Dear reader,

I've decided to write more often. I'm not making any promises but it makes sense to write more short entries, even if I don't have much to say, rather than bombard you with a super long entry trying to update you with days or weeks worth of stuff. So here I go...

I had a good weekend. We went to a church that was right next to our motel and though small, it was full of love. Every one welcomed us. THere were probably just about 100 people in the congregation and more than half of the congregation shook our hands asking us our names and introducing themselves to us. So very nice.

The sermon was good as well. I was off in my own little world though for most of it :/
But I was reminded one important thing through it all. That as a body of Christ, we, as Christians can pretty much do anything, accomplish anything for the Kingdom as long as we stick to each other. As long as we don't let the ennemy disunite us with distractions or quarrels.
The sermon was about the 6 disciplines that each disciple should have (discipline of self-control, steadfastness, the body, being an example, being transparent, and having a heart for people). So though the sermon didn't have much to do with what I got out of it. I was very glad I was able to be reminded of this important truth.

I read in Romans 14 and it was a perfect chapter to get me started on my thinking about the Church as a body and how it shouldn't matter that we don't all agree on the same thing, because in the end we should just accept each other's differences and let God take care of who's right and who's wrong or what's right and what's wrong.
How dare we think we are wise enough to make that judgement and discernment?
The pastor invited the congregation to pray for their specific church and the leaders in it.
But my prayer was for our Church. The body of Christ. This BODY, which Christ rules by being each of us' Lord.
I prayed that as a body we would cling tight to what we know and to each other as well. That as long as we are present within each other we may feel confident and comfort each other, encourage each other, push each other, and that all the members of this body may join hand in hand  to be better prepared to fight satan who wants nothing more than to destroy us, by disuniting us through discouragement, and lack of focus.

The pastor started the whole sermon by talking about Martial arts. Frankly I don't know where he was going with this because that's when I went off in my own little world.
But, that same morning, as I was drinking my coffee, and praying, and reading the Word, a man came up to me and asked me what I was reading. I responded I was reading Jeremiah 14 and I explained a bit about what I was getting out of it. He proceeded to tell me he was a martial arts instructor who bases a lot of what he teaches to his kids on the scripture.
I think the pastor was using martial arts as a description of how intense it is and how as christians we should view our disciplines like martial arts.
I don't know if there is a correlation to me meeting a martial arts instructor right before going to church and hearing about martial arts within the sermon, but I still thought it was quite interesting.

All of this to say, in the end, I got a vision of the Christian body (all of us) and we were all in the shape of a cross and we did martial arts. haha. it sounds ridiculous when i type it out. But this vision was really powerful because we were all so close to each other, that nothing could break us. We fought a good fight and when one of us fell, the other picked us up. When one of us was getting attacked, the other one busted out some martial arts holy bible move.

Maybe I've been watching to much tv. (Chuck...a great show). But anyways, that was my sunday.

Saturday was extremely relaxing. I think I may have already talked a bit about it on yesterday's entry.

Today, I woke up to a dead Ipod. :( Very very sad day for me.

I'm allowed to drive again, so after literally throwing most of my belongings out the window because I am to lazy to go downstairs carrying it all. We got in the van and I took the first driving shift. It felt long because I didn't have my music. But it wasn't bad.

We stopped at a radio shack (well at a couple) to buy a new microphone. We ate taco bell. Oh AND I bought this very sweet deal at Wal-mart that has a coffee machine, a pluggable fryer, and an iron for $8!!!! woah!!! what a deal. Fried eggs and pancakes, here i come!!! I've been on a roll with deals. On saturday, I bought the cutest jeans for $10!!!!!!

Ok so that was my excitement for the day. The set I bought is pink to :)

Um. Yea. So this week we have shows all week aside from today since we had a longer drive. I should be getting a package from a good friend, Jessie on friday.
Next friday, I'll be getting a package from bff Megan in the mail!!!!!!!

In 2 weeks, we'll be in Texas so I'm looking forward to the warm weather :)

And after that hopefully things will be set for me to be able to spend thanksgiving in Indiana/Illinois with Megan!!!! OMG!!! SO EXCITED.

Please please pray that this works out. Not only do I need this time very much, but most importantly, my parents will be coming to Wisconsin that same week for conferences. It so happens not only is this the same week that I will actually have some time off, but they will be flying in and out of Chicago. If it all works out, I could POSSIBLY see my parents, even just for an hour.
I haven't seen them in about a year and miss them terribly as you can imagine. My heart breaks just thinking about it.
So pleaaase pray that it works out.

The problem is that we have a tentative schedule for the week before and after thanksgiving, but until we know it's a solid/for sure/non changeable schedule, me can't really make any plans according to it.
But if it all works out. It sounds like our last show the week prior to thanksgiving would be on a tuesday, meaning we could fly out either tuesday night or wednesday morning. We'd have to fly back in on monday. Which I was hoping I could fly out of Chicago and see my parents before heading back on tour monday night because we'd have a show that following tuesday.
HOW AMAZING WOULD THAT BE.

THe only issue with not knowing whether this'll work out was us needing to make sure we could find a safe place to leave our van at. It sounds like we'll be in Texas, not to far from Dallas, in which I have a couple of friends who wouldn't mind "watching" our van for a couple days. Crazy!

I really hope it works out, in case you couldn't tell. So please keep me in your prayers in those regards.

Ok. So there ya have it. I have quite a couple of things to look forward to for the next couple of weeks, so praise God for that. It's what keeps me going on this long and lonely journey. haha

Blessings to you dear reader.

Love,

Do