Larry, Meg, Me, Lost.

I met a guy named Larry yesterday.
He was standing at the corner of Industrial and Taco-Bell.
I gave him some oatmeal.
I prayed for him.

Will you pray for him too?





I talked with a girl named Meg.
She is a freshman and a new believer.
She is really awesome.
I am praying for her.

Will you pray for her too?





I dream a lot.
My future has so many options.
My life right now is so great.
I'm praying for further direction.

Will you pray for me too?





I work with lost people.
I want to share truth with them.
They are fun and I love them.
I pray for them to ask more questions.

Will you pray for them too?

Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

i just want to post

I like it when people update their blogs consistently and am currently desiring to do so myself.
the problem is - I have nothing really to say...OR what I do have to say only makes sense to my brain or does not need to be shared with the world wide web.



do do do. (that is a song)





...maybe later.

Praise God for.....mornings?

I said it.
believe it.
or don't.
your choice.


the Lord is so good to me.
if you know me at all - you know that I naturally HATE mornings.
working at starbucks means that I work mornings, sometimes VERY early mornings.

the shocking part of this post is that I AM ENJOYING IT.
I am waking up - I am not feeling sick - I am excited to go to work - I am chipper.
only the Lord can do that. really.
oh, also - I am making time to read the Bible in the morning (even if I wake up at 4:15am) and that has really blessed my days as well!!



so, thank Jesus.

one long saturday

so, yesterday was saturday.
I worked at 5am at "the bucks", which means I woke up around 4:15am.
The night before I did not go to bed until around 1:30am.
That equals about three hours of sleep.
Bad Idea.

"The bucks" ended at 10am. I drove to Olathe to celebrate Kaitlin's (my sister) 16th birthday.
The plan was to have lunch then take her shopping.
We had lunch with the family - but I felt like a ZOMBIE the whole time.

After lunch I was exhausted and therefore EMOTIONAL.
I became easily annoyed and frustrated by everything.
As soon as we returned to my Grandma's house I couldn't help but cry...?
So I took a nap after crying for about an hour.

After my nap I had some dinner then Kaitlin and I went shopping.
We had a really good time.
We talked about boys and life.
I love her a lot.








I was planning on returning to Emporia last night, but it was super foggy and there had been a pretty tragic accident on the same highway earlier that day - so I decided to wait (based on the wisdom offered from my family members).
This morning I wanted to leave early to come back for church and sunday school today, but did not - also due to the fog :(

Here I am. Home now. It was still really foggy the first half of the drive, but good the second half.




I don't know if anyone cares about my day(s) in detail, but I wanted to blog, so there.

starbucks.

I love coffee.
I love being a barista.
I love people.
I love music.
I love all those things combined into one place called, "Starbucks".

Working there is one of the most interesting aspects of my life. I LOVE it and am confident in my abilities, while at the same time it makes me SO NERVOUS.

Nervous that I will say or do the wrong thing in a moment of frustration.
Nervous that I will spill a drink and my co-workers will judge me.
Nervous that I am not being Jesus in such a lost place.
Nervous that I am too nervous about sharing.
Nervous that I don't know how to respond to some comments said by my co-workers without passing judgment.
Summary: Nervous of failure.

All of these things are really good for me to be aware of and pray about. And that is why I love it.

I love taking orders and talking with customers.
I love making drinks.
I love down-times when I can chat with my co-workers.
I love making silly mistakes and laughing at myself.
I love being able to serve in little ways.
I love that I don't care about the logistical business stuff and can just relax.
I love being Jesus in such a lost place.
I love sharing - when opportunity arises.
I love building community connections!
I love responding without passing judgment when a co-worker says something questionable.
Summary: I love succeeding in obedience to God.

Some days it is really hard to work when I feel like people will talk about me when I am not there (in a bad way) but on days like today, the Lord blesses me so abundantly that that thought doesn't even matter - and I am able to enjoy every minute of working with them! Today was fun and I am glad I work at Starbucks :)




{notice how the "loves" out way the "nervous-es"? that is good.}

repentance

tonight I was reading the word and really praying about what repentance means or doesn't mean in my life.

i made this:


{if you click on the picture you can see it in a new window...a better view}

some passages that really touch my heart are Romans 2:4 and Job 11:13-30

Silence.

John 10:27
"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."

In a few weeks we, as a Challenge Staff, are going to challenge our students to be silent.
The extent of this depends on the person.

For most it will look like this:
no texting.
no facebook.
no MUSIC.
no TV/Movies.
no instant messaging.
no youtube.
no blogging.
+/- etc.

Since we are challenging our students, we decided to first take on this challenge. It begins now, January 10th and will end on the 17th.
One week.
Quieting of our world.

What is the purpose?
learning to listen to God
replacing all the noise of our everyday lives with active listening.
pursuing His voice over the many other voices that fill our each day.


"personally..."
Personally, I am both excited and terrified for this week. Excited because it has come at a perfect time. There are many things I need to be talking with God about and many things I need to be listening to. I can't wait to see what is revealed to me this week. Also, I get annoyed with technology, so a break from it is always good.
Terrified because I am addicted to music. I will have to do a good job of actively NOT turning on the TV or radio for background noise. It will be really hard for me to NOT check facebook all the time. All these things combined will be really hard to avoid - but the cost is WORTH the reward. Actively pursuing Jesus this week will be so rewarding and so sweet.

As we were meeting today about our "limitations" for the week we began to laugh at each other - we all came up with excuses of why this week will be hard, and we know that students will do the same; despite the excuses, or valid reasons, we are doing it and will be able to stand before our students with great testimony of how loud our God can be if we just take the time to LISTEN.

Peace out blogspot :)

Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

pictures!

one day I made a snowman with a group of kids and two other staffers!


this is Garen (the pastor in charge of this awesome week) and two of my BEST friends Nila and Lundy :)


this is my beautiful "family" - Nila (from ESU, Staff), Aejin (from ESU and South Korea), Nahi (from Omaha and Saudi Arabia), Seayoung (from ESU and South Korea), Hunyoung (from KC and South Korea), Me, Huan (from Tulsa and China) and Honggang (from Tulsa and China).


we went on many hikes - this is the group from our first one.



Bear Trap is SO beautiful!!!


jumping pictures are THE best, aren't they?


last one - me on top of the world (or some mountains)