The Nut Cart

So this week I have the greatest privilege of working all by myself on the nut cart.  The Nut Cart ONLY sales cinnamon glazed almonds, pecans, macadamia nuts, ohh and mixed nuts; point is that the job is not that strenuous.  To make matters even more enjoyable is the fact that this nut cart is broken so I don't even have to make the nuts! So for about six hours I stand by myself with maybe ten customers! (maybe you can sense the sarcasm of how enjoyable this job really is) 

First Day on the Cart:

Going into work knowing that I was going be on the Nut Cart I had the best attitude, thinking "oh this won't be bad I will just be able to enjoy having solitude with God!" Well I found out that I didn't really know how to open the nut cart so some of the production workers came and helped me, the only thing is that they can't really speak english and I can't really speak spanish..you can guess how that went.  We each had to make two trips back to the main Marini's store! I thought to myself "rough start but its okay it will only get better"

Little did I know my day was just going to get worse, I had NO customers so I did NOTHING.  I started people watching and that was fun until the devil got a hold of my thoughts, I began to judge everyone and anyone who walked by.  Comparing myself to them and normally making myself look better then them.  Around 1:00 I was getting really frustrated that I was judging but I couldn't stop and on top of that I still had not had my break.  By this point I thought all shots were broken for having a good day.  

I finally got a break around 2:00 and they said they had forgotten about me, which made me pretty sad.  So I knew this day wasn't going to get better unless my attitude changed, I talked with Tom, who God uses so much in my life to encourage me and help me bring the focus back to Him!  I knew the devil was still going to tempt me to judge, but I talked to my friend Jill about it and she gave me a great idea to memorize a verse so that when I catch myself judging I can refer back to it! After getting some food and going back to work I began to see that I had no reason to complain. I had the most amazing view of the beach right behind me, I had a job in an economy where jobs didn't come by so easy, and the best thing was that God was so evident in my life and that He was/is holding me in His hands!  

"There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you-who are you to judge your neighbor?" James 4:12

The Dream - chapter seven

After much discussion about what was to be done next, they realized that what was truly important lay ahead. Facing forward they saw the giant mountain completely coverying the sky. It appeared as if there was a statue on the side of the mountain or some kind of writing. They couldn't make out the whole figure from the beach so they decided to go to the water and get the perspective from on the boat. After replenishing their supply of food from what they could manage to take back to the boat in the dingy they sped off to their yacht over the suprisingly calm waters. Once aboard they perched themself on the stern of their boat and saw what seemed to be an arrow. An unordinary trailmark! By taking a step of faith they began to follow it in hopes that the direction eventually would bring them to Hawaii. Upon leaving they prepared to make way and head off to the horizon. They immediately started to get their bearings and started planning for their arrival at Hawaii. The sun having set painted a twilight sky filled with soothing dark colors that glimmered with the stars. In the morning, they would be closer and closer to their destination. And with that in sight, they knew nothing could stop them.

Day of Outreach

So here I am all the way across the country in Santa Cruz! I've been here for about three weeks and we have already seen God working in the city.  Every saturday night we are going to have some sort of outreach, last week I'm not going to lie I dreaded it and I felt that I wasn't cut out to do this kind of ministry.  As the day progressed today I started feeling this same dread and it showed on my emotions.  At the beginning of our outreach we were assigned to different parts of Santa Cruz and I said to myself  "as long as I'm not assigned to stay at the peter pan I will enjoy this experience." Well God must have been laughing at me because I was assigned to the peter pan area.  I felt like I could cry, I truly did not want to be there, little did I know that God was going to use me.  So I knew that this night was going to be miserable if I didn't suck it up.  So Casey, one of the guys that was in my group, and I began to pray together, and as I prayed I just prayed that the Lord would fill me with His joy, knowing I would not be able to be joyful on my own.  Right after that I just felt like this burden I was holding onto was lifted, and this might sound ridiculous or crazy, but I knew that my prayer had been answered, the Lord had filled me with His joy!  Our group prayed some more then we began to ask people walking by if they wanted to do a survey (we were using soularium) most turned us down.  But a group of about five people came by, the first thing out of one of the guys mouth was I want to take the survey if you don't mind that I'm high haha, so lets just say that it was an experience, but I just pray that they saw Christ through us.  So Brian and I decided to go to the other side of the road to try and engage in conversation with those people.  Well we meet this guy named Eridmus (not really sure how to spell opps) and I started to go through soularium with him, he didn't really catch what he was supposed to do so I just jumped ahead to the third question and asked what picture represent God to you? He said "what is this God you're talking about." WOW I was so taken back, right then I knew (I'm sure Brian did too) God put us right there to talk to Eridmus and share with him about our great God.  I pulled out the KGP booklet and together Brian and I went through it, sharing parts of our testimony and really showing Eridmus how much joy we had in our relationship for Christ.  Eridmus seemed to be really taking in what the Lord had to say through us! At the end he still had many questions so we knew he wasn't ready to accept Christ into his life, but we knew this wasn't the end of how God was going to work in his life.  So we got his contact information and invited him to dinner at the pan!  This night was so awesome, so many times we are so frustrated to share our faith seeing no results but we have to trust that God is using us to planting seeds in peoples lives.  "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but only God who makes things grow." 1 Corinthians 3:6-7