Ok, So I have officially become terrible at blogging. I apologize to any of you who have come on my blog only to find out, nothing was new on it.
So much has happened and so much more is about to happen, but I will take it easy on you dont worry.
In fact, I think Im going to work backwards on this one. Ill describe a couple of the évents that this past week had in store for us, and then Ill share my Sunday devotional some other day, which I hope can encourage you.
So for starters, I am in our van, banned from driving, so Tiffany is driving and we are in the norhtern part of Kansas headed to DENVER, COLORADO !!! This is my weekend, and it kind of came out of nowhere. As Ive said before, being able to see Tiffany's friend all of thèse times has been good for both of us in different ways. She was able to spend quality time with people she knew and loves, while I was just going along with the flow and meeting her friends, who were all gréât.The rôles however this weekend are changing. Hopefully she'll have a good time getting to know a lot of my friends. As far Im concerned, I am beyond ecstatic. I had no idea I would seeing anyone until 2 nights ago when Tiffany brought to my attention that we were going to drive through Colorado Springs in order to get to our school in Alamosa, CO on Monday.
So yes, needless to say, I am super pumped. I will be staying with my all time best friend Lysiane tonight. We've been friends for about 14 years and we've gone through so much together and I just cannot wait to see her. Tomorrow, we will head to Colorado Springs in order to be one step closer to our school, and we will stay with my really good friend Lauren. We met in collège and clicked right away. We've been extremely close since my junior year in collège. On top of that, I will be able to see a lot of other friends between Denver and Colorado Springs. :) Its going to feel so good to finally be with friends and pretty much family that know me, my heart, who I am, where I'm from, what I've been doing and to just fully be myself for the first time in a long time ! I've been myself, but it does get hard to fully let loose when you are constantly meeting new faces and trying to get to know each other. So this is probably going to be the best weekend yet !!
So I want to share a little bit of my week with you. To be honest, I don't remember Monday. I know we had a show, and I know we drove that day to get closer to Grandview, KS in which we had a show on Wednesday. We drove to Overland Park, KS since it was only about 15 minutes away from Grandview. We stayed in a Super 8 motel from Monday evening to Thursday afternoon.
Little did we know how many stories would come out of us staying in a motel for just 3 nights~
Well, first of all, I got along real well with Sue, the desk lady, which came in handy on tuesday when on my way to buy a new clamp for our Wednesday show since our Monday show resulted in a broken clamp, (we usually use about 4 to hold up our 3 screens together) I had just woken up from a nap, and my brain usually takes quite a while to function « normally » (as normal as it can function hehe), so still being out of it, I (my all time best friend number 2 whom I havent spoken to in months due to her now living in Kenya, JUST called me and I cried because I was so happy to hear from her ! thank you GOD !) was backing out of my parking spot, and hit a truck. Yup. It happened. I felt so terribly bad when I checked it out and saw the huge dent that our van had left on the poor red truck. After contemplating driving away and not telling a soul out of fear and distress (it was my first time ever going through anything like that), I turned back around and went into the hôtel room to talk to Sue, the desk lady, and tell her what had happened. She was very sweet and reassuring. She kindly helped me find the owner of the truck, and once she finally got a hold of him, she told me I had nothing to be afraid of because he was a very nice/laid back man. My initial thought was, « well it doesnt matter how nice a person is, anyone who has to deal with someone messing with their vehicle, can quickly change from nicey nice to angry and scary. » She could tell I had a hard time believing that everything would be ok, but shed did her possible to keep reassuring and encouraging me. So the old cowboy lookin man comes wandering out of his room, and says « Alright, lets go see it . » Just like that. No frowing, no angry snares, no yelling, no veins sticking out, just an old man.
Right then, I started praising God, because right after it all happened, I had asked Him to just be with me and help me, and have Him just take care of the whole situation.
After calling the insurance, talking to my boss, trying to call Curtis (truck owner) insurance and more, we decided we would go to a repair shop the following day and get the estimate of the damage. This whole entire time, Curtis was being so incredibly nice, and on top of that hilarious. Not only did he keep repeating to me « Its not the end of the world, this happens all the time, dont beat yourself up about it, etc. » but he also made me laugh so hard that it also made me forget what we were dealing with. He called me dummy, and would introduce me to people as « crash » and since I deserved all that teasing and poking, I gladly took it and laughed at all of his jokes.
As a result of this little whoopsies, I have been banned from driving for a couple of weeks. I was telling Tiffany the other day « Wow, I just dont know how to handle this right now. I havent been punished in years !!! I dont even remember what punishment feels like, Im not so sure I like it at all. Haha » My bosses were a bit upset at first but they were both very understand and kind afterwards. One of them even told me he was proud of my integrity and honesty. So even though my lack of attention is costing them quite a bit, they dont hate me, arent going to fire me, and encourage me through it all. Thank God.
We ended up taking care of the estimate of the damage two days later. In the meantime, I ran into Curtis at the motel a couple of times, and we always stopped and talked for a bit before heading our different ways. He easily could've resented me for the accident I committed, but not only did he not ressent me, he took the time to get to know me, and care for me by comparing me to his « dummies » of kids that are my age and are just as dumb as me haha, and how he's used to that happening. This story has a gréât ending. It ends with Curtis taking Tiffany and I to Starbucks and buying each of us a drink and telling us crazy stories about himself. How he told the racist black guy from his job that God doesnt look at color, but at people's hearts, and finally shut him up once and for all. How he was able to get 3 autographed baseballs from a really famous baseball player once simply because he had been bold enough to walk right through the gate of the field during a game, and ask the player to sign them. How he made it in the group picture of the crew/producers of a famous horse and his horse rider who had just won a really hard race to win, simply because he was walking there at the right time, and the horse rider thought he was part of his crew and called him in the picture. Just so many crazy, hilarious, and even inspiring/motivational stories.
