Womens Retreat!!!

So, the women's retreat was fabulous. I have been pumped for it ever since the first announcement. It was so wonderful to be with several women in the church from all different times in our lives coming together, and just being women. We all are so similar and yet dramatically different. What a fantastic combination! I have always been fasinated with group dynamics, and it was fun to watch how easily we all interact with one another, and how simply all being women in Christ bonds us as sisters instantly. I was totally blessed and left challenged in a few areas that will remain nameless for now. It was an encouraging time, to be sure.

Encouragement in the most unlikely circumstances.

I have been having a pretty rough couple of weeks spiritually, and not consequentally, at work, too. It is just hard to come to work, work your tail off, and know that you will have to do that for a while, every day you come in, just to get everything done. It has really started to wear on me, and the optimistic attitude I started with is quickly diminishing. I was praying on my way to work, but I have been forgetting lately.

So this week, Tuesday to be exact, I we just plain fed up and in a horribly grumpy mood. One of our new employees and fellow believer called me out on it, and it was encouraging to me that he would say something about it. I was in a horrible mood, and was doing nothing but bringing everyone else down, and he showed me my sin. I was encouraged by the courage it took to say that, being so new, and was reminded of the bond we have under Christ, and the grace that we have been given to give each other.

Also, I led worship tonight with Hollie's help. It seems like I can play fine until it is time to get in front of people, and then my hands just turn into clubs. Or maybe I just never notice until I am infront of people. hmmm... Anyway, for some reason, it doesn't seem to effect worship. Crazy, but it is such an encouragement and great reminder, that God is in control and He will be worshipped dispite my inadequacies. I am always humbled to be leading worship, because it shows all my bumps and bruises, but that is exactly where God wants me, humbled before him.

It is nice to come home to 4 women of God who love God and love you for who you are. Praise the Lord for godly roommates. They are such a blessing!

So far, I am still working out a study schedule for the Chinese, but I think things have been going pretty well, though, considering I am teaching myself. I enjoy going at my own pace. Once I get a system, I think it will be more organized, but it takes a while for me to figure it out, usually till the end of the semester, so it's nice to have the same teacher next semester. That way I don't have to re-work everything agian. hehehe. I know, I am way corny. It's a part of me, and I have learned to embrace it. :P

That's all for now. May your day be blessed.

Wow, it's raining all kinds of things!

Can you believe how much rain we are getting? I can't believe it, personally. I went to visit my parents for family game night on Saturday, and had to park on the street, and wade in! It was crazy. I think this is the first time I have ever seen that with my own eyes.

My roommates Rebecca, Erina, and Boram are back from Kenya, and I am so glad to have them back. It's kind of strange though, because it feels like they never left, really. I am sad, though, because Debi was staying with us in the house to help take care of Oscar, the cat, and she isn't here at the house when I come home anymore. She doesn't come home to our house, and I miss having her around in the house. Hopefully she will get to stay with us often! :D

I have been so encouraged lately by the our God. As you know, I have been teaching myself what I don't already know in Mandrain, which is a lot! I don't have a desire to go to China, I just enjoy languages and learning. It's cheaper to teach yourself than pay almost $400 for one class that I may or may not attend. I have never liked going to class. It's much to structured. I like to go at my own pace, and learn what I need to know, not what a class wants to teach me according to their own goals.

I just sort of picked Mandrain out of Japanese and Korean because it is the most interesting, and it is what I knew most of out of the three. We don't even have any internationals from China in our homegroup, but I picked it anyway. Ever since, God has been confirming to me that I have selected wisely. I was told the other day by 2 different customers at different times that it will be in high demand in the upcoming years, and my district manager told me that they need partners who can speak Mandrain to go to China to help train employees for stores over there. I can hardly imagine being paid to go to China. Wow!!! Maybe I won't be leaving Starbucks as soon as I thought. :D

So far, I have been able to learn 40 Characters, and am learning more, but I am trying to know more words than characters, which is not all that difficult since characters are HARD! I am having a lot of fun with it though.

I am attending a prophecy class at our church, and it's just learning how to hear from God in different ways. One way it through our dreams. I don't feel like I dream that much, but since I started to take this class, I realize I dream much more often than I think. hehe. dream more than I think... that's a little funny, right?. Anyway, it has been neat to explore that a little, and it is pretty interesting.

Coming home from home group last night, I feel like God is really giving me some ideas about where to go from here, but more about that later, they are just ideas.

I forgot to mention....

