My Birthday and MORE!

So, where to begin? It's been a bit since I've posted (I told you not to get to used to it) but it's because, despite the fact that I am not working anywhere yet, there has been so much going on! I am meeting my neighbors who are also BSSM students for 1st year. There are about 70 students living right around here, where I'm at. Did I mention that this is considered an "outreach community"? :) You can probably guess why. It's a bit of a sketchy neighborhood and yet, I feel so safe that the unlit parking lot where I park, doesn't even bother me! It's really amazing how things start to change when you really learn to trust Jesus and that He loves to protect us!

 

So, Sunday was my 32nd birthday! YIKES! I am seriously already INTO my 30's!! Whew! But oh well, what's in an age, right Cindy? ;) Anyway, I wanted to stay busy on Sunday so that I didn't just sit around and cry that I wasn't with my family. For those of you that don't know, I don't particularly love (or even really like) my birthday. It's been that way since I was younger- probably pre-teens. I know that it's not the Lord and I know that He has been and will continue to change this! It's definitely better now than it even was several years ago! Anyway, for my birthday I usually only want to be with my family and not think about it BEING my birthday. But, seeing as how I'm here and they are in Indiana, that wasn't possible. BUT fortunately, God knew what I needed and has already surrounded me with new and amazing friends! Right here, in the apartments that I live in! Dusty and Jonathan and I have hung out the past several days and it's been so great!  The above photo is the Sundial Bridge here in town! It's really a cool thing! And it actually tells the time, by the shadow it casts on the ground! Pretty cool! I hear it lights up at night (the part of the bridge you walk on) so I'll have to visit at dark sometime!

 

                                                  

Here's a photo of us three on my birthday on the bridge. Good day! We even got to see a real life river otter! I tell you, Dusty is an amazing woman of God and when she prays, things happen! For reals! She saw 2 river otters earlier in our walk and Jon and I weren't quite sure we believed her. But after Jon googled it, we decided there really are river otters in the Sacramento River! ha! So then we wanted to see one! Well, Miss Dusty prayed for some to make themselves visible and wouldn't ya know it, a little cute head popped up out of the water- facing us- and floated with the current out of view. He was seriously looking at us the whole time like, "Hey guys. I heard you wanted to say hi so here I am. You three look pretty cool!" lol! Yeah, that's what he was saying, I'm sure of it! :)

 

 Don't know if you can tell but Sunday seemed like a pretty clear day and yet the skies are still smokey. Today was actually VERY smokey when I walked outside! You could just see the smoke in the air and again, it smelled like an intense campfire! This is the Sacramento River as we stood on the bridge.

 I decided not to try and pull out my camera as the otter swam by but just enjoyed it instead. So, I took some pics of their little feet prints on the banks, instead. :) Such cute footprints even! :)

 We spent a few hours at the river and relaxed. I actually chatted on the phone to Earl and Rebecca (in England) for an hour while at the park. Was just a good day. Oh, and we had lunch at a local hamburger joint called Damburger! It was actually really good! It started as a tent set up beside the dam- as they were building it! Then we came home to rest a bit before evening service. And wouldn't you know it, Dusty and Jon were all sneaky and went to get a cake and came to bless me with cake on my birthday! Wow! And this wasn't just any ol' cake, this was a deliciously rich and intense layered type cake and I loved it! :) They did good! :) Wow! Have I mentioned, amazing people?! :)

Then we went to the evening service at Bethel and again, amazing! Worship/Music time was incredible and I was so lost in it that I didn't even see the glory cloud! But it kept coming, later, and then I got to enjoy it! :) Lou Engle spoke and he's just such a cool and humble guy but has such a passion for the lost and for what God is calling people to that it was just so great! I ended the night by bawling my head off through the end of his preach and then as we went up front if we were feeling called. Called to the unreached people groups that Jesus has told us to go to! The word in scripture that we translate as "nations" is actually supposed to be translated as "ethnic groups"! So, there are many ethnic groups in each nation. He said there are still 7,000 some un-reached ethnic groups! WOW! SEVEN THOUSAND!!! We have got to get there, people! We just have to!!!! And God was just confirming more and more in me (on my birthday of all days) that He has and is still calling me to them! Seriously. (**crying again**) I first felt it in Namibia with Teen Mania. One night, under the vast expanse of sky and stars, our leader gave us a talk and played the song by Keith Green called Asleep in the Light!  Take a listen! It's definitely "old" and Keith Green style, but it's got a great message. That night, in Africa, as I heard the words, I knew that I couldn't NOT go! BUT, as the years passed and life got in the way, I began to think that maybe it's not that I'm supposed to go, for long term, but maybe just keep doing short term mission trips.

