Friday, April 30

A Favorite Commercial

Normally commercials involving feminine products annoy me greatly.
However I must say that this new commercial is a current favorite of mine. It makes me laugh!

Thursday, April 29

The Person I've Become

I remember my first coffee drink.

It was in March 1998...I wanted to try a coffee drink but wasn't sure I'd like the coffee taste. I went to Tully's and asked for advise. I ended up with a Mocha with twice the chocolate...and yum! was it good! I think that was all I really drank for a few years...maybe the occasional latte or macchiato...but it had to be sweetened!

Then at some point, I went somewhere (probably to someones house) and they only had brewed coffee. So I had a cup (with sugar, of course) and found that with enough sugar, I liked it. Thus began my occasional brewed coffee path.

My last year of college, in 2002-2003, I went to school in Regina, Saskatchewan...there was nothing close to the school in the way of espresso stands and the only coffee shops were few and far between (especially when I didn't have a car). This forced me to become less of a specialty drinker and more of a brewed coffee drinker. There is/was this little coffee shop in the Southgate Mall that sold hand-crafted chocolates, loose-leaf tea, coffee beans, and other related items. Occasionally I would meander down to the mall and would buy a little 4oz bag of flavored coffee beans. They were ridiculously priced (about $6.00 for 4 oz) but I justified the money because that one little bag would last me about a month. I would make coffee in a little "4-cup" machine about once or twice a week. Naively, I thought this frequency was perfect and that I would never be a person who would drink coffee all day long!

At some point that year, I noticed that my "once or twice a week" was increasing to four to five times a week. It was at this point that I stopped buying the expensive 4 oz coffee beans and bought less expensive 16 oz bags of coffee.

Meanwhile, the taste of coffee has continued to woo me as I moved to Germany and then back to Washington. I find myself now a person who could and would drink coffee all day long! That mocha from my long lost past is now much too sweet and is avoided at all costs. Sure, I like an occasional latte but brewed coffee is where it is at.

There is something about having a delicious cup of coffee in the afternoon and then in the evening when allowing myself to relax. I have become the person I never thought I'd be.

And I'm okay with that.

Wednesday, April 28

Pain and Joy

A couple days ago, I mentioned that I want to be able to cry with those who are crying and laugh with those who are laughing.

I've always had a sensitive nature...maybe it's due to being a middle child. However, there came a day, in high school I believe, when I noticed that my sensitivity towards others had increased. How did I discover this? Humorously, it was in watching a Kodak commercial...one of those special Kodak moments...and I got teary-eyed. Then, in the days when you could still walk to the gates in airports, I'd get teary-eyed watching people say good-bye or welcoming home those they love.

God softened my heart, making me not only sensitive for the sake of being sensitive but sensitive so that I can minister to others.

Initially, I was pleased that God was developing this side of me. But with increased sensitivity to others, I began to realise that God was giving me a small glimpse into His heart. However much my heart aches, His aches abundantly more! However much my heart rejoices, His joy is abundantly more! This realization humbled me...that God would entrust me to feel/see a small glimpse of His heart.

I hugged a friend last night who has been on my heart for the last few weeks, even more so this past week. I asked if she was okay and she said that she is hanging in there but that there have been things that have surfaced this past week. She didn't elaborate and I didn't ask. Wasn't the time or place. But that brief interaction brought pain to my heart and tears to my eyes for the rest of the night. I don't know all that she is going through but God has allowed me to share her pain, to a small degree.

I still want to be able to cry or laugh with others. To share with and minister to them. But what I am realizing is that the more my heart breaks, the harder it becomes for me. I share in those emotions and can't just push them aside once I leave a person. And so, I pray and beseech God and look for His involvement.

I know most of this post is focused on pain. Sharing with others' joys is a wonderful blessing to me and something that happens often too. But despite my desire to be used by God, my self-preservation wants me to pull back because the pain can feel too much at times.

