A New Day, A New Experience!

On Friday evenings at the FPC Pensacola, your schedule for Saturday, Sunday and Monday is posted. This past Friday Michael found out that he was scheduled for the Navy Yard on Monday - the beginning of his regular work assignment. Michael had hoped he would get assigned to the kitchen but the silver lining is that the Navy Yard is 20 minutes away by bus so you get a chance to get off campus and the boxed lunches you take are supposed to be good. On Monday he called us early before he had to report at the Bus Barn at 6:30am. He was up early partly because he did not want to be late his first day and because as the new man in the dorm room, his bunk is directly across from the door to the hallway and bathroom. The community bathroom door is broken and stays propped open, so when the dorm room door is opened he says it is like a searchlight right on his bed. He is learning to sleep through the metal clanging of the early riser's locker openings and shuttings but the searchlight is not as easy! Just to give you some background, when I first met Michael in undergrad and helped him move from his apartment to law school, I could not believe he had newspaper on his bedroom windows! I could not help laughing and told him that "old people" did this to block the sun. At least in Florida there seemed to be alot of foil/newspaper on windows of retired people - huge generalization I know, but I was young. Each apartment since he has done the same with a combination of car window blockers and folded boxes, etc. After we were married and went to Hilton Head with his parents, I realized what a great idea this was especially to help reduce the heat in the room - so now I am a convert. However it was funny at the time and I would call his bedrooms "the Bat Cave." Michael was up early and probably the first one at the Bus Barn. He was told not to expect to do too much the first couple of days because he yet again had to be cleared in a new place. So yesterday he sat on a picnic bench under a metal awning from 7:15am until 2:o0pm - no book, no conversation, nothing just sitting. He said it was nice to have the awning at first but in the afternoon it was really hot underneath it. This week he will be learning patience and stillness under his metal awning on his metal picnic bench. Please pray for him to have a good attitude about this and for him to be put in the place God has for him. When he asked if he could bring a book or paper to write letters he was put in his place quickly and told he just needs to sit until he is told otherwise. A great verse we shared with him was Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Hopefully today will be the last sitting day and I can post about his new adventure as a groundskeeper/grass cutter! Heidi