First Night, First Impressions

 

 Journey group first night impressions. There are 13 members in the group including myself. We have two couples serving as facilitators or guides. Tony and Elizabeth Staten are the first couple. Kristie and Mark George are the second set of facilitators.  Two future members - Rodney & Deborah Tidwell - didn't travel in due to the weather.  They live 1.5 hours away. 

Tony and Elizabeth have been married 38 years and have two children and four grandchildren. The four grandchildren are two boys and two girls. He works as a dorm manager for single airman probably at Gunter. Elizabeth has been working as the "caregiver" to her two grandkids who have since moved out. I'm not quite sure what that means; but she is having mixed feelings about their departure.

Nathan Smith is 42 and Montgomery born and raised. He works for the Alabama Department of Health but there seems to be some issues at work. He's been married for 17 years, wife unnamed, 11 year old girl named Natalie.

Randy and Debbie Diboll - married for 46 years. He's originally from California; retired from the Air Force in 1999 and has been working for 21 years as a software devloper for Bespin. They have been married 47 years with three grown kids. Debbie is in the banking and has worked for D.R. Horton - America's Largest Homebuilders.

Monty and Becky Blair have been married for 46 years. She works in the Willis Towers Watson (?). He works as an inspector on Pike road development. He's done banking sports and construction goods, and is an avid softball fanatic. They have a son named Monty Blair who went to school with Nathan.

Allen and Susan Friday have been married 49 years he retired 10 years ago from the state workforce development after 35 years. He suffers from Bronchiectasis. She worked for bell South, retired 17 years ago.

Mark Peek has retired from the  Air Force after 34 years; no idea what he did in the Air Force. His wife's name is Melissa, two grandkids. He has been in active duty and in the reserves. He goes to Crossroads Community Church where he is the leader of a men's group.

Mark and Christy George have been married for a year and a half. They drive 50 minutes from Eclectic to attend at Vaughn Park where they have only been members for a little over a year. He is retired but still volunteers for the fireman department. She's a retired teacher high school. She's originally from Texas but has also lived in Nashville.

Allen is really having a hard time comprehending what is going on and ask questions that show he's missing things. Nathan and Monty are both spring butts and clearly dealing with some issues at home. They jumped to answer every question that's placed to give their opinion. Looking for validation?

I can tell my struggle with this class is going to be intellectual. Maybe I'm thinking too deep, but a lot of the answers that the class has shared so far have seemed very “milk”. 

One of the most interesting things shared in the evening was from Mark George when you talked about Isaiah 43: 18-19 and mentioned that he had received a comment from one of his friends that said “Trust the Process in the Journey.”  This spoke to me because it sounds like a lot of the things I do when it comes to dieting programs. There's a process it works so I follow it. So we will try that with this journey.  

Another comment that came up a lot was self feeder. I don't see this as just reading for the sake of reading, but trying to determine what wants to be reading in order to grow spiritually. I also don't see it as reading the Bible every morning for the sake of checking the box. So again it has to determine what it is your mind or spirit is hungry for in order that you can find things to “self- feed”.