Yep..

Well, I just got back from taking JB (Justin Buddy) to the airport. This last week was full of lessons for me to learn. And I'll try to tell them all to you. See, it would be convenient for me to start from today and work backwards, but that would be hard for you. So I'll just start from the beginning.
The week started out with news that BFF can't visit (as you saw from my previous post). This had affected my mood somewhat throughout the week. Sometimes I'd get teary-eyed at the thought. I don't know when I'll get a chance to see her again. How is it that we're so close? Sometimes it amazes me. Some people say they don't understand what it's like to have a crazy bff like we do and that makes me sad. Our friendship is amazing and I am humbled by it, by this gift God's given us. Praise God, praise God for such a wonderful friend. It makes me think: If He can bless me with a best friend like that, how awesome is my husband going to be?? Wow, that's an eye-opener.

Anyway, this week's lessons included, but weren't limited to: Not taking offense at what people say, being humble, not being prideful (same thing, but still), not letting Satan rob my joy, forgiving others, putting down bitterness and anger, rebuking Satan, acting in the joyfulness of the Lord, being a cheerful giver and the list could go on. These are lessons I'm always learning but they were pretty hammered in this week.
Justin was such a generous buddy, he paid for bowling on Tuesday, he bought our tickets (mine, Justin's, Jacob's and Rachelle's) to see Courageous, and he left me with a ton of books and Downhere's new CD! And, the best part, he bought me GUMMY BEARS. My favorite. What a nice buddy.
He was a good example on how to give cheerfully.
Satan was really bogging me down with things and, finally, on Thursday, I called my good friend Carah. She laid it on straight and thick, encouraging me and correcting me in all tenderness and love; Yet another awesome friendship from the Lord --I love you Carah!! Praise God for brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Anyways, we had birthdays over the weekend, and, as you saw, Bowling on Tuesday. JB wanted to visit this ministry near where I live last year but it was closed. So, Wednesday, he, Rachelle and I went there again--and it was closed. Again. Rar!!! So we went to goodwill and shopped. I found a ring towel holder that I'd been looking at on amazon.com. It was normally 20 dollars but goodwill had it for 3!!! Good buy? Yes.
After that we went to krispy kreme and JB and Rachelle got donuts. Rachelle made the mistake of buying me a coffee milkshake. I was hyper the rest of the night. We went to walmart and bought toilet paper, broth, and marshmallow popcorn. Then JB and I studied Daniel 1 and 2. Thursday I let JB take my car shopping and I just hung out around the house all day. Then we studied Daniel 3 and 4. That was the night he brought me home gummy bears (you have to remember the gummy bears, they were the highlight of my week!) See, I fast forwarded all the way to Friday, which was the gem of the week (aside from the gummies).

Friday was Oktoberfest. We had plans to go preaching there. I have an addiction for open air preaching, I think, but where I live there are barely any people outside in large amounts (at least not this time of year), so we thought that Oktoberfest would be good. Rachelle and Jacob wanted to come so we brought them along. Oktoberfest was not that great...There were hardly any people there. So we went to the lake where I first preached, expecting there to be a might good amount of people...there were not. I was slightly discouraged but Justin said we could still preach, it would just be the witnessing preaching, not open air. Now, if you know me, you know I prefer open air. Walking up to people and talking to them makes me more nervous. Which is funny because my mom and dad both say they'd rather do one-on-one. *shiver* not me.

This was a good experience for Rachelle, I think. It was good for her to get out and see what it was like to witness to people and such. I had done this last year with Justin and it helped me see how it was done, it gave me good insight. Jacob just ran around and climbed on trees, he likes free running. So Justin starts by preaching to a few people, and then I see a hoard coming along and grab Rachelle's Bible and go jump on the wall (my good old faithful wall) but, sadly, they veered off to the bathrooms. But, determined to do something, I saw a nice Asian man sitting on a bench in front of me with his camera, so I said hello. He said hi back and I sat down on the wall and asked him if he knew that Jesus Christ died for his sins. He said yes. I think encouraged him to live without sin, and that Jesus commanded to go and sin no more (John 8:11) and that IF we sin we have an advocate to the Father which is Christ Jesus our Lord (1 John 2). He agreed with everything I said, so I made sure he knew exactly what it was I was saying (to not sin) and he still agreed, so I encouraged him to continue and blessed him then walked away.
Then a nice older couple walked past, I told them to be sure to forsake their sins and live for Jesus, they said something like, "already am." I'm not sure exactly what it was that they said, but I was spurred to say more (because I'm sure what they said wasn't right, haha), so I followed them as they walked and spoke after them telling them that one sin separated them from God, giving a simple, quick message, then let them go on their way. I really wish I remembered all I said to them, but can't.

