2007 Highlights

2007 is coming to a close, which has put me in a somewhat contemplative/reflective mood. It was a good year, a year of lots of growth and adventure. Here's a recap of some of the highlights:

1. I completed my first year of teaching. Now that was an adventure. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. For any of those who may be rolling your eyes and saying "whatever, it's a 7-3 hour job and you're off in the summers," I assure you it's not. It's one of the most demanding but rewarding jobs, and also one of the least respected. It was bittersweet to leave in June.

2. In February of '07 I went to Redding, California to visit Bethel Church. I was hooked. I applied and got in to their Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry!

3. Jon Price started worship at Vineyard Westside. He's awesome.

4. I took the Omega course and the internship at the Cincinnati House of Prayer. Both were really good and led to new friendships and deeper levels in my relationship with Jesus.

5. Barb had baby Trenton and he's so adorable!

6. Mom and I made the 34 hour trek across the country to move me to Redding. We stopped at the International House of Prayer (where the Barrs also told me they were expecting baby #2-how exciting!), drove through lots of cow farms and very brown Nevada, absolutely gorgeous Lake Tahoe, and then finally to my little pad in Redding. (Where many other adventures took place like Mom and I moving a couch and a washer and dryer all by ourselves, driving a big ol' U-Haul truck, etc.)

7. Bethel School of Ministry. I would have never thought five years ago that I would be a part of a school like this learning from such amazing teachers and experiencing signs and wonders. God is so good.


Well, that's 7, fitting since it was '07. :) The number 8 is the number of new beginnings so I'm looking forward to 2008. I really have no idea how it's going to shake out. I'm thinking I'll be back home to Cincinnati in June, but I have no idea what I'll do after that. :) I'll definitely be visiting this place more



to get some more of these


I had a hot fudge sundae last night, which is my personal fav, but I couldn't find a picture of that. You definitely learn to appreciate the small stuff (like UDF) when you move away and there's no good local spot to get a yummy ice cream. :)

Happy New Year to all! May 2008 be even better than 2007!

Christmas miracle

It appears that I sent out my newsletter too early because I now have a new favorite story of the month. In school today right before worship, Ben Armstrong, one of our leaders, invited two fellow classmates to go up front while he told a testimony. On Friday night all three of them flew to New York. Why you ask? This is so cool. Buckle your seat belts. 13 weeks ago someone there overdosed on drugs (I don't remember his name, Steve maybe, and they never did say how they knew the person). When this person who shall be called Steve overdosed his brother was there. Steve was dead, not breathing, the whole bit. His brother prayed and he started breathing again, but he was in a vegetative coma state (Holy hole in the donut, raised him from the dead though). So, someone from New York paid for three plane tickets to fly Ben and my two classmates to NY this past weekend. They flew all of Friday night and then spent 10 hours with Steve on Saturday. When they arrived at the hospital Steve was still in a coma, had a trach in his throat, and a feeding tube in his stomach. The one classmate played guitar all day and they just sang over him. At one point during the day Steve opened his eyes and would widen them to say "Yes". Ben asked him if he was having dreams of God and he said yes (with his eyes). They continue to sing and pray over him. Steve began to cry. The doctor on the case said this was amazing and that tears were a really good sign because his brain was understanding conversation for the first time since the coma. Ben told him that they loved him. Steve actually mouthed "I love you". By the end of the 10 hours, the doctor said his condition had improved so much that they were going to take him out of the ICU and put him in a regular recovery room. PRAISE GOD!

Eichhorn family, if you're reading this, this is a testimony for the new little one! God can restore anything and everything!

Christmas Cookies

Well, today I had another first in my life. Normally "firsts" happen when you're little like first step, first word, etc, but even as we grow older we experience new and exciting things. I'm not so sure this one was exciting, but it was a first. I've witnessed this particular first before with little ones, but never in a formal school setting. Last year, I made it very clear to my students that I didn't want to experience it; if they needed to they could just run. So, if you haven't guessed it by now, one of my little students tossed her cookies today. Right before dismissal too. 10 more minutes and she would have been with mom. One of the other teachers was trying to clean it up. I was like what are you doing, we don't do that, custodians have special stuff for that. Hopefully, that will be the first and last time I see it this year.

