RevGals Friday 5- looking back, looking forward

Sally over at RevGals writes:

When I began work here at Downham Market a wise friend told me that after one year I would see a few changes and sense God at work- years two and three would cause me to question and to wonder why I had chosen to accept the post here and in year four I might see the beginnings of something new.

And so with that in mind alongside yesterdays celebrations I bring you Friday 5 Looking back, looking forward... and, since this is posted on my blog I'll add, "watch out for the snakes>" they might bite and hurt...

1. Share a moment/ time of real encouragement in your journey of faith O gosh. thankfully I have had several. I have gone through so many occasions of self-doubt, fear, feelings of being unworthy...in some ways a typical woman in ministry. I am grateful for the people who stood by me through challenges to my ordination process, through various discernment processes, through illness, through parish struggles and hopes and dreams....I have been blessed with a lot of encouragement over the years.

2. Do you have a current vision / dream for your work/ family/ministry? Yes. I have a powerful vision for ministry. It may be lived into in a variety of ways: one way if I stay at my current parish, perhaps another way if I move on to another. BUT regardless, I have a vision for my ministry that involves making a real difference in the world - I mean really changing the world around me...it's a dream. it's a hope. but, it's possible....won't say what exact just yet...

3.Money is no object and so you will..... oh, way too many possibilities - make sure everyone has clean fresh water; make sure everyone has food; make sure everyone has parents who love them and raise them well; make sure women are accepted as true equals; make sure people whose skin color is not the regional "norm" have equal opportunities; make sure that we are sensitive to use of gendered language, i.e. not use "he" when we mean men and women, and not use men when we mean "men and women.." (I'm just saying...)...

4. How do you see your way through the disappointments? What keeps you going? I have learned to get up in the morning, put one foot in front of the other, and keep on walking. I do this because I have faith that somehow God is involved and perhaps I am being guided by God. Of course I continue to pray, discern, and speak with others, to test if what I think I am discerning is in fact what God is calling forth in me...

5. How important are your roots? As I moved away from my family when I was 9 years old and have barely seen these folks (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, parents) it would hardly seem important. But, I think, since I have been gone from the city of my birth for nearly 35 years, I work harder to remain connected than I would other wise. I yearn for that kind of inter generational connectedness. And I only get hints of it at various times in my life...sigh.

6. Bonus= what would you like to add ? Maybe I will think of somethings tomorrow...right now I am VBS exhausted...