Category: General

Mentoring

Adrian Warnock has been doing a “year in review” series, and one of the posts he’s dredged up from last year is an interview he did with Joshua Harris of *I Kissed Dating Goodbye* fame, currently the head pastor at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. I’ve always held a minor fascination for Joshua Harris, simply because he’s so close to me in both age and outlook, and because the last decade or so has brought a huge amount of change for both of us. When I hear of him, I’m often struck by how easily my life might have gone more like his, which of course leads me to reflection because our stations are currently so different.

The interesting thing is that Josh Harris credits most of his current situation to his mentoring relationship with C. J. Mahaney. As Harris was beginning a career as a public speaker, C.J. Mahaney met him and encouraged him to find a mentor and focus on the local church. Soon afterward, Mahaney became his mentor, and he moved into the Mahaney home. A year or so later, Harris published his first book and was married. In 2004, Josh Harris succeeded C.J. Mahaney as head pastor of Covenant Life Church. It’s a pretty interesting story, and yet it bothers me.

I don’t mean that it bothers me in the “dirt under the carpet” sense. I don’t see a thing wrong in the conduct of these two Christian men, and their relationship has obviously had a powerfully positive force in Josh Harris’ life. I mean it in the sense that the thought of going through a similar experience is entirely unattractive. My whole life I’ve spent thinking that it sure would be helpful if I had found a mentor. Now I’m looking mentorship in the face and I’m glad I missed out. But I’m not quite sure why.

I think it has to do with two things: adversity and independence. I approve of both of them, and Josh Harris’ story, at least in condensed form, seems to lack them. I tend to cut a path right across the grain to get where I’m going, overshoot, then double back again. When I hear the story of someone who has been properly mentored, it seems unpleasantly mellow, and I tend to think that, even if I had found myself in such a situation, I might have made myself unbearable to deal with as I questioned and argued with my mentor’s every recommendation. In short, I might well have avoided mentoring simply by being so unattractive a mentoree.

Which of course begs the question: is there wisdom in my negative reaction, or is it actually evidence of a kind of character flaw?

We’re Back (Sort of)

If we have any readers left, they will be pleased to know that Neumatikos.org has been changed to Neumatikos.net.

Long story short: This has been one incredibly busy half-year. There have been the normal hurdles of moving, taking a new job, joining a new church, and (oh yes) a baby on the way. In addition, taking up a position teaching Latin to 4th-9th graders has been a hugely consuming challenge. Hence, the lack of blogging from me.

In all the hurley-burley, I didn’t notice that our domain registration was about to expire. In my defense, I don’t think I would have noticed otherwise: the notification email was sent to an address that we don’t use anymore. (Then again, that’s not a very good vindication, is it?) After your name expires, you get something like two weeks to re-register and keep your old name. Our two weeks went by and somebody else bought up the name, apparently with the intent of capitalizing on that huge readership we had built up. I hope that works out for her.

We wracked our brains and dot-net instead of dot-org was the best new name we could come up with (sorry folks). After that, what with it being the end of the semester, it took me a month to figure out how to get the .htaccess file to stop redirecting everything from .net back to the .org site. Finally, on Christmas day, I had the spare mind space and got it done.

And here we are. We’ll see about improving the communication. Valerie wants to make some design changes. As far as posting goes… I don’t know what your hopes should be. I have this theory that the more you do a thing, the better you get at it, and that eventually it shouldn’t take up all your time, but that hasn’t really worked out for me yet. Vee shall see.

Pictures

I’m in the process of the long awaited pictures that I’ve taken and haven’t actually been able to put on the website yet. I’ve got some new ones up in the the Occasions and Events folder and will be adding more as my internet decides to be nice. Enjoy.

Glory be! It’s got a heartbeat!

Just a very quick update. I had a prenatal exam yesterday at my new care provider in town. It was absolutely amazing to hear the little one’s heartbeat for the first time ever. Kyle was unable to come to this one so we’re going to make it so that he can come to the next one in October. Our health insurance comes online October 1st and I have an appointment for October 9th. I’ll be meeting with one of the other midwives and we’ll also have an ultrasound.

