A Day In The Life

... of the Only Woman In The Fellowship

Author - Emma Stanley

Howdy y’all, this week’s prompt is a fun change of pace as we have been working away over here on the property! This week we’ve been finishing up the work on the succoths outback which means beautifying the rustic space which in turn means digging up big “ugly” rocks to replace them with smaller “prettier” rocks. Kinda silly when you think of it that way but the small rocks also help with drainage so hey that’s a huge plus! It’s been a huge blessing to be able to use our bodies and work with our hands this week and helped continue to show an inside peek at everyone's work ethics as we learn each other’s strengths, weaknesses, joys, and struggles.

Our mornings start with reading together around the table, but before that my mornings start around 6:45 a.m. I spend time in the Word with the ladies at my church who are reading through the Bible together. We just started 2 Chronicles which is perfect timing because we've been reading 1 Kings here at the house!
           
As part of our curriculum we’re reading the narrative of the Bible so it’s been really cool to make connections and read in a truly chronological way not just cover to cover. Right now we’re jumping back and forth between the northern and southern kingdoms, a.k.a. Israel and Judah. If you’ve ventured into the reading of 1 Kings you will understand that I’ve been mighty confused, and using every bit of my brain to make sure I’m not confusing the two which often times means re-reading the same passages during selah time.

Speaking of selah time, that’s the next step to our day. After reading Keith tells us to “selah” which in layman's terms means go and sit with what you just read and allow the Holy Spirit to work. My selah time usually looks like me praying, journalling out my processing points, and re-reading what our morning readings consisted of or diving into questions that have been nagging my brain and looking to scripture to answers said questions.

After Selah we get to hang out with Keith, this looks different every day. Some days we are working around the property, clearing trees, dragging and burning brush, working on the sukahs, and that type of thing. From time to time we will do our curriculum during this time slot! As we’ve been preparing for our trip to Oaxaca we’ve been really diving into the practice of evangelism and how that looks for our trip.
           
From there we’ll break for lunch till 1:30 and get ready for the afternoon. I try to use my lunchtime to decompress and go on a walk or catch up on some homework to get my brain in tune for Arlie time. After lunch on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays we have Arlie time and on Mondays and Wednesdays we have Keith time. Mondays and Wednesdays model after every morning so we're either working outside or going over our curriculum. Arlie time on the other hand is always curriculum work but done in a myriad of ways to keep us engaged and at the ready! At the beginning of the year Arlie was teaching us Tae Kwon Do while we talked through the 80 hand-signs that Arlie has taught us to use as hooks for our knowledge of the storyline of the Bible! We've taken a bit of a break from our Tae Kwon Do training and instead have been going on walks or weightlifting, stretching out and doing things of this sort to connect movement with our brain to allow us to hold onto knowledge more. We often go on fun tangents with bizarre questions and trains of thought that get us into trouble when it comes to time but when else will we have a year of our lives in our 20s to ask the questions we were too scared to ask in a church/ friend group setting?

Our days end around 4-5 p.m. and if I happen to be the person of the week I'll try to start on dinner right away. We've been alternating every week who is "in of the house." This means we get the chance to make sure the house is locked up and lights are off at night, we come up with a meal plan and do the shopping for the week and if we have any to-dos or "high-hos" to accomplish for the week we get to make sure they're all done! Tuesday nights I have small-group with my dear friends at Crossway Bible Church which is always a welcome time away from the crazy boys here... Thursday nights we have His-time where we get to hang out with Keith and Alice and it is always a sweet time as every week is a surprise as to what we do that night! Most nights though I stay around the house finishing homework, watching movies and shows with the boys and venturing into the hot tub from time to time! I usually close out the night with some reading in bed and thanking the Lord for the day He's given and all that is in it, all that He's allowed me to learn and struggle with and rejoice in throughout the day and week.
             
It's a sweet life Gods given me here and I'm excited to continue this sweet time while I've got it. I'd love to share more about my days here and can't wait to embark on our journey to Oaxaca where we will get to share the joy of Christ! We'll be sending out updates throughout our trip and we're asking people to join our prayer team! If you feel led to join you can check out our website and go to our give page and we have a spot where you can put your email and name and we can get you on our updates list!