Author: Andrea Thornburg

This amazing experience is coming to an end. During my sabbatical, I have enjoyed my book readings, spending time with family and friends, lake time (photos are from this past weekend at our lake home), getting settled in to our new home, volunteering in all of the communities I serve, and most of all, drawing closer to my Lord and Savior! I have memories from this sabbatical that will last a lifetime!  I think I have spent more time with my husband and three boys in the last 30 days, than I have in the last year!  I feel extremely rested and blessed.  I am looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow and helping families!

Today was a perfect day to teach my two oldest sons how important it is to give back (as well as having a learning experience on cleaning!).  We went to Yorktown Church of the Nazarene, which is a church in one of the communities that I serve.  We cleaned the sanctuary,  coffee bar area, and all of the windows.  We have all enjoyed giving back as well as spending quality time together.  What a privilege it has been to be able to do these things!  My children have wondered why we are volunteering, and I told them that when we give to others, that we will be blessed by our Lord and Savior!  We are feeling the blessings!!  I shared with them, one of my favorite scriptures… A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.-Proverbs 17:22

Earlier this week, I spent a few hours with a good friend of mine, making freezer meals.  This is something that I enjoy doing, and am always looking for extra time to fit it in to my busy life.  It eliminates a lot of stress when I come home from a busy day at work and am able to prepare a healthy meal for my family in a short amount of time.  So many days, my husband and I, rush home, normally taking one of my three boys to either baseball, basketball practices, or games, so it is hard to prepare healthy meals with so much going on.  Thank you Lord, for allowing me so many opportunities this past month!

I was finally able to head North to our lake home.  Always nice to relax and rejuvenate!  Something about a body of water that can help relieve stress, if even for a short time! 🙂 My boys love to fish and spend time on the small beach area we have (photo is of my 10 year old, Alec).  I’m into my 3rd week of sabbatical and am feeling like I should be back to work.  I am really trying to enjoy these last couple weeks and make the most of it!  I feel like everything I have been able to accomplish, over these past few weeks, seems almost unreal.  It makes me realize how blessed I am to work for a company, that cares about it’s employees so much, that they would allow them time of rest!  As skeptical as I was, about taking this much time away from the job that I absolutely love, I feel like I will be so much more productive and helpful to the families that I serve.  That is a great feeling! Hoping to have many more special moments to share over the next couple weeks.

This week is SERVE at our church and I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some volunteer work as a family.  Our boys really enjoyed serving food to the kids of our church, who are working so hard this week, to help folks in need.  Participants are rehabbing homes, landscaping, trash clean up, visiting nursing homes, hosting free block parties, and a host of other projects.  It is exciting to be a part of a church family that gives back to our community in so many different ways.  Our family was only able to play a small part in SERVE this week, but it was still nice to enjoy a great evening of fellowship and giving back!

Last night I had the honor of helping at a church food pantry.  It felt very rewarding to give back to a community that has been so good to me over the past couple years.  I helped take groceries out to cars and load sacks of food for walk ins.  The two gentlemen in the photo were my wonderful helpers!  I really enjoyed meeting new people as well as seeing some familiar faces from the small town.  One of my favorite bible verses comes from Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  Tomorrow, my family of five will be preparing and serving dinner at our church, Union Chapel Ministries, for SERVE week.  Thank you Jesus, for all of the wonderful blessings thus far!

My husband, Terry, is also enjoying some time off work this week, so we ventured out this morning on the Cardinal Greenway, which spans 62 Miles from Marion, Indiana to Richmond, Indiana.  The trail actually runs on the back side of our property, so it is nice having quick access to nature and exercise!  What started out being a relaxing ride on our dual bike, ended with a flat tire and walking about 2 miles back to the house!  Love all of the great memories being made!  One of my favorite things, that occurred over these past few days, was planting my first garden!  Hopefully, we will have yellow and green peppers, cucumbers, and a variety of tomatoes over the next few months.  It’s exciting to see how God is working in my life and allowing me to do things I rarely get the opportunity to do.  Our church is participating in SERVE this week, which is a program to give both children and adults the opportunity to serve our wonderful community!  We will be volunteering later this week as a family to take part.  Service projects, outreaches, worship and bible teachings are some of the things being done to help local families.  This evening I am helping at a food pantry in one of my funeral home communities.  I will share about that opportunity later this week!

After day 5 of my sabbatical, I am still overwhelmed by the fact that I do not have to make the time to do things that I love, but I now have the time!  Regularly, I have to add simple things to my calendar, just to get them accomplished!  Such as, reading my daily devotional, 15 minutes of strength training, spending quality time with my family, etc.  I have been able to do these things daily and not had to make the time!  I was able to plant flowers, watch my oldest son, Trey, start his high school basketball career, spend quality time with my middle son, Ty, who absolutely loves the outdoors, and watch my youngest son, Alec, play his last season baseball game (loves to make a silly smile for photos! :).  Normally it doesn’t come easy fitting these things in.  What a joy it has been so far!  I feel extremely blessed and am looking forward to starting my first community service project on Friday.