Health

Last night our friends at Priceline pharmacy (really are our friends, they go to our church) put on a women's health night at church. I honestly didn't think I'd learn anything new but I went to support them anyways. :) The one woman dr in town, Kaylene G., gave a speech based on the most commonly asked questions in her office. Something I was very proud of her for was standing up for women's mental health. She described the symptoms of depression and explained that it is a medical fact, as medically proven as high blood pressure for instance, and that it's nothing to be ashamed of. It doesn't mean you have an inability to cope and certainly isn't something you can just "snap out of." It's due to hormonal and chemical imbalances in the brain and nervous system and is sometimes brought on by nothing at all, no reason at all....I love her for this. I expect there are many women, some whom I know very well, that are depressed but are unwilling to admit this possibility to themselves because, maybe, they don't "believe" in depression and think they should just suck it up and pull themselves up by the bootstraps and move on. That can be VERY dangerous, so I hope that part her speech hit home with a few people and helped them to at least be able to admit to themselves that their sadness is more than sadness and there are people who can help. I wish more women had come last night because it was an awesome meeting. :) She also talked about the importance of exercise which makes me glad I'm going to be getting back into the gym this week! She talked a bit about contraception and I found out that, when used every time, condoms are about as effective as the birth control pill. This was news to me. I really hate how the hormones effect me and have been considering trying a different pill....so I might go that route and see how I feel and then, if I still don't feel like myself, we might just take our chances without. Our friend Emma also gave a speech, hers was about medications, caffeine and alcohol consumption while pregnant or breastfeeding. I logged this information for later, but didn't really learn anything I didn't already know there which makes me feel happy. :)

Chris talked to some people at Fellowship Church a couple months ago about how much he enjoyed the Christmas eve service and talked a bit about what we're trying to do out here and they sent us a bunch of resources for free! SO nice of them! We have 4 sermon series on dvd and a book that's meant to address just about any question you'd ever think to ask when starting a ministry. That was really exciting to open yesterday. When Bill and Stella leave for a few weeks next month, we're going to play Ed Young's sermons they sent as the message. It should be a nice change of pace and, hopefully, we'll all learn something! I think Bill is beginning to understand that we all have a passion for keeping this church alive with or without a pastor and have plans to try and make it the best place possible with the purest of intentions. I think that, with that knowledge, we can all become comrades in raising up the congregation as a whole and making it an all-around better place. I just pray we keep moving forward and don't have to close the doors.

That's all!