Things on the job front have not changed as yet. I’m still applying and praying that the Lord brings something along for me to do until the baby comes so that we can save up a bit of money.

I’m also seriously praying about going back to school either in the spring or next fall part time. I’ll be working towards an associates degree in nursing through the local school which is attached to the hospital near our apartment. And before you begin protesting, I am well aware of the facts of how tired I will be with a new baby if I take classes in the spring semester. If that is the way that the Lord decides to lead us, then he’s given promise after promise to be my strength and peace and hope and sanity through it all. I’m not even remotely considering going back full time, but if I’m part-time, then I can keep the loan hounds at bay until I have a job that can pay them back.

The Lord is good; He provides for His children, and I am so grateful to be counted amonst the flock. Otherwise I would have had a meltdown long before now.

Peace and Blessings.

Progress…finally

After dilligently bashing my head against two brick walls entitled “employment” and “prenatal care”, I seem to finally have cracked the foundation of the latter. After prayer and trusting in the Lord’s provision, we have decided to sign up for the spouse insurance through Kyle’s work. It will automatically be deducted from his paycheck, so it’s even more necessary for me to crack into that second wall.

The good news is that I finally have a care provider and my next prenatal appointment will be on September 4th. The insurance will officially go into affect October 1st, but since I’ve already had an initial pre-natal visit and all of my labwork, I only have to pay for regular visits out of pocket until October. I’ll be fifteen and a half weeks pregnant when I go in for my next visit and the insurance will kick in well before I have to take all of the mid-pregnancy tests and take Rhogam.

I’m still working on getting employed, but it feels really nice having one more burden lifted from my shoulders through the Lord’s grace and mercy. Please keep praying for employment or at least for the Lord to show us what he has in store for me to do next.

In other news, Kyle is quietly panicking about having to fly by the seat of his pants come Monday. He’s teaching 3rd through 9th grade Latin and is a little bit nervous as he’s still trying to get settled and plan lessons. Pray that I see my husband back to his normal goofy self soon and not so withdrawn.

Peace and Blessings.

Update thingies…I’m terrible at this sometimes….

Hello Everybody!

My, my, how the time does fly! I seriously owe everybody an update on what’s been going on so here goes…..

A little over a month ago (goodness!), we packed all of our belonging into a UPS truck and sent it to NC ahead of us. After being feted by our former church till our sides burst, we finally set out to follow our belongings. It was a good beginning of a nice month-long trip. Continue reading “Update thingies…I’m terrible at this sometimes….”

Happy News

Kyle has accepted the teaching position in NC so we are definitely moving southward. I’m really excited about being closer to family and back in an area that I can make sense of. The moving truck arrives this coming Friday. Saturday and Sunday we will fill it and have it picked up by the moving complany. Monday we will head out for our trip to visit with friends and relatives, and apparently we will have a stowaway on the trip with us who will make an appearance in about nine months. We’re really excited about that too. I’ll be putting up more updates as they come and have created a new page where registry and other information will be periodically updated.

When it rains it pours.

Hello everyone. I suppose it’s time for another update on life from the frozen north (well chilly north anyway…can anyone tell me where summer is supposed to be?).

I finished teaching at the school on June 8th, and Kyle and I decided that it would be a wonderful time to take a much needed break before chaos resumes and I have to pack up the house for a move. We decided to go to Niagara Falls for the weekend and it was absolutly, blessedly peaceful and restful. We did all the touristy things and I took lots of pictures, which will go up as soon as I can figure out what’s going wrong with our gallery program.

On the drive home Kyle was thinking about his last convesation with the Headmistress at the school in Concord. When Mrs. C had told Kyle that she was very sorry that she had offerend the English position to someone else who had more experience but that she had a full time teaching position for Latin also open. At first he politely turned her down thinking that it was a joke, but he realized on the ride home that she wouldn’t have mentioned it if she hadn’t been serious.
Continue reading “When it rains it pours.”