Sept 28th
Ok, so I fail at keeping my word with posting when I say i will...so sorry!
Alright so monday....great day!
We had a show in Alma, AR. ( I think...I really can't keep track of which state or town I'm in anymore). But either way, we were in a really small town, and this is the same town in which we stayed sunday night at the Days Inn, where we I just posted about.
So, I already knew people were nice in this town, thanks to sweet ol' Mary. So I had a good feeling about the school. We had 3 shows there, meaning it was going to be a long day, but I was fully prepared for it!
So we drive super early to get to the next on monday morning and we drive through the town, and I repeat, the town is extremely small. Not much to drive through, so I'm thinking to myself "I wonder why we have three presentations in this school, since it is such a small town, the school must be small as well.They can't have that many students, that we would show our film 3 times!"
WELL....we get to the school and it's like we entered another universe. The school is gorgeous and HUGE! LIke I felt like I was on a college campus, a small one, but one nonetheless. They had a huge auditorium, a mini bookstore to buy sweatshirts and all that, a big cafeteria, and though I didn't see the gym, we were told it was breath taking. So, I guess the building is that huge because counties and towns that are close by send their kids there.
The principal, janitor, and director of theatre welcomed us and were extremely nice. The janitor was really funny. Super tight with everyone, and offered us breakfast after getting a phone call from the cafeterai lady asking him what she wanted him to save him from the cafeteria. We declined, since we had already eaten, and wouldn't have had time to eat anyway. But it was very sweet.
The set up went well and fast. We had 3 young men help us, including Tom the janitor, and Steve the theatre director.
We showed ouf film to about 2700 students that day.Crazy! Talk about my fear of public speaking. haha. It really wasn't that bad. The kids were great. We started out with the highschoolers, Junior high, and ended with elementary :D
The highschoolers often times are to cool for school to show excitement or appreciation of the video, but they seemed like they genuinely enjoyed it. Two young girls even came afterwards to ask information about Camfel, because they were interested in working for it after graduating.
Junior High seemed to like it as well. To be honest, It's all kind of a blurr, when you have that many students in one day. But it seemed like it went well. The principal was pleased and talked with us afterwards for a bit.
Then we had about 2 hours between our second show and our third one and we were a bit conerned about how we would pass our time, since we had to stay at the school to check up on our equipment, yet didn't have much to do there either.
UNTIL...the principal, Tom, and Steve at completely different times invited us to eat at their caffeteria. They each talked about how good the food is, and how there is a huge range of options and it would be on them, so we could feel free to just help ourselves to whatever.
Ok....happiest day ever! I'm sure I've mentioned earlier how broke I've been. So i've been saving the few dollars I have for food, but it's come to a point where I have to sit down and think. Ok....do I want to spend $3 on the Mcdonald's dollar menu....or do I want to spend $5 at a grocery store on milk and cereal/ or soup/ or microwavable food that I can save for two meals. Haha yea...very sad.
So needless to say, I haven't really been eating well for the past 2 weeks (we only get paid once a month...and I guess I need to adjust to that, because my previous job paid me weekly...and since I suck at money management....that's how I've come to this point. lol).
So hearing that I had options at a buffet style cafeteria...for FREE was the best news of the week (other than knowing that I will be getting paid this friday :D)
So, I went to town in that cafeteria haha. Praising God. I was like, oh God....you have provided food for me today. I was so happy!
It's funny because when we had gotten interviewed for this job, our boss had mentioned to each of us that a lot of times schools do invite us technicians to have lunch in their cafeteria, which when I found out about it, I was excited for it. But after 2 months of doing this and not ever getting invited, I had lost hope. Well, I just didn't think about it anymore, and figured, well maybe some people get luckier than others. No problem though. God has my back and tooootally hooked me up on monday. He couldn't have picked a better week for a school to feed me free (and good) cafeteria food!!
After lunch, we still had a bit of time before our elementary show and boy was I excited about this one. Before the show, I asked Tom if he could make me a cup of coffee and he was more than glad to do it. So not only did they provide me with a great lunch, but my addiction to caffeine, was also fed. Wonderful!
I love doing elementary shows. The film itself is fun to watch and cute, but I looove the reactions of little kids to seeing our great big screens that are literally 40 times their size haha.
Oh Prior to this, I forgot to talk about the Principal of the Junior HIgh kids.She was a lclassy ady in her 60s and was so sweet to us. She really took the time to talk to us and get to know us. I don't know if it was because she was a female and felt more comfortable doing so, because usually we have male principals and though they are very nice, they don't really take the time to have a full on conversation with us about where we are from and how we've come to this point and other things like that. So, she announced to the whole school that I was from Senegal when she introduced us haha.
So anywho, back to elementary, I just couldn't stop smiling at the sight of these little kids interacting with each other, pointing at the screens, giggling, not holding still, and just ... well.....being kids! No worries, no stress, just life and excitement for everything. "sigh" they made my heart happy. They absolutely loved the show to. I couldn't believe how many of them cheered when they saw Lady Gaga's name ! When the song played, they were all singing along and cheering. I was in shock!!! Haha, kids grow way to fast nowadays. It's actually kind of scary. hehe.
So that was my wonderful monday morning/beginning of afternoon!
After our three shows, we had the fastest tear down ever. We had three young men help us, including Steve who was great because usually we like to roll our own cords so we know they are rolled correctly, but since he is in the theatre businees, and works a lot with electronics and sound and media, he knew how to do it, so that helped make time fly.
After tearing down, we sat down with him and the 3 students and just talked and laughed with them for a while. It was quite excellent! Definitely a great way to start our week!
Once we were done, we drove about 20 minutes to our hotel and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. I had a great conversation with a friend who told me that my passion for photography had really encouraged her to step up in do something about her passions as well, and she just kept talking about how the Spirit had really touched her through my work and she got chills just thinking about how amazing God is with connecting His body of followers despite the distance. It was just great to talk with her, very very encouraging!
I also spoke with my sister, my father, and other friends on the phone. I socially survive on these conversations! They really keep me going!
Yup...monday was a success! Thanks to you praying warriors!
Blessings,
DJO
About Me
- DorinaJuliaOliveira
- Saint Malo, Bretagne, France
- For those of you who know me there isn't a whole lot to say other than the fact that I am a crazy, weird, laid back, energetic ball of life who lives by the moment. I've got my share of ups and downs and an adventurous life of traveling. I hope to share some of this journey with you all as I try wrestling through questions and situations about who I am, what my purpose is, and my relationship with the Lord. Feel free to comment! Good or bad :)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Expedia lady gets roasted by God.
Sept 27th
Oh my God! Literally! He has done so much and been so faithful to me and I am just sooo encouraged and I HAVE to share it with you. Where to begin!??
Well for starters, I will begin where I promised I would. With yesterday's day :)
So, Tiffany and I on saturday nights like to go online, and check different churches out to see where we will be going the next morning. It's always interesting because we never know what to expect and just kind of go with the flow. Well, I stumbled upon a church called "Life" church and the website was really appealing and it sounded like something we would enjoy. So after sharing it with her and her agreeing that it sounds good, we headed there the next morning.
It was a big church and as soon as I enterered, I was filled with joy. You know the type of joy you know comes from Up there. Where you know you are surrounded by people from all sorts of backgrounds and points in their lives but through it all decided to seek the living God for whatever reason. Yup. That's the feeling of unity and fellowship. Entering the actual sanctuary however, filled me with an additional set of emotions. Sadness, reminiscence, and "homesickness." The sanctuary looked exactly like the auditorium we had in HUntington. The stage, the seats, the cross hanging on the right wall, everything...It was creepy how similar this sanctuary looked like Huntington's auditiorium, in which I was at least twice a week (and more usually). I immediately got super sad and starting missing Huntington. Missing praising God in the MCA auditorum, missing good times with friends, missing the usual seats my friends and I would sit in, starting from freshman year sitting with my sister to senior year sitting with a comlpetely different group of friends. So many memories just flushed through, and I was filled with sadness. Yup Huntington folks, I miss chapel!
So as we sat down and began worship, I prayed to God and just said, Lord, I believe you have a message for me this morning and I just pray that these emotions may be taken away so I am not distracted by them but can instead just focus on what you have in store for me.
So here's a little bit from my jounral that I jotted down.
ps This sermon wasn't any life turning sermon or anything like that, just a simple reminder that I know we all need every now and then.
We started out in Luke 19. It talks about the good ol' sotry of Zaccheus. The wealthy tax collector who was to short to see/hear jesus until he climbed on the fig tree and was able to have a better view of CHrist and received His salvation after that. The pastor had a couple different points and I wrote down a bit here and there, but spent a lot more time listening and thinking than writing, so pardon me if some of my journal notes don't make to much sense or don't connect.
We have to decide whether God is really worth finidng or not. (that was his first point). I say God is the absolute most valuable treasure any one could ever find! (the pastor had used the illustration of a treasure map and how fun treasure hunts are).
( I wrote this in french in my journal): I believe God is more pure than silver, more beautiful than diamonds, and more precious than gold! Literally 5 minutes after writing this, the pastor used this song as an example of how valuable of a treasure God is!!!!
Lord thank you for keeping my head in the game...one step ahead thanks to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Nothing can be compared to you oh God.
We need to wake up every day thinking we are going on a treasure hunt. we wake up thinking...I need to find God in everything I do, see, think, and speak. How much better and more fun can our life be if we are on a daily treasure hunt for the absolute most valuable treasure ever found to mankind!?? :)
Then the pastor talked about how a lot of times people don't find God, this amazing treasure, because they are simply not seeking. Even though this treasure is trying to make it as easy as possible for us to find, we sometimes don't find it simply because we are not looking for it. In Ez 12:2, Ezekiel says "Son of man, you live among rebels who have eyes but refuse to see. They have ears but refuse to hear." This verse also reminded of about how Paul says in Romans 1: 19-20 "They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and the sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divinse nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." So when we are not finding/hearing God, maybe we just aren't truly looking for Him. It's one thing to say a quick prayer, but God knows our hearts and He knows if our prayer has value through faith or is blocked by unbelief, lack of faith, doubt, and uncertainty sometimes. If we don't believe in even being answered or heard for that matter, how can we hear Him? A lot of times it is so simple, all we have to do is ask, and believe what we are asking and believe in the power of the Spirit. In 1 John 14-15, it is said " And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hearts us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for." Or sometimes when don't find God, maybe we just aren't utilizing the tools he provides us with daily in order to find Him. The beauty of God (well one of the many) is that his being is so gentle, that he doesn't need to shout at us and yell in order for us to hear Him, but it's all in a whisper, in something unexpected, through a sermon, a word from a person, a book, something simple like that, through His word, or in Zachheus' case, through a fig tree.
Once we do find Him. Let's let go and obey. Leave the fears behind and just listen and GO. He knows what is best or us so let us let go of our misconceived perceptions of what is right for us. I mean how many times have each of us seeked God and His will, and finally heard it and said "hmm ok God, I'll pass on this one, maybe next time," or "well God do you have a better idea cus I'm not to sure about this one" or better yet, "um God, thanks but no thanks, I'm gonna go ahead with what I think is best in this situation." How can creation know better than its creator what is good for it???
Finding God results in a changed LIFE!
When we find Him, we fall more and more in love with Him and His personality and are attracted to it and want to get to know it more and then it "magically" rubs off on us. I mean I'm not married, but I've seen this time and time again in couples so I can valitade this fact. They find each other, hang out, get to know each other, fall head over heals as they keep getting to know each other, get married, and then they spend so much time with each other that they start acting like each other! For those of you who are married, I'm sure yo could vouch for that. Well the same thing happens with God ( I know this isn't news to you, like I said earlier all of this is just a good reminder God brought me and I want to share the same reminder with you). SO yes after seeking this treasure daily and finding it, we become more like Christ!
How much wealthier can we be if we are continually seeking this great treasure every day?? We know we've found Him through that peace and joy we feel deep on the inside. Not just happines but pure joy and contetment through whatever circumstance we are in.
The way you know you have Christ's love flowing in your veins is when you feel peace joy, order in your life, love for others AND yourself, contentment, and accept grace. However you know something's off, and maybe you haven't fully taped in on that treasure when your life is filled with fear, restlessnes, hurry/hussle, shame, worry, and feel like your whole life is out of control.
These aren't from God. This teasure we find in Him takes care of all of that! Praise His name for that!
This treasure hunt is so much fun because the treasure wants to be found :) IN Chronicles 16:9 we re reminded of that. " The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengten those whose hearts are fully commited to Him."
God reminds me of that very single day because I daily have to face my fear of public speaking. I conclude the shows by thanking everyone for coming, encouraging them to talk about the video with each other or parents or teachers , and I also share a bit about how we have this job for many reasons but one of the main resons is that we truly care for these kids and hope that they can be motivated to make better decisions in their lives not only for themselves but for those around them. It's usually a pretty short conclusion, I mean I'll add a little more to it but no big deal. But I have a terrible fear of speaking in public.
In fact, for public speaking in college, I got an F on a speech because even though it was good and I had prepared it, and researched it, and rehearsed it, I got up in front of the class (ony like 20 of us) and couldn't say a word. After trying a couple times, I just looked at my professor, and said "I can't do this." He took me aside later and even though he was known as one of the most severe professors on campus who RARELY gave As, he gave me a second chance warning me that he would take a grade down for my second try. Praise God, I got a B when I tried a second time (meaning I originally woulda gotten an A hehehe).
So I redeemed myself but all of this to say I am deathly afraid of speeches, but every day right before stepping up to the mic when it's about that time, i just pray and ask Him to take it away from. This fear just goes away, God slows my heart pace, calms my nerves, and better yet gives me words and confidence.That's what He does when we seek Him.
I guess on the same note about God benig a treasure proving Himself in every way and everything in life, I just want to share one more thing from Max Lucado. He talked about being in Brazil and meeting an old man who asked him what he did for a living... When Max explained what a missionary was, the old man said "What you do must be easy." When Max asked him why he thought that, the old brazilian farmer repsonded: "I have no trouble believing in God. After what I see what He has done on my little farm, year after year, it is so easy to believe."
Max then goes on talking about Senhor Jose and his amazing faith brought my such a simple life. The simple miracles that he witnessed everyday. Such as "a small seed becoming a towering tree. A thin stalk pushing back to the earth. A rainbow arching in the midst of the thundercloud."
"It was easy for him to believe. I can see why. Someone who witnesses God's daily display of majesty doens't find the secret of Easter absurd. Someone who depends upon the mysteries of nature for his livelihood doesn't find it difficult to depend on an unseen God for his salvation.
"Nature," wrote[...], "is God's greatest evangelist." "Faith," wrote Paul, "doesn't rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The old brazilian farmer gave me a time-tested principle to take home. He reminded me that there is a certain understanding of God on the cross that comes only with witnessing his daily testimony. There comes a time when we should lay down our pens and commentaries and step out of our offices and libraries. To really understand and believe in the miracle on the cross, we'd do well to witness God's miracles every day."
Max Lucado
Ok...soo...this ended up being much longer than expected. I guess I'll share with you how God proved Himself once again me to me yesterday (in a way I was aware of at least, I'm sure He did many more times but I probably wasn't paying attention).
After driving for 5 hours and singing praises to God...We reached our hotel, one which I had booked the night bfore. Well we walk in, and the sweet little old lady tells us we aren't registered in their systems. So I say well that's alright, we can give you our confirmation number and have
you see that we did indeed book. The thing is, Ihad booked it through expedia.com so it could be cheaper, and so Tiffany reads the confirmation email, and smile and says "well it seems that we are indded booked her for not sept 26th, but DEC 26th." GO FIGURE!!! Iwould do something like that. For those of you who know me well, this may not come in as a surprise. Gosh I frustrate myself sometimes! SO the sweet little old lady says " well if it were up to me, i would change the dates but since you went though expedia , you need to call them to have them change it for you."