However, I am confident that if God desires me to minister to others through tears or laughters, He will continue to equip me to shoulder those pains and joys. And maybe, just maybe, God is simply trying to develop me into a person of prayer.

Tuesday, April 27

Good Night Nellie

I'm a pretty good speller, in my opinion. I typically notice immediately when I have spelled something wrong and then am able to correct it immediately.

However, lately I have been misspelling left and right. And I haven't noticed my misspelled words until after I have sent/posted/etc. It annoys me to no end. My frustration over my spelling makes me lash out and say harsh things like "good night nellie" or "holy cow."

This phase of spelling errors has been cyclical throughout the two or three years I've been working on my Master's degree and so I've gotten used to these phases occurring but it makes it no less embarrassing.

Dear World--
I resolve to type slower and will do my best to pay better attention so as to minimize mistakes.
I am grateful for your understanding that my mind can only handle so much. Once some of my education or work details leak out of my brain, there will be more room for my usual instant proofreading.
This too shall pass...thankfully.
If it doesn't, I will endeavor to create a dictionary to help you translate my writings or I will type only with assistance of the dictionary myself!
Good afternoon and good night.
Nellie Mindy

**For the record, I spell-checked this little blurb about 15 times in the process of writing it. Sigh...

Monday, April 26

Food for the Hungry...no, not me.

Yesterday, my church decided to do something different.

Everyone met at 9am for an hour of singing and a small devotional from my pastor. Then we broke up into about 15 different groups and went out into the community for service/outreach from 10am-2pm. There was a huge variety of tasks: yardwork/maintenance at the church, cleaning the local elementary school, visiting tent city or the woman's shelter, etc.

The task I signed up for was putting together care packages for tent city, which houses about 100 people. An abundance of people showed up to help me and we finished our task in about 30 minutes. Seriously, before 11am even rolled around, we were done and done. Most of the group then scattered to put themselves to work elsewhere, including myself.

The organizer of the entire day, my good friend Erin, asked if I wanted to join her at the local Safeway to collect food for a local youth center (Cocoon House) that services homeless kids. Sounded great to me, so off we went.

After about 30-40 minutes, I had given out all my fliers that explained the Cocoon House and offered suggestions of what to buy. I also had decided to start a new cart since the first cart was already full. So here I was, standing with a nearly empty cart, with no fliers in hand, and asking people if they would consider donating non-perishable items to the homeless youth center.

Some people gave me quizzical looks and I explained that I had run out of fliers. However I'm sure most of them thought I was just begging for my own pantry. "Homeless kids, I don't think so! She's just using that lie to get food from us..." I started chuckling when I realised how I must appear to some people and decided it was time to combine efforts with my friend at the other door, who thankfully, still had fliers.

By the time we left Safeway around 1:45pm, we had 4 carts of food to pass along. What a blessing!

Friday, April 23

I want to be...

I want to be...

...whoever God wants me to be
...full of joy and contentment
...abundantly generous
...serving in ministry
...a leader, a mentor, a student
...a diverse reader
...more disciplined with my health
...willing to try new things
...able to cry with those are crying and laugh with those who are laughing
...a wife and mother
...a singer or a chef when in Heaven
...a mini gardener
...able to see my brother come to love Jesus
...one who speaks truth and wisdom
...one who laughs easily
...prayerful
...able to speak another language
...thawing out on a warm beach somewhere
...able to visit Germany next year
...more like Jesus

Thursday, April 22

Software Woes

For several years, I have been lightly mulling over the thought of buying Bible software. I've had a few opportunities of buying software at a discounted rate but have always passed those up.

Honestly, I keep wondering "how often will I actually use this software?" I'm mean sure, I have been called to ministry but I am clueless as to what type of ministry that will be. Maybe it won't involve preaching or teaching. And if it does involve preaching/teaching, honestly, how likely am I do to a thorough word search, using Strong's Concordance/Lexicons/Etc.

So I have left all software thoughts pass me by.

But now, I'm working on my thesis paper on suffering.