In other news I made Christmas cookies today. Fun! They weren't my normal batch of homemade sugar cookies, but they will suffice. The teachers at preschool are doing some kind of gift exchange, but I didn't have a clue what to get them so they're getting muffins and cookies. I would like that gift. Let's see, I also did some laundry and light cleaning today. It's been productive and it's only 4:30. We'll see what else I can get into.

Back to school tomorrow. 2 more days...which is good because I've totally checked out. I'm ready to be home.

Financial Testimony

I have a cool financial testimony for you. Today in school Kathy Vallotton came in to announce who had money paid on their account. She went through the students and then she had Tracey Cooper come up (she's on staff with the school of ministry). Kathy said, "I have this envelope for you and I think I'll open it for you." Tracy was really excited (you have to know Tracy, she's spunky). So, Kathy proceeds to count out 10, 100 dollar bills. By the third one Tracy was in tears. Then Tracy took the mic and told us that their car had broken down this week and it was going to cost 848 bucks to fix it. Her husband and her had decided that they had to take back some of their kids' Christmas presents because of this unexpected car work. On the way to work that day, Tracy and her husband were talking about how God had never let them down before and the devil was going to have to pay for what he did. Then she gets a thousand bucks. Crazy. God is good.

Adventures with Dad

My dad was here this weekend and it was fantastic! Saturday we got up and took a loooonnnngggg walk down by the Sacramento River. We saw five deer on the way down to the river and one was a buck. Dad of course had to make weird noises at them to see what they would do. We stopped at the little coffee shop over the bridge on our way back, so that was fun. After our walk we came home, got cleaned up and went out again. He washed my car, then we got some lunch, and then we headed for Whiskeytown lake to do some hiking. We decided to do Boulder Creek Falls because it looked the coolest and we were running out of time. The guy at the visitor center gave us directions, so we followed them. We were on the narrowest, littlest gravel road that I've ever seen for about three miles, but it seemed like forever. Their were no trailhead signs whatsoever! I was getting quite frustrated because I wanted to see some waterfalls! We finally found another sign, but it still didn't give clear directions. After some more narrow gravel roads, we found a trailhead. It wasn't clearly marked either, but we just went with it. It was way cool! We even ended up climbing up this really narrow ledge to get closer to the top of the falls. The pictures don't do it justice, so you'll just have to believer me. Only bummer was that Dad got stung by two bees while we were there.

Dad also completed everything on my to-do list. :) The best part is that I now have a working bike trainer in my room, so I can get back to doing some cardio.

On Sunday after church, Dad and I drove out towards Mt. Shasta. We ended up going into the Shasta-Trinity forest and it was beyond beautiful. The trees were covered in snow; it was unbelieveably peaceful. We drove as far up as we could (the rest of it was closed due to snow) and got out and played in the snow a little. When we came back down, we drove over to the headwaters of the Sacramento River. It's just a little stream.

We ate dinner at a little Italian place called the Piemont. It was really good. It's the oldest restaurant in Mt. Shasta and the inside totally looks it. They have really old lighting, this big vinyl booth, lounge seating by the bar, and some way old dark, textured wall paper on some of the walls. It was way cool. The food was yummy too. Mt. Shasta is so small. Their main road is barely a mile long, but this restaurant was a find.

Dad and I had lunch after I got off work today and then he headed for San Jose. Way fun times. You all should come visit, there's lots of parks to play in out here...