Then...Justin was talking to this couple (about 40's) and the lady asks what Church Justin goes to. I really don't like it when people ask that because it's like, you're not even a qualified Christian if you don't belong to a church! Justin explained that he wasn't from around here so she asked me and Rachelle. I explained that I was a part of the church of Christ, the body of Christ, and that you don't have to go to a building to be a part of the church. So when she found out I didn't go to church she raised her eyebrows and gave me this look that said (to me), "oh, well, I'd better not listen to you, you heathen." I don't like churches, for the most part, because they all seem to give me a gross feeling. I don't like how commercial they've become, how they focus so much on GOING TO CHURCH. GET TO CHURCH. OH NO I DIDN'T GO TO CHURCH SO NOW I'M A SINNER. So, as a non-conformist, I didn't like to go. I'd rather have studies, I'd rather talk to fellow believers. I like having worship on Sundays, but we don't do that at my house. BFF's family has worship every other Sunday and it's so lovely and uplifting. I stood by the Bible verse that says where two or three are gathered I am in the midst of them. But the lady quoted Hebrews 10:25 "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Then walked away. I said to JB, "are you going to let her get away with that?" Half joking, half serious because I thought just gathering together was good enough, you didn't need a church to do that. 


And he shrugged and said, "she has a valid point." I will illustrate, in words, how this made me feel: Plane diving noise--->VVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRR....
Plane crashing noise--->KAAAPOOOWWW! Just like that, I melted. Did I just say something wrong to her? Have I been wrong on my stance on churches this whole time? Rachelle was having the same thoughts so she talked to Justin about it. What he said wasn't very comforting. Then she asked if not going to church was a sin and he shrugged and thought and said it could be, it couldn't be, it depended. My mind shut down and I no longer felt like preaching. I walked to the wall, like a zombie, and sat and stared. Like I said, I don't like churches, I don't like people that go to church. But Justin explained that there are some good churches, you just have to look for one. I felt completely defeated (which is just what Satan wanted) and I wanted to go home. I didn't want to preach, I didn't want to go to the movies as planned, I just wanted to go home and call Buddy BFF. Rachelle was worried about me but I didn't know what to say, I didn't even know what was really wrong. If not going to church was wrong I'd change that. I had to be humble and admit it. I just didn't like the idea that I was arguing with a woman about it being okay to not go to church and then JB's like, "uhhhh.. actually." Justin and Rachelle both tried to encourage me to not let Satan get to me and continue to preach but I just fell in a trance and watched the sunset for a while, deep in thought. Carah's words from the night before, "don't let it rob your joy" echoed in my head. And I felt grieved.


Then, Justin preached to this lady pushing a stroller. She had huge bug-eye glasses, some nice linen beach pants and definite mom sandals (the brown leather braided ones). He preached to her and she got offended, saying she was already following Christ, then walked away. They continued to try to get me to preach when the same lady had walked to the beach (behind the wall) and stopped to reprimand us. "You guys have a lot of nerve," she said, "do I look like a sinner to you??" Justin continued to preach to her and I sat there, a little bit in a stupor, when she asked why were we just walking around trying to preach to people. I don't remember exactly what I said, the important part is that I jumped right in, I pulled out of my strange haze and started talking to this woman about how Christ walked around preaching to people just like we are, and that we do it because we love people and want to warn them of hell. She then said we should come when there are teens everywhere swearing and drinking, not when there are people walking around with their kids. Justin shot back that she was being prideful and then she said he should be ashamed and that he was judging her. He told her she was the one that was ashamed. This lady was very bothered by the sin message and the fact that we thought she "looked" like a sinner. What does a sinner look like? Satan himself disguises as an angel of light. I mean, really? We told her that if she was living right then this message shouldn't bother her.