I really need a Lexicon and guess what? My pastor only uses software which means his library isn't available for me to tap into. Is it time for me to give in? Is it worth me spending minimally $200 just for software that will be used for my thesis paper but who knows what else?

What to do? What to do?

**update** In the short time I've written this, I've decided that I'm not going to spend the money. While having everything at my fingertips on the computer, would be faster and easier, I'll be kickin' it old school by locating books and digging out my treasures. After all my hard work, I'll be more proud of myself and the paper, right? Right? Anyone? Bueller?

**update** My pastor is going to let me know use his Bible software when he's not busy working in the office...what a blessing!

Wednesday, April 21

The Lord Bless Them

Every Tuesday night is youth group night at my church. I am (willingly and intentionally) one of the middle-school leaders.

The last three Tuesdays, we've done something different...small groups. We've shown them parables and then have broken them up into groups for discussion. It's been really good. Last night night was our final night of this series.

The first week we talked about The Prodigal Son.
The second week we talked about The Seed and the Soil.
And yesterday we talked about The Good Samaritan.

In an attempt to wrap the series, I pointed out the theme that flows between the three stories. First the Prodigal Son realises his error and is freely forgiven by the Father. Then when considering the soil, we want to be the good soil so that God's word will grow in us. Last, we want to demonstrate what we learn practically in how we love God and love those around us. After this, I asked the youth to share where they saw themselves in that progression.

One girl, who has grown up in the church, admitted that out of all of those options she is most like shallow soil...the word grows quickly but is not as strong as it would be in the good soil.

I affirmed her honesty by saying that I understand. Having grown up in the church myself, I find as a 30 year old that I still struggle with depth and maturity in my relationship with God at times.

It was at the point when I mentioned my age, that this sweet 8th grade girl and my co-leader who about 40, were both, "what? really? how old are you?"

Oh, the little joys of life. I appreciate that they were shocked and had thought me younger. The Lord bless them for those reactions.

Intentional Conversation

How the world converses today has been a regular discussion popping up in my life for the last few months. It's a bit funny how it is either increasingly on peoples minds or maybe just increasingly on mine.

We live in a world of twitter, facebook and other social networks, and texting, not to mention the more old fashioned methods of communication like emailing (yes, I'm now considering that "old" fashioned), letter writing and social calls.

What I see coming out of these newer forms of communicating is a weaker, more artificial form of relationships and an increase of rudeness and solidarity.

How can you build a relationship with others when you can only type 140 characters? Not possible...in my opinion.

Yes, facebook allows me to keep tabs on my kiddos and friends in Germany and other parts of the world. But honestly, it doesn't allow me to really know them and what I find is that the longer I'm perusing facebook the more I miss people because I'm not involved in their lives. The little snippets aren't enough.

Granted I understand that the little connections are good especially if that is all there is. But maybe that is me justifying not spending the necessary time to maintain meaningful connections and am instead settling for mediocrity.

I wrote a letter to some dear friends in Ohio last week. It felt strangely weird doing so. I used to love writing letters before I went to Germany but then the post in Germany was bit expensive and so I resorted to emails and broke my habit. But it felt nice to write down my thoughts with my friends and in my own handwriting. I think there is something special about snail mail and taking to craft a letter. And there's something even more special of sitting down face-to-face with someone and sharing thoughts.

Anyhow, here are some great articles that I have found on communication by Don Miller and Anne Jackson.

Tuesday, April 20

An Interesting Conversation

I work with one other lady who I've mentioned can be difficult to work with at times. I decided to go to work this week with a better attitude...having a spirit of gratitude instead of frustration...looking for God's blessings and provisions rather than what I don't have.

Maybe it was because of this mental switch or just through divine appointment but I had a "Christian" discussion with my co-worker, which is the first time this has happened in the almost three years I've been at this job. It was a bit amazing.

