As usual, I Wake up for breakfast at motels and either decide to go back to sleep once getting food or read a bit while drinking my coffee and lounging before getting ready for the day.
Monday morning, I woke up and got breakfast (bagels and coffee) and called my mother since I had about an 1h 30 till I had to get ready for our afternoon show (for which we had to leave at 11).
While getting my coffee, I notice a blonde lady in her upper 30s and an older lady sitting down. I noticed the older lady cus it seemed like she knew everyone in there. She was all cute and matching outfit and just hugging people left and right. She then commented on my outfit and said I looked adorable. Haha. I laughed because the previous day, Lauren told me Id looked like I was a homeless person wearing that. (I went straight to bed in my clothes the night before since we arrived late at the motel and I was to tired to change.)
Tiffany then comes out and they start talking to her. Since I was on the phone with my mom, I didn't really pay to much attention but I could tell that at some points they were talking about me,(about how cute I looked, and asking why I was speaking in French, etc)
Once mom and I's conversation was over, I went straight to the room to get ready for our présentation, which was less than a mile away. Finally having the time to take a shower, doing my haïr, putting some normal clothes on, and not looking so homeless anymore.
On our way to the van, the ladies, still in the lobby, wish us luck, and the older one gives us hugs and tells me I look like a whole new person. Haha.
After the show, I ran into the blonde later and after talking with her for about 40 minutes about life, I find out her name is Melissa, and she has just moved to Alamosa in order to be with her boyfriend who worked at the motel, and in which she lived until she could get her own place.
I then proceed to run into the older lady, who has a huge smile on her face and asks me how the show went, and hugs me, and tells me she loves me. She was so sweet, I then found out her name was Darlene.
The following morning, Darlene, and Melissa are sitting at the breakfast table with another lady (Rhonda). As soon as they saw me they go "There she iiiissss" and pull out a chair as they invite me to eat breakfast with them. We talked for two hours ! It was gréât. They complimented one of my many necklaces (the Africa one) and I told them I designed it. I explained a little bit about Senegal and showed where it was on my necklace/the continent of Africa, and then I told them the cross on my necklace represented my love for Christ. They all go "awwwe, she's a sister in Christ !" and we laughed. One by one the ladies left until it was just Darlene and I. We got to know each other, and after a while I was able to see some of Darlene's pictures as she took the time to look at my pictures from home, and from my trip so far. After this happened she turns over to Melissa (who had come back) and says "It is not everyday that we are blessed with friends who are willing to show us pictures . "
Awe ! So cute !!
While Darlene, Melissa, and I were sitting down, I hear them say " Oh here comes Smiley." They were both talking about a worker at the motel who is usally always smiling.
However as he walked in that morning, his smile wasn't the usual "light up a room" smile, it was more of a forced, fatigued smile. So Melissa (who knows him well) said "uh oh....Smiley, what's wrong??"
He tells us that he just got back from the doctor's after puking blood again that morning. We all gasped and asked him for more details. So he sat down and explained that they kept sending him to different specialists because no one knew what was wrong after time and time tests were returned showing he was healthy.
Suddenly, Darlene grabs everyone's hands and we join in hands and she says, we need to pray. So we said a quick prayer for Tiger (his real nickname) and I asked for his real name and told him I'd keep praying for him as well. That God may lead him to the right doctor who will have the wisdom to figure out the problem and be able to help the healing process to begin.
The rest of the day consisted of me lounging, watching movies and shows, talking on the phone, running into the ladies and having quick chats with them, and skyping.
This morning, as soon as I woke up, I headed straight to the lobby to get some coffee and spend some Jesus time outside in private. As soon as I entered, my lady friends were all seated at the same ol' table and greeted me cheerfully. Rhonda stood up and hugged me while saying, "How you doing Mamasita? Bless your heart!" What a blessing to receive love first thing in the morning!!
So I greeted them back, hugged them, and after they asked me where I was headed to since I was carrying my purse, I responded "Ladies, I love you all, but I love my Lord way more and need to spend some time with him for a bit, and then I'll come back and eat breakfast with yall." Darlene and Rhonda responded "You go giiiirl!"
So, the Lord led me to read James (probably still inspired by sunday's sermon.) I read the first two chapters and was really touched by the reminder of God's desire for us to love each other equally. I realized that that is something I have a problem with. In fact, James asks us how can claim to have faith if we favor some people over others (James 2:1) and he follows on by telling us that if we do that we are sinning. (James 2:9). This really hit me hard. It's kind of hard thing to think about. I mean think about how much you love your husband/wife/brother/parent/best friend. Now compare that love to your neighbor/servant/co-worker/the post man/ the rude lady at the bank...well you get where I am going with this. It's not really the same kind of love is it? And if it is, then more power to you! Good job! I am willing to admit it isn't in my case. So I stopped reading and asked God to help me to love like He does. Simple as that. I know I can't do it on my own, so I asked God to help me love specific people in my life that I knew I had a hard time loving as much as I love others, and after that I ready in "A Gentle Thunder" by Max Lucado (go figure) and the chapter I read was quite fitting. :) the Title of it was "For Longer Than Forever, the God Who Loves Boldly." I read two full pages of solid encouragement and description of God's love for us.
