I liked the…realness of it.

Harriet was freaked because everything she knew at her church was changing. They were moving out the organ and moving in guitars. They were moving in staff members and moving out others. The changes were wrecking her plans! And she has to come to grips with the difference between her plans and God’s plans!

Am I talking too much about this? Here, read the summary by Multnomah:

Preacher’s kid and prodigal Harriet Bisset returned to her church and her family in Franklin , Tennessee, seven years ago. Once the proud owner of two tattoos and a nose ring, Harri is now addicted to Jelly Bellys in lieu of hangovers and Bible verses in lieu of foul language. The good news is that she has everything under control: a part-time position as director of women’s ministry, a church family that adores her, a rent-free home in a senior mobile home park, and the possibility of owning the café where she waitresses. Nothing could tempt Harri to return to her old ways. Nothing but a 1298 cc, liquid-cooled, sixteen-valve, in-line four-cylinder motorcycle—and the church consultant riding it. Reformed rebel Maddox McCray’s arrival at First Grace spells C-H-A-N-G-E for the dying church. And it just might mean change for Harri when Maddox sets out to convince her that even Christians are allowed to have fun. The story of a prodigal daughter’s transformation, Splitting Harriet reminds readers of God’s delight in forgiving, loving, and enjoying the ride.

This book was just right up my alley–ministry jobs, church consultants, and Jelly Bellys. Not to mention a major theme in the book is judgment and forgiveness. Which is EXACTLY what our pastor has been speaking on the past four weeks. Hmmm…is God talking to me?!

ANYWAY, if you got through all that heart gush I just typed, you deserve a prize! How about a copy of Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh? Well, Multnomah sent me TWO to give away! Leave me a comment and I’ll pick a winner…uhm…on Friday! I’ll announce it the same day as my oh! ho! ho! giveaway, ok?

(oh, I just re-read this post and I didn’t mention so much about the book that I wanted to! There was just so much more that I identified with! I highly recommend it because I think Tamara hit a ton of stuff on the head! Please go pick it up–and if you’d like to read a great interview with Tamara Leigh, click over to Deena’s.)

Ch-ch-ch-change is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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Well, folkses, I’ve got some bloggy stuff going on in my head. Let’s just write a little shall we?

Numero Uno. Have you joined NaBloPoMo yet? *sigh* I just love to say that. NaBloPoMo. NaBloPoMo. Anyway, it’s just a big group of bloggers that have commited to posting every day in November. That’s not really the cool part. The cool part is that when you sign up, you get your very own NaBloPoMo social networking page. It’s like a giant myspace just for NaBloPoMo. (It’s designed by Ning. And I guess anyone can make their own “myspace”. I’m thinking of making one just for oh amanda readers. What do you think? KIDDING.) Anyway, click my awesome pic below to join! (And don’t forget to make me your friend!)

Dos. The Fall Yall Giveaway is coming up on Monday! Are you so excited? That means free stuff galore! Well, this time I’m combining this giveaway with another giveaway…that is going to start a big long month of giveaways! Are you confused yet? Well, just know that I’ve got some giveaways coming up. And they just might have to do with Christmas. Or with me. Or with what I love about Christmas. But yeah, it’s gonna be free. (I’m so excited!!)

Tres. I’m a mathlete. Oh. Oops. I meant, Mathetes. (That’s Greek for ‘disciple’. Yes, I went to Bible School. No, I didn’t know that.) Two of my favorite bloggy friends gave me an award. And I have to tell you, these are nice. And humbling. Melodye & Jenny gave me this award because they think I act (and blog) like a disciple of Jesus Christ. WOW! Thank you. I’ve said before this is an interesting season we’re in. I’m not used to not being in full-time church ministry. But to have to “strangers” say they can see Jesus in my blog posts is very encouraging. Thank you again!