My co-worker asked about my weekend. I told her that I finished my TESOL certificate and have officially started my thesis paper research. She casually asked again what my thesis paper is about (I love it when people ask me...perfect opportunity to share a snippet about God). I told her it was on Suffering and I ended my comment there. Normally I expand but this time I didn't. But she took the bait and asked if it was on why some people suffer and others don't. I explained that it was more about what the Bible has to say about suffering, what the "normal" Christian thinks and how it impacts missions.

Since her look appeared interested, I went on to say that what I know of the Bible, it seems that God basically promises suffering to those who follow Him. Her remark, desiring to assist with my explanation, was, "those who deserve it...." And I gently corrected her saying that no, it was more that whoever was going to follow and try to be more like Jesus would suffer by following His example. She slowly nodded but didn't comment on that.

From there, we discussed church health. I found out that she had attended a Congregational Church growing up but left because all they apparently preached was the need for money.

Ultimately, in my perspective, there was no great seed planted or life-changing moment but I tell you what...this was the longest "religious" conversation I've had with her ever...and that excites me. She has always seemed a bit closed off. Even my boss, who has worked with her for 20 years, has mentioned to me a time or two that when it comes to spiritual matters, she never seems interested.

May God continue to use me.

Monday, April 19

Ways to View Life

like a wave rolling to the shore
covering the sand
never ceasing never still
life and renewal
can be found
in the ebb and flow of the tide

gratitude is a choice
a lense for life
it will wash away residue
frustration and pain
it can bring forth sun
where once it was grey

like a pearl divinely made
the sands that swirl
irritating and trapped
within the shell
bring forth a gem
when the time has come

life may not go as desired
but God is good
the irritants of life are used
to one day bring forth
a beautiful gem
that reflects the Creator.

Sunday, April 18

The Tie That Binds

My dad was part of this group of four men who went to Cal Poly Pomona together, all in the aerospace engineering programs. The four guys roomed together, pranked together, hiked together, and became life-long friends. So I grew up with "uncle" Bill, "uncle" Rick, and "uncle" Jay. The thing that bbound them all was their love for the Lord (and aerospace engineering, of course).

Well, Jay and my dad eventually both left California to come up to Washington to work for Boeing, while Bill and Rick continued to work for Rockwell International (now also Boeing). Over the 31 years since my dad has left the area, my dad has kept in touch with these men. It helped that all of my relatives were still in the California area giving us plenty of reasons to visit.

Rick was just recently assigned to come work up here in the Seattle-area Boeing plants for two months, which means that he and his wife will get to enjoy our typical wet and often grey spring/early summer. They came to our church today, had lunch with us and then spent the afternoon lounging at my parent's house. And you know what? It's still the love of the Lord which binds us all. Relating to them as adult-to-adult now is of course completely different than child-to-adult. Sure the life-long history adds to the relationships that they have with us all but the fact that Christ can be present in our conversations is wonderful. I'm so happy that my dad linked up with such good men in college...men who love the Lord and could be friends for a life-time.

This makes me thankful for my friends.
  • One friend I've known since kindergarten...and now I get to see her beautiful family grow and am excited to watch where/how God will use her and her husband.
  • Three friends from college whose hearts have been tied with mine. I rarely see them and communicate only sparodically with two of them, but I am confident that whenever our paths may cross again, it will be like time has never passed.
  • One newer (and local--amen!) friend (from within the last four years) who will always be near and dear, regardless of where in the world she and her family end up as missionaries.
  • And the many sweet friends from my time in Germany. Those I long for and love and those who understand that period of my life.
These friends have shaped me in ways I can't fully define but what I love the most is that I share Christ with all of them too. He is truly the tie that bind.

Friday, April 16

Ready to go

Yesterday I was chatting with a customer-friend.

We talked about the fact that I've been called to ministry and that is where my heart is.

Then he asked me how long I've been here with this company. I told him I started in 2007 so in June it will be 3 years.

To which he replied, "so I bet you're ready to go, aren't you?"

My answer was and is: "...oh yeah..."