Random extrapolations from the week thus far

I haven't posted in a few days, which is odd for me. It's been a super busy week. When Tuesday rolls around, it's a blur until the end of the week. Work, school, night classes, homework, sleep. There's little time to eat let alone type. :) I had a nice break today. I normally have Spanish on Wednesdays, but I had a small group leader training brunch that conflicted with Spanish. The nice thing was that I got to take a walk this morning. I extremely miss (I don't know what kind of English that is, but nothing else is forming at the moment) my morning walks, so it felt fantastic. Then I undid it all at my brunch. :)

I'm winding down for the night. I did some cleaning, laundry and homework. It was productive, but I'm tired. I have some more of the same for tomorrow night, but it will be worth it because I'll be completely free to hang with my dad this weekend.

I survived my first fifth grade Sunday school class. :) I think we'll still have to get used to some rules, but this weekend we don't have regular class so no planning. I'll have it again next week and then I'll be home for Christmas. The real test will be when I come back. I have a feeling I'm going to like it. I think I was put with that age group for some specific reasons.

Last night at Children's Home group we wrapped 500 presents. That was fun. The girls seriously outwrapped the boys too. It was funny watching some of them wrap. (Bethel does a huge Holiday Feast where they bus in 800 people and feed them a huge, fancy meal. Then the people get to pick out brand new clothes. The kids get to play games upstairs, or in those bouncy jumpy things and they get presents. Hence the need to wrap 500 presents.)

We're currently learning a lot about identity in school. It's good stuff, but some days are rough. Not always a barrel of fun when Papa exposes your yucky stuff. That's okay though because once it's exposed you can get free from it. We yell FREEDOM a lot around here. :)

14 more days until Christmas vacation...Family, please put up the decorations. :D

Fried Bologna and $800

I thoroughily enjoyed a fried bologna sandwich today for lunch. I bought some low-fat bologna when I got back from Cincinnati and I kind of forgot about it. Frying it is the only way to eat it and my bread is getting kind of stale, so I thought today was the perfect day to fire up the stove. The fried bologna made the stale bread much more enjoyable. You just can't eat peanut butter and jelly on stale bread so it will be toast or fried bologna until this loaf of bread is gone. I encourage you to revisit this childhood favorite if you haven't done so in a while. Switch it up a little.

Backtracking to Thursday...Someone from the Bethel staff often gets up to announce who had money paid on their account. On Thursday, they probably called at least 10 people who had $800 come in either for their tuition, rent, mission, or just to spend. It was wild. They just made one student after another stand up and proceed to tell them they had 800 bucks come in. This one guy from Canada in my revival group was just telling us on Wednesday how God has been providing for him. It usually comes down to the wire of when something is due, but it comes in. On Thursday he was one of the ones who got 800 bucks. 8=new beginnings. Amen.

Finally...

After Spanish today I checked my phone and noticed I had 2 missed calls and 2 text messages. They were all from my dad. We're talking 4 messages in a matter of an hour and a half. He knows how to send a girl into a panic because of course I think "4 messages in 1.5 hours and they say to call him asap so what the heck happened at home". My heart is pounding of course as I frantically dial home, but he was just calling to tell me he was coming to visit before a trip for work and he was trying to book airfare. AAAAAAHHHHHH! We get to go HIKING! For those of you who don't know, Redding has all kinds of crazy parks and waterfalls within an hour of here and I've been to very few because I don't have any friends yet who like to hike. I'm sure I won't be able to walk for a week after we're done hiking because I'm out of shape, but it will be worth it.

Kids say the darndest things

I was out on the playground today and one of my favorite little students came up to me and said, "Miss Jenny, I stuck my tongue out at (another little student who won't be named), but I was just kidding." So after a short discussion, I simply said, "well, thanks for being honest with me." The little boy played for a little bit, but then went up to one of the other teachers and said, "Miss Sue, I told Miss Jenny that I stuck my tongue out at ____ and she honored me." LOL.

More news in children's world...I have to teach 5th grade Sunday school. All the other teachers yelled out the younger grades and I didn't really want to argue so 5th graders here I come. I hope Jesus gives me some creative ideas because they're not impressed with the cheesy stuff like the little ones are! I do have a co-teacher who seems pretty nice, but we don't really know each other yet.