Quatro. One more birthday. My favorite bloggy friend, Laura. She’s lives in Qatar. Imagine being in another country on your 30th birthday. She’s a brave one. And she’s such a thoughtful Christian, mommy and wife. I love to read her blog. Go over and say Happy Birthday, ok? (I’m just full of birthday orders today, aren’t I?)

Cinco. I don’t know. I can’t think of anything else. I refuse to blog about gay Dumbledore. I think I’m glad Oprah didn’t call me back, she’s had so many weird sexual shows this season, dontcha think? I entered Lydia in a costume contest. Peter Petrelli is getting on my nerves in this season of Heroes. And my cousin in California is pregnant! (Yes, they are near the fires. Not in. But near. Pray for them!)

Seis. The end. (btw, was my Spanish correct?)

Just Some Bloggy Stuff is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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We went to Nashville this weekend. One of our dear friends William, started a church there! It was their very first Sunday and we wanted to celebrate with them. (And help them set up!)

William was one of the first staff members we met at our church in Birmingham. I remember I was making copies…or maybe he was making copies. Anyway, we were by the copy machine and within five minutes he had invited us over for dinner and key lime pie. We didn’t accept but I wish we would have! We didn’t know William and his family would become some of our greatest friends!

Back to this weekend, we loaded up the car, got Lydia all settled and drove the 5 hours to Nashville. Lydia was just perfect. She played with all her stuffed animals, her blanket, her Leap Frog Leap Pad, her books, her magnadoodle, she listened to Odyssey (she says, “Oddeeee”) and we played in the grass at the rest areas.

We finally got to our hotel and Lydia and Les took an hour nap. (Why didn’t I get to take a nap?!) Then we got to meet William and 2 of his 4 kids at a Fall Festival. It’s perfect because this festival was held at the local elementary school, the same elementary school that William’s church will be meeting in! And it’s just a mile from their house! I think it’s just a God-thing to have such a great location.

It was fun, but it was about 99 degrees out there! I thought a Fall Festival was to celebrate AUTUMN! Where are those fall temperatures?!

After the festival, we stopped by William’s house to see his wife and the rest of his kids. They’ve got 3 elementary/junior high age kids and one 10 month old! They are the most fun family ever. Their kids are some of the most (maybe the most) confident and normal kids I know. Anyway, we finally got to meet up with more friends for dinner! Joseph and Cary also worked with us in Birmingham as volunteers in the children’s department. Joseph is now the children’s pastor for William. I’m so excited for him. He’s a true children’s pastor in his heart plus he’s organized and creative. And they have a brand new baby girl–only 3 weeks old. She’s just adorable. I was getting flashbacks to little 3 week old Lydia and me saying, “What in the world am I doing?”

Sunday morning we got to the school and it looked so good! Lots of cute banners, happy greeters and a cute children’s area set up. Lydia didn’t even notice that we dropped her off in the preschool department. She just sat down and started playing. (Later on, someone told me she started signing “more crackers” and thankfully one of the caregivers knew sign language, too! So, I guess she got some more crackers!)

The adult service was held in the gym. I think about 100 people came. The band did a good job, there were no sound problems and William was superb. I enjoyed it. Then we spent the next hour or more tearing everything down. If you’ve never been a part of a mobile church, you are missing out! It’s an experience. I’ve done it at 3 different churches. (I hope God doesn’t ask me to do it again!)

We ate lunch at William’s—it was a celebration with lots of friends and family. When William prayed over our pizza, he got choked up. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be doing THE thing you know God called you to do and have so many loved ones around to help it come true. It was so sweet to be a part of that day. If you’re in the Nahsville area and are looking for a good church or would love to help out in a brand new ministry, check out Life Church of Tennessee! (And if you need a wedding photographer, his wife is the best!)

Lydia was a joy this weekend. You know she’s a little leery of new people and places, but she just jumped right in to every place we went this weekend. She loved our hotel, made friends everywhere we went and kept talking about the babies we met!