Thursday, April 15

Suffering

I am two lessons away from being done with my silly TESOL (teaching english as a second language) class. Praise the Lord Almighty! My goal is to be done this weekend. In the past weeks, I have completed one lesson on Saturday and one on Sunday. And then I shall wipe by hands clean and say good riddance.

I'm already looking ahead to the next project, my thesis paper.

My thesis paper is going to be on Suffering: What does the Bible say? What does the "average" N. American Christian think? and how does suffering impact missions/missionaries?

Huge job ahead of me and I couldn't be more excited. (Well, actually I could. I would love to take a week off work near the beginning of this so that I can spend most the week reading and researching without work contending for my time. And maybe another half a week off midway to conduct interviews and such. But as of right now, I'll have to maintain the balancing act of work and school...such is life.)

So why did I choose this topic? Well from my limited understand (prior to in-depth research), it seems that Bible pretty much guarantees that if you are following Christ, you should expect suffering. And yet, the concepts of sacrificial living or suffering seem to be things that Christians shy away from as best as they can. Now, I understand that nobody wants to suffer. But when you think of the men and women who have shaped Christian missions, it was on the back of suffering. In fact, the Christian church started and grew because of persecution. Not to mention the underground church in China.

So it seems that God uses suffering to refine his Church and to make it stronger, healthy, and more reflective of Him. According to some American church statistics*, it has been reported:

· In America, 3500 – 4000 churches close their doors each year
· Half of all churches last year did not add one new member through conversion growth
· Churches lose an estimated 2,765,000 people each year to nominalism and secularism

Is this stagnation and even church loss due to the fact that we, the Western church, has become too comfortable in our lives and resistant to living as Christ meant us to live, which includes suffering? Honestly, I don't know...these are just thoughts which I hope to flesh out a bit.

I'll probably share some of the journey with you on this blog. I look forward to whatever God wants to teach me through this.

"To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."  I Peter 2:21


*The statistic is from the Barna Group, which I've linked. However, I found the actual quote on another website.

Wednesday, April 14

The Single Life

I had plans. Plans of branching out my single life experiences.

Because I'm 30 and single, and because I'm normally okay entertaining myself, I've incorporated several experiences into my life going solo:

I will go to the movie theater by myself without any problem.
I don't mind going out to dinner by myself (but will usually take a book as a companion).
I've traveled by myself...not to any great extent but from place to place and occasional day trips.
Not to mention having my own apartment, going to a church by myself or moving around the world by myself.

It's all been educational...life-lessons. Not necessarily my preferred desires but I have learned to live with where God has me...single.
But I had plans to expand these lessons.

One things that I've never wanted to do by myself is to go to a concert. There have been some people who've visited Seattle and I've been interested in seeing them. However, none of my family gets excited about jazz or of a few other contemporary singers that I like. As for friends, I can find some who don't mind these particular singers but are not huge fans. Plus, money is an issue for a couple people, both family and friends. So asking them to spend at least $30 for me, to see someone they aren't thrilled about, seems unfair. Needless to say, I've missed a few concerts I would have loved to otherwise see.

So I made a decision when I heard that Corinne Bailey Rae was coming to Seattle, that I'd go see her. By myself. I would branch out and give solo concert going a try. If I hated it, I wouldn't do it again. Lesson learned. If it wasn't awful then I'd consider it the next time someone came to down that I wanted to see. However, my plans came to naught. Why???

I thought the concert was scheduled for April 19th...and only realized today that was April 12th.
I missed it altogether. Boo! So sad.
I was so looking forward to seeing her.
I bought a ticket and then got the dates mixed up in my head.

No life lesson to report--except to check your calendar more often or go to a concert with someone else so that they can remind you about it.

Tuesday, April 13

The end is near and other thoughts

I've been wanting to write but not sure what to actually say. If this was my journal, I'd write down whatever just to put down my thoughts. But since this is a blog, I feel there must be a point to my writings and not just the random musings of Mindy.