Finally we decided to walk some more. There were two teenager girls that Justin preached to and I just walked around feeling like a zombie, and disappointed in myself. I heard the stroller mom-sandal woman talk to two guys saying, "there are people walking around preaching to people, murmur, murmur, I mean, nobody's perfect." I wanted to say, "you know, I can hear you." But she didn't say anything else and walked away, saying-- with a smile --"have a good night." Wow. Talk about double-minded. 
So then I walked over to the two teenagers, who were yelling (at Justin) "Jesus loves cigarettes". And I asked them, "are you talking to me?" "No, I'm talking to my mom," the brat said as she had her cell phone to her ear. Then I walked away and came back and asked, "what did that man say to you?" And they asked if I was "with" him and I said, "yeah, he's my friend, but what did he say?" So they said, "he was just saying things like "believe in God" and crap like that, like, whatever. I don't believe in God." They were smoking and spitting, two disgusting habits, yuck. I said, "how can you not believe in God when you have all this around you?" I ushered to the trees. "How can you not believe in Him when you are breathing in and out, you and your body with the millions of cells." Then she said (and when I say she I mean the brat on the phone, because her friend didn't say much), "we believe in Satan, we're Satanists, snark snark." I said, "who do you think created Satan." "SATAN! HAHAHA" So I was about to walk away when I said, "just know that there will be a day, when you will stand before the Lord. It doesn't matter if you don't believe in Him, because He still exists. And I'm not saying just you, but me, and everyone else, we will all stand before Him and give account of all that we've done. Your wickedness will put you in hell. You should know about hell, being Satanists and all." They didn't have anything to say after that comment so I walked back to where the others were.

Then this sweet old man was photographing the sunset and Justin talked to him about the Bible, he agreed! It was great! Then he started talking about how he was a catholic, and his wife joined him. When Justin explained that you should live without sin and all that good stuff they quickly turned from happy, nice people, to pitbulls. They were so angry with us, so upset, they were like "we are DEVOUT catholics" The man said that we were probably bothering "these people" as he pointed to Rachelle and Jacob who were sitting on the steps. I said, "this is my sister and brother" HAHA! ehem. Then the woman said, "don't even bother with these people, they're crazy." And they walked away. Sigh... At this point I was disappointed that I didn't do more preaching. But I remembered that it wasn't about numbers, I talked to a few people and I can pray for them, too. But next time I hope not to give up so easily. I was just so disheartened, I wasn't sure what to do. 


Then we went to see Courageous. This movie made my brother cry! Go see it, right now. Get off your computer, grab your money, and go to the nearest theater playing it, and see it. If you live far away from the nearest theater, then call your local theater, shake your fist at them for not playing it, then wait for it to come out on DVD. It is awesome. It was chock full of good messages. Justin said it will help a lot of people and I agree.
So then, this morning, I took Justin to the airport. We stopped at a graveyard so he could find a grave of a minister. A dog was there and I said, "hi doggy!" as I got out and he jumped--JUMPED in my car, then in the back seat! Ugh! Stupid dog.

On my way home from the airport, I was feeling rather put out. Justin Buddy was gone and I wasn't going to see Buddy BFF in November as I'd hoped. [[Buddy, don't read this, it'll just make you more sad]] You see, I've known her for 8 and a half years, and she hasn't been there for my birthday once. So the fact that she'd be there this year was momentous, and I was so happy about it too. So that's why I've been so sad, because it was something I've asked for every year for the past 8 years and, for once, I thought it was truly going to happen after year after year of disappointment. [[Seriously, Buddy, turn back now!!]]
So I started to cry on the freeway and got off and went to Hobby Lobby. But all I could think of was things I could buy for her. Ha. So I went to the oil paint section and bought some paint thinner and this neato brush restorer stuff. Then I went to the canvases and picked one single canvas out (this means something). This one canvas signified the start of something. Enough putting off my painting career. It doesn't take me that long to paint something. I bought this canvas with the express intention of painting something and selling it. This canvas will not be allowed to stay in my house unless I can't sell it--then I'll just have to keep it. But that was the intention of the canvas, that was what it was born for, that's what I predestined it for. So, pretty soon, I will clean up my dusty old painting station and get to work on it. If I can paint this in a day

I can certainly paint something else worth selling. 


So praise the Lord, for lessons to learn, for loving family and for friends. Thank God.