peekin' in...

[Turtle]

...thought I'd poke outa my shell and say "hi"!!

Glad to see this forum up an running again.

[Janice]

Hi to you too (((Turtle))) :D

[OldEnt]

...thought I'd poke outa my shell and say "hi"!!

Glad to see this forum up an running again.:D :D :D :D

[Oopsie Daisey]

...thought I'd poke outa my shell and say "hi"!!

Glad to see this forum up an running again.


Hi Turtle! Good To see ya! :)

[Emerging]

Hi Turtle!! It's great to "see" you! I hope you had a good weekend, and that we all can "see" more of each other here. Take care! :)

[MCM (Mary)]

Hi, Turtle. Glad to hear from you. Mary

[Hol]

HI Turtle!

Thanks for stopping by. How are you doing?

Hol

[Voyager]

Hey Turtle - we miss you!

:cool:

[Willow]

(((((((((((((((Turtle))))))))))))))))))))
Miss you sis!

Amy

[David]

Hi Turtle,

I'm just peeking in too. Took ages to find this place again. How are you doing? Notice that Willow is still here too. How are you Willow? Hi to everyone ......

[Willow]

Hi HI David! Great to see you. I'm better every day.
What's going on with you these days? Still doing children's drama?
I think you may have told me something about the drama program last time you stopped in. Please refresh my memory.

HUGS
Amy

[David]

Oh yes Willow, still doing my first love. Only thing that keeps me sane these days (though some would beg to differ). Next production is in just under three weeks (yikes!!). Kids are loving it and the company is growing steadily. Now up to twenty after starting with six last year. It's all rather nice really.

Church remains difficult. I go but sometimes when I go, I'm not really there if you know what I mean. I don't know if it will ever be the same again. Even though the pain has gone, something inside me refuses to forget. I am still very wary. I don't think about what happened much in detail anymore. There's just a vague sense of ickiness most of the time. A perpetual dark cloud over the head. So much so that I don't notice it, until one day something nice happens and I feel good for a while. I find myself being rather critical of anything that I read or hear that is Christian. I am not anti by any means. No way. Rather, I question everything. I suppose that is a good thing.

A case in point, we have started to study "The Purpose Driven Life" at my school, a book which I had been avoiding like the plague for a number of years, with no understanding of why I really didn't want to read it. Now I understand!!!

The people in my group I am certain are pretty fed up that I won't let the author get away with any simple phrase. I even dug into why I didn't like the title. Shared that I felt that life was more about being drawn by grace rather than driven by purpose. Don't know if that went down too well.

Anyway, apart from that life is wonderful. I love holidays and the long break is rapidly approaching over here. Get to be with the wife and kids for seven weeks. How wonderful. There is one perk (is that an American expression too?) to being a teacher after all.

[Willow]

I think it would be a shame to forget. I know you'd like to go back to a state of blissful trust... but you know better now. I'm out of church completely. I did go to a house church for awhile which I found to be incredibly safe feeling (until they decided to work towards getting into a building). I dropped out before they made the transition. The whole dynamic of the church changed when they began thinking of buildings and numbers of people. Yes... perk is also an US term :) I don't know about the rest of America.

Hey! I had the same problem when i saw the book you mentioned in the bookstore. It sent a shudder right through me. One of my former churches was so totally and completely swept away by a teaching about purpose from a visiting minister, that it changed the entire church. That is the beginning point when I realized things were becoming less relational and more "purpose-driven". That mentality switch caused the abuse and spiritual pride factor to escalate in the leadership of that church. Not that it wasnt' always there, but it just got more blatant. I've never read the book. I think I'll just leave that up to you for now! HAHA. Keep picking it apart. I agree with your perspective on the church. I'm to a point that I'm wondering if the church can even function in the structure as it exists today. The business/military structure is not conducive to spiritual health in my opinion.

Good to chat again David :)
Willow