So we go ahead and cal them, and the lady I speak to tells me that the reservations are non refundable and non changebale. I ask her why, sternly, and she responds that they are the terms and policies. So confused I ask her if what other options I have...she responds "Well, well, if you have any friends who would like to in that hotel mam', they could pay you back." I say "I'm sorry, but I honestly cannot think of any of my friends who would want to stay in ALMA, AR the day after Christmas!!!" uggggh I was so frustrated! So she apologizes and asks if there is anything else she can do for me. " I say well, not really, but thanks for teaching me never to use expedia.com again. Thank you, have a good day and goodbye." Yeah, not the nicest but I was frustrated. haha. totally not a good excuse but hey i'll take it.
So we go back in the hotel and book for one night, and at this point I'm just thinking, no big deal, Ijust owe my boss money that I don't have, but whatever it's my responsiblity and I will suck it up.
Well, sweet little Mary tells us that we shold try calling again and just ask for their supervisor. So we thank her and tell her we'll do just that.
I go in our room and get online to get more details about all of this before calling them again, and I jus get frustrated because I feel like calling them again is jut going to be pointelss and I'm going to get the exact same answers and I just lose patience before even trying. Right then, God reminds of the sermon and how he cares about the absolutel small detail of our lives as much as the big issues All we have to do is seek and ask and He is right there. So Ithank Him for the reminder and ask Him to just lead me to the right people and believe that He will fix the issue. Now that's faith cus moments ago, I was just ready to give up, before even trying. It's amazing how easiy the ennemy can discourage us! So after praying, (which I later on find out that Tiffany was praying the exact same thing during all of this.) I call exedia again using a different number hoping I can talk to someone different Another lady responds and after expalinging everything, she tells me the exact same thing the other lady had already told me. After insisting on her expalinging exactly what rules and policies she was talking about, she says "well these are just the hotel's rules, and we cannoth chage them." AHA!!! BUSTED! She was lying straight to my face (well through the phone) because sweet lil' Mary had just told me earlier that if it were up to her, she would do thing something. So I tell this deceitful lady that Iam actually at the hotel and would love to have her talk to the desk lady because I believe she can "chage these policies and rules she is talking about." Aftet fumbling on her words becase she hadn't realized I was actually at the hotel, and against her own will she spoke to sweet Mary!
Mary was so firm with this lady, it was unbelievable. I loved it! She totally solved the problem and we got our full reimbursement. HALLELUIJAH! BAM in your face expedia! haha I was sooo happy, GOd provided me(I'm at starbucks and a lady just gave me two bags of bright pink delicious looking cotton candy...score!) with patience, perseverance, and faith. All I had to do was ask Him, and He was right there, took care of it.
So that was my sunday. I also had a phenomenal day today, and would love to share it with you, but I think you got ear ear/eye full and got your share of encouragement haha. Sorry I am blabber! But how can I keep such testimonies to myself?? I'll save my monday for tomorrow.
Sorry for the mispelled words, Starbucks is closing and I don't have time to go through this blog and re edit everything. :/
Hope you got what you enjoyed nonetheless...
Blessings brohters and sisters in Christ, and great friends :)
LOOOOVE, DO
Oh my God! Literally! He has done so much and been so faithful to me and I am just sooo encouraged and I HAVE to share it with you. Where to begin!??
Well for starters, I will begin where I promised I would. With yesterday's day :)
So, Tiffany and I on saturday nights like to go online, and check different churches out to see where we will be going the next morning. It's always interesting because we never know what to expect and just kind of go with the flow. Well, I stumbled upon a church called "Life" church and the website was really appealing and it sounded like something we would enjoy. So after sharing it with her and her agreeing that it sounds good, we headed there the next morning.
It was a big church and as soon as I enterered, I was filled with joy. You know the type of joy you know comes from Up there. Where you know you are surrounded by people from all sorts of backgrounds and points in their lives but through it all decided to seek the living God for whatever reason. Yup. That's the feeling of unity and fellowship. Entering the actual sanctuary however, filled me with an additional set of emotions. Sadness, reminiscence, and "homesickness." The sanctuary looked exactly like the auditorium we had in HUntington. The stage, the seats, the cross hanging on the right wall, everything...It was creepy how similar this sanctuary looked like Huntington's auditiorium, in which I was at least twice a week (and more usually). I immediately got super sad and starting missing Huntington. Missing praising God in the MCA auditorum, missing good times with friends, missing the usual seats my friends and I would sit in, starting from freshman year sitting with my sister to senior year sitting with a comlpetely different group of friends. So many memories just flushed through, and I was filled with sadness. Yup Huntington folks, I miss chapel!
So as we sat down and began worship, I prayed to God and just said, Lord, I believe you have a message for me this morning and I just pray that these emotions may be taken away so I am not distracted by them but can instead just focus on what you have in store for me.
So here's a little bit from my jounral that I jotted down.
ps This sermon wasn't any life turning sermon or anything like that, just a simple reminder that I know we all need every now and then.
We started out in Luke 19. It talks about the good ol' sotry of Zaccheus. The wealthy tax collector who was to short to see/hear jesus until he climbed on the fig tree and was able to have a better view of CHrist and received His salvation after that. The pastor had a couple different points and I wrote down a bit here and there, but spent a lot more time listening and thinking than writing, so pardon me if some of my journal notes don't make to much sense or don't connect.
We have to decide whether God is really worth finidng or not. (that was his first point). I say God is the absolute most valuable treasure any one could ever find! (the pastor had used the illustration of a treasure map and how fun treasure hunts are).
( I wrote this in french in my journal): I believe God is more pure than silver, more beautiful than diamonds, and more precious than gold! Literally 5 minutes after writing this, the pastor used this song as an example of how valuable of a treasure God is!!!!
Lord thank you for keeping my head in the game...one step ahead thanks to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Nothing can be compared to you oh God.
We need to wake up every day thinking we are going on a treasure hunt. we wake up thinking...I need to find God in everything I do, see, think, and speak. How much better and more fun can our life be if we are on a daily treasure hunt for the absolute most valuable treasure ever found to mankind!?? :)
Then the pastor talked about how a lot of times people don't find God, this amazing treasure, because they are simply not seeking. Even though this treasure is trying to make it as easy as possible for us to find, we sometimes don't find it simply because we are not looking for it. In Ez 12:2, Ezekiel says "Son of man, you live among rebels who have eyes but refuse to see. They have ears but refuse to hear." This verse also reminded of about how Paul says in Romans 1: 19-20 "They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and the sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divinse nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." So when we are not finding/hearing God, maybe we just aren't truly looking for Him. It's one thing to say a quick prayer, but God knows our hearts and He knows if our prayer has value through faith or is blocked by unbelief, lack of faith, doubt, and uncertainty sometimes. If we don't believe in even being answered or heard for that matter, how can we hear Him? A lot of times it is so simple, all we have to do is ask, and believe what we are asking and believe in the power of the Spirit. In 1 John 14-15, it is said " And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hearts us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for." Or sometimes when don't find God, maybe we just aren't utilizing the tools he provides us with daily in order to find Him. The beauty of God (well one of the many) is that his being is so gentle, that he doesn't need to shout at us and yell in order for us to hear Him, but it's all in a whisper, in something unexpected, through a sermon, a word from a person, a book, something simple like that, through His word, or in Zachheus' case, through a fig tree.
Once we do find Him. Let's let go and obey. Leave the fears behind and just listen and GO. He knows what is best or us so let us let go of our misconceived perceptions of what is right for us. I mean how many times have each of us seeked God and His will, and finally heard it and said "hmm ok God, I'll pass on this one, maybe next time," or "well God do you have a better idea cus I'm not to sure about this one" or better yet, "um God, thanks but no thanks, I'm gonna go ahead with what I think is best in this situation." How can creation know better than its creator what is good for it???
Finding God results in a changed LIFE!
When we find Him, we fall more and more in love with Him and His personality and are attracted to it and want to get to know it more and then it "magically" rubs off on us. I mean I'm not married, but I've seen this time and time again in couples so I can valitade this fact. They find each other, hang out, get to know each other, fall head over heals as they keep getting to know each other, get married, and then they spend so much time with each other that they start acting like each other! For those of you who are married, I'm sure yo could vouch for that. Well the same thing happens with God ( I know this isn't news to you, like I said earlier all of this is just a good reminder God brought me and I want to share the same reminder with you). SO yes after seeking this treasure daily and finding it, we become more like Christ!
How much wealthier can we be if we are continually seeking this great treasure every day?? We know we've found Him through that peace and joy we feel deep on the inside. Not just happines but pure joy and contetment through whatever circumstance we are in.
The way you know you have Christ's love flowing in your veins is when you feel peace joy, order in your life, love for others AND yourself, contentment, and accept grace. However you know something's off, and maybe you haven't fully taped in on that treasure when your life is filled with fear, restlessnes, hurry/hussle, shame, worry, and feel like your whole life is out of control.
These aren't from God. This teasure we find in Him takes care of all of that! Praise His name for that!
This treasure hunt is so much fun because the treasure wants to be found :) IN Chronicles 16:9 we re reminded of that. " The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengten those whose hearts are fully commited to Him."
God reminds me of that very single day because I daily have to face my fear of public speaking. I conclude the shows by thanking everyone for coming, encouraging them to talk about the video with each other or parents or teachers , and I also share a bit about how we have this job for many reasons but one of the main resons is that we truly care for these kids and hope that they can be motivated to make better decisions in their lives not only for themselves but for those around them. It's usually a pretty short conclusion, I mean I'll add a little more to it but no big deal. But I have a terrible fear of speaking in public.
In fact, for public speaking in college, I got an F on a speech because even though it was good and I had prepared it, and researched it, and rehearsed it, I got up in front of the class (ony like 20 of us) and couldn't say a word. After trying a couple times, I just looked at my professor, and said "I can't do this." He took me aside later and even though he was known as one of the most severe professors on campus who RARELY gave As, he gave me a second chance warning me that he would take a grade down for my second try. Praise God, I got a B when I tried a second time (meaning I originally woulda gotten an A hehehe).
So I redeemed myself but all of this to say I am deathly afraid of speeches, but every day right before stepping up to the mic when it's about that time, i just pray and ask Him to take it away from. This fear just goes away, God slows my heart pace, calms my nerves, and better yet gives me words and confidence.That's what He does when we seek Him.
I guess on the same note about God benig a treasure proving Himself in every way and everything in life, I just want to share one more thing from Max Lucado. He talked about being in Brazil and meeting an old man who asked him what he did for a living... When Max explained what a missionary was, the old man said "What you do must be easy." When Max asked him why he thought that, the old brazilian farmer repsonded: "I have no trouble believing in God. After what I see what He has done on my little farm, year after year, it is so easy to believe."
Max then goes on talking about Senhor Jose and his amazing faith brought my such a simple life. The simple miracles that he witnessed everyday. Such as "a small seed becoming a towering tree. A thin stalk pushing back to the earth. A rainbow arching in the midst of the thundercloud."
"It was easy for him to believe. I can see why. Someone who witnesses God's daily display of majesty doens't find the secret of Easter absurd. Someone who depends upon the mysteries of nature for his livelihood doesn't find it difficult to depend on an unseen God for his salvation.
"Nature," wrote[...], "is God's greatest evangelist." "Faith," wrote Paul, "doesn't rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The old brazilian farmer gave me a time-tested principle to take home. He reminded me that there is a certain understanding of God on the cross that comes only with witnessing his daily testimony. There comes a time when we should lay down our pens and commentaries and step out of our offices and libraries. To really understand and believe in the miracle on the cross, we'd do well to witness God's miracles every day."
Max Lucado
Ok...soo...this ended up being much longer than expected. I guess I'll share with you how God proved Himself once again me to me yesterday (in a way I was aware of at least, I'm sure He did many more times but I probably wasn't paying attention).
After driving for 5 hours and singing praises to God...We reached our hotel, one which I had booked the night bfore. Well we walk in, and the sweet little old lady tells us we aren't registered in their systems. So I say well that's alright, we can give you our confirmation number and have
you see that we did indeed book. The thing is, Ihad booked it through expedia.com so it could be cheaper, and so Tiffany reads the confirmation email, and smile and says "well it seems that we are indded booked her for not sept 26th, but DEC 26th." GO FIGURE!!! Iwould do something like that. For those of you who know me well, this may not come in as a surprise. Gosh I frustrate myself sometimes! SO the sweet little old lady says " well if it were up to me, i would change the dates but since you went though expedia , you need to call them to have them change it for you."
So we go ahead and cal them, and the lady I speak to tells me that the reservations are non refundable and non changebale. I ask her why, sternly, and she responds that they are the terms and policies. So confused I ask her if what other options I have...she responds "Well, well, if you have any friends who would like to in that hotel mam', they could pay you back." I say "I'm sorry, but I honestly cannot think of any of my friends who would want to stay in ALMA, AR the day after Christmas!!!" uggggh I was so frustrated! So she apologizes and asks if there is anything else she can do for me. " I say well, not really, but thanks for teaching me never to use expedia.com again. Thank you, have a good day and goodbye." Yeah, not the nicest but I was frustrated. haha. totally not a good excuse but hey i'll take it.
So we go back in the hotel and book for one night, and at this point I'm just thinking, no big deal, Ijust owe my boss money that I don't have, but whatever it's my responsiblity and I will suck it up.
Well, sweet little Mary tells us that we shold try calling again and just ask for their supervisor. So we thank her and tell her we'll do just that.
I go in our room and get online to get more details about all of this before calling them again, and I jus get frustrated because I feel like calling them again is jut going to be pointelss and I'm going to get the exact same answers and I just lose patience before even trying. Right then, God reminds of the sermon and how he cares about the absolutel small detail of our lives as much as the big issues All we have to do is seek and ask and He is right there. So Ithank Him for the reminder and ask Him to just lead me to the right people and believe that He will fix the issue. Now that's faith cus moments ago, I was just ready to give up, before even trying. It's amazing how easiy the ennemy can discourage us! So after praying, (which I later on find out that Tiffany was praying the exact same thing during all of this.) I call exedia again using a different number hoping I can talk to someone different Another lady responds and after expalinging everything, she tells me the exact same thing the other lady had already told me. After insisting on her expalinging exactly what rules and policies she was talking about, she says "well these are just the hotel's rules, and we cannoth chage them." AHA!!! BUSTED! She was lying straight to my face (well through the phone) because sweet lil' Mary had just told me earlier that if it were up to her, she would do thing something. So I tell this deceitful lady that Iam actually at the hotel and would love to have her talk to the desk lady because I believe she can "chage these policies and rules she is talking about." Aftet fumbling on her words becase she hadn't realized I was actually at the hotel, and against her own will she spoke to sweet Mary!
Mary was so firm with this lady, it was unbelievable. I loved it! She totally solved the problem and we got our full reimbursement. HALLELUIJAH! BAM in your face expedia! haha I was sooo happy, GOd provided me(I'm at starbucks and a lady just gave me two bags of bright pink delicious looking cotton candy...score!) with patience, perseverance, and faith. All I had to do was ask Him, and He was right there, took care of it.
So that was my sunday. I also had a phenomenal day today, and would love to share it with you, but I think you got ear ear/eye full and got your share of encouragement haha. Sorry I am blabber! But how can I keep such testimonies to myself?? I'll save my monday for tomorrow.
Sorry for the mispelled words, Starbucks is closing and I don't have time to go through this blog and re edit everything. :/
Hope you got what you enjoyed nonetheless...
Blessings brohters and sisters in Christ, and great friends :)
LOOOOVE, DO
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Fatigued
Ok, so for the few faithful readers I have...this will be a super short blog entry.
The internet at the Day's Inn I'm at refuses to work properly and it''s been quite frustrating especially after driving 5 hours straight today, I wouldn't mind calling it a day sooner than I usually do.
Plus, we have an early show in the morning (3 presentations in one school) sooo extra sleep won't hurt.
BUT!!! God reaaaaally did some thing amazing for me today. Like woooah! So i cannot wait to share it with you, whomever you may be (well mom I know you are reading this :) but yes whomever else as well, I hope you come back again tomorrow and that you are encouraged by it!
It wasn't anything outrageous with angels bursting forth from the sky playing the harp and singing songs around me and a bright light shining from the Heavens or anything like that. It was just your typical every day God blessing.