But NO! Over the past 6 months God has been awakening this in me- that it's not the short term stuff that I'm called to, but the long term, get your hands super dirty, get to know the people and their ways and get in their and show them Jesus in the midst of it all! That's what He's asking me to do! At least that's what I'm really believing He's saying! Wow! It makes me cry anytime it comes up and not because it scares me (but yeah, it really kind of does) but because I just know, so deep inside of me, that God has put this thing here and He is going to work it out, in His perfect timing and in His perfect place for me! Woah!

 These are some new friends. Really AMAZING people with such unique backgrounds and yet they all come together at the cross! Really, I'm sitting here, crying, as I write this. I am so happy that I get to spend the next months with these people (and ones I have yet to meet)! God is so good in how He brings certain people together at a certain time, isn't He! Wow. I am just standing in amazement because I obviously often forget how GOOD He truly is in His perfect timing! He's never early and never late! Always right on time! :)

I decided that I wanted to cook for peeps, so I invited them over for an easy pasta dish tonight! It was just a good time! We shared our backgrounds/testimonies and shared laughs and yeah. Just good stuff. I hope that my roommates like to have guests because I'm realizing that I love to have guests! That is something that, a few years ago I would have never thought I'd like to do, but wow, how God is changing me- into the woman He has always intended me to be!

Okay, one more story before I go. Last night, Dusty and I went to the worship room at the church. It's more of a smaller worship time that they have several times during the week and it's just really chill and good! Much more prophetic, Spirit lead singing times! Really good stuff. So, it goes until 10pm. First of all, both of us were going to try and wait to use the restroom until we got back home- but the subject came up that both of us could go now, so we went their at the church! And then, as we were leaving the church and driving down the road that leads up to it, I saw a guy walking, as if he was just coming from the church too! So, I said, "Oh, I wonder if he needs a ride." -as I drove past. ha! But Dusty says, maybe so. Do you want to turn around and see! So, that gave me the umph to do just that! So, we turn around and roll down our window and say "Hey, we just came from Bethel too. Do you need a ride somewhere?" and he said, yeah, home, if you would! :) So he hopped in! Great guy. Paul. He said it wasn't too far to his place and it really wasn't, in a car. But to walk it and at night, I say no thank you. :) The hills around here are brutal! ha! Anyway, he moved out here to be at Bethel last September. He just felt like he should, and so decided to just do it! He's from Pennsylvania area! And he's enjoying it immensely! So, when we get closer to his home, he tells us that him and a friend were mugged (near there) on the way home the other night! WHAT?! AH! And he precedes to tell us how it went down. It was two guys and they took Paul and his friends bags and looked through them a bit and then gave the friends bag back to him cause they thought it had nothing in it. Uh, there was his IPAD in it! woah! And then they started to walk away with Paul's bag. But he said he had such a peace and felt like Holy Spirit was telling him to keep trying so he says, "Hey, my bible is in there. Can I just have my bible please?" and so they gave him his bible. Then he says "Oh and my books. I just really need my books." And so they gave him his books. And then "Oh, my journal is in there! I have some stuff written down that I really would like to keep." so they gave him his journal. And again, he said he just felt such a peace of Christ that he kept going. So he says "Oh, and my wallet is in there. It has all my id cards and such and it will be such a pain to replace..." AND the dudes are like, "Well, is there any cash in it?" And Paul says, yeah a little, like $10 or $15 bucks. So, the guys take the cash and give him his wallet back!! WHAT?!?! HA! I guess the people around here just want drug money so that's all they cared about. But the two thieves just walk away with the cash and his backpack. But, a few days later someone felt like they were supposed to give Paul $25 cash and a backpack!! HAHA! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!?!?! Wow! This Paul guy is really just livin it, isn't he?! :) I sure hope I get to see him again and I'm so glad we decided to ask him if he needed a ride! A five minute ride really showed me more of my God! :)

Okay, that's a long enough post for now! LOL! Hope you made it to the end! :)

Love and miss you, Indiana friends!