Okay off to veg for an hour. Another busy day tomorrow.

Prayer Please

Me again. Twice in the same day. Holly arrived home and is still quite sick. She left here last week with a cold which turned into pneumonia. She's taking some kind of medicine, but it makes her throw up. I obviously don't want to listen to that and I'm sure she would like to stop. If you could please pray for her that would be great.

In other news, I don't think I've ever experienced this kind of jet lag or however you spell it. It's only 3:15 and it feels like it should be at least 7. At least I should be awake for work tomorrow. :)

Thoughts so early on this Sunday morning

Well, I'm back in California. It was wonderful being home in Cincinnati for a week. I really didn't want to leave, but I know God's not done here yet. Flying is so not enjoyable anymore. The snacks are way lame and our movie screens were broken. I've never been one to fall asleep on planes, so I can't even do that. There always full flights nowadays too. Oh well, it's better than driving home at every break. :) The week went by really fast, but I did manage to get in 3 movies with the fam and visit some of my favorite Cincinnati restaurants. We saw Dan in Real Life, August Rush, and Enchanted. Dan in Real Life was a little slow for me and not as funny as I expected it to be. August Rush also started off a little slow, but had some great music and acting. Enchanted was entertaining and kind of funny. Even funnier was how Dad was squirming in his seat because it was part cartoon. :) I know you're dying to read about what restaurants we visited so here goes. O'Charley's was the first stop on Saturday when I got in. This may sound like no big deal to some of you, but I love their rolls and we don't have anything like it out here. I had Frisch's and Papa John's on Sunday, also two faves, but my pour stomach was feeling the grease. I had Dunkin' Donuts with Barb, best donuts on the planet, Skyline twice, and a UDF malt. Yum. I'll have to hit Whiskey's at Christmas time because they have excellent peanut slaw (cole slaw with finely chopped peanuts on top!) and potato skins. And by the way, I'm praying in a white Christmas so please join me. It was so nice waking up on Thanksgiving and seeing a little bit of snow on the roofs, but it was gone by noon. It can't snow until Christmas Eve though because I don't want any travel problems. :) Okay, I'm off to get some homework done. Chao for now.

Tecate Bound

Hola amigos! I just found out that I'm going to Tecate, Mexico! Yay for getting to use my Spanish! I'll post more later, but I'm off to a Children's Ministry meeting.

Oh yeah, Intercession is my AMT this quarter and it's absolutely fabulous! Beni Johnson (Bill Johnson's wife) leads it and she has some spunk. She totally reminds me of Judy Flynn, my favorite fiery intercessor in Cleves. :D

Okay, really got to go, but yay for a super happy day! :D

We finally have some color

Red Lion hosted an Art Sale this weekend. The art was beautiful! I spent almost an hour and a half just looking at the art. I did make a few purchases from the "Blowout" section. Good deals, good deals. The two Italy themed ones are in our main living space and the little cottage is in the first floor bathroom. And, now we have some color on our walls; it makes me very happy. If only I could paint like this...There are so many other cute accessories around town that would be really nice, but this is life on a budget. :)

Less than a week until I'm home...yay!

Mission Trips

Today was the big day. No, I did not get married. Someday, but not today. Today, we found out which mission trip we will be going on in April. Eric Johnson came in and said, "Repeat after me: I'm the most flexible person in the world." He then told us that some us would be on the Free Agent list. This was a list of people who didn't get any of there top 5 choices, but had to pick their top 3 from a shorter list (mainly of trips to Mexico). He also reminded us that free agents in the sports world make more money. Good analogy.

We trek out to the hall only to find that the lists have not been posted yet. After waiting for about 15 mintues in anxious anticipation someone put them up. There was a mad dash for the wall. Holly is taller and was closer to the front so she quickly saw that she received her first choice of South Africa. I high fived her and continued to peruse the list. I didn't get Kenya, my first choice so I moved on to Israel:nope. Next, I looked for Nicaragua. Negative on that one too. I knew I didn't get South Africa because I wasn't interviewed, so I worked my way back toward the Cabo list. No on that too. As my heart dropped, I knew I had to make it back to the Free Agent list. Sure enough, there I was. I wanted to look at the trip descriptions before I made my decision so I went back to my seat in class.