It started out at Church when I asked God to help me focus on the sermon because I was having emotional distractions.
And then it continued on with God's reminder through the sermon playing out later on that day.
So all of this to say, I will be giving you details about my day TOMORROW because I am tired. Hopefully after our shows tomorrow, we will find a starbucks on the way to Fort Smith, AR (in which we will be staying for one night) and I'll have better internet there and more focus. (cus right now i'm just blabbering, and saying nonsense.)
So to whomever you may be. Have a blessed night or day, depending on where you are , and come back again tomorrow.
MUAH (holy kiss)
Blessings.....
I am beyond ridiculous when I am tired. So sorry.
DJO
The internet at the Day's Inn I'm at refuses to work properly and it''s been quite frustrating especially after driving 5 hours straight today, I wouldn't mind calling it a day sooner than I usually do.
Plus, we have an early show in the morning (3 presentations in one school) sooo extra sleep won't hurt.
BUT!!! God reaaaaally did some thing amazing for me today. Like woooah! So i cannot wait to share it with you, whomever you may be (well mom I know you are reading this :) but yes whomever else as well, I hope you come back again tomorrow and that you are encouraged by it!
It wasn't anything outrageous with angels bursting forth from the sky playing the harp and singing songs around me and a bright light shining from the Heavens or anything like that. It was just your typical every day God blessing.
It started out at Church when I asked God to help me focus on the sermon because I was having emotional distractions.
And then it continued on with God's reminder through the sermon playing out later on that day.
So all of this to say, I will be giving you details about my day TOMORROW because I am tired. Hopefully after our shows tomorrow, we will find a starbucks on the way to Fort Smith, AR (in which we will be staying for one night) and I'll have better internet there and more focus. (cus right now i'm just blabbering, and saying nonsense.)
So to whomever you may be. Have a blessed night or day, depending on where you are , and come back again tomorrow.
MUAH (holy kiss)
Blessings.....
I am beyond ridiculous when I am tired. So sorry.
DJO
Friday, September 24, 2010
Just a few rambles
I just finished watching The Office and it made me very happy :)
Anywho....On days like today I am extremely thankful towards my "Nazzi" leaders and trainers during our two first weeks as Camfel Techs.
Oh the horror of waking up at 6am every morning. Quick breakfeast, quick meeting and by 7:30 we were on the go nonstop till a quick lunch and finally diner.
We were warned that these two weeks would be treacherous, but we had no idea, how painful they would be!
Three days into training, we were sore, exhausted, home sick, and just completely ou to it.
From lifting, running, setting up, working with different people every two days, sweating, working hard under the sun, hussling, dragging ourselves on the ground, being timed, and pushed all day to waking up the next and start over!?
Yeah....it was tough BUT all for a splendid reason!
Today, Tiffany and I had 4 shows in two different schools.
Normally, we are to be at a school 2 hours ahead of the actual show in order to have time only to set up (which at a normal set up takes about 1h30), but also to give us enough time if we were ever to run into technical difficulties, or get lost on the way, or whatever other problems could occur before the show.
So our first school scheduled a 9:05 show and a 10:15 show. Each presentation adds up to 45 minutes..
Our second school scheduled a 1:00pm show, and a 2:00pm show.
It usually takes about 30 minutes to tear down, but it's doable in 20 minutes if hussling like we did back in training.
If you do the math here, you notice that by the time we finish tearing down at the first school, we should already be at the second starting our setup.
The schools were only a couple of miles apart, but still this task seemed close to impossible.
Needless to say last night and earlier this morning I was quite nervous about today.
I knew we would be hussling, with barely any food in our bellies and little amounts of energy.
BUT had we not been pushed so hard during training, on days like these, we would've been late.
Instead of being late, we actually had 35 minutes to spare once everything was set up at the first school and about 20 minutes left to spare at our second as well.
We couldn't have done this without our tough training weeks, (and the 6 young boys that helped us tear down at the first school were a good help as well.)
Anywho, such was my day. Intense and exhausting, but definitely doable.
The schools were in Misouri and we are back at our motel in Kansas. We will be here till sunday, and then we'll stay in Misouri for a week or so.
I was really sad today because we got our October schedule in the mail (our boss sends mail for us to schools where he knows we'll be, that's how we get mail.) and I was hoping that I would be in Coloroado for my birthday (Oct 21rst), but I'll be in Misouri :(
It's ok though, I will be getting an early present in the mail from my dear friend Jessie, whom I spent about 3 hours on the phone with today, and witnessed her excitement as she "saw the perfect gift for me!" hehe.
Also, other good news, along with our schedule, we got an evaluation form from one of the first shools we'd done in Norhtern California, and we got all 5s (out of 5s, not 10 haha).
It's encouraging to feel like we are working hard, but also have it "confirmed" by our clients!
So anywho, such has been my day. We had two days off, and definitely made up for them today! whew! gonna sleep like a baby tonight!
Be blessed friends and fam! I pray for you!
Dorina
Anywho....On days like today I am extremely thankful towards my "Nazzi" leaders and trainers during our two first weeks as Camfel Techs.
Oh the horror of waking up at 6am every morning. Quick breakfeast, quick meeting and by 7:30 we were on the go nonstop till a quick lunch and finally diner.
We were warned that these two weeks would be treacherous, but we had no idea, how painful they would be!
Three days into training, we were sore, exhausted, home sick, and just completely ou to it.
From lifting, running, setting up, working with different people every two days, sweating, working hard under the sun, hussling, dragging ourselves on the ground, being timed, and pushed all day to waking up the next and start over!?
Yeah....it was tough BUT all for a splendid reason!
Today, Tiffany and I had 4 shows in two different schools.
Normally, we are to be at a school 2 hours ahead of the actual show in order to have time only to set up (which at a normal set up takes about 1h30), but also to give us enough time if we were ever to run into technical difficulties, or get lost on the way, or whatever other problems could occur before the show.
So our first school scheduled a 9:05 show and a 10:15 show. Each presentation adds up to 45 minutes..
Our second school scheduled a 1:00pm show, and a 2:00pm show.
It usually takes about 30 minutes to tear down, but it's doable in 20 minutes if hussling like we did back in training.
If you do the math here, you notice that by the time we finish tearing down at the first school, we should already be at the second starting our setup.
The schools were only a couple of miles apart, but still this task seemed close to impossible.
Needless to say last night and earlier this morning I was quite nervous about today.
I knew we would be hussling, with barely any food in our bellies and little amounts of energy.
BUT had we not been pushed so hard during training, on days like these, we would've been late.
Instead of being late, we actually had 35 minutes to spare once everything was set up at the first school and about 20 minutes left to spare at our second as well.
We couldn't have done this without our tough training weeks, (and the 6 young boys that helped us tear down at the first school were a good help as well.)
Anywho, such was my day. Intense and exhausting, but definitely doable.
The schools were in Misouri and we are back at our motel in Kansas. We will be here till sunday, and then we'll stay in Misouri for a week or so.
I was really sad today because we got our October schedule in the mail (our boss sends mail for us to schools where he knows we'll be, that's how we get mail.) and I was hoping that I would be in Coloroado for my birthday (Oct 21rst), but I'll be in Misouri :(
It's ok though, I will be getting an early present in the mail from my dear friend Jessie, whom I spent about 3 hours on the phone with today, and witnessed her excitement as she "saw the perfect gift for me!" hehe.
Also, other good news, along with our schedule, we got an evaluation form from one of the first shools we'd done in Norhtern California, and we got all 5s (out of 5s, not 10 haha).
It's encouraging to feel like we are working hard, but also have it "confirmed" by our clients!
So anywho, such has been my day. We had two days off, and definitely made up for them today! whew! gonna sleep like a baby tonight!
Be blessed friends and fam! I pray for you!
Dorina
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Alive!
Another day spent in Olathe, KS
We chose this motel because it was near a mall, and a movie theatre, and multiple restaurants.
Unfortunately...I am beyond broke (Pray for my money management. haha) and so I am surrounded by temptations.
Thus I force myself to stay inside, which can get very lonely and old after a while.
Thankfully, living in Colorado without a car prepared me for days such as these.
TV, Internet, sleep, eat.
Pretty sad huh?
well yea it is...days like these make me feel like I'm dead on the inside. Like I am useless to the earth, Not bringing any one anything.
I want to feel alive and purposeful.
So for any one feeling this way, I just wanted to share a Chapter from the book "No wonder they call Him Savior" by Max Lucado.
He describes the process of the death and resurrection of Christ in a very unique way. It is quite powerful actually. At the end of it, I remember that I am alive though Christ. And that He's gone through all of the emotions I go through daily. Even though I don't feel useful because I am not interacting with people, humans, or doing anything, I do matter and am alive this great moment in History happened.
ALIVE!
Road. Dark. Stars. Shadows. Four. Sandals. Robes. Quiet. Suspense. Grove. Trees. Alone. Questions. Anguish. "Father!" Sweat. God. Man. God-man. Prostrate. Blood. "NO!" "Yes." Angels. Comfort.
Footsteps. Torches. Voices. Romans. Surprise. Swords. Kiss. Confusion. Betrayal. Fearful. Run! Bound. Wrists. Marching.
Courtyard. Priests. Lamps. Sanhedrin. Caiaphas. Sneer. Silk. Arrogance. Beard. Plotting. Barefoot. Rope. Calm. Shove. Kick. Annas. Indignant. Messiah? Trial. Nazarene. Confident. Question. Answer. Punch!
Peter. "Me?" Rooster. Thrice. Guilt.
Proceedings. Court. Rejection. Prosecute. Weary. Pale. Witnesses. Liars. Inconsistent. Silence. Stares. "Blasphemer!" Anger. Writhing. Bruised. Dirty. Fatigued. Guards. Spit. Blindfold. Mocking. Blows. Fire. Twilight.
Sunrise. Golden. Jerusalem. Temple. Passover. Lambs. Lamb. Worshipers. Priests. Messiah. Hearing. Fraud. Prisoner. Waiting. Standing. Shifting. Strategy. "Pilate!" trap. Murmurs. Exit.
Stirring. Parade. Crowd. Swell. Romans. Pilate. Toga. Annoyed. Nervous. Officers. Tunics. Spears. Silence. "Charge?" "Blasphemy."Indifference." Ignore. (Wife. Dream.) Worry. Interview. Lips. Pain. Determined. "King?" "Heaven." "Truth." "Truth?" Sarcasm. (Fear.) "Innocent!" Roar. Voices. "Galilean!" "Galilee?" "Herod!"
9:00 AM. Marchers. Palace. Herod. Fox. Schemer. Paunchy. Crwon. Case. Scepter. Hall. Elegance. Silence. Manipulate. Useless. Vexed. Revile. Taunt. "King?" Robe. Theatrical. Cynical. Hateful. "Pilate!"
Marching. Uproar. Prisoner. Hushed. Pilate. "Innocent!" Belam ."Barabbas!" Riot. Despair. Christ. Bare. Ruins.Wall. Back. Whip. Slash. Scourge. Tear. Bone. Moan. Flesh. Rhythm. Silence. Whip! SIlence. Whip! Silence. Whip. Thorns. Stinging. Blind. Laughter. Jeering .Scepter. Slap. Governor. Distraught. (Almost.) Eyes. Jesus. Decision. Power. Freedom? Threats. Looks. Yelling. Weak. Basin. Water. Swayed. Compromise. Blood. Guilt.
Soldiers. Thieves. Crosspiece. Shoulder. Heavey. Beam. Heavy. Sun. Stagger. Incline. Houses. Shops.Faces. Mourners. Murmurs. Pilgrims. Women. Tumble. Cobblestone. Ehaustion. Gasping. Simon. Pathertic. Golgotha.
Skull. Calvary. Crosses. Execution. Death. Noon. Tears. Observers. Wails. Wine.Nude. Bruised. Swollen.Crossbeam. Sign. Ground. Nails. Pound. Pound. Pierced. Contorted. Thirst. Terrible. Grace. Writhing. Raised. Sponge. Tear.Taunts. Forgiveness. Dice. Gambling. Darkness.
Absurdity.
Death. Life.
Pain. Peace.
Condemn. Promise.
Nowhere. Somewhere.
Him. Us.
"Father!" Robbers. Paradise.Wailing.Weeping. Stunned. "Mother." Compassion. Darkness. "My God!" Afraid. Scapegoat. Wilderness. Vinegar. "Father." Silence. Sigh. Death. Relief.
Earthquake. Cemetery. Tombs. Bodies. Mystery.Curtain. Spear. Blood. Water. Spices. Linen. Tomb. Fear. Waiting. Despiar. Stone. Mary. Running. Maybe? Peter. John. Belief. Enlightenment. Truth. Mankind. ALive. ALive. ALIVE!
We chose this motel because it was near a mall, and a movie theatre, and multiple restaurants.
Unfortunately...I am beyond broke (Pray for my money management. haha) and so I am surrounded by temptations.
Thus I force myself to stay inside, which can get very lonely and old after a while.
Thankfully, living in Colorado without a car prepared me for days such as these.
TV, Internet, sleep, eat.
Pretty sad huh?
well yea it is...days like these make me feel like I'm dead on the inside. Like I am useless to the earth, Not bringing any one anything.
I want to feel alive and purposeful.
So for any one feeling this way, I just wanted to share a Chapter from the book "No wonder they call Him Savior" by Max Lucado.
He describes the process of the death and resurrection of Christ in a very unique way. It is quite powerful actually. At the end of it, I remember that I am alive though Christ. And that He's gone through all of the emotions I go through daily. Even though I don't feel useful because I am not interacting with people, humans, or doing anything, I do matter and am alive this great moment in History happened.
ALIVE!
Road. Dark. Stars. Shadows. Four. Sandals. Robes. Quiet. Suspense. Grove. Trees. Alone. Questions. Anguish. "Father!" Sweat. God. Man. God-man. Prostrate. Blood. "NO!" "Yes." Angels. Comfort.
Footsteps. Torches. Voices. Romans. Surprise. Swords. Kiss. Confusion. Betrayal. Fearful. Run! Bound. Wrists. Marching.
Courtyard. Priests. Lamps. Sanhedrin. Caiaphas. Sneer. Silk. Arrogance. Beard. Plotting. Barefoot. Rope. Calm. Shove. Kick. Annas. Indignant. Messiah? Trial. Nazarene. Confident. Question. Answer. Punch!
Peter. "Me?" Rooster. Thrice. Guilt.
Proceedings. Court. Rejection. Prosecute. Weary. Pale. Witnesses. Liars. Inconsistent. Silence. Stares. "Blasphemer!" Anger. Writhing. Bruised. Dirty. Fatigued. Guards. Spit. Blindfold. Mocking. Blows. Fire. Twilight.
Sunrise. Golden. Jerusalem. Temple. Passover. Lambs. Lamb. Worshipers. Priests. Messiah. Hearing. Fraud. Prisoner. Waiting. Standing. Shifting. Strategy. "Pilate!" trap. Murmurs. Exit.
Stirring. Parade. Crowd. Swell. Romans. Pilate. Toga. Annoyed. Nervous. Officers. Tunics. Spears. Silence. "Charge?" "Blasphemy."Indifference." Ignore. (Wife. Dream.) Worry. Interview. Lips. Pain. Determined. "King?" "Heaven." "Truth." "Truth?" Sarcasm. (Fear.) "Innocent!" Roar. Voices. "Galilean!" "Galilee?" "Herod!"
9:00 AM. Marchers. Palace. Herod. Fox. Schemer. Paunchy. Crwon. Case. Scepter. Hall. Elegance. Silence. Manipulate. Useless. Vexed. Revile. Taunt. "King?" Robe. Theatrical. Cynical. Hateful. "Pilate!"
Marching. Uproar. Prisoner. Hushed. Pilate. "Innocent!" Belam ."Barabbas!" Riot. Despair. Christ. Bare. Ruins.Wall. Back. Whip. Slash. Scourge. Tear. Bone. Moan. Flesh. Rhythm. Silence. Whip! SIlence. Whip! Silence. Whip. Thorns. Stinging. Blind. Laughter. Jeering .Scepter. Slap. Governor. Distraught. (Almost.) Eyes. Jesus. Decision. Power. Freedom? Threats. Looks. Yelling. Weak. Basin. Water. Swayed. Compromise. Blood. Guilt.
