Fellowship

It seems that word is hard to come by sometimes in our everyday lives,we become so consumed with our jobs, family, errands, and simply just life. All of those things are wonderful things in and of themselves, but sometimes you have to slow down and just enjoy fellowship with other people.

As many of you know, I go to a Sunday Night college Bible study that has just been blessing my socks off! From the teaching to the worship and of course the wonderful fellowship that I have with other believers.

These past few weeks have truly been sweet time spent with brothers and sisters in the Lord. From our prayer groups where we are able to here of blessings that God has so graciously given us over the prior week to then lifting one another up in prayer. I think that through this God is creating incredible friendships. Friendships that have grown deeper with people I thought I knew really well and considered to be good friends all the way down to the people I just met that night. God is truly a God of diversity and it is incredible to see in this group. I don't believe that I have laughed as much as I have in the past few weeks at this study. I left with my face hurting from smiling and my stomach hurting from laughing so much. (Cortney, hats off to you for thinking that Napolean Dynamite was a great world leader. I just don't think that can be beat)

All in all, I thank God daily for such a wonderful group of people who are honest and sincere about their relationship with the Lord and their relationship with other people. It is something that I think God has brought into my life at the perfect time. Just when you need something the most is exactly when God just drops it in your lap.

So to all of you, thanks for being those friends and i can't wait to see all that God does in your lives. We serve a great GOD!!!!

Chemo & Chili's

You might ask what chemo and Chili's have in common...well I am here to tell you. Yesterday my mom went in for her dcotor's appointment and much to our surprise he told us that today would be her last chemo treatment!!!! It was really good news as she has been going for treatments once a week for the past year. We were all very excited and decided to take mom out for dinner to celebrate. We ended up going to Chili's and when we got our food we prayed for it as always and then our waiter just came out and asked us what church we went to. We told him C alvary Chapel Murrieta, and continued the conversation throughout our dinner. Come to find out he is originally from Riverside and harvest is his home church, he moved down here to go to Calvary Chapel Bible College, So we started talking about different classes and which teachers to take classes from and which ones not to. He was sharing about how he didn't have a car for a long time and would get rides home from people at work and just be able to start up conversation's about the Lord and all that He was doing in his life. So towards the end of dinner we told him we wanted to order dessert because we were celebrating my moms last day of chemo treatments, when he brought back our dessert he asked if he could pray for my mom. Now last time that I checked being on the clock and sitting down praying for someone was not exactly what I'm thinking your boss would want you doing. But he didn't care, because there was something that was so much more important to him. It was so encouraging and at the same time convicting. This man (oh sorry his name was Larry) was so on fire and so sincere in his faith and in everything that he said and did it opened my eyes to say, is that the way that people view me? would I be able to be so vocal about my relationship with the Lord to someone who is almost a complete stranger? I look and I would have to say that my answer would be a no. Sadly enough... But encouraging to me in the fact that anyone can get to that point. Because God calls each and everyone of us to be that.

Who knew that eating at Chili's could be such a blessing!

Air Conditioning= A thing of the past no longer

For about the past 3 weeks we have had no air conditioning. Which is not all that fun during summer in Southern California. Now granted I think it could have been worse, My brother is in Tunisia with no air conditioning. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. However, the landlord called us at work yesterday and told us that he finally had a guy coming out to take a look at it. The ironic part is that the landlord is a guy who works at UCLA on air conditioning units, so we thought that it would be a quick fix. It wasn't, until yesterday. So anyways, the guy gets there takes a look at everything fixes what needs to be fixed and then bam the air works again!!!! thank goodness

The funny part was that the past couple of days have been overcast and gloomy so not that hot. of course that's how it works. it's hot= the air doesn't work then it cool= the air finally works.

So as my mom and I are driving home from work we call my dad who is at home. And we ask if the air conditioning man has left yet. he says yes and that the air is working great. My mom says " what temperature do you have the air set at?" he says 69 degrees. we both start laughing because it's probably all of 70-72 degrees outside and the air isn't really all that necessary. But he was enjoying it. So we get home expecting it to be warm when we walk in and much to our surprise it's freezing in there. Anyway, it's nice to have the luxury of air conditioning, and I was definitly taking it for granted. :)

Jury Duty

Last month I received a letter stating that I had been summoned for Jury Duty.... YUCK! is what I thought upon receiving this. So anyways, I completly forgot about calling the weekend before to see if I actually had to go ( last time I didn't have to) so I remembered on Sunday night. Well, to my dismay I had to go in. It wouldn't have been that bad if I hadn't had the whole week off of work starting that Monday, or for the fact that my sister was flying in from Colorado to soend the week with us. So I drive down to the South West Justice Center and wait in line to go through the security check point in which the man in front of me is questioning the security guard about going through explaining " But sir, I already went through this security check point once this morning, I don't see why I would have to go through it again?" Sometimes I wonder if people think before they speak.... So the security guard has to explain to him that no matter how many times he has been through security already, the moment he steps out that door and wants back in, he has to go through it. He finally gets it and the line starts moving again.

I walk down to what they call "the lower floor" (aka the basement) and check in there and sit, and sit and sit some more. Then watch a lovely video of all of these testamonials of how jury duty changed people's lives... blah blah blah... Then this lady sits down next to me and starts talking to me and I had no idea she was even talking to me because I had my ipod in listening to chuck tracks. Anyways, when I finally realize it, I turn to her and she just keeps on talking, she was actually pretty funny. I found out that she did all of the hair and make up for the river dancers and a few sitcoms and also american idol. so that passed by some of the time. and then I ended up seeing 3 people that I knew which is pretty random if you ask me. But it was cool.

They ended up taking everyone that came that day upstairs for a case. Then there are about more then half of them who can't stay due to "financial hardships" so anyways, I was sworn into the court and then found out what the case was about and I will just leave it as, It was a case about a dirty old man, who did dirty old man things. ( my theory on this is that dirty old men all have mustaches, drive vans with no windows and wear sweatpants) all that to say I'm not sure if he had the van and the sweatpants, but he did have the mustache. He failed to register as a sex offender when he moved and he was pleading not guilty. I just kind of sat there trying to figure out how this could even go to court. I mean either the guy registered or he didn't. But that was just my opinion.

So we sit through the interview process and they start with the first 18 people. While in the process of the interviewing this lady gets up and starts walking out of the courtroom, when the deputy starts yelling at the lady to sit back down, she isn't listening and he keeps shouting ( all the while the judge just keeps on talking) then the lady finally gets it and sits back down and in a loud voice states " But I just had to go to the bathroom" that's when the judge decided to recess. So we go out and they say to come back in 15 minutes, which ends up being about 45 minutes. well, when we get back in the man who was pleading not guilty was gone and then we were informed that he had decided to plead guilty. imagine that, it took the guy 8 1/2 hours to decide that. all in all it was a pretty good day, I was actually kind of bummed when I found out that the man pleaded guilty just because I think it would have been fun to be on a trial. It was a good first experiance though. And it wasn't all that bad having to be there on my first day of vacation because they at least had air conditioning which our house has not had in the past three weeks! So that was my Summons for Jury Duty in a nutshell!