Count down to the Chinese

I am taking tomorrow off to prepare for the Chinese coming into town! I am so excited!! This will definitely be fun! I am taking the whole day off tomorrow to get a bunch of things ready so that I will be ready for their arrival! :) How much fun is this going to be?! I can't wait to learn about their culture & get to know them! & let God show them his love through me... now I know its not all going to be roses & picnics but this is a huge opportunity & I am very humbled to be included! I want to give them a hug as soon as they walk up but that would be the EXACT wrong thing to do... I will have to find a way to contain my excitement.
I am sitting here at work with nothing to do just dying to get out of here!! I'm ready to start this journey!! My goal is to journal every night they are here so that i don't forget a thing about what happens & I can look back on everything with a clear picture of what happened.
It's really cool to think that by 6:00 o'clock tomorrow I will be having dinner with my new Chinese friends! I wonder if they are as excited as I am .... I'm not even sure if that would be possible!

The Chinese

This Friday my roommate "A" & I will be hosts for a mission project. Our church has invited around 300 Chinese students & teachers to stay in different host homes which are families & leaders at the church.. Guess who will be hosting four Chinese teachers on thier visit to Houston? ME! & my roommate "A". They will be staying for 4 weeks learning about our culture, soaking up their surroundings & hopefully getting to know God... oh by the way did I mention that most all of the Chinese coming to visit are hardcore ATHEISTS?! They have probably read more books about atheisms than there are books in the Bible & the thought of their being a God is laughable to them.... Lord give me strength & patients. Today we had our official meeting with leaders of the church about what to expect & the cultural hiccups to avoid once the Chinese get here. Pretty much my brain was jam packed with a ton of information! The whole time I prayed "Lord, what am I doing? This is crazy? Are you sure?... Me? Lord get me through this. I have so much on my plate. This is really something you wanted me to do?? .. Me? Lord I love you please get me through this..." I am excited & nervous... seem to be feeling that way a lot these days. That's how I know God is stretching me & molding me. This will definitely be an adventure!

Waiting on God that paid off!

Today I got a call from the director of our Bible study & my friend "B". He talked to me about becoming a leader of a group for our college ministry Bible study group. He would like me to be in charge of Missions & Volunteering... this means I will organize college age volunteering within the church as well as organizing college mission work which means going outside of the church & giving back to the community. He asked if this is something I would be interested in.... YES!! It sounds perfect for me! I couldn't be more thrilled! When he started saying he wanted me to get more involved I was a little hesitant because I wasn't sure where "B" was thinking of placing me. I wouldn't want to tell him no & I want to help the church in any way I can however I was worried I would get stuck in a position that wasn't a good fit for me. I couldnt have been more surprised & excited!
I wanted a place in the college ministry for awhile now but was careful not to push anything & just let God lead me where he wanted me. I couldn't be happier that I did this!! God really has the best plan & perfect timing!
God is really filling up my life! Between HC ministries (which is my baby! i love writing lessons & i love those girls so much), UG with college ministries, Collision with h.school ministries & now this! WOW!! I am a full blown servant of God now & I love it! Everything is going so smoothly which shows me even more that God is in this. I am thankful & humbled that he has trusted me with all of this. I promise to put my heart into everything He sends my way <3

I was driving home from work yesterday in the rain. In front of me I could see clear skies just up the freeway. Behind me I saw nothing but a black sky & rain beating down on the cars that followed. Above was a huge blanket of gray clouds clashing with the clearer skies ahead. I felt like I had a foot in two completely different worlds. I stepped on the gas & moved around the cars ahead of me. I wanted to get to that sunny part of town but the rain was still hitting the roof of my Explore. I was going 65 mph... rain drops beaded up on my wind shield. Then 70 mph... could ease up on using my wipers but still not out of the storm yet. Even faster at 82 mph... still nothing! The gray blanket above my car seemed to be moving at a steady 10 mph faster than I was. I got that feeling of running in place... You know that feeling when you're having a bad dream & you're trying to run away from something but you're not going anywhere? or everything keeps getting in your way.. that's what this felt like. I slowed down to a reasonable 65 mph my eyes set on the sunshine just out of my reach waiting for the storm to swallow me up. The rest of the way home I played with the radio, thought up an excuse not to go to the gym that night & made a mental list of everything I needed to do before the end of the week. Somewhere between the freeway & the entrance to me neighborhood it dawned on me that I had made it out of the storm! Everything was sunny & warm. I was so worried about how crappy it was that I was stuck in the rain that I didn't even notice that I had made it to the other side...

Wow Lesson Learned!