Soldiers. Thieves. Crosspiece. Shoulder. Heavey. Beam. Heavy. Sun. Stagger. Incline. Houses. Shops.Faces. Mourners. Murmurs. Pilgrims. Women. Tumble. Cobblestone. Ehaustion. Gasping. Simon. Pathertic. Golgotha.
Skull. Calvary. Crosses. Execution. Death. Noon. Tears. Observers. Wails. Wine.Nude. Bruised. Swollen.Crossbeam. Sign. Ground. Nails. Pound. Pound. Pierced. Contorted. Thirst. Terrible. Grace. Writhing. Raised. Sponge. Tear.Taunts. Forgiveness. Dice. Gambling. Darkness.
Absurdity.
Death. Life.
Pain. Peace.
Condemn. Promise.
Nowhere. Somewhere.
Him. Us.
"Father!" Robbers. Paradise.Wailing.Weeping. Stunned. "Mother." Compassion. Darkness. "My God!" Afraid. Scapegoat. Wilderness. Vinegar. "Father." Silence. Sigh. Death. Relief.
Earthquake. Cemetery. Tombs. Bodies. Mystery.Curtain. Spear. Blood. Water. Spices. Linen. Tomb. Fear. Waiting. Despiar. Stone. Mary. Running. Maybe? Peter. John. Belief. Enlightenment. Truth. Mankind. ALive. ALive. ALIVE!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Home sick
So, I guess I will keep this one short. I just wanted to send out a bit of encouragement because recently, as I had shared earlier, I've just been homesick (missing many different homes).
It can be hard being on the road non stop, not feeling like I have roots anywhere.
Of course I can only hope that God can allow me to impact people on the route, but in the meantime, I get sad, lonely, and sometimes scared.
Its' been ridiculous how emotional I've gotten.
For example this morning, I was skyping my big brother Jules from home, and he reminded me that Ianis (my other brother) would be home (in Senegal) in November. I started tearing up at the thought that for the very fist time in over 7 years, my whole entire family would be home together for Christmas, but I wouldn't be a part of it.
Then I went outside to read, and the the weather was humid, warm, overcast, and super windy, and it made me think of Indiana weather, and I got sad.
SO then I walked to Mcdonald's to buy a Mocha with chocolate and caramel drizzle (because this is usually how I would start my Huntington mornings during the fall), and on my way there, I saw a big Tyson truck (you know, the chicken that a lof of fast foods use), well that made me sad because it made me miss working at the HUB. My fast food job on campus in Huntington.
SO at this point, I just tell myself "wow Dorina, you are ridiculous! comon, get it together." (I am so gracious towards myself....not).
Then God (who truly is filled with grace), just says to me. I know you are sad, and miss a lot of things and sometimes feel lonely, but I just want to remind you that no matter who you are with, where you are, or what you are doing, I am always right here, right next to you.
What a great reminder. God isn't just available for us to call on Him and talk to Him during the times we feel that way, He is ACTUALLYright there. His presence is always surrounding us! We are filled with it and surrounded by it. Our fears, and sadness can overwhelm us and be so loud in our heads and so heavy on our hearts, but God's quiet gently whisper reminds us that He is right there.
HE is there to hold us, comfort us, love us, give us peace, help us to refocus, and best of all give us this joy that no one can really explain. Joy in the midst of sadness. Hope like an oasis in the middle of the desert.
His neverending love is always right there, even if we are away from everything that is comfortable to us.
I am so thankful for His everlasting presence in my life. One that will never leave me alone, especially when I feel the loneliest of all.
So yeah, that's how I've been feeling.
Keep the prayers coming please and leave comments so I know who and what to pray for in return!
much love,
Do
It can be hard being on the road non stop, not feeling like I have roots anywhere.
Of course I can only hope that God can allow me to impact people on the route, but in the meantime, I get sad, lonely, and sometimes scared.
Its' been ridiculous how emotional I've gotten.
For example this morning, I was skyping my big brother Jules from home, and he reminded me that Ianis (my other brother) would be home (in Senegal) in November. I started tearing up at the thought that for the very fist time in over 7 years, my whole entire family would be home together for Christmas, but I wouldn't be a part of it.
Then I went outside to read, and the the weather was humid, warm, overcast, and super windy, and it made me think of Indiana weather, and I got sad.
SO then I walked to Mcdonald's to buy a Mocha with chocolate and caramel drizzle (because this is usually how I would start my Huntington mornings during the fall), and on my way there, I saw a big Tyson truck (you know, the chicken that a lof of fast foods use), well that made me sad because it made me miss working at the HUB. My fast food job on campus in Huntington.
SO at this point, I just tell myself "wow Dorina, you are ridiculous! comon, get it together." (I am so gracious towards myself....not).
Then God (who truly is filled with grace), just says to me. I know you are sad, and miss a lot of things and sometimes feel lonely, but I just want to remind you that no matter who you are with, where you are, or what you are doing, I am always right here, right next to you.
What a great reminder. God isn't just available for us to call on Him and talk to Him during the times we feel that way, He is ACTUALLYright there. His presence is always surrounding us! We are filled with it and surrounded by it. Our fears, and sadness can overwhelm us and be so loud in our heads and so heavy on our hearts, but God's quiet gently whisper reminds us that He is right there.
HE is there to hold us, comfort us, love us, give us peace, help us to refocus, and best of all give us this joy that no one can really explain. Joy in the midst of sadness. Hope like an oasis in the middle of the desert.
His neverending love is always right there, even if we are away from everything that is comfortable to us.
I am so thankful for His everlasting presence in my life. One that will never leave me alone, especially when I feel the loneliest of all.
So yeah, that's how I've been feeling.
Keep the prayers coming please and leave comments so I know who and what to pray for in return!
much love,
Do
Monday, September 20, 2010
Luke Warm Christians
Sept 20th Devotional
As promised earlier, here is what God revealed to me on sunday morning at Church.
I will just write out everything I wrote down in my journal that morning. Here it is..
So...I am sitting here in a church and I was excited to come because we checked this out online and it sounded chill and laid back and welcoming.
Here we are, we were well welcomed, and got coffee and now Iam listening to the sermon.
It's about baptism. The pastor isn't all the engaging and on top of that He is preaching about baptism. Now my first thought was "Ok...I've been baptized and I am sure I will pretty much agree with everything he says. This going to be so pointless, we are going to sit here, not meet anyone, and I'm not even going to get anything out of this sermon."
WRONG! That's terrible thinking! I'm blesed to be in the house of the Lord and need to lower my expectations and instead to just open my heart to what the Lord has for me.
(So after writing all of this and attempting to listen to the pastor, I still had a hard time focusing until he read out of Luke 11:38. So here is the rest of my journal entry.)
Luke 11:38
The Jews were astonished that Jesus didn't perform the ceremonial hand-washing required by their traddition. (this isn't the literal verse, just what I quickly had gathered from it as it was read to us).
It goes on talking about CHrist's response. He calls them fools because they are so focused on the outside of the cup but forget that the inside is filthy.
Christ just amazes me because He was SO wise! He was also a rebel. He came, spoke truth in love, but also broke so many rules from the Jewish traddition and it appalled so many people, but Christ always had a great reason for breaking certain rules.
He was a rebel with a cause, a purpose, and a goal.
He wanted His followers to think about what they were doing, and WHY they were doing it.
CHrist calls us to follow the Law but before doing so, it's important to understand exactly why you are following a certain rule. This brings me to the wuestion "WHy do I believe what I believe?"
Do i aimlessly go though life doing everything I do just "because the Bible says I should?" Or do I seek, search, implore the Father to share His wisdom to me through the power of the Holy Spirit?"
Christ calls us to live the way He did, I believe that also means we are called to be rebels. Not rebels who just cause chaos and break rules to fulfill that innate human desire to do evil and go against the crowd, but to be rebels who are still under the influence of God, who guides us and leads us to where He wants us to be in life.
For example, yesterday on my way to a bookstore, TIffany and I saw a bumper on a car that said "I like your CHrist, but I hate you CHristians, for you are nothing like your Christ." That makes me stop and think. "Who is this bumper sticker/message for? Is it for the blind "Christian" who misinterprets the Holy Word of Truth and Love and goes around preaching to hate the homosexuals, ones who are pro-abortion, and ones that "they" judge as "unworthy of life" because they aren't good enough. Is that bumper sticker for these Christians?? Or is it even for me, who seeks Christ and His teachings and longs to be like Him but fails day after day??
I believe that if as a Christian body were truly what we call ourselves "followers of Christ," we would be more careful about the way we live, act, speak, and think. Instead of just hearing "what the word" says through a third party (usually a pastor, book, classes, chapel, or even each other), we should be seeking the Word for ourselves. Get in there. Don't let other people do the struggling for you. Do the struggling yourselves! Do the searching, do the questionning, try to understand, and let's not forget that we can do all of that with the Holy Spirit right along our sides to answer some (not all) difficult questions. Get in there and do the dirty work on a one on one basis with God!
I looove when Christ talks to the Pharisees and says "what sorrows awaits you, you religious teachers who give unbearable commands, and don't lift a finger to ease their burdens!"
Is that who the bumper sticker is addressed to. THe hypocrites? WHo preach but don't live as they speak?
This is why Christ came to the world. To teach but also love and accpet the weak, the poor, the unworthy, the weary.
I was reading in Max Lucado about Christ's grace when He granted forgiveness to the thief on the cross. Max goes on and says:
"there is one grinning ex-con walking the golden streets of Heaven who knows grace better than 10000 theolodgians."
What is Law, without grace? Impossible.
The pharisees felt insulted but Christ was just speaking truth. He came to this earth to restore our broken relationship with God. he became that gap that could bridge us back to God without us having to follow all the "unbearable religious demands" by ourselves but accepting that yes, we are unworthy and as much as we try, we will fail. but we have the SON of God who didn't just lift a finger to ease our burden when we try to follow God's demands, but He lifted His entire body, and sacrificed all He was for us!
Christ was very clear about how he felt about religious leaders who preached yet didn't help out those they were preaching to.
In Matthew 23:3, He tells us to practice and obey what the Pharisees PREACH, but to not follow their EXAMPLE because they don't even practice what they preach. ONCE AGAIN, he says "They crush people with unbearable demands, and never lift their finger to ease the burden."
In Chapter 11:25, Jesus talks to God and says, "Oh Father, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wiser and clever and for revealing them to the CHildlike."
Children are alway asking questions, trying to understand how things work, and why they work a certain way.have you ever asked a child to do something and gotten the response."Why?" and you answer "Cus I said so!!" without really explaining it to the Child, who just does it still without understanding. Yeah..I'm sure we all have. As frustrating as it is for us to receive such a response, our Father in Heave,n who is more patient than we could ever be, wants us to be like children and ask questions, and seek HIm , and try to understand His commands for us, even though most times they don't make sense. And He promises to answer our questions according to His will.
He's given us three extremely useful tools to understand His demands:
He gave us His son so we can understand His grace and mercy through our journey.
He gave us His word, which is filled with all the knowledge, wisdom, and truth we could ever seek.
And He gave us His Holy Spirit to become one with Him and understand/receive His person, truth, love, patience, wisdom, kindness, joy, knowledge, gentleness, perseverance, and faithfulness.
I don't know about you, but I don't mind being hated and persecuted because I follow Christ. What i DO mind, is being hated for giving the wrong representation of Christ's teaching as His follower. That means I'm doing something wrong, and it needs to be fixed!
WHy is it that nonbelievers sometimes know more about what Christians should look or act like than we do sometimes?
I don't want to be characterized as a "false prophet," as Christ calls them. in Matthew 24:13.
"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces. You won't go in yourselves, and you don't let others in either."
I encourage us to be rebels for CHrist. To truly seek the old AND new testament so that we may fully understand what we believe and why we believe it. Instead of blindly following what we are taught or what we hear left and right about what our relationship with God should be like.
This way we can fall even more in love with the one who created us and all become more like His son. WE can also be prepared when confronted by questions, or accusations such as "I hate you Christians because you are nothing like the Christ you claim to follow."
Needless to say....I didn't really pay much attention to the actual sermon, on baptism but because I asked God to open my ears and heart, He provided me with a mini sermon of His own just by reading Luke 11:38.
As promised earlier, here is what God revealed to me on sunday morning at Church.
I will just write out everything I wrote down in my journal that morning. Here it is..
So...I am sitting here in a church and I was excited to come because we checked this out online and it sounded chill and laid back and welcoming.
Here we are, we were well welcomed, and got coffee and now Iam listening to the sermon.
It's about baptism. The pastor isn't all the engaging and on top of that He is preaching about baptism. Now my first thought was "Ok...I've been baptized and I am sure I will pretty much agree with everything he says. This going to be so pointless, we are going to sit here, not meet anyone, and I'm not even going to get anything out of this sermon."
WRONG! That's terrible thinking! I'm blesed to be in the house of the Lord and need to lower my expectations and instead to just open my heart to what the Lord has for me.
(So after writing all of this and attempting to listen to the pastor, I still had a hard time focusing until he read out of Luke 11:38. So here is the rest of my journal entry.)
Luke 11:38
The Jews were astonished that Jesus didn't perform the ceremonial hand-washing required by their traddition. (this isn't the literal verse, just what I quickly had gathered from it as it was read to us).
It goes on talking about CHrist's response. He calls them fools because they are so focused on the outside of the cup but forget that the inside is filthy.
Christ just amazes me because He was SO wise! He was also a rebel. He came, spoke truth in love, but also broke so many rules from the Jewish traddition and it appalled so many people, but Christ always had a great reason for breaking certain rules.
He was a rebel with a cause, a purpose, and a goal.
He wanted His followers to think about what they were doing, and WHY they were doing it.
CHrist calls us to follow the Law but before doing so, it's important to understand exactly why you are following a certain rule. This brings me to the wuestion "WHy do I believe what I believe?"
Do i aimlessly go though life doing everything I do just "because the Bible says I should?" Or do I seek, search, implore the Father to share His wisdom to me through the power of the Holy Spirit?"
Christ calls us to live the way He did, I believe that also means we are called to be rebels. Not rebels who just cause chaos and break rules to fulfill that innate human desire to do evil and go against the crowd, but to be rebels who are still under the influence of God, who guides us and leads us to where He wants us to be in life.
For example, yesterday on my way to a bookstore, TIffany and I saw a bumper on a car that said "I like your CHrist, but I hate you CHristians, for you are nothing like your Christ." That makes me stop and think. "Who is this bumper sticker/message for? Is it for the blind "Christian" who misinterprets the Holy Word of Truth and Love and goes around preaching to hate the homosexuals, ones who are pro-abortion, and ones that "they" judge as "unworthy of life" because they aren't good enough. Is that bumper sticker for these Christians?? Or is it even for me, who seeks Christ and His teachings and longs to be like Him but fails day after day??
I believe that if as a Christian body were truly what we call ourselves "followers of Christ," we would be more careful about the way we live, act, speak, and think. Instead of just hearing "what the word" says through a third party (usually a pastor, book, classes, chapel, or even each other), we should be seeking the Word for ourselves. Get in there. Don't let other people do the struggling for you. Do the struggling yourselves! Do the searching, do the questionning, try to understand, and let's not forget that we can do all of that with the Holy Spirit right along our sides to answer some (not all) difficult questions. Get in there and do the dirty work on a one on one basis with God!
I looove when Christ talks to the Pharisees and says "what sorrows awaits you, you religious teachers who give unbearable commands, and don't lift a finger to ease their burdens!"
Is that who the bumper sticker is addressed to. THe hypocrites? WHo preach but don't live as they speak?
This is why Christ came to the world. To teach but also love and accpet the weak, the poor, the unworthy, the weary.
I was reading in Max Lucado about Christ's grace when He granted forgiveness to the thief on the cross. Max goes on and says:
"there is one grinning ex-con walking the golden streets of Heaven who knows grace better than 10000 theolodgians."
