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Saturday 17 April 2010

My apologies for the long delay...

Posted by Corrie

Well, I believe January was the last time I wrote! Wow, it doesn't seem like it's been that long! I am sorry!


As for what has been happening here in Arlington, pretty much just life. I am still working at my job as a care giver, which I love. I am now, however, working the night shift. This is the first time for me to be working at night rather than during the day. I love it! I am a night person to begin with - I function better at night, plus this provides me with plenty of time during the day for ministry and "me" time. It has also provided me with a lot more hours than I had before, much needed hours.

The church is thriving! Easter Sunday we had record attendance with one hundred and thirty total and ever since we have had some great attendance - some great new families. Last Sunday we had the honor of Baptizing three new believers - a couple that has been coming for the past few months and who recently accepted Christ and a single girl whom Kathy has been discipling! I love our Baptism Sundays. It is a powerful and emotional thing to experience. Today we had our second child dedication. It was amazing to see the long line of families up there, ready to dedicate their children to Christ and to make a commitment to raise them according the way God instructs in the Bible. Seven families made that commitment today!

Last week Kathy and I started a single girls' study group. We're calling it "All the Single Ladies" (very ingenious, I know). It's really just a place for the single girls to come together and ask questions, discuss lives, and share with each other. For now we are not doing a study, we just want to leave the floor open for whatever God wants to happen. To be honest, I was a bit nervous to begin with about how it would go, seeing as we had no particular plan, but God was clearly at work. Kathy shared her story and then it was like the floodgates were opened and everyone had questions, good questions, deep, intense questions. We ended up sitting there talking almost an hour longer than we'd planned. Please pray for these girls! They are some really great girls. This week we had seven girls show up other than myself and Kathy. For the most part, they are all in completely different places. A couple of them are single moms with young children, a couple are college students, one is a good friend of mine who is in her forties, has three kids, and whose husband just left her out of the blue. As far as I know, only one, possibly two of them are Christians, but they are all very open and ready to "give it a try," as a couple of them said. Pray that Kathy and I will have the wisdom to help guide them, that we would have the patience and the love for them that God will use to draw them to Himself.

My family came up for a visit over Spring break...well, most of them. My parents, Hannah, Emily, Elliot, and Kristina all drove up. We had a wonderful time together. i simply loved showing them my world, taking them to Seattle, going to the beach, letting them experience my church and my people...Hannah has pretty much decided she is moving up here for college :) and Kristina and Kathy are now BFFs.

I really am going to try to be better about writing...I know I say that every time, but seriously :) You are welcome to get onto me if i fail to write soon again!
I love you all! Thank you for your support and love!

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Tuesday 5 January 2010

...

Posted by Corrie

I'll admit it, I'll be honest. I am feeling very down. I was in Arkansas over Christmas. Don't get me wrong...it was a great trip. I have a wonderful time. But coming back was harder than I expected. It's not that I wanted to stay, per say...it was mostly just that I had to say goodbye...AGAIN. And on top of that I am broke (despite my hard work) and stressing out and feeling somewhat alone in all of this. So I guess I just wanted some prayer. Please pray for me...that I'll get through this month's bills, that I will not loose faith, and that I will not feel so alone! thanks, everyone!

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Friday 18 December 2009

and a happy Christmas to you too...

Posted by Corrie

Well, it is the holidays. I love this time of year. There are very few things I love like I love Christmas time. I love the aura, the music, the way the air smells, the family time, the wonderful thing this time represents...it just makes me happy.

