Day 7:Today I am thankful for the Titus 2 ministry at Calvary Chapel Church in Upland. Today from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30p.m. I enjoyed teachings from elder women in the faith. It was beautifullly set up (they always make make their functions so lovely) and so very uplifting! From 8:30 until 9:00 a.m. we had a continental breakfast with fresh fruit, muffins, yogurt and granola, bagels and cream cheese, orange juice, coffee, and bottled water. We sat at lovely dining tables with Christmas centerpieces and socialized as we had breakfast. I ended up sitting next to Dora, who happens to be Jason's mom. Jason is the youth pastor who directs the Good News Club at Gwen and Jenna's school.
At 9:00 we moved into the sanctuary for a half an hour of worship with Jaime playing guitar and singing lovely music, and then an hour of teaching by Jeanette on obedience to God. After the teaching we broke up into our first workshops. Mine was titled "Planting Christmas in a Child's Heart." It had some beautiful ideas for celebrating Christmas with children. This class was taught by Jaime, who is the pastor's daughter (the same one who sang worship in the sanctuary.) We got these little handouts that Jaime put together for us with several different ways to make Christmas more Christ centered. The pamphlets included 25 days of family devotions plus activity suggestions to go with them. We also got a list of great ways to do outreach projects with our families during the holidays, and things that will help our family be grateful for what we have. There were ideas for celebrating Christmas, and we all shared Christmas traditions that our families do each year. This class was really fun and it just got me revved up to spend the Holidays giving thanks and sharing God's love this year as a family! I'm so excited! I think I may end up posting on this subject in it's own post because there were so many great ideas discussed in this class.
After our first workshop we broke for our luncheon. It was catered, and Jeanette, Monique, and some of the other ladies who helped coordinate the whole day were right there serving lunch, spooning things onto our plates cafeteria style. There is something awesome about seeing the pastor's wife in service doing a humble thing. Seeing her standing there, smiling, spooning food onto everyone's plates was wonderful-she has such a great heart for what she does, every aspect of it-from leadership to servitude-I just love watching her in action. For lunch we had salad with garlic bread, 3 different typs of pastas: a bow tie alfredo with broccolli and chicken (this was my favorite,) penne in a marinara sauce, and I totally forgot the last one lol. For dessert we had these high layered white cakes with strawberry cream filling. The food was delicious and the company was even better!
After lunch, we went to our second workshop. Mine was called "Decorating for His Glory." It was all about seeing the beauty in every day things and using them to decorate our homes. Our teacher used a bunch of lovely things from nature to make the classroom warm and Christmas-y. There were live evergreen branches on the mantle, a live evergreen wreath she handmade (it was beautiful), several pomegranates scattered among the greenery and a lovely, wide gold ribbon elegantly swirled around it all. The teacher showed us how to make our own live wreath, and showed us how to cook (and decorate with) with pomegranates, cranberries, and other seasonal fruits. This class was very enjoyable, and the teacher did some beautiful things with stuff from nature, but I don't know if I could do similar things because Autumn eats everything that comes into the house! Haha! (I thought she would have grown out of that stage by now.)
After our second workshop the Titus 2 boutique was open for a half hour while we all said our goodbyes. Amanda and I browsed the boutique, checking out all the great handmade stuff. There was handmade jewelry, crocheted ponchos and blankets, and a pretty awesome line of scripture inspired clothing called SoulDog. SoulDog is a family run business-dad designs the tee shirts with help and inspiration from the 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl. Mom runs the booths at festivals and church functions selling the clothing and jewelry (jewelry is handmade by dad.) I wasn't able to buy anything from the boutique as we are having some financial troubles right now, but it was fun browsing and checking out all of the beautiful work everyone did with their hands.
The Titus 2 seminar on Saturday was such a great blessing and I just came home feeling rejuvenated and happy to be with my wonderful family. I want to thank my dear friend Amanda for blessing me with the gift of a Saturday morning with the church ladies. It was much needed and much appreciated!