What is Law, without grace? Impossible.
The pharisees felt insulted but Christ was just speaking truth. He came to this earth to restore our broken relationship with God. he became that gap that could bridge us back to God without us having to follow all the "unbearable religious demands" by ourselves but accepting that yes, we are unworthy and as much as we try, we will fail. but we have the SON of God who didn't just lift a finger to ease our burden when we try to follow God's demands, but He lifted His entire body, and sacrificed all He was for us!
Christ was very clear about how he felt about religious leaders who preached yet didn't help out those they were preaching to.
In Matthew 23:3, He tells us to practice and obey what the Pharisees PREACH, but to not follow their EXAMPLE because they don't even practice what they preach. ONCE AGAIN, he says "They crush people with unbearable demands, and never lift their finger to ease the burden."
In Chapter 11:25, Jesus talks to God and says, "Oh Father, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wiser and clever and for revealing them to the CHildlike."
Children are alway asking questions, trying to understand how things work, and why they work a certain way.have you ever asked a child to do something and gotten the response."Why?" and you answer "Cus I said so!!" without really explaining it to the Child, who just does it still without understanding. Yeah..I'm sure we all have. As frustrating as it is for us to receive such a response, our Father in Heave,n who is more patient than we could ever be, wants us to be like children and ask questions, and seek HIm , and try to understand His commands for us, even though most times they don't make sense. And He promises to answer our questions according to His will.
He's given us three extremely useful tools to understand His demands:
He gave us His son so we can understand His grace and mercy through our journey.
He gave us His word, which is filled with all the knowledge, wisdom, and truth we could ever seek.
And He gave us His Holy Spirit to become one with Him and understand/receive His person, truth, love, patience, wisdom, kindness, joy, knowledge, gentleness, perseverance, and faithfulness.
I don't know about you, but I don't mind being hated and persecuted because I follow Christ. What i DO mind, is being hated for giving the wrong representation of Christ's teaching as His follower. That means I'm doing something wrong, and it needs to be fixed!
WHy is it that nonbelievers sometimes know more about what Christians should look or act like than we do sometimes?
I don't want to be characterized as a "false prophet," as Christ calls them. in Matthew 24:13.
"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces. You won't go in yourselves, and you don't let others in either."
I encourage us to be rebels for CHrist. To truly seek the old AND new testament so that we may fully understand what we believe and why we believe it. Instead of blindly following what we are taught or what we hear left and right about what our relationship with God should be like.
This way we can fall even more in love with the one who created us and all become more like His son. WE can also be prepared when confronted by questions, or accusations such as "I hate you Christians because you are nothing like the Christ you claim to follow."
Needless to say....I didn't really pay much attention to the actual sermon, on baptism but because I asked God to open my ears and heart, He provided me with a mini sermon of His own just by reading Luke 11:38.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Good weekend in Manhattan, KS
The weekend is over.booo.however it was quite a good one so Yay for that ! We were told recently that we have a show on Monday when we originally were supposed to have it off. But it's fine because we only have 3 presentations this coming week PLUS I've been quite addicted to this show called « Chuck « and the premiere for the new season is coming out tomorrow !!!! SO it will definitely be something to look forward to at the end of the day :D
Friday morning, our show was about 5 miles away from our motel, but we still had to get up early because our shows were at 8 :15 and 9 :15, and since we are supposed to be there 2 hours ahead of time, well yeah do the math !
So we get there, and get started setting up as soon as we are told where to go and what to do. It was in a gym a.k.a an easy set up, so it went pretty smoothly ! The Principal was very helpful and brought us water and whatever else we needed along the way.
We had about 750 students Watch it at that school and they were split in two sessions. It was a perfect in between number compared to the rest of the schools that week and I loved it. Thank you Lord. They reacted, cheered, bobbed their heads, and laughed at the right times, and paid close attention to the interviews all at the same time. *Sigh * What a good way to end a long week !!! :)
It was so good ! The second showing had a child that was hard of hearing , so they had an interpreter right there. It was so neat to see that even though it was only one child out of about 350 kids, they were still able to do that for her. SO needless to say, we had a great way to end our week. And to top it off we had helpers tear down with us this time. And by helpers I don't mean the usual 4 or 5 kids who are half heartedly doing what we ask of them (that's not always true by the way, we've had a couple really great kids help us out to), but I mean 6 grown men: P.E teachers, Principals, assistants, managers, regular teachers...gosh I don't even know who they were. They just came out of nowhere!
The glory of it all is that they were much more important than us and much older and wiser, and they were just there to serve us. They waited patiently for us to tell them what to do next, and did wholeheartedly and did it well. We didn't have to freak out about a kid trying to play with something, or a kid dropping something, or a kid completely misunderstanding what we had just explained, or anything. We just asked and it was done. I barely lifted a finger. The only thing I did was direct and show, roll cords, and put the projectors away. HALLELUIJAH ! It was so nice. However I did reaaaally struggle with it at first. Culturally, i twas SO out of my comfort zone to be telling an OLDER MAN what do do. It felt extremely weird, but I had to remind myself that I am not home, and these men didn't mind because they were there to serve us.
I don't think this was a Christian school or anything, in fact I'm pretty sure it wasn't. But thèse men really exemplified Christ in their willingness and behavior and I was quite encouraged by that.
This school was also a first timer for us Camfel Techs. There is always so much pressure when we go to a school and it's their first time hiring us cus I feel like if anything goes wrong and they decide not to hire us again the following year, it'll be our fault. But this principal LOOOOVED us. He couldn't stop thanking us and even hugged us goodbye at the end. He was amazed by it. And we couldn't have done without our Father who provides us with all the Tools necessary to présent a good show.
So anyway, that was our glorious Friday. We've been in Manhattan, KS all weekend. Our motel is right accross from a mall, best buy, Olive garden, there's a Wal-Mart at walking distance, a Hastings bookstore with a heavenly coffee shop that makes epic mocha frappucinos, and there are a couple of restaurants surrounding us. Our motel has a very friendly staff. Excellent breakfast. Internet. Microwave. Fridge. I mean thats all we ask for !
As I've said before, the weekend was extremely relaxing. I spent some solid time at the bookstore Hastings and wanted to buy so many different books! BUT I settled for one called "No Wonder they call Him Savior" by none other than the Wise Max Lucado ! I've gone to wal-mart a couple times. I've also gone to the mall more than I shouldve :/ (you can't blame me after all this time away from civiliztion !). I've done a lot of Chuck watching (gotta catch up before tomorrow !!!). I've communicated with different friends. We went to Church this morning (I have a whole other page that will be dedicated to that if you are interested in Reading about it). We went to a comedy show last night. And I pretty much just relaxed a lot.
Another week begins tomorrow. I am excited to see what God has in store !!
Muchos gracias bros, sis, and friends !
Dorina
Friday morning, our show was about 5 miles away from our motel, but we still had to get up early because our shows were at 8 :15 and 9 :15, and since we are supposed to be there 2 hours ahead of time, well yeah do the math !
So we get there, and get started setting up as soon as we are told where to go and what to do. It was in a gym a.k.a an easy set up, so it went pretty smoothly ! The Principal was very helpful and brought us water and whatever else we needed along the way.
We had about 750 students Watch it at that school and they were split in two sessions. It was a perfect in between number compared to the rest of the schools that week and I loved it. Thank you Lord. They reacted, cheered, bobbed their heads, and laughed at the right times, and paid close attention to the interviews all at the same time. *Sigh * What a good way to end a long week !!! :)
It was so good ! The second showing had a child that was hard of hearing , so they had an interpreter right there. It was so neat to see that even though it was only one child out of about 350 kids, they were still able to do that for her. SO needless to say, we had a great way to end our week. And to top it off we had helpers tear down with us this time. And by helpers I don't mean the usual 4 or 5 kids who are half heartedly doing what we ask of them (that's not always true by the way, we've had a couple really great kids help us out to), but I mean 6 grown men: P.E teachers, Principals, assistants, managers, regular teachers...gosh I don't even know who they were. They just came out of nowhere!
The glory of it all is that they were much more important than us and much older and wiser, and they were just there to serve us. They waited patiently for us to tell them what to do next, and did wholeheartedly and did it well. We didn't have to freak out about a kid trying to play with something, or a kid dropping something, or a kid completely misunderstanding what we had just explained, or anything. We just asked and it was done. I barely lifted a finger. The only thing I did was direct and show, roll cords, and put the projectors away. HALLELUIJAH ! It was so nice. However I did reaaaally struggle with it at first. Culturally, i twas SO out of my comfort zone to be telling an OLDER MAN what do do. It felt extremely weird, but I had to remind myself that I am not home, and these men didn't mind because they were there to serve us.
I don't think this was a Christian school or anything, in fact I'm pretty sure it wasn't. But thèse men really exemplified Christ in their willingness and behavior and I was quite encouraged by that.
This school was also a first timer for us Camfel Techs. There is always so much pressure when we go to a school and it's their first time hiring us cus I feel like if anything goes wrong and they decide not to hire us again the following year, it'll be our fault. But this principal LOOOOVED us. He couldn't stop thanking us and even hugged us goodbye at the end. He was amazed by it. And we couldn't have done without our Father who provides us with all the Tools necessary to présent a good show.
So anyway, that was our glorious Friday. We've been in Manhattan, KS all weekend. Our motel is right accross from a mall, best buy, Olive garden, there's a Wal-Mart at walking distance, a Hastings bookstore with a heavenly coffee shop that makes epic mocha frappucinos, and there are a couple of restaurants surrounding us. Our motel has a very friendly staff. Excellent breakfast. Internet. Microwave. Fridge. I mean thats all we ask for !
As I've said before, the weekend was extremely relaxing. I spent some solid time at the bookstore Hastings and wanted to buy so many different books! BUT I settled for one called "No Wonder they call Him Savior" by none other than the Wise Max Lucado ! I've gone to wal-mart a couple times. I've also gone to the mall more than I shouldve :/ (you can't blame me after all this time away from civiliztion !). I've done a lot of Chuck watching (gotta catch up before tomorrow !!!). I've communicated with different friends. We went to Church this morning (I have a whole other page that will be dedicated to that if you are interested in Reading about it). We went to a comedy show last night. And I pretty much just relaxed a lot.
Another week begins tomorrow. I am excited to see what God has in store !!
Muchos gracias bros, sis, and friends !
Dorina
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Big school. Scary!!
Sept 16th
Well well well. Did you realize how much of a humor God has ?? Ive always known and I definitely realized it tonight.
Remember how I was telling you all yesterday about how I was discouraged with smaller schooler schools because I dont get as much of an audience réaction and it doesnt feel like they enjoy it as much because of that ?
Well, this morning we ended up going to a school with about 2100 students. YUP. Oh my thank you God for shoving my foot into my mouth. Quite humbling. I take it all back~
So the contrast between a school of 100 students, and a school of 2100 is beyond what my words could be able to express. It was so overwhelming. Our contact person was a very nice man, and he showed us around and walked us all over the campus and I felt like I was in some college (probably because this highschool was much bigger than the college I attended). Once we were told where to setup, we unloaded our things and headed to the huge gym. We had no help, which was fine. As i've said before, sometimes I like that better. And we were setting up while a huge class was having a pre-class meeting, so they were kinda there half paying attention to us and half paying attention to the teacher. We hussled though and got it up in no time. It also looked pretty good.
For the last 15 min, two very nice Young men helped us with speakers, sound check, and cords, and then we waited. I was literally so overwhelmed when the kids stormed in. I felt so tiny compared to the huge mass of children. I tried standing as tall as I could and smile, but that didn't help much. They were walking through our things, and not paying attention, and bumped into our projectors messing some stuff up, and thankfully some profs and the coordinator of the show helped push them away, but it def wasn't an easy task.
Tiffany took it away once they were all seated, and introduced the show. They barely listened to her. Cell phones were out, Ipods were out, kids were talking left and right, some yelling, others laughing, it was insane ! Some cheerleaders would whisper as "not so cool kids" would walk by and they would laugh at them, others were taking pictures of each other, couples were snuggling, while you could clearly point out different cliques throughout the crowd. Out of control is what they were.
So we played the vidéo and I honestly wondered if anyone got anything out of it. I was frustrated, especially at a point in our vidéo where the narrator talks about how sometimes its easy to turn to drugs and alcohol when things dont go our way or we feel depressed (and obviously he continued on by discouraging it), but as soon as the kids heard drugs and alcohol, they all cheered. I was like. Oh my Goodness ! I couldn't believe it. SO after much obnoxiousness, the show ended, and it was time for me to conclude, I was shaking due to my fear of public speaking, and having to do it in front of so many pairs of eyes. Oh my. But I prayed and said, God just take it away. And I think I did fine, I might've stumbled on my words a bit at one point, but the kids were probably so tired that they actually listened to me and contained themselves from their previous behavior, which was very nice.
So anywho such was my Thursday expérience. Thankfully, the principal and coordinator were very pleased and it being their first time having a Camfel show, I was afraid of the results, but they seemed to turn out well for the most part. So Praise God for that !
I even had kids at the end thank me and say it was really good, so as I've said before, even if the show helps out ONE child, its all Worth it !
We left Olathe and are now in Manhattan, KS.
Peace out,
Do
Well well well. Did you realize how much of a humor God has ?? Ive always known and I definitely realized it tonight.
Remember how I was telling you all yesterday about how I was discouraged with smaller schooler schools because I dont get as much of an audience réaction and it doesnt feel like they enjoy it as much because of that ?
Well, this morning we ended up going to a school with about 2100 students. YUP. Oh my thank you God for shoving my foot into my mouth. Quite humbling. I take it all back~
So the contrast between a school of 100 students, and a school of 2100 is beyond what my words could be able to express. It was so overwhelming. Our contact person was a very nice man, and he showed us around and walked us all over the campus and I felt like I was in some college (probably because this highschool was much bigger than the college I attended). Once we were told where to setup, we unloaded our things and headed to the huge gym. We had no help, which was fine. As i've said before, sometimes I like that better. And we were setting up while a huge class was having a pre-class meeting, so they were kinda there half paying attention to us and half paying attention to the teacher. We hussled though and got it up in no time. It also looked pretty good.
For the last 15 min, two very nice Young men helped us with speakers, sound check, and cords, and then we waited. I was literally so overwhelmed when the kids stormed in. I felt so tiny compared to the huge mass of children. I tried standing as tall as I could and smile, but that didn't help much. They were walking through our things, and not paying attention, and bumped into our projectors messing some stuff up, and thankfully some profs and the coordinator of the show helped push them away, but it def wasn't an easy task.
Tiffany took it away once they were all seated, and introduced the show. They barely listened to her. Cell phones were out, Ipods were out, kids were talking left and right, some yelling, others laughing, it was insane ! Some cheerleaders would whisper as "not so cool kids" would walk by and they would laugh at them, others were taking pictures of each other, couples were snuggling, while you could clearly point out different cliques throughout the crowd. Out of control is what they were.
So we played the vidéo and I honestly wondered if anyone got anything out of it. I was frustrated, especially at a point in our vidéo where the narrator talks about how sometimes its easy to turn to drugs and alcohol when things dont go our way or we feel depressed (and obviously he continued on by discouraging it), but as soon as the kids heard drugs and alcohol, they all cheered. I was like. Oh my Goodness ! I couldn't believe it. SO after much obnoxiousness, the show ended, and it was time for me to conclude, I was shaking due to my fear of public speaking, and having to do it in front of so many pairs of eyes. Oh my. But I prayed and said, God just take it away. And I think I did fine, I might've stumbled on my words a bit at one point, but the kids were probably so tired that they actually listened to me and contained themselves from their previous behavior, which was very nice.
So anywho such was my Thursday expérience. Thankfully, the principal and coordinator were very pleased and it being their first time having a Camfel show, I was afraid of the results, but they seemed to turn out well for the most part. So Praise God for that !
I even had kids at the end thank me and say it was really good, so as I've said before, even if the show helps out ONE child, its all Worth it !
We left Olathe and are now in Manhattan, KS.
Peace out,
Do
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Haviland Break
Sept 15th
So, I just filled a whole journal entry, and it got deleted as I tried uploading it :(
Here I go again.