Oh hey God, thanks for so kindly answering my prayer by firstly allowing me to see how you love.
The chapter talked about God's unconditional and unshakable love for us. Max talked about how we don't deserve it by describing every day thoughts or emotions we go through as humans. For example, "God fills the world with food, yet we blame him for hunger. He gives us blue skies, and we demand rain. He gives us rain, and we demand sun. We are a gnat on the tail of one elephant in a galaxy of Africa, yet we demand that He finds us the parking place that we ask."
Then he goes on comparing God's love towards us with the love that a mother has for her child. How the child causes her back to ache for months, causes her to snack and deform her body, to then throw up, to then be filled with scorching pain and then forces the mother to wake up every night for the following 6 weeks of her life. But does the mother love her child any less because of all it has put her through? Not it doesn't. WHy is that? Not just because the child is hers, but because the child is HER. "Her blood. her flesh. her sinew and spine. her hope. her legacy."
Max reminds us through this description that God loves us because we are a part of HIM. He created us according to His image, and in this sense we are all equal and not only will he love us all no matter what, he also expects and hopes that we can love each other equally as well.
What a great God I serve!
After reading all of this, I couldn't wait to go back to the lobby and share this with my new friends. I ran in excitedly, and said "I have to share this!" They said "alright, go for it!" and cleared the table so I could set my coffee, Bible, and book down.
I shared it all and they were extremely attentive. I read the whole two pages of the book after explaining my prayer and what I had read in James. It was amazing to be able to read this illustration to 3 ladies who had been mothers, and knew exactly what Max Lucado was talking about. I hope it encouged them!
It was real funny because there were some hispanic men sitting behind us, and though they didn't understand or speak much english, Darlene noticed that as I was pourring my heart out to the ladies, one of the hispanic men began to speak to one of his friends, who grabbed his hand, pointed towards our table, and used his finger to shush him. Though he didn't understand what I was saying, he figured it was of great importance from the look on each of the ladie's faces.
Darlene was leaving an hour after this, so the next hour was spent with the ladies talking about Christian authors, and verses, and different experiences from God.
Darlene wrote me a song called "Will we be together in Heaven?" She didn't write it herself, but she did write it down for me.
I took pictures with these precious ladies, and after we all exchanged emails, numbers, and facebook information. Darlene hugged us goodbye, I said farewell, and we each went out ways!
 |
| Darlene before she left |
 |
| Isn't she lovely? |
Whew. Just when I thought my week was going to be boring and sad because I would be missing all of my friends from the previous weekend, God busts out with some phenomenal people who blessed me just by talking with them and getting to know them.
What a mighty God I serve. This reminds me about the day I blogged about how God cares about the small details. While people are hurting financially, or losing families, or going through famine, my compassionate Father in Heaven (who definitely cares about those people for sure) also cares about my tiny tiny little fear of loneliness that I thought would overwhelm me after such a great weekend in Denver.
I'm on fire right now. Just can't believe His faithfulness, and want to share more more more. He keeps doing so much in my life!
Also, I forget to share in my last entry that at Ted Haggard's Church of Saint James, each visitor was given a copy of Ted's wife's book called "Why I stayed." The book is a testimony of how they met, how they came into the mission field, how the New Life Church grew, how all the rumors went down, and how instead of succumbing to the situation, she clung to the Lord with the little strength she had and rose above it.
I began reading it last night and today on our way to Nebraska in the car. What a crazy awesome testimony. It's also crazy that I was in the presence of these people a couple of days ago. Now I am reading almost every detail of their life. What an encouragement. I highly recommend this book to women who are struggling with life, marriage, and everything that accompanies it. It really makes you think of the power you have to make decisions as a woman and how it can affect your entire life, your children, your husband, your friends, your Church family, and even strangers.
Welp. I could keep typing for hours, but time to hit the sack. Show tomorrow. Pray that Tiffany can handle all the driving. We have a afternoon show, We probably won't get out till 4pm, and we head straight back to Colorado, which'll take a good 7 hours. Our show on friday will be pretty early in the morning. So the next two days will be quite intense.
This weekend however, Tiff gets to rest, and I get to be with friends. AGAIN. JOY.
The following week will be my birthday. Perfect way to start out my birthday week, with friends and loved ones.
BLESSINGS. Have a great morning/night/day/afternoon/evening.
DJO
No comments:
Post a Comment