Mi Apartamento

There was notice waiting for me, from my apartment complex, when I arrived home last night. As I've mentioend, I'll be moving apartments soon within the same complex. However, the notice that I received yesterday stated that at some point on Thursday, the maintenence people will be coming to inspect my apartment for the pre-moving-out inspection. They want to be prepared for when I do move out, to be able to quickly replace anything that is needed. My thoughts are "oh crap."

Thursday!

That means I had last night, today, and Wednesday to clean my apartment or at least make it managable
since they will be walking through it all. Eek! Not to mention that Monday and Wednesday night are "homework nights" and Tuesday night is "youth group". **Sigh** I worked on homework for a little bit yesterday but then felt my energy drain out of me at 7:30pm!! I was seriously ready to go to bed at 7:30pm last night. Needless to say, no cleaning happened yesterday. Maybe I'll tackle a little bit after youth group tonight.

Other than cleanliness, the only other thing I would rather "fix" before they came is an attempt to take care of nail holes of where I had pictures hanging. But I probably won't get to that. Que sera, sera!

Mi Frustracion

I've been feeling frustrated over the last month or so. I can list a whole list of frustrations but when it comes down to it, I know that my frustration is at God and His timing in several areas of my life. I am continuing to rely on His truths and His faithfulness. He has been faithful through the past 30 years...He won't fail me now.

Mis Estudios

My Teaching English as a Second Language course is almost over. There are 20 lessons and I am on lesson 16. My goal is wrap it up early next week. So happy! I will definitely do a happy dance when this is over. I only took this course becuase I thought it might be helpful one day maybe. A useful tool to have in my belt. And maybe it will be. But what I really want is to focus on my thesis paper. I have a month and half until my next Master's degree class starts so I need/want to take advantage of this time.

I suppose this ended up as the random musings of Mindy after all. That's okay.
Happy Tuesday.

Friday, April 9

"You are now free to move about the country"

And that is all I am able to do.
I am passport-less and I don't like it.

I'm trapped within the boundaries of the USA.
No Canada. No Mexico. No visiting my kiddos in Germany.
No visiting friends around the world.
No boldly going where no man has gone before unless it is somewhere in the USA.

For six weeks, I'm stuck.
Not that I had any plans, mind you...but that's besides the point.

I just miss my passport, that's all.
It's been a good travel companion these past 10 years.
The next one will have a lot to live up to...

Wednesday, April 7

A New Revelation

I grew up attending church from the day I left the hospital as a wee babe.

Considering that I've been hearing Bible stories regularly since then, there isn't much that catches me by surprise...however, the Bible is considered "living and active" and so every time something new catches my attention, I'm amazed and delighted. Here's what I learned yesterday.

Our youth group lesson yesterday was on the Prodigal Son from Luke 15:11-32: a good story about forgiveness. It's about two sons and a dad. The younger son wants to live a wild life and asks his dad for half of the inheritance, not wanting or willing to wait until the dad is dead. The dad gives in and divides his property. The younger son goes away with all his money and lives foolishly, ending up broke and feeding pigs...the only job he could find. Finally he realizes that if he could even just work for his dad, he would be better off than living among the pigs. So he returns home. The dad sees his son in the distance, runs and embraces him, forgives all his mistakes and makes him his son once again. The dad won't hire him but instead puts him in the same place of ownership, position, and status that the son had before.

What just occurred to me is that when the father split the inheritance, the part not given to the younger son was the inheritance of the older son. All that was left belonged to the older son logically. So when the dad embraces and welcomes back the younger son, it's no wonder the older son felt indignant about his brother's return and the subsequent party.

I didn't receive any great truth or life-lesson from this bit of enlightenment. It just enabled me to understand the older son a bit more and to see another part of the story that I hadn't considered. Ultimately, it is harder to forgive others when we feel entitled, which I imagine is what the older brother struggled with in this story.