I am currently in an extremely small town in Kansas called Haviland. It was sort of kind of on the way to our next school and since Tiff went to college here, she was hoping we could stop by so she could see some old friends. So while she is catching up with them, and old profs, and kids she used to work with, I am sitting in a cute little coffe shop updating you on my life :)
I haven't really written much in the past couple of days, mainly cus nothing to exciting has happened. But I figured this change of scenery (not really, we are still in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields and the smell of cow poop haha) was worth sharing.
So we've created a little routine over the past 3 days. Since we stayed in the same place for longer than a night, we were able to do so. We were at a cute little bed and breakfast in Scott city, KS. We would wake up, get ready, have breakfast, and head to our school. After setting up and tearing down our shows, we'd head back to "our place." Talk on the phone to friends and family. While I watch Chuck, she would facebook chat. Read a bit. Take a walk. Get on the phone again. This would go on till bedtime and we'd wake up and start all over.
We've had 5 shows in the past 3 days and they all went pretty well. We had our very first elementary presentation today and it was so good. I loved watching the excitement on the kids' faces from beginning to end of the show.
Ah little kids are so precious, and innocent, and most of them aren't corrupted yet from this world. How refreshing are they!?
I've been a bit discouraged for the past couple days because we've been showing these presentations to small schools and the kids haven't seemed as excited or "into it" as I would hope they were. This doesn't make sense to me, I had assumed that these presentations would be such a big hit in small towns. I assumed this because most small towns don't really have movie theatres anywhere near, and since we are essentially setting up a movie theatre in their schools to show this film, I figured they'd be super impressed and excited.
It gets discouraging especially at the end when I get up and ask all excitedly "Sooo did you guys like it??" and they hesitantly respond "yeaaah" almost as if they are forced to resond that way.
And my immediate thought is "Ok, wow, so we just drove a ton, woke up super early, spent 1h30 setting this up, and this is what we get?"
Then God tells me "just trust me!" And I am reminded that if everything we do even affects or changes ONE child all year, it is totally worht it. Also even if the majority of the kids didn't care, some that were affected by the message, might be embarrassed to express it, and that's ok.
We are God's messengers and as long as we do our job right with enthusiasm and love, God will do the rest.
I've also been very moody and no fun to be around. Espeically on monday, I was tired and had had no sleep the night before and was just very grumpy. God reminds me to keep seeking His word and not to let my human nature control me but instead to let His spirit fill me with love, peace, joy, patience, gentleness, and kindness. So I am still working on that.
Last night, my french technology classes in middle school finally paid off. I was able to repair a microphone that had quit working on us. ha. I was quite proud of myself. It also worked out perfectly earlier today when I had to call my boss to tell him I had forgotten a projector cord at the school we were at yesterday. This way, I was able to give him a "good nrews/bad news" phone call instead of just a "Hey by the way, I'm an airhead and forgot a really important cord at another school." :)
I love this job, I love the traveling and moving around and whatnot but I must admit it's getting harder and harder without a stable community.
I guess God prepared me for that during my time in Colorado, where I lacked the community I've always had growing up (whether in Dakar, or when we would come to the US with my family, or the amazing community I had in Huntington through the 509 that I miss dearly.)
Nonetheless, it's still difficult. Thankfully, the Camfel technicians have created quite a community through the distance. We all bonded pretty well during training and we've been able to stay in touch through each other's blogs, or facebook, or even our cellphones, which has been a blessing. It's nice to be able to talk to others who know exactly what you are going through whether it's sharing how well a show went, or little technical difficulties that happened, or whether we are sharing people we've run into or places we've seen, expressing hard times we go through, and some of us (not me) were able to meet significant others through this job, so hearing about the involvments of that is quite exciting. So that's been quite a blessing.
For example, yesterday morning my friend texted me saying she was feeling really lonely and asking me to pray for her because she was feeling that same lack of community I've been feeling and I prayed for her and texted her words of encouragement in response. A couple hours later, she texted me saying 'Praise God ! We met some folks at a church and are sitting with them at Chick-Fil-Et and am just having a great time of fellowship with them ! So things like that are quite encouraging.
Also, Ive been quite homesick through all of this traveling, mainly because all the driving around the US reminds me of when my folks, siblings, and I would travel around the US during our furlow years. Those were good times, times that definitely created quite a unique bond between my siblings and I haha. I miss them terribly.
Also setting up shows in these small schools these past couple of days has reminded me of my highschool. :( I miss that type of community where every one knows each other and supports each other. Granted back in those days, I would get frustrated due to the fact that everyone was in everyone else's business. :) But looking back, I miss it all.
I miss middleschool, highschool, and college. SO MUCH. I miss going to classes, Learning new things. Getting dressed up and looking cute just because. Going to soccer practice afterwards. Hanging out with friends super late doing dumb things and laughing like crazy. I pretty much miss creating memories with a large group of friends and loved ones. BUT such are the sacrifices one must make for this job, which I repeatI I love despite it all.
Well we have a show in a bigger school tomorrow morning, so it should be a nice change.
Thanks for Reading this. I miss you guys and hope your life is filled with awesomeness.
I send you God's abundant blessings from above, along with my love. (yup that rhymed).
Xoxo
DJO
So, I just filled a whole journal entry, and it got deleted as I tried uploading it :(
Here I go again.
I am currently in an extremely small town in Kansas called Haviland. It was sort of kind of on the way to our next school and since Tiff went to college here, she was hoping we could stop by so she could see some old friends. So while she is catching up with them, and old profs, and kids she used to work with, I am sitting in a cute little coffe shop updating you on my life :)
I haven't really written much in the past couple of days, mainly cus nothing to exciting has happened. But I figured this change of scenery (not really, we are still in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields and the smell of cow poop haha) was worth sharing.
So we've created a little routine over the past 3 days. Since we stayed in the same place for longer than a night, we were able to do so. We were at a cute little bed and breakfast in Scott city, KS. We would wake up, get ready, have breakfast, and head to our school. After setting up and tearing down our shows, we'd head back to "our place." Talk on the phone to friends and family. While I watch Chuck, she would facebook chat. Read a bit. Take a walk. Get on the phone again. This would go on till bedtime and we'd wake up and start all over.
We've had 5 shows in the past 3 days and they all went pretty well. We had our very first elementary presentation today and it was so good. I loved watching the excitement on the kids' faces from beginning to end of the show.
Ah little kids are so precious, and innocent, and most of them aren't corrupted yet from this world. How refreshing are they!?
I've been a bit discouraged for the past couple days because we've been showing these presentations to small schools and the kids haven't seemed as excited or "into it" as I would hope they were. This doesn't make sense to me, I had assumed that these presentations would be such a big hit in small towns. I assumed this because most small towns don't really have movie theatres anywhere near, and since we are essentially setting up a movie theatre in their schools to show this film, I figured they'd be super impressed and excited.
It gets discouraging especially at the end when I get up and ask all excitedly "Sooo did you guys like it??" and they hesitantly respond "yeaaah" almost as if they are forced to resond that way.
And my immediate thought is "Ok, wow, so we just drove a ton, woke up super early, spent 1h30 setting this up, and this is what we get?"
Then God tells me "just trust me!" And I am reminded that if everything we do even affects or changes ONE child all year, it is totally worht it. Also even if the majority of the kids didn't care, some that were affected by the message, might be embarrassed to express it, and that's ok.
We are God's messengers and as long as we do our job right with enthusiasm and love, God will do the rest.
I've also been very moody and no fun to be around. Espeically on monday, I was tired and had had no sleep the night before and was just very grumpy. God reminds me to keep seeking His word and not to let my human nature control me but instead to let His spirit fill me with love, peace, joy, patience, gentleness, and kindness. So I am still working on that.
Last night, my french technology classes in middle school finally paid off. I was able to repair a microphone that had quit working on us. ha. I was quite proud of myself. It also worked out perfectly earlier today when I had to call my boss to tell him I had forgotten a projector cord at the school we were at yesterday. This way, I was able to give him a "good nrews/bad news" phone call instead of just a "Hey by the way, I'm an airhead and forgot a really important cord at another school." :)
I love this job, I love the traveling and moving around and whatnot but I must admit it's getting harder and harder without a stable community.
I guess God prepared me for that during my time in Colorado, where I lacked the community I've always had growing up (whether in Dakar, or when we would come to the US with my family, or the amazing community I had in Huntington through the 509 that I miss dearly.)
Nonetheless, it's still difficult. Thankfully, the Camfel technicians have created quite a community through the distance. We all bonded pretty well during training and we've been able to stay in touch through each other's blogs, or facebook, or even our cellphones, which has been a blessing. It's nice to be able to talk to others who know exactly what you are going through whether it's sharing how well a show went, or little technical difficulties that happened, or whether we are sharing people we've run into or places we've seen, expressing hard times we go through, and some of us (not me) were able to meet significant others through this job, so hearing about the involvments of that is quite exciting. So that's been quite a blessing.
For example, yesterday morning my friend texted me saying she was feeling really lonely and asking me to pray for her because she was feeling that same lack of community I've been feeling and I prayed for her and texted her words of encouragement in response. A couple hours later, she texted me saying 'Praise God ! We met some folks at a church and are sitting with them at Chick-Fil-Et and am just having a great time of fellowship with them ! So things like that are quite encouraging.
Also, Ive been quite homesick through all of this traveling, mainly because all the driving around the US reminds me of when my folks, siblings, and I would travel around the US during our furlow years. Those were good times, times that definitely created quite a unique bond between my siblings and I haha. I miss them terribly.
Also setting up shows in these small schools these past couple of days has reminded me of my highschool. :( I miss that type of community where every one knows each other and supports each other. Granted back in those days, I would get frustrated due to the fact that everyone was in everyone else's business. :) But looking back, I miss it all.
I miss middleschool, highschool, and college. SO MUCH. I miss going to classes, Learning new things. Getting dressed up and looking cute just because. Going to soccer practice afterwards. Hanging out with friends super late doing dumb things and laughing like crazy. I pretty much miss creating memories with a large group of friends and loved ones. BUT such are the sacrifices one must make for this job, which I repeatI I love despite it all.
Well we have a show in a bigger school tomorrow morning, so it should be a nice change.
Thanks for Reading this. I miss you guys and hope your life is filled with awesomeness.
I send you God's abundant blessings from above, along with my love. (yup that rhymed).
Xoxo
DJO
Sunday, September 12, 2010
God uses strangers
September 12th
Ok....so remember how in yesterday's journal entry I talked about the randomness of our staying in this small town called Limon.
Well...it gets better. Apparently, Tiffany had a prospective student stay with her one weekend at her college who is FROM there!! Sadly enough she is still in college, so we didn't get to see her. BUT after finding that out, Tiffany texted her to ask if she knew of a good church we coud go to. Well it turns out that her father is the pastor at one of the churches in Limon, so she suggested we go there. Also that same weekend she met this girl, Tiffany had had a great hour or so long conversation with this man.
Funny enough, she had just told me on our way to our search for internet on friday about this man of God, whom she'd had a great conversation with, and whom she could tell was filled with the Holy Spirit because of the way He spoke and his gentle spirit.
So, how's that for a "coincidence" huh? I feel like this journey will bring a lot of these so called coincidences, which in my honest opinion are NOT coincidences at all, even though a lot of people would beg to differ.
So this morning, we checked out of our Safari Inn, and headed to Church which was 2 blocks away. We entered one of the smallest churches I've ever been to (keep in mind i've been to a ton, with my parents being missionaries and all ya know?), and we were welcomed so warmly!
People just gravitated to us, shook our hands, asked for our names, welcomed us etc....
Pastor Bill (Tiff's friends father) came and hugged us and was so excited to see TIffany, even though they'd only met once. He also asked us to stay after the service so he could take us out to lunch.
The service was long but good. It reminded me of the 509, which I miss terribly. So after the service, we waited and I totally felt the way I used to feel when I would wait hours and hours after church in Senegal for my dad to stop talking to the world so we could quiet down our belly grumbling and go home haha.
Nonetheless, while waiting we got to meet pretty much every one that was at the service and talk a bit with them. We were treated like family.
Lunch was excellent. I got to talk to the pastor's son about Huntington University because he is interested in pursuing film and just graduated from highschool. I also got to talk to the pastor's wife who was sitting next to me, and the best was sitting next to an older lady and talking to her. We had similar lives between both of our fathers being pastors at one point, and never having a true home base, and having traveled a lot.
She knew about my job and knew I had lived in Indiana for college, but eventually straight up asked me where I was from.
Honestly, a lot of times, I find ways to avoid answering this question with accuracy by saying "I went to college in Indiana and it became a home to me" or "I lived in Colorado before starting this job" or "I guess my home base in the US is North Carolina." Most times I'd rather give such simple answers in order to avoid the long story of where I was born, where each of my parents are from, what they do there, how they met, etc etc etc...
I've repeated this story SO many times, that sometimes I just don't want to deal with it.
However, when this lady asked, her sincere interest intrigued me so I just gave it all away. From start to finish, left to right, talked about mom, dad, nabrissa, ianis, me. I didn't give every little detail but she got a solid summary of it all:)
At the end of it, she was in awe. She was just so excited about it all. She proceeded to tell everyone at the table I was from Senegal, and kept telling me how much of a blessing it was for me to have shared all of that with her.
So, God taught me to get over myself, and use this exciting life story He's blessed me with to bless others by just sharing it. It's not hard, and it's who I am so there is no sense in hiding it just out of pure laziness.
Lesson learned.
A couple hours later, after saying our goodbyes to everyone except for Pastor Bill, (but including his wife who knew her husband well enough to know that he wasn't anywhere near ready to go home), we had great chat with him.
He shared how excited he was for what God had in store for us, and how we were going to be blessings to many. He looked deep into my eyes and kept repeating, do you know how great of a plan God has for YOU? I bet you have an idea but don't even realize how great it is. He said I was amazing because I didn't give God any limits and was absolutely open to whatever God had in store for me. He spoke to me as if he'd known me for years, and at that moment I knew God was speaking through him and what a humbling experience.. He talked about how we are on an assignment from God and how special we are because we are taking it seriously and are committed to fulfilling this mission. He also looked at me and said I needed to be patient for what God had in store for me. I said I'd finally come to a point where I accepted to wait, where as before I was just ready to go. He goes "well that's because you have a lot of zoom in you, but you've gotten to this point in your life through hard times, that didn't have to be so hard but that's the way they happened and they interconnected in your life in a way that you've come to be where you're at and think the way you think, and truly count on God and have peace about where He's leading you. and I can tell that, but honestly obedience is far better than sacrifice. In fact it is better to seek after God's heart then to attempt to do things that need to be done."
There are so many great things he shared with Tiffany and I, and he prayed for us at the end of our conversation and I could just feel the Holy Spirit speaking through Him!
At the end of the prayer he asked God to "give us joy through our journey as our hands are placed in His and He guides us to where we need to go and who we need to meet."
THis man I met this morning, and He was able to speak straight to my heart.
I can't even express how I felt after this surprise from God. A solid time of fellowship with strangers that are just united through the body of Christ.
Now how amazing is that?
I keep thinking that God is going to send me to dark places where I can minister to people forgetting that along the way He has a plan for me to keep being ministered and encouraged through other believers.
The church was called Oasis of Life and I truly felt refreshed after leaving it and its people.
I thank God for this morning. I also thank Him for safe travels He provided Tiff and I with.
We arrived in Scott city, KS to a cute cottage.
We will be here for 3 days and have already made ourselves at home :)
The family who owns this cottage is very sweet and are making themselves available to us in any way. THey were however having drama right outside our cottage. Their former employe for another business they have just recently got fired and came here to complain. This lady made a huge scence, and the owner of the cottage felt so so bad. She apologized to me 100 times. I kept telling her that TIff and I were some of the most laid back people and we didn't care, and it didn't affect how much we love this place, and that she didn't have to worry about us on top of worrying about what was going on already, and that things happen and people are people, and we understand...etc.....
I must admit, the yelling was pretty intense!