I had a scare because I couldn't afford to go home for Christmas, but my parents seemed to be just as devastated by the thought of me not being there so they offered to pay my way home for me. So in just five days time I will be back in Arkansas to spend some time with my family. I really cannot wait.
This last month has been full of preparations, Christmas parties and projects, work, cold weather, a little snow and ice, lots of rain, baking, figuring out a game plan for this next year.
The Commons has been flourishing. We have had a throng of new people coming in and out. We have been blessed with a number of the families in the church starting to step up and take on some responsibility and begin to disciple some of our newer people. As we conclude this year, we are praying that some families will volunteer to host community groups in their homes as we are getting to big to meet in the Corbins' home on Wednesday nights. Kathy and I will be having one in our new house, which has been a wonderful channel for community. (We are, in fact, having a Christmas party here tomorrow) There will hopefully be more to report in the next weeks as we will begin to work on spring and summer plans for the Commons, including sports camp and (what I am most excited about) some sort of work ministry to the Tribe.
For those of you in Arkansas, I cannot wait to see you all in just a few days. For the rest of you...thanks you for your prayers and your faithfulness!
God bless...

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Monday 16 November 2009

cracked jars...

Posted by Corrie

I don't know if you have ever looked at something and instantly felt the impulse to cry. Not something sad, but something beautiful, something so full of glorious beauty and wonder that you are overcome by an indomitable urge to fall flat, tears streaming down your face induced by the mere majesty of God's creation. If you haven't, you need to come to Washington and take a drive through the Snoqualmie Mountains. It is impossible not to glimpse God in this place, especially when it is covered in snow.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of accompanying about thirty women to our women's retreat at the Sahalie Lodge in Snoqualmie Pass. It was a two-day get away for the women of the Commons, when we escaped life for a brief moment and spent some time in community with each other and God in a stunning countryside covered in nearly three feet of snow. I have seen many breathtaking sights in my life, but very few compare with the mountains we could see only a few feet outside our lodge windows. It is hard to be distracted from God's majesty and power in one such a place.
It was wonderful to get to know some of the women a bit better and to meet a few new ones. We had a speaker friend of Amy's come in to speak three times over the span of our trip. She spoke from the passage in 2 Corinthians about our treasure being hidden of jars of clay, saying that we are all fragile, chipped, and cracked jars of clay. We all have our cracks, our hurts, our hardships that make us who we are. But the wonder of it is that God chooses us as vessels for his treasure, creating in us an unbreakable foundation. We spent most of our time in worship, discussion, and Bible study, with some sledding, snowball fighting, a movie, and games sneaked in during free time. I felt blessed beyond measure to be there in the presence of God with a group of such wonderful, cracked, hurting, and healing jars of clay that are the women of the Commons.

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Tuesday 20 October 2009

a good week and a hard week...

Posted by Corrie

For those of you who do not know, I have been back in Arkansas since Wednesday. I came back for my good friend Ruth's wedding, which was on Saturday. I came a few days early and have stayed a few days after to spend some time with my family and some friends!

I must admit, I was somewhat apprehensive coming into this. I knew that coming back would make me miss people and make it hard to go back. I'm not good with goodbyes. But I was also curious so see how it would feel: if I would still feel at home, if I would miss Washington as being my home... I can now say that though I am going to miss a number of people more than I ever realized possible, I am going Home tomorrow. I am going to the place I belong. It will be difficult, but who ever said life wasn't difficult!? I will be sad, but I will be happy because Arlington, the Commons is my home now.
Well, I just wanted to give you all a quick update on me. My trip has been great. Ruth's wedding was incredible and so much fun! It was wonderful to spend time with my family and see some faces I have missed. I had a meeting with the missions team at the Summit. It was exciting to talk to them and to hear from them also, to have that support. I also was able to go up to Fayetteville to see my best friend Alex for about a day. That was very nice and refreshing. So today I am back and getting a bunch of stuff done before I leave. I love you all! Your support, both spiritual and financial is making a difference and means a lot to me!

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Tuesday 6 October 2009

my friends...there was a bear running around arlington today...

Posted by Corrie

It has been a month since my last post, when I told you about my growing passion for the tribe I have been drawing close to (as far as names and such goes pertaining to this, I am going to do my best not to mention any or change them if I must. It could be a somewhat sensitive and do not want to cause any trouble if anyone should stumble across this blog). Since then, I have been a good amount of time with Cerissa's family and I feel i have truly been accepted in.