Tuesday, April 6

Another Memory from Germany

When it comes to Easter, my family doesn't really have any traditions outside of going to church as normal. This past Sunday, we had dinner together at my parents house and the meal was Lasagna, Garlic Bread, and Salad...not the standard/traditional meal because, like I just said, we don't really have Easter traditions...and that's okay.

My mom had me pick up a loaf of Garlic French Bread from Albertsons on my way to their house, which I gladly did. My sister protested once I arrived that we should have made our own instead and while I normally like to make things from scratch, this time I didn't care...it's just garlic bread. But to appease her desires, she melted a couple tablespoons of butter, threw in some minced garlic, basted her slices and enjoyed it immensely.

The best garlic bread I ever remember having was was back in 2001. I went to Buca di'Beppo for the first time and my friend and I ordered some. In my distant memory, it seems that the bread came with a layer of sliced garlic on top and it was AMAZING, which finally brings me to my memory from Germany (thanks for bearing with my tangent mind).

So within the first few months of being in Germany I was making dinner one night and I believe it was spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad. I made dinner for my dorm about 3 times a week and I loved it. When I was preparing this dinner, I had the Buca di'Beppo flashback and started salivating over this garlic bread, thus prompting me to try to mimic their recipe. How hard can it be?

I took the bread, buttered it up, took a handful of garlic gloves and minced away. I layered the bread with garlic, threw it in the oven, and then when it was nicely toasted/warmed, I cut it up and added it to the dinner table. Because my dorm was small (about 20 people) we served almost all our meals family style. So after the prayer, all the dishes were passed around and we started eatting.

I think I had a bite or two of my spaghetti or salad before taking my first bite of the glorious garlic bread. I quickly felt the burning sensation in my mouth and throat as I chewed that first bite and swallowed. It was awful! I had WAY overdone the garlic...I tell you, that bread was potent. There was enough garlic on that bread to burn holes in stomach, I bet. I quickly swallowed and washed down my bite of bread and then told everyone to not eat the garlic bread since it was awful.

Evidently, at the other end of the table, one of the kiddos had taken a bite of this bread right after the meal was passed around and discovered how horrid it was. They quietly asked the dorm dad, who was sitting right next to him, if they had to finish it and were told by dorm dad to do their best. The poor kid!

Needless to say, I learned my lesson and have never tried to mimic their garlic bread again and my little cooking disaster remained a regular point of teasing throughout the rest of the two years I was there.

Friday, April 2

A Little Bit of Crazy

So this morning at home, I decided I was going to go to Red Mango for lunch. I received a coupon about a week ago for $1 off their new parfaits or smoothies. I figured a parfait will do nicely for my lunch.

By 11am, my stomach was already growling telling me to get a move on it. However, around the same time, the heavens opened and the rain started pouring. But I went anyways.

Between running out to my car, running from my car to the store at the mall (and parking far away due to lack of space, thank you very much), and running back to my car, I started to wonder if having a parfait, when it's 45F degrees and pouring out, is a good idea.

My parfait was indeed tasty but now I have the heater blowing on my feet to thaw them out. I think coffee is also in order to thaw out my insides.

All this whining from the person who went on slurpee runs in Regina, Saskatchewan when it was -30C outside.

Thursday, April 1

Seeking a Job Counselor

I am feeling a bit clueless lately.

I need a job counselor, I think, or maybe a life counselor. What should I do with my life? I'm open to all suggestions.

I know I've gone on and on about wanting to be a missionary. But now, I feel ambivalent about it all. Here's what I do know:
  • I know I don't want to keep working here...that hasn't changed.
  • I know I'm called to ministry.
  • I know I would love a coffee related ministry.
  • I know I love teaching the Old Testament.
  • I know I would enjoy living overseas.
  • I know I enjoy cooking.
  • I know I would love working with kids/youth to some capacity.
  • I know I would hate an office/computer oriented job...I need to be with people.
  • I know I'm better with small groups than large groups.
Any ideas? What should I do with my life? Someone tell me what to do! Tell me the perfect job.