After a while, I prayed for the situation to be resolved in peace, and for God to put His hand over these people whether they believed in Him or not and 3 minutes after praying, the fight was over and the complaining lady drove away.
:)
Anywho, we have a 45 min drive tomorrow morning at 6am (well 7am cus both towns have diff time zones to our advantage) and will have a show in Tribune, KS.
Hopefully God will use us and the video tomorrow to encourage kids and hopefully make a difference in their lives. As pastor Bill said earlier, we are different because we set up these presentations out of love and care, and the kids can tell, where as some people would just do it for the excitement of traveling or just to have a job, in which case they would go to the school, set up, maybe talk to kids out of necessity, tear down, and peace out.
Well...it's about that sleepy time. Thanks for joining me on my journey. Be blessed and feel free to leave comments or share encouraging stories in return.
in Him alone, DJO
Ok....so remember how in yesterday's journal entry I talked about the randomness of our staying in this small town called Limon.
Well...it gets better. Apparently, Tiffany had a prospective student stay with her one weekend at her college who is FROM there!! Sadly enough she is still in college, so we didn't get to see her. BUT after finding that out, Tiffany texted her to ask if she knew of a good church we coud go to. Well it turns out that her father is the pastor at one of the churches in Limon, so she suggested we go there. Also that same weekend she met this girl, Tiffany had had a great hour or so long conversation with this man.
Funny enough, she had just told me on our way to our search for internet on friday about this man of God, whom she'd had a great conversation with, and whom she could tell was filled with the Holy Spirit because of the way He spoke and his gentle spirit.
So, how's that for a "coincidence" huh? I feel like this journey will bring a lot of these so called coincidences, which in my honest opinion are NOT coincidences at all, even though a lot of people would beg to differ.
So this morning, we checked out of our Safari Inn, and headed to Church which was 2 blocks away. We entered one of the smallest churches I've ever been to (keep in mind i've been to a ton, with my parents being missionaries and all ya know?), and we were welcomed so warmly!
People just gravitated to us, shook our hands, asked for our names, welcomed us etc....
Pastor Bill (Tiff's friends father) came and hugged us and was so excited to see TIffany, even though they'd only met once. He also asked us to stay after the service so he could take us out to lunch.
The service was long but good. It reminded me of the 509, which I miss terribly. So after the service, we waited and I totally felt the way I used to feel when I would wait hours and hours after church in Senegal for my dad to stop talking to the world so we could quiet down our belly grumbling and go home haha.
Nonetheless, while waiting we got to meet pretty much every one that was at the service and talk a bit with them. We were treated like family.
Lunch was excellent. I got to talk to the pastor's son about Huntington University because he is interested in pursuing film and just graduated from highschool. I also got to talk to the pastor's wife who was sitting next to me, and the best was sitting next to an older lady and talking to her. We had similar lives between both of our fathers being pastors at one point, and never having a true home base, and having traveled a lot.
She knew about my job and knew I had lived in Indiana for college, but eventually straight up asked me where I was from.
Honestly, a lot of times, I find ways to avoid answering this question with accuracy by saying "I went to college in Indiana and it became a home to me" or "I lived in Colorado before starting this job" or "I guess my home base in the US is North Carolina." Most times I'd rather give such simple answers in order to avoid the long story of where I was born, where each of my parents are from, what they do there, how they met, etc etc etc...
I've repeated this story SO many times, that sometimes I just don't want to deal with it.
However, when this lady asked, her sincere interest intrigued me so I just gave it all away. From start to finish, left to right, talked about mom, dad, nabrissa, ianis, me. I didn't give every little detail but she got a solid summary of it all:)
At the end of it, she was in awe. She was just so excited about it all. She proceeded to tell everyone at the table I was from Senegal, and kept telling me how much of a blessing it was for me to have shared all of that with her.
So, God taught me to get over myself, and use this exciting life story He's blessed me with to bless others by just sharing it. It's not hard, and it's who I am so there is no sense in hiding it just out of pure laziness.
Lesson learned.
A couple hours later, after saying our goodbyes to everyone except for Pastor Bill, (but including his wife who knew her husband well enough to know that he wasn't anywhere near ready to go home), we had great chat with him.
He shared how excited he was for what God had in store for us, and how we were going to be blessings to many. He looked deep into my eyes and kept repeating, do you know how great of a plan God has for YOU? I bet you have an idea but don't even realize how great it is. He said I was amazing because I didn't give God any limits and was absolutely open to whatever God had in store for me. He spoke to me as if he'd known me for years, and at that moment I knew God was speaking through him and what a humbling experience.. He talked about how we are on an assignment from God and how special we are because we are taking it seriously and are committed to fulfilling this mission. He also looked at me and said I needed to be patient for what God had in store for me. I said I'd finally come to a point where I accepted to wait, where as before I was just ready to go. He goes "well that's because you have a lot of zoom in you, but you've gotten to this point in your life through hard times, that didn't have to be so hard but that's the way they happened and they interconnected in your life in a way that you've come to be where you're at and think the way you think, and truly count on God and have peace about where He's leading you. and I can tell that, but honestly obedience is far better than sacrifice. In fact it is better to seek after God's heart then to attempt to do things that need to be done."
There are so many great things he shared with Tiffany and I, and he prayed for us at the end of our conversation and I could just feel the Holy Spirit speaking through Him!
At the end of the prayer he asked God to "give us joy through our journey as our hands are placed in His and He guides us to where we need to go and who we need to meet."
THis man I met this morning, and He was able to speak straight to my heart.
I can't even express how I felt after this surprise from God. A solid time of fellowship with strangers that are just united through the body of Christ.
Now how amazing is that?
I keep thinking that God is going to send me to dark places where I can minister to people forgetting that along the way He has a plan for me to keep being ministered and encouraged through other believers.
The church was called Oasis of Life and I truly felt refreshed after leaving it and its people.
I thank God for this morning. I also thank Him for safe travels He provided Tiff and I with.
We arrived in Scott city, KS to a cute cottage.
We will be here for 3 days and have already made ourselves at home :)
The family who owns this cottage is very sweet and are making themselves available to us in any way. THey were however having drama right outside our cottage. Their former employe for another business they have just recently got fired and came here to complain. This lady made a huge scence, and the owner of the cottage felt so so bad. She apologized to me 100 times. I kept telling her that TIff and I were some of the most laid back people and we didn't care, and it didn't affect how much we love this place, and that she didn't have to worry about us on top of worrying about what was going on already, and that things happen and people are people, and we understand...etc.....
I must admit, the yelling was pretty intense!
After a while, I prayed for the situation to be resolved in peace, and for God to put His hand over these people whether they believed in Him or not and 3 minutes after praying, the fight was over and the complaining lady drove away.
:)
Anywho, we have a 45 min drive tomorrow morning at 6am (well 7am cus both towns have diff time zones to our advantage) and will have a show in Tribune, KS.
Hopefully God will use us and the video tomorrow to encourage kids and hopefully make a difference in their lives. As pastor Bill said earlier, we are different because we set up these presentations out of love and care, and the kids can tell, where as some people would just do it for the excitement of traveling or just to have a job, in which case they would go to the school, set up, maybe talk to kids out of necessity, tear down, and peace out.
Well...it's about that sleepy time. Thanks for joining me on my journey. Be blessed and feel free to leave comments or share encouraging stories in return.
in Him alone, DJO
Saturday, September 11, 2010
9/11
September 11
My heart goes out to all the ones who've lost friends and family on this tragic day.
:(
I was in middle school when it happened, and for some reason I was at home when I saw it on the news and was so confused as to what was happening!
Suddenly the phone began to ring, and my parents were talking to missionary friends who were distraught and scared.
Not a fun day at all.
So for any of you affected on that day, I mourn with you as Christ encourages us in Rom 12:15 to laugh with those who laugh and cry with those who cry.
I guess these kinds of things are all part of our individual life journeys that He has set a path for us to lean on Him and be strenghtened by Him..
On my journey yesterday morning, after an early awakening, Tiffany and I drove about 8 miles to reach our school.
We had a good show and a good setup overall.
I was reminded that God's will is better than what we think our will is when the principal asked me how many students he should get to help us set up.
As much as I love kids and interactng with them, sometimes it seems easier for me (especially during early mornings when I am having a hard time functioning and interacting with others) to just have Tiff and I do the whole setup by ourselves.
So, I told him "Oh 2 students should be just fine, thank you" (usually we are sent about 6 students).
10 minutes later come out 5 students to help us.
My first reaction was "mmmk. I thought I asked for 2 only...well here we go!"
The students were great and very helpful and with their help we were done right about 30 minutes before the show should start.
Right then a lady walks in and tells us that the kids only sit in half of the bleachers, meaning our whole entire set up is off center (we assumed the bleachers would be filled, so we set everything up right in the center of the court).
She calls the principal, who had forgotten to give us this minor detail and he asks us to shift everything, in 25 minutes.
We smile and say, "not a problem sir."
We calll the kids back and tell them there is a slight change of plan. So with the help of all 5 kids, we were able to have everything shifted over in 15 min.
I felt humbled and thanked God for having the principal send us 5 kids instead of 2 as I had originally requested. Otherwise, our problem wouldn't have been so easy to fix.
So after the show, we decided to drive in the direction of our school for monday, and on our way stop at a starbucks to use the internet in order to book a hotel for that night and the rest of the weekend.
We saw a couple of starbucks on the way within 30 minutes of driving but decided to drive some more. After about 2 hours of driving and getting farther and father away from civilization, we began to worry a tad bit.
Suddenly I remembered that Mcdonalds now have internet, and since it was lunch time, we decided to stop at one.
Well, the hunger issue got taken care of real fast, but the internet at this Mcdonals' refused to work. We tried and tried for a good 1h30, and nothing.
Finally we figured, well lets keep driving and see if there is another Mcdonald's that might work better. At this point, we have no clue where we'll be staying that night and are getting tired.
I prayed a short prayer asking God to grant us patience and wisdom to know what to do. ALso to just trust Him.
As we are packing our stuff, a very old man who clearly works in a farm (due to his clothing, dirty hands, and scent) walks over to us and asks us if we had any luck with the internet. We said no and comes closer to us and whispers "well, what I like to do is park right outside of motels and steal their internet. " :) He then gives us directions to a motel in town that has great signal..
SO we thank him dearly, and follow his directions. WE stumble upon a cute pink Inn and I ask Tiff if we should try their internet. She then says "we might as well see how much they cost and if they have available rooms."
So as I check the internet in the car, she goes inside to ask all of the info.
Well, little did that old man at Mcdonalds know...he had sent us straight to our next motel.
The Safari Inn we stumbled upon by "coincidence" as some would see it, or God's grace as I would see it, is perfect. It's located in a cute small town. It's under our budget, has great internet, has a pool, a fridge, a microwave, and the owners are extremely nice.
Plus there was a car show here this morning about two blocks away, so a ton of people with ridiculously nice cars stayed here last night, so we got a nice little preview of the show in our own parking lot. haha.
Tomorrow, after Church, we are headed to a cute cottage bed an breakfast with a hot tub in the middle of nowhere Kansas :)
We will be there for 3 days!!
I am very excited.
Thanks for your prayers dear loved ones.
DjO
My heart goes out to all the ones who've lost friends and family on this tragic day.
:(
I was in middle school when it happened, and for some reason I was at home when I saw it on the news and was so confused as to what was happening!
Suddenly the phone began to ring, and my parents were talking to missionary friends who were distraught and scared.
Not a fun day at all.
So for any of you affected on that day, I mourn with you as Christ encourages us in Rom 12:15 to laugh with those who laugh and cry with those who cry.
I guess these kinds of things are all part of our individual life journeys that He has set a path for us to lean on Him and be strenghtened by Him..
On my journey yesterday morning, after an early awakening, Tiffany and I drove about 8 miles to reach our school.
We had a good show and a good setup overall.
I was reminded that God's will is better than what we think our will is when the principal asked me how many students he should get to help us set up.
As much as I love kids and interactng with them, sometimes it seems easier for me (especially during early mornings when I am having a hard time functioning and interacting with others) to just have Tiff and I do the whole setup by ourselves.
So, I told him "Oh 2 students should be just fine, thank you" (usually we are sent about 6 students).
10 minutes later come out 5 students to help us.
My first reaction was "mmmk. I thought I asked for 2 only...well here we go!"
The students were great and very helpful and with their help we were done right about 30 minutes before the show should start.
Right then a lady walks in and tells us that the kids only sit in half of the bleachers, meaning our whole entire set up is off center (we assumed the bleachers would be filled, so we set everything up right in the center of the court).
She calls the principal, who had forgotten to give us this minor detail and he asks us to shift everything, in 25 minutes.
We smile and say, "not a problem sir."
We calll the kids back and tell them there is a slight change of plan. So with the help of all 5 kids, we were able to have everything shifted over in 15 min.
I felt humbled and thanked God for having the principal send us 5 kids instead of 2 as I had originally requested. Otherwise, our problem wouldn't have been so easy to fix.
So after the show, we decided to drive in the direction of our school for monday, and on our way stop at a starbucks to use the internet in order to book a hotel for that night and the rest of the weekend.
We saw a couple of starbucks on the way within 30 minutes of driving but decided to drive some more. After about 2 hours of driving and getting farther and father away from civilization, we began to worry a tad bit.
Suddenly I remembered that Mcdonalds now have internet, and since it was lunch time, we decided to stop at one.
Well, the hunger issue got taken care of real fast, but the internet at this Mcdonals' refused to work. We tried and tried for a good 1h30, and nothing.
Finally we figured, well lets keep driving and see if there is another Mcdonald's that might work better. At this point, we have no clue where we'll be staying that night and are getting tired.
I prayed a short prayer asking God to grant us patience and wisdom to know what to do. ALso to just trust Him.
As we are packing our stuff, a very old man who clearly works in a farm (due to his clothing, dirty hands, and scent) walks over to us and asks us if we had any luck with the internet. We said no and comes closer to us and whispers "well, what I like to do is park right outside of motels and steal their internet. " :) He then gives us directions to a motel in town that has great signal..
SO we thank him dearly, and follow his directions. WE stumble upon a cute pink Inn and I ask Tiff if we should try their internet. She then says "we might as well see how much they cost and if they have available rooms."
So as I check the internet in the car, she goes inside to ask all of the info.
Well, little did that old man at Mcdonalds know...he had sent us straight to our next motel.
The Safari Inn we stumbled upon by "coincidence" as some would see it, or God's grace as I would see it, is perfect. It's located in a cute small town. It's under our budget, has great internet, has a pool, a fridge, a microwave, and the owners are extremely nice.
Plus there was a car show here this morning about two blocks away, so a ton of people with ridiculously nice cars stayed here last night, so we got a nice little preview of the show in our own parking lot. haha.Tomorrow, after Church, we are headed to a cute cottage bed an breakfast with a hot tub in the middle of nowhere Kansas :)
We will be there for 3 days!!
I am very excited.
Thanks for your prayers dear loved ones.
DjO
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Roadtrips are fun!
Sept 9th
Another day spent on the road.
The day started out exellently though! The bed and breakfeast place we stayed at was phenomenal!
They made us the best breakfeast ever. Eggs cooked to perfection, bacon, french toast (even though I'm not a huge fan of that), fresh berries, orange juice, coffe, tea, apple cider, AND a French pastry that I used to eat a lot back home.
Heavenly!
The hosts were so sweet to and the other couple staying there were nice. We had a great conversation accross from each other's tables.
I felt like I was in a movie. lol.
So the trip went well, I was blessed to drive first meaning I stayed awake for the first couple of hours and was able to just take in the glorious view of Utah.
It's hills and plains and endles fields just made me feel so small, in a good way. In a way that made me want to lift my hands and praise God for his wondrous work.
Of course I didn't lift my hands, otherwise I would've killed both Tiffany and I.
But I prayed silently and thanked Him for blessing me by creating such an amazing earth filled with so many wonders.
It was so good~
I even took pictures to attempt the description of what I was seeing:
So, then Tiffany drove and after enjoying my delicious crab salad, I knocked out. haha I was gone until we arrived at our motel.
