3 Great Things

So in order to get myself into this whole blogging deal, I figured I needed to practice. SO, I'll go ahead and share 3 really great things that have happened in the last week.

Two of them happened at the retreat that my sisters and I went to over the past week.
1) While I was introducing a song about heaven, I encouraged everyone there to go outside that night and just look up. The night before, my sisters and I had been in complete awe at the number of stars that we could see. When you live in Los Angeles, you kinda forget that there are even any stars out there. So anyway, I encouraged them to look at the millions of stars and the beauty of the sky above us and know that if we can see something that amazing here on earth, just think how much greater heaven is going to be! Later on that night, we were all walking back to our cabin and about 10 of us ended up having a "star party"....we stood out there for a good 20 minutes just looking at the stars. You could see the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Orion's belt, the Milky Way! ( that was my personal favorite) and tons of shooting stars! Who can look at that and say it was all an accident?! Beautiful things like that prove to us that we have a Beautiful God!

2) Here I am at a retreat with 40 people whom I've either never met or have only seen once or twice in passing. After two days of being with them, we all felt like part of the family! It just goes to prove that it doesn't matter what church you belong to or what people you fellowship with, we're all children of the same Father and therefore all part of the same family. When we were packing up and getting ready to leave, I was stopped by this guy named Tim. Before the retreat, I had never met Tim and had no idea who he was. He, however, knew exactly who I was. He knew that a year and a half ago, my college pastor and good friend Mike Gardiner passed away in a car accident. He knew that Mike's wife Amy had survived. He knew that the Sunday after Mike's passing, our whole college group went to his church because we didn't really have any place else to go that night. After over a year, he remembered every detail. And not only that, he has been praying for our college group GAP and for Mike's wife, Amy, ever since. I didn't even know what to say, I was so blessed and grateful. God is so faithful to provide prayer and support even when it seems like everything and everyone have moved on. He never fails to surprise me with the most unexpected, yet wonderful blessings!

3) I love Subway. Most people know that. So when I was working at Coldstone about 3 years ago, I used to go to Subway almost every day. I went so often, in fact, that the employees knew me by name and could prepare my order without me saying anything. My affinity for Subway sandwiches gave me the opportunity to become great friends with one of the employees named Arem. I invited him to come to church with me and he came weekly for quite a few months. Then we all went to the Harvest Crusade and Arem went down and asked Jesus to be his Savior. After that, I lost touch with him. I've often wondered if he continued to follow Christ and I, along with my GAP friends, have prayed for him for over a year. He randomly resurfaced yesterday and I was so excited and thrilled to hear that not only is he still going to church, he is involved and serving there and he is excited about Christ and growing in Him. He told me yesterday that it all started when he came to church with me, 3 years ago. It's amazing how God can use something silly like my ridiculous love for Subway sandwiches to bring a dear friend to Christ.

I though that was pretty awesome! Our God is awesome!!!