On Wednesday, we had a game night at the Rice Pad, and it was a lot of fun. We did a pot luck type deal, and we had something from several different countries. The most exciting part for me is that a friend of ours Marcelina, who will be joining the Japan team on the mission trip this summer, brought 2 girls from China and another from Taiwan. It was really great to speak with them in Chinese, and on of the girls wants to get together once a week to work on her English and my Chinese. How wonderful is that!?! I have been praying for just that, and God has hooked me up so to speak. Anyway, I forgot to mention, and I have been so excited about it for a while now. Spring Break is over, and I am so glad, because now I can have a break. Funny, it's spring break, but I have been more busy this week than ever. That's all for now.

Hello everyone!

Just to give you an update, Friday was St. Patrick's Day, and of course I get very excited being just a little Irish myself. At work, I made everyone put on green stickers who weren't wearing any green. It was fun! We got to be a little festive with the uniform as well. :D I didn't go crazy this year like I usually do, but oh well. We had fun.

This spring break has been so busy compared to most of the others I can remember. The strange part about it, is that I'm not in school this time around. It is interesting to me to be more busy out of school than when I was in school. Again, we have had a lot of fun in the home group, getting together, making a lot of food from different countries, playing games, and the like. Thursday they went to Mission Arlington, and I was sad that I had to miss it. Everyone is on Spring Break, but I work like usual, and the time frame that is usually perfect for ministry and hanging with students, wasn't quite as cool as having no work at all. Go figure, huh. :D

I miss my fellow brothers and sisters who are in Kenya so badly!!! This includes 3 out of 5 of my roommates!!! Some days, granted, I don't see but 1 during any given day. But it is different knowing that you will not see any of them for 10 whole days. They have been deeply missed, but I will be excited about their return TOMORROW!!!! :D Praise the Lord!

You may or may not know that I have worked at Starbucks since September of 2002. That's a long time to be working an after school job, but it is a great job. Recently, God has really given me boldness about the gospel, and I feel like there have been so many people who have blessed my life because of it. Keeping our mouths shut keeps us from knowing who our brothers and sisters are, as well as who is lost. To be honest, I feel guilty to have been so quiet for 3 1/2 years. But I guess late is definitely better than never. One of the kids of a regular customer who has come in for a long time was visiting on Spring Break from A&M and started speaking Chinese to me. I was so blessed by such a small thing, but little things like that are the encouragement that I need to get me through days sometimes. It's amazing how well I have gotten to know my customers, and how well they have gotten to know me. I have never been good at not wearing my state of emotion on my face, but now, it's like they can all read it now. It feels a little vunerable at times, but still a blessing.

We are right smack dab in the middle of so many changes at work. Our manager left, and 4 other partners have proceeded to leave as well. 2 of which have been with the company since we opened in September of 2002, and another is leaving next week. She is a personal dear friend of mine, and helps me a lot at work, and will be missed tremendously. :( Even though there have been so many changes, and I have been tempted to leave myself, having been looking for jobs since I graduated just cause I do have a degree now. I am still applying to places, but I am commiting to sticking with Starbucks until at least through the middle of the summer. I want to see us some what normal again, instead of more and more new people. I want to see our new manager succeed, and leaving will not help that any. It is getting harder and harder, but God is good, and he keeps blessing me and blessing me. Please pray that God will give me perserverence to stick with it. I'm starting to get a reputation for being a slave driver with all the new employees needing to be trained and trained well, I have just found out. Oh well, I think they are joking, at least a little bit, I hope. : /

That's all for now. Talk to you later. :D

Hi there. I just spent the last few days at my parent's house, and it was good. I have missed spending time with them. My mom and Iwere up talking and got to pray together. It was maybe the first time in our whole lives to pray together. God was moving.
I have started to teach myself Chinese as an alternative to paying for a graduate program, and I love it. My roommate just came home from visiting her family, and brought back workbooks on how to practice Chinese characters. I checked out CD's from the library... things are looking good. :D
Work is going alright. One of my really good friends has turned in her two weeks notice, so it keeps getting more and more difficult. The good news is, that one of the new employees is really great. She seems like someone who I will be great friends with in the future, not to mention, she loves languages herself and speaks 3 fluently and understands one more. Fun, huh!
Sunday, God gave me the idea to invite the church to lunch at the Rice Pad (what we call the house we live in) for a picnic. There were about 15 people who dropped by, and I was blessed by all 15. The house seems kind of lonely without my roomies. 3 of them are in Kenya on a mission trip, and 1 just came back from Austin. I am so glad she is back! A friend of ours is also staying with us this week to help with the cat, and to help with the company. Praise God for Debi!!! I think that's all for now. Catch you soon.

This blog thing looks neat. I can't wait to see how God can use it to connect people. Praise God! I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but since I actually went to bed at 6p last night, I woke up around 5a and got to watch the sun rise, (cool, huh?) i needed a project. This blog is the result. Anyway, i hope to have a lot of fun with it. :D