They were having a dog show there (which is kind of weird), but we were surrounded by beautiful dogs (some scary lookin') and I just spent the rest of the evening on the phone with Nabi, Mitsuzi, and Lylie.
A swell night indeed.
Our first show in a while tomorrow. Hope it goes well!!
"Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation-every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and tress from which they came." And that is what happened.[...] and God saw that it was good."
Thank you again Heavenly Father for blessing us with this earth and everything you've made within it that was originally good. Sorry for ruining daily. Help us to appreciate it more and take care of this gift from above.
DorinaJuliaOliveira
Another day spent on the road.
The day started out exellently though! The bed and breakfeast place we stayed at was phenomenal!
They made us the best breakfeast ever. Eggs cooked to perfection, bacon, french toast (even though I'm not a huge fan of that), fresh berries, orange juice, coffe, tea, apple cider, AND a French pastry that I used to eat a lot back home.
Heavenly!
The hosts were so sweet to and the other couple staying there were nice. We had a great conversation accross from each other's tables.
I felt like I was in a movie. lol.
So the trip went well, I was blessed to drive first meaning I stayed awake for the first couple of hours and was able to just take in the glorious view of Utah.
It's hills and plains and endles fields just made me feel so small, in a good way. In a way that made me want to lift my hands and praise God for his wondrous work.
Of course I didn't lift my hands, otherwise I would've killed both Tiffany and I.
But I prayed silently and thanked Him for blessing me by creating such an amazing earth filled with so many wonders.
It was so good~
I even took pictures to attempt the description of what I was seeing:
They were having a dog show there (which is kind of weird), but we were surrounded by beautiful dogs (some scary lookin') and I just spent the rest of the evening on the phone with Nabi, Mitsuzi, and Lylie.
A swell night indeed.
Our first show in a while tomorrow. Hope it goes well!!
"Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation-every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and tress from which they came." And that is what happened.[...] and God saw that it was good."
GENIUS!!
Thank you again Heavenly Father for blessing us with this earth and everything you've made within it that was originally good. Sorry for ruining daily. Help us to appreciate it more and take care of this gift from above.
DorinaJuliaOliveira
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Short entry
September 7th
Short entry tonight because I spent all of my Starbucks internet time trying to find a hotel to stay in between Irwindale, CA and Kersey, CO. which is where Tiff and I's first legit show (as in first show from our official tour) will be.
We will have about an 8h30 drive tomorrow and stay at a cute little Bed and Breakfeast in Richfield, Utah and continue driving to Kersey the next day.
It's actually quite exciting to finally get on the road.
I truly will miss California. I love it!!! But it's time to roll out :)
Today was a good day. It was our last day working at the office, doing paperwork. It went by extremely fast and it wasn't as I thought it'd be.
You see, our boss did something to his back and can barely move (so keep him in your prayers if you will, his name is Andrew), and I assumed that Tiff and I were going to pretty much take over his job for the day to help out, but we just did the regular paperwork that we do with Big Mike (the big boss), who never fails to find little things left and right for us to do. hehe.
I guess I don't have much to write about, other than the fact that God challenged me this evening.
I forgot my wallet at work (typical) and needed it more than anything tonight as I needed to purchase laundry detergent, get coins to do laundry, buy a new suitcase (to much crap) and more random things I need to get before the big trip.
The office is a good 40 min away, so it didn't make sense to drive all the way just for a wallet. Thank goodness, I found my checkbook in my perse and my passport as I.D.
I guess all of this to say that I had to deal with a very unpleasant lady while attempting to purchase these things, I mean VERY unpleasant. TWICE. It's a long story, but she was just flat out rude to me for no reason, and cost her store to lose money just cus she wanted to be...for lack of better words....a meanie.
Instead of being a bratt (which God knows, I can do very easily), and talk back rudely and speakin' my mind, I refrained, said thank you and walked away. I then proceeded to pray for her. WHAT!?
For those of you who know me, this was quite unusual.
I share this not to boast (as Paul would say) in myself, but to give the glory to God for his spirit gave me self-control, gentleness, patience, and love.
For that, I am thankful.
2 Cor 12:9
"My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness."
Short entry tonight because I spent all of my Starbucks internet time trying to find a hotel to stay in between Irwindale, CA and Kersey, CO. which is where Tiff and I's first legit show (as in first show from our official tour) will be.
We will have about an 8h30 drive tomorrow and stay at a cute little Bed and Breakfeast in Richfield, Utah and continue driving to Kersey the next day.
It's actually quite exciting to finally get on the road.
I truly will miss California. I love it!!! But it's time to roll out :)
Today was a good day. It was our last day working at the office, doing paperwork. It went by extremely fast and it wasn't as I thought it'd be.
You see, our boss did something to his back and can barely move (so keep him in your prayers if you will, his name is Andrew), and I assumed that Tiff and I were going to pretty much take over his job for the day to help out, but we just did the regular paperwork that we do with Big Mike (the big boss), who never fails to find little things left and right for us to do. hehe.
I guess I don't have much to write about, other than the fact that God challenged me this evening.
I forgot my wallet at work (typical) and needed it more than anything tonight as I needed to purchase laundry detergent, get coins to do laundry, buy a new suitcase (to much crap) and more random things I need to get before the big trip.
The office is a good 40 min away, so it didn't make sense to drive all the way just for a wallet. Thank goodness, I found my checkbook in my perse and my passport as I.D.
I guess all of this to say that I had to deal with a very unpleasant lady while attempting to purchase these things, I mean VERY unpleasant. TWICE. It's a long story, but she was just flat out rude to me for no reason, and cost her store to lose money just cus she wanted to be...for lack of better words....a meanie.
Instead of being a bratt (which God knows, I can do very easily), and talk back rudely and speakin' my mind, I refrained, said thank you and walked away. I then proceeded to pray for her. WHAT!?
For those of you who know me, this was quite unusual.
I share this not to boast (as Paul would say) in myself, but to give the glory to God for his spirit gave me self-control, gentleness, patience, and love.
For that, I am thankful.
2 Cor 12:9
"My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness."
Monday, September 6, 2010
Devotional
September 6th Devos
As I was doing some personal research online, there was a knock on my door. The Shani's cousin, Musa, walked in with a Bible and shared Psalm 119: 18-19
Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. I am only a foreigner in the land. Don't hide your commands from me.
Musa said the Lord put this verse on His heart to encourage me to keep seeking the Word and as I do, God will enlighten His will for my life and open my eyes to understand parts of His instructions that had previously been blurry, grey , and unclear to me.
Funny enough, Musa barely knows anything about me. We met yesterday, and God spoke to me through Him.
What an encouragement. God is always talking, we just need to be more open to hearing and accepting His words.
Psalm 119:25-32
I lie in the dust; revive me by your word.
I told you my plans, and you answered. Now teach me your decrees.
Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I willl meditate on your wonderful deeds.
I weep with sorrow; encourage me by your word.
Keep me from lying to myself;
I have determined to live by your regulations.
I cling to your laws, Lord, don't let me be put to shame!
I will pursue your commands, for ou expand my understanding.
As I was doing some personal research online, there was a knock on my door. The Shani's cousin, Musa, walked in with a Bible and shared Psalm 119: 18-19
Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. I am only a foreigner in the land. Don't hide your commands from me.
Musa said the Lord put this verse on His heart to encourage me to keep seeking the Word and as I do, God will enlighten His will for my life and open my eyes to understand parts of His instructions that had previously been blurry, grey , and unclear to me.
Funny enough, Musa barely knows anything about me. We met yesterday, and God spoke to me through Him.
What an encouragement. God is always talking, we just need to be more open to hearing and accepting His words.
Psalm 119:25-32
I lie in the dust; revive me by your word.
I told you my plans, and you answered. Now teach me your decrees.
Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I willl meditate on your wonderful deeds.
I weep with sorrow; encourage me by your word.
Keep me from lying to myself;
I have determined to live by your regulations.
I cling to your laws, Lord, don't let me be put to shame!
I will pursue your commands, for ou expand my understanding.
Labor Day
September 6th
Hola!!
Happy Labor day to you all! I am currently enjoying this restful day in Whittier, CA with my beloved Shani brothers.
I came up yesterday morning and went to Church with them, and continued on to their friends house to spend the rest of the day in good company and great fellowship.
The craziest thing happened. Tetu (the older one) and his friend had just been talking about a fellow friend they had been meaning to pray for and talk to because his life was heading in the wrong direction.
Literally 20 minutes later, on our way to InNout for lunch, they ran into him!! How crazy! :) I wouldn't call this coincidence.
So they asked him to join us and spend the afternoon with us, which is what he did.
Praise the Lord, Tetu was able to have a very deep and convicting conversation with him led by the Holy Spirit.
It wasn't forced, in fact it was very casual, and as we were helping our friend move her belongings to her apartment, we could just see Tetu and this young man talking and talking away. As we would pass them, we would smile and pray for the conversation.
Today, he will be joining us again, the works of the Lord in us and through us are amazing!
In fact, I know I had mentioned earlier that I would share stories from my first trip in Norhtern California, which I might someday, but instead of writing long pages of stories, I will just express the convictions that I was blessed with through these stories, ones which I am very excited about, and truly hoping you will join me in prayer every step of the way!
So basically, in the past week of traveling in Chino, Nevada City, Santa Nicolaus, Santa Clara, Sacramento, and San Francisco, I was able to be in a lot of places and meet a lot of people.
At many points during this trip, I retreated from the place I was staying at to either wander around and take pictures, or call a friend, explore, journal, or just to read my Bible.
At two of these points, I was able to meet people and through absolutely casual conversations, witness to them. Talk about my beliefs and ask them about theirs, ask them why they believe what they believe as I shared why I believed in God and what He had done for me.
It was truly from above and I feel so blessed that God was able to use me, not necessarily to make these two people make life changing decisions, but even if it was just to plant a seed and keep praying for their salvation. I feel truly blessed.
All of this to say, I believe God's hidden agenda for me and this journey is to use the social skills He has blessed me with, to simply talk about Him and who he is as I run into interesting, unique, troubled, hopeless, poor, amazing, seeking, normal human beings along the road.
We all have a story, and we were put on this earth to share it. To glorify God through it. He is writing our story as we speak. The author of our lives. He blesses us and makes us rivers so we can bless others and share the Holy water of life!!
So here it is...I hope you can each join me on this journey through prayer.
Pray that I may prepare myself for conversations that God will lead me to. That I must trust the Holy Spirit to speak in me, and not have a fear of the unknown. ALso that I may seek His word, His truth, His knowledge, and wisdom that I may not stumble upon my words or question the things that I say, but may procclaim His name as it is in full confidence.
Thank you brothers and sisters,
Peace out!
DJO
Hola!!
Happy Labor day to you all! I am currently enjoying this restful day in Whittier, CA with my beloved Shani brothers.
I came up yesterday morning and went to Church with them, and continued on to their friends house to spend the rest of the day in good company and great fellowship.
The craziest thing happened. Tetu (the older one) and his friend had just been talking about a fellow friend they had been meaning to pray for and talk to because his life was heading in the wrong direction.
Literally 20 minutes later, on our way to InNout for lunch, they ran into him!! How crazy! :) I wouldn't call this coincidence.
So they asked him to join us and spend the afternoon with us, which is what he did.
Praise the Lord, Tetu was able to have a very deep and convicting conversation with him led by the Holy Spirit.
It wasn't forced, in fact it was very casual, and as we were helping our friend move her belongings to her apartment, we could just see Tetu and this young man talking and talking away. As we would pass them, we would smile and pray for the conversation.
Today, he will be joining us again, the works of the Lord in us and through us are amazing!
In fact, I know I had mentioned earlier that I would share stories from my first trip in Norhtern California, which I might someday, but instead of writing long pages of stories, I will just express the convictions that I was blessed with through these stories, ones which I am very excited about, and truly hoping you will join me in prayer every step of the way!
So basically, in the past week of traveling in Chino, Nevada City, Santa Nicolaus, Santa Clara, Sacramento, and San Francisco, I was able to be in a lot of places and meet a lot of people.
At many points during this trip, I retreated from the place I was staying at to either wander around and take pictures, or call a friend, explore, journal, or just to read my Bible.
At two of these points, I was able to meet people and through absolutely casual conversations, witness to them. Talk about my beliefs and ask them about theirs, ask them why they believe what they believe as I shared why I believed in God and what He had done for me.
It was truly from above and I feel so blessed that God was able to use me, not necessarily to make these two people make life changing decisions, but even if it was just to plant a seed and keep praying for their salvation. I feel truly blessed.
All of this to say, I believe God's hidden agenda for me and this journey is to use the social skills He has blessed me with, to simply talk about Him and who he is as I run into interesting, unique, troubled, hopeless, poor, amazing, seeking, normal human beings along the road.
We all have a story, and we were put on this earth to share it. To glorify God through it. He is writing our story as we speak. The author of our lives. He blesses us and makes us rivers so we can bless others and share the Holy water of life!!
So here it is...I hope you can each join me on this journey through prayer.
Pray that I may prepare myself for conversations that God will lead me to. That I must trust the Holy Spirit to speak in me, and not have a fear of the unknown. ALso that I may seek His word, His truth, His knowledge, and wisdom that I may not stumble upon my words or question the things that I say, but may procclaim His name as it is in full confidence.
Thank you brothers and sisters,
Peace out!
DJO
Friday, September 3, 2010
September 3rd
SO this is my very first entry and I don't even know where to begin!?
FIrst off, I guess I'll warn whoever is reading this...If you are into literature, I would like to apologize in advance for my terrible grammar, vocab, all the typos made, lack of sense I will make, and whatever else may bother you in this blog. By no means do I consider myself a writer, so just bare bare with me please!
THAT being SAID! I shall invite you to join me in this crazy journey I have just begun!
I've moved over to California for over a month now!
I have so many stories already of how God's working in my life and just about places I've been and people I've met.
However, I will try to keep it short and start out by explaining a bit more of my job for those of you who are still wondering what in the heck it is that I am doing that allows me to travel so much and live care free!
My new job as a media technician for Camfel Productions (click here to check out the website) conists of me and one other person travelling from town to town and state to state to set up a show of a multi media presentation of character building videos for middleschoolers and highschoolers.
We set up 3 huge screens, 3 projectors, 4 speakers, 3 dvd players, and show a 40 minute video that motivates and encourages kids.
It's a great oppotunity for kids to meet us because we pretty much get paid to travel and meet people, but most importantly an amazing opportunity for kids all around the U.S to be challenged, encouraged, and motivated.
I'm so excited for what God has in store for me through this.
I will cut this entry short cus the starbucks I'm at is closing, but I will be back tomorrow. Don't you worry! ;p
Yours truly,
DjO
SO this is my very first entry and I don't even know where to begin!?
FIrst off, I guess I'll warn whoever is reading this...If you are into literature, I would like to apologize in advance for my terrible grammar, vocab, all the typos made, lack of sense I will make, and whatever else may bother you in this blog. By no means do I consider myself a writer, so just bare bare with me please!
THAT being SAID! I shall invite you to join me in this crazy journey I have just begun!
I've moved over to California for over a month now!
I have so many stories already of how God's working in my life and just about places I've been and people I've met.
However, I will try to keep it short and start out by explaining a bit more of my job for those of you who are still wondering what in the heck it is that I am doing that allows me to travel so much and live care free!
My new job as a media technician for Camfel Productions (click here to check out the website) conists of me and one other person travelling from town to town and state to state to set up a show of a multi media presentation of character building videos for middleschoolers and highschoolers.
We set up 3 huge screens, 3 projectors, 4 speakers, 3 dvd players, and show a 40 minute video that motivates and encourages kids.
 |
| My Coworker Tiffany after our very first official setup ever |
 |
| During Training, we were being timed |
 |
It's a great oppotunity for kids to meet us because we pretty much get paid to travel and meet people, but most importantly an amazing opportunity for kids all around the U.S to be challenged, encouraged, and motivated.
I'm so excited for what God has in store for me through this.
I will cut this entry short cus the starbucks I'm at is closing, but I will be back tomorrow. Don't you worry! ;p
Yours truly,
DjO
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