I cant be grateful enough towards God for the blessing that Curtis was in my life. I even told Curtis, that out of all of the cars in the parking lot, I was glad I had ran into his.
Oh and at one point, I said a dumb joke, and he looked at me straight faced and responds "You can't tell right now, but Im roaring of laughter on the Inside" hahahaha. How mean but hilarious is that !?
Check below to see pictures of the dent, and Curtis if interested.
Another good thing that came out of this « accident » was that throughout the happenings of the afternoon when I hit Curtis truck, I was able to meet a group of movers who had been staying at the motel while on their way to move another house. I'd told all three of them what had happened, and then we proceeded to talk and got to know each other. They were nice and I decided to hang out with them.
Though I wasn't able to minister to them on a conversational level, I hope I was still able to show the love of Christ because I did talk about my faith and my belief when the conversation came up. Yet at the same time, I didnt judge them nor condemn them for the way they acted or lived. I just appreciated their company while all the while having a blast with them, by just watching tv with them or hearing them complain about their job, or talk about each other's sleeping habits, and things like that.
At one point, they came to my room to meet Tiffany, and the next hour was spent with laughter and joy. Tiffany and I had one of the best laughs since we've been on the road. They were just funny ! I laughed so hard that at one point I cried, and at another point I fell off my bed. Tim, John, and Joey were just singing Taylor Swift, Justin Moore, and Kerry Underwood (very cheesy country music) to the top of their lungs. Once Tiff and I joined with the singing, there were 5 different keys, which Tiffanys was the only one that was Dead on. The rest of us were compeltely off key. It was so fun to just let loose and not care
Anywho, those were the amazing people we were able to meet in Overland Park in Kansas. What a blessing !!Another incredible encounter we had that was completely from God was on Wednesday morning. We had an early show, and this was the day following my running into Curtis red truck. I was completely out of it, exhausted and to be completely honest dreading doing a show that morning. I had so much on my mind, that I wasnt focused.
Well this all changed when I realized what an amazing school we were at. Between the teachers, (Phil, the Young choir teacher who took time to help us set up while wearing his nice clothes and made coffee for me), the principal (a strong willed African American woman who was just full of energy and so gréât with the kids, and also very funny. She could NOT remember my name, and kept stressing about before introducing us to the kids.) and last but not least, the custodian, whom I will save a spécial paragraph for, because well, he was just very spécial !
At first, Mike was just another custodian, there to help us, which we are always extremely grateful for, until after the show, when he took the time to talk to us and get to know us. He no longer was just another custodian, we found out he was a Brother in Christ.
Mike asked me while I was tearing the frames down where I was from. I believe Ive shared this with you all before, how I usually dont respond « Senegal » to this question due to lack of desire to respond to all the questions that follow after. Or sometimes I just dont feel like people genuinly care where Im from, so I just give them a quick and simple answer, which they are usually quite satisfied with.
Well with Mike, it was diffferent, I responded with the whole entire truth, for God knows what reason (literally). Mike got really excited and asked me where Sierra Leone was in comparison to Senegal. So i responded that it was a couple countries down from Senegal. This is when I found out that he was a Brother in Christ. He shared that he was supposed to go to Sierra Leone for a missions trip. (and him sharing this was just amazing since he had no idea we were Christians, but he had the boldness to procclaim his love and desire to work whole heartedly for God, which I really admired.) He told me that he unfortunately didnt think the trip was going to work out and it made him really sad because next year he will have a good chunk of months off and was hoping to really spend some time in a country in need of servants, to invest time and whatever savings he had and just do ministry there for a while.
I jokingly suggested he should go to Senegal, and after noticing that he loved the idea and was serious about, I decided we should exchange contact information so that he could possibly talk to my parents about going to Senegal and helping with ministry wherever there is a need for several months. How amazing is that ? Who knows, if this Works out, maybe just maybe, God had pre planned the failure of his trip in Sierra Leone, and pre planned our being at that school in Grandview, KS and had pre planned my telling him I was from Senegal, just so that God could use him in Senegal to serve as a short-term missionary ! If it doesnt work out, either way I believe he was a gréât blessing to us, and us to him. Mikes testimony and stories about the power and présence of God in his life was incredible. He later on told me that it was a gréât blessing for him to have met both Tiffany and I and hed been very encouraged by it. He said it completely made his day. :) Another gréât ending to a gréât story, was how after Mike helped us load our van and after sharing a couple of last words, he reached in his Pocket and said. « You know what, you girls have worked really hard today, and it was so good meeting you, that I want to buy you diner ! So heres $20 and you girls go get yourself something to eat tonight on me ! »
WOW. Ok. Clearly at first, Tiff and I had a hard time receiving it. It just felt wrong to take money from a highschool custodian, but God did use him to bless us in many ways and when God blesses us we cant refuse his blessings. His grâce is outrageously phénoménal and I cant express my gratefulness towards what He provided us with this past week !!!
I haaaaaad to share it with you. I know i twas a lot, and I need to work on updating you guys more often so you dont have as much to read all at once, but Im trying.
This past week's blessings go along gréât with the sermon we heard this past Sunday, one I will be sharing with you soon. (probably not this weekend, since I will be taking advantage of every possible minute to be with loved ones.) but soon enough. I promise.
I want to thank you deeply for your prayers. God is watching over me and blessing me beyond belief on top of that. Just when I start getting down and lonely, He provides me with people to meet or even better, friends to spend time with. I'm so so happy ! So thank you again for your prayers. You guys are a gréât support !
May thèse BLESSINGS return to you as well.
Much much love,
DJO
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