Deanna Doss Shrodes

Bette* is a woman in ministry who has a special needs child.  In addition to all of her other responsibilities her life is filled with  taking her child to 100 times more doctor's appointments than most other moms around her face.  She lives with physical and emotional demands on her can't be explained, only experienced.   Tressa is a woman in ministry whose pastor-husband struggles with depression.  He won't get help.  It has almost killed their marriage but no one would ever know it by what they see on the outside each and every Sunday and mid-week service.  Melinda is a woman in ministry who just experienced the foreclosure of her home and church this past year.  Her family is temporarily living in a house another minister's family had available for them to stay in.  No one really knows the fear and anxiety that have gripped Melinda concerning their future. I often think of my many friends in ministry and what people don't know ...

This valuable article for job seekers comes from one of our amazing NextJob coaches, Norma Russo .  If you are thinking of slowing down your job search during the holidays you might want to think again! Don't Give Up On Job Hunting In Exchange For Gift Hunting The holiday season is -- prime time -- for job seekers. Often times, job seekers hold the impression that employers suspend their hiring activity from mid-November through New Year's Day. That is a myth! The truth is companies continue to hire during the holiday season, but job hunters quit looking. A recent survey of career management coaches, revealed that coaches see job openings continue (if not increase) during December, just when many job seekers put their resume on the shelf for the holiday season. The survey of coaches further indicated that there is no statistical proof that there are fewer new job openings in December versus other times of the year. In fact, many say it is just the opposite. While holiday p...

The other day we were having a work day at the church and I was working outside in our courtyard area with some other people and one thing I really wanted to do was trim the plants that were touching the sidewalk, and straighten the white scalloped edging that lined the sidewalk.  It's been on my mind each time I walked down the breezeway and saw that it needed attention so this was one thing I took delight in personally working on.  Each time I walk on that path I get a sense of accomplishment about all that we tackled on that work day.  I get so high on progress that I whip out my cell phone to take a photo of plants I just trimmed. A sense of accomplishment can come pretty rapidly from a church work day, but seeing results in people's spiritual lives takes quite a while.   It might take years to see any progress in someone's life and even when you do there are periodic setbacks.  Still there is nothing more rewarding than seeing people come to t...

Back in Maryland at Christmas time - Savanna and Jordan Our first year here in Tampa My how time flies! Memories are so important.  I have to confess, this year has snuck up on me and even now, I have no shopping done and am woefully behind but we did spend all day yesterday cleaning the house.  At least we are ahead on cleaning.  :) Full day today with church and the open house for our leadership... I'm ready for a full night's sleep AND a nap.

Our back patio at Christmas time Tomorrow night is our annual Christmas open house for the leadership team and their families.  We will probably have about 60-70 people here tomorrow night.  Larry and I do this every year at our home to show love and appreciation to our leaders at Christmas time.  (Although we sure do love/appreciate them all year long.)  Last year I blogged about this night here with my most requested recipes from this event.  I've been cooking yesterday and today, preparing the various dishes for this night.  The menu basically stays the same from year to year with just a few tweaks.  This year's looks like this: Leadership Open House Menu Cream Cheese and Red Pepper Jelly on Crackers Chicken Salad Sandwiches (PD's almost famous recipe) on assorted breads Mexican Layered Dip Appetizer Hot Artichoke Dip with Crackers Hot Crab Dip with Crackers Crab Puffs     Vegetable Tray with Vegetables ...

It was an extremely hot summer day back when we first started pastoring our church in Maryland, and I told my husband I was going upstairs to our room to take a shower.  The family room was also upstairs in this particular house we lived in. that was a split level house.  I said, "Larry, I don't want to get dressed right away after I shower.  It's so hot and I just want to cool off, so please take the kids outside, let them play and after a while when I get dressed I will come downstairs and let you guys know."  He had no problem with doing this and in fact we had a huge yard outside - the boys were playing on the swings and he was just out there being Super Dad.  Until... While I was in the shower our Sunday School Superintendent, Susan Morgan, called and asked him if she could stop by because she had a flyer to show him about the upcoming kids outreach she was working on and she wanted to go over a few things.  He said, "sure I'm just outside with the b...

He's probably going to kill me for posting this.  Well, not kill me but he will at least say, "what in the world were you thinking?" and might make me delete it after I post it.  So if you're reading this consider yourself one of the blessed ones who managed to read before my husband orders me to zap this off of here. Years ago Larry and I were preaching a revival for our dear friends, Pastors Randy and Dawn Visconti, at the church where they were pastoring in Kansas at the time.  God was really doing some great things that week and Larry was preaching his heart out on the last night.  He was getting quite worked up and shouting and at a high point in the message he was walking across the stage and excitedly shouting into the microphone and what he meant to say was, "this church is experiencing a whole new direction!"  Instead he said, "This church is experiencing a whole new erection!" Randy and Dawn and I were on the front row listening to th...