Cerissa has been incredibly helpful in getting me settled in, finding me a job, even offering me a place to live. I have been cleaning the past couple of weeks for her sister, which saved me this month financially. Then, last week, Cerissa's mom called me early one morning. One of the caregivers for her eighty-something year old mother had called in sick. She asked me to come in for the day to help out (there have to be two people there in order to do some stuff). She also offered to get me all the necessary paperwork and so forth so I could be on call in case the need ever arose again. Well, the more we talked, the more she tried to convince me I should work full time for her. I was waiting to hear back from an interview with Starbucks at the time. I had been excited about the Starbucks opportunity mainly because it was the first hope I'd had for a job. However, for some reason, I did not feel completely at peace about it. I had decided that I would wait to hear back from Starbucks and if I did not get the job, I would work for Cerissa's grandmother on the reservation. Well, today I went in for a bit of training so I would know what I was going to be doing if I should be called in as a caregiver. As I spent the day with two other caregivers, I really felt like God wanted me there, like he was saying, "Here is a door I have opened up for you. Why are you waiting something else?" I realized this was something I had been waiting for: a way in which I would be directly linked to people. Not only would I be employed by the tribe, I would spend almost my whole week there. Cerissa's family is somewhat influential on the reservation. Her great-grandfather was one of the last chiefs and her grandfather was a favorite tribal elder (he died very recently). So not only will I be in direct contact with the family, but most likely with a lot of the rest of the people.
Well, I just wanted to share that with you! I'm really excited and cannot wait to see what God has planned. Till next time...
oh, and by the way, what I wrote in the title is true!

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Friday 11 September 2009

Of silence, mountais, and God...

Posted by Corrie

Sitting in the middle of a clearing in the middle of the night with the full moon shining down on the whole scene brighter than i knew was possible. Complete silence. Quieter than most people could probably comprehend. It's a clearing in the mountains of British Columbia. I had never seen anything like it. And, excuse me, but I have seen quite a lot in my few years. As far as I am concerned, it surpasses Slovakia by far, France by quite a bit, and South Africa and Italy by just a small piece. It is interesting how much more one is able to feel God in a place such this one, in complete silence, utter stillness, magnificent beauty.

So how did I get there...Well, I babysat for Cerissa on Monday of last week. We got to talking about them leaving for vacation in Canada in a couple of days and she mentioned that they had an extra space in the car and invited me along with her family and her parents. I really was quite excited, not only would this be my first time in Canada, but also I felt like it could potentially open a door for me into the tribe. (Excuse me for not expounding much upon this topic of the tribe, but they could be quite sensitive if they get out too much and that would ruin all I'm working towards) After a day of trying to get all the appropriate paperwork, I was packed and ready to go. We left Wednesday morning. It was an incredible week of relaxation, some good family time (I hadn't realized how much I miss being around a family), canoeing (I probably spent about a total of fifteen hours canoeing over the days we were there...I think it is enough to say that my arms definitely hated me for a few days),looking for bears (never saw one, but I did get about ten feet away from a lynx), and soaking up the magnitude and immensity of God. I feel like I really bonded with the family, Cerissa's mom in particular, which I had been praying for, she is very influential in the tribe. And I am pretty sure I felt God squeeze my hand when she told me at the end that I was now a part of the tribe, a member of the family.
So I just wanted to share that with you...I am very excited about things going on. In other news, I am now even more desperately looking for a job. Finances are a bit complicated now. I didn't really have any support come in this past month, so I am definitely very thankful for Kathy letting me stay in her living room. :) But I've been praying and have had a couple of leads for a job (though both are only part time and without support coming in I really need a full time job) so I am hoping one will work out. So please pray for me especially in that area.
I love you guys! I really do!

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