Abigail Westbrook has joined our team!

Abigail Westbrook, a long-time member of Restoration, has joined our staff team as the Sunday Coordinator of Kids’ Small Groups. Here’s a glimpse of her heart which will help you understand why we are all so happy she’s here loving and shepherding those in our nursery.

Teach me work 

Teach me work that honors thy work,

the true economies of goods and words,

to make my arts compatible

with the songs of the local birds.

Teach me patience beyond work –

and, beyond patience, the blest

Sabbath of thy unresting love

which lights all things and gives rest.

-Wendell Berry- 

I love this prayerful poem in which Berry asks the Lord to “teach him work,” specifically the kind of labor that honors His work.

Remember your first job ever? I bet you do! It was likely the first in a series of jobs, each one that brought some kind of lesson or experience. Work can be a great teacher.

My first job was Sundown Gardens, a landscaping business where I grew up in Carmel, Indiana. Great first job. Hard (and hot) work.

Much of my work in recent years has been with elementary children, but these days I’m teaching much smaller scholars, particularly toddler types. I’m grateful for this new role working alongside Louise at Restoration. I am beginning my acquaintance with these precious “local birds.” I am meeting families at Restoration as well as leading and working alongside a beautiful team of women who faithfully show up each Sunday to care for our kids.

Berry’s poem is my prayer for you, too, in your work. Lord, may our work honor your handiwork: your creation, our fellow image-bearers. May we learn to recognize the songs of our “local birds” so that we can better serve them and sing along. We seek your shalom, “the blest Sabbath of thy unresting love.”

May you walk in this truth: we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do. 

-Abigail-