New Beginnings Friday Five

Sally from over at Revgalblogpals gives us this Friday Five:

As we look back we may come to understand how God has worked in and through us in joy and saddness. how we have grown against what may seem impossible odds. As we look forward we may do so with expectation, and we may do so with fear and trembling. As we look back and forward in New Years liminality I offer you this simple yet I hope profound Friday Five in two parts:

First list five things that you remember/ treasure from 2008

1. The bloggers I got to meet in 2008: Pastor Eric from The Heart of a Pastor, Jan from Yearning for God, Auntie Knickers from Exile's Return, Jennifer from Possible Water (and the many Revgals I met at the Festival of Homiletics), Jodi at Choral Reef, Jennifer from An Orientation of Heart. I never realized when I started blogging how many people I would meet.

2. My Ten Year Anniversary at my current call. It was a good time to reflect back; I received lots of good comments.

3. Our trip to Paris. I had never been to Europe before last summer. Those three days were like a dream to me.

4. The Education Forum held in our congregation in September, and the things I learned about the Achievement Gap. The facts we learned were sobering (Minnesota has the highest achievement gap in the nation), but the relationships and commitments we are forming is hopeful.

5.Welcoming a new minister of music to our congregation in September. He has his own voice, his own style, and I am appreciating that.

Then list five things that you are looking forward to in 2009

1. New Leadership. I suspect that 2009 is going to be a hard year for our country. But I am hoping that, in the midst of it all, many of us will be inspired to find our own voice and that new leaders will emerge.

2. Improved relationships. Today, I don't want to say more about that....

3. Very immediately .... a trip to Phoenix next week. It's warm there (at least I hope), and I have family there as well.

4. Finishing things. Yesterday I took out two very old knitting projects (I mean very old), and am resolving to finish them this year. I might need help, though. Here is one of them:

5. Continuing to find and express my own voice: in my community, in my congregation, in my family.

As you read one anothers blogs today I challenge you to leave a word of encouragement and pause to pray for each member of Revgals as we step into a New Year.