Here she is rolling her suitcase through the hotel. (Oh my goodness, is that the cutest thing, or what?)

I’m sorry. Did I just say Lydia did great? Oh, she did while we were in Nashville, but because she had no naps and went to bed late, the ride home was a nightmare. She slept maybe 45 minutes total. The rest of the time she either screamed, whined or talked non-stop. I felt like I had run a marathon by the time I got home.

Here’s one of the rare moments of her sleeping. Notice the crumbs on her shirt, I tried everything to pacify her!

Nashville, oh Nashville! is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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I feel like I haven’t been home for 4 days! I’ve been doing this puppet gig non-stop. I appreciate all your comments about Vicki. Especially the ones like, “What the heck? Are you a freak?” Those were nice.

A little puppet background: When I was in 6th grade, I joined our church’s puppet team. We performed at church, at nursing homes, schools, camps and even the library. We also went to puppetry festivals/conferences every year to learn, compete and perform. When I got married, my dh and I traveled around to churches/camps/special kid’s events as guest speakers. We used puppets in our performance. We also worked for a puppetry company out of Denver. And of course, we’ve been children’s pastors for several years, so you have to know how to work a puppet.

My mom was one of the directors on my church’s team. She started it 20 years ago. This year, she was hosting a puppetry festival and decided to also host a reunion for our team!

It actually started about 8 weeks ago when a few of us got together to talk about the performance. Then every week after that we had practice in my basement. We costumed puppets, we made puppets, we made signs, we practiced choreography, we did it all! Lydia has been so excited about all those puppets in our basement, it makes it easy to go down and do the laundry, she just hangs out with the puppets while I wash!

Then we had to find all our old puppeteers. There were about 75-80 on our list. We made a myspace page for our team and started sending invites. It was amazing who came out of the woodwork for something like a church puppet team! Then last Thursday, was our big reunion dinner. We decorated, planned entertainment and even gifts for everyone! I made a slide show on my awesome macbook. Did I say awesome? Oh yeah, it was so awesome I had to call applecare in tears TWICE! Ugh. I don’t even want to go there. Anyway, it was so fun to see everyone at the dinner. I ate with friends I haven’t talked to in forever. I miss them!

After the dinner, the hard core puppeteers (aka, the crazy ones) stayed for the practice. This was our final practice before the big performance. We saved one song for any last minute puppeteers to perform in. We practiced until the wee hours of the night, then got up the next day to start the festival.

The festival is just workshops, performances and competitions. My husband and I taught 2 classes (Advanced Puppetry Techniques and Booking & Marketing Your Team…impressed?). Our performance was on Saturday morning and it was awesome.

The set up was a talk show a la David Letterman. Only it was set in Candy Land with Vicki as the host. Here’s Vicki and her co-host, Mr. Mint (me and my bro, Jason) introducing the first song.

We did 4 songs in the show. The first one was in honor of our very first competition song–an old medley of hymns reworked as 50′s doo-wop. This is me at the beginning of the 50′s Hymn Medley. (I’m doing the puppet…sorry, to whoever else is in the picture…)

We did 3 more songs–a rock-n-roll number with a live “singer” and a black light song (think Voyage of the Little Mermaid at Disney) and the last number was a big choir song. This is a bad picture for several reasons (mainly because of the ugly yellow haired puppet Staci insisted on using!) but here we are in our final song. I’m second. Look at how much we’re all concentrating!

I’m happy to say they loved our performance. In fact, we got a standing ovation!

Well, there it is. For those of you who never knew it existed, I’ve let you in on the inner workings of the Christian Puppetry sub-culture!

(for more pics than you’d ever want to see, click here, password puppets.)

The Puppet Post is a post from: ohamanda.com
Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite resources to help you make the most of 2012! One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, an ebook by Simple Mom!
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule, finally get your house under control!
E-Mealz, online meal-planning with shopping lists! {20% off with code SKINNY when you choose one of their healthy menus}
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