I was confused and disappointed for about a half an hour, but trying to be positive. After that, I was totally fine with it. You have to understand, this is totally not like me, I usually don't get over stuff in a half an hour. But, I just let it sink into me that any mission trip is going to be great because God is good all the time. The trips that we had to choose from were mostly Mexico trips and my new first choice is Tecate. It too has an orphanage so I'm praying that I get to go on that one. I also have a good friend in my small group who is definitely on that trip, so it would be fun to travel with her. Not to mention that I am taking Spanish so I could totally use my newly acquired skills in Mexico. Perhaps this was the plan the whole time...

I also feel that I am going to visit many nations throughout my life and so this Mexico trip, though I did not pick it at first, may be the appointed trip for this time. I pray for the opportunities to see the many facets of Africa, my Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel, and the countless other countries God has laid on my heart. For now though, I'm just ecstatic that I have an opportunity to be here in Redding, preparing to go to another country in April to share God's love with someone who might not otherwise experience it.

God is good all the time. What exciting adventures lay ahead!

Random tidbits

First week of preschool came and went already. Lovin' the kids-they are so cute. Don't get me wrong they have their tempermental moments, but for the most part they are just adorable and funny.

Randall Worley was our speaker in school today and he will be in tomorrow as well. He's like a walking bible reciter, he rattles off verses like crazy. It was good stuff.

We are supposed to find out what mission trip we are going on tomorrow! I'm really excited! Any of the ones I chose will be excellent.

(I told you this was going to be random tidbits.)

My next AMT (elective class) is intercession so once again, I'm way excited. (I need a thesauras so I can look up the word excited.) We get to talk a lot about third heaven (place where God resides) so that will be way fun. Bill Johnson's secretary came in the other day and talked to us about third heaven and then we went there. It still sounds so crazy saying that, but it's so much fun. And, when I say go there, I mean in my mind, not like I left my body and went there.

Next Saturday, I get to fly home...yay! I really miss home, so I can't wait to see friends, eat at some of my favorite restaurants, and sleep in my very own, real bed for a whole week. Aero beds are great and everything, but nothing beats your own bed.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I can't think of anything else. My head is a little foggy, I have a cold. It is on it's way outta here though, thank you very much.

Ok, thanks for stopping by to read my random thoughts. Peace and love to ya whoever you are. :D

Little ones

First day of work today was good! I forgot how little preschoolers are though, some of my third graders last year were tall. Oh yes, for those of you who don't know, I'm now a preschool aide in a classroom on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings. It's only 10.5 hours, but it's good to finally have some money coming in!

There are 20 little darlings in our class, but 6 of them were absent today. They have so much energy! I'm just glad I get to hang out with kids again. I don't have such a huge responsibility this time either, so I can just play and secretly pray over them. Hehehe. Some of them need it too. It's amazing the labels we put on kids at such a young age. I won't even go into the things I saw today that made me scream on the inside. Did you know it takes 10 positive words to right 1 negative word spoken to a child? Yikes! I'm gonna be busy. :)

Off to rest. I've had a sore throat since yesterday. Got to keep it warm with hot tea and Airborne (best herbal cold stuff ever).

Yesterday I made carrot cake all afternoon with a ginormous mixer in Bethel's kitchen for the pastor's conference this week. Hopefully, they will enjoy it tonight for dessert.

Okay, off to rest for real.

Burger and fire, yes fire

I decided to try the infamous In-N-Out burger tonight for dinner after outreach. On the way home though I was re-directed because of a house fire. I don't think I've actually ever seen a house on fire that close, so it was pretty wild.

Then onto In-N-Out. I love their menu, it's so simple. Classic simple. And they were friendly. For those of you who don't know what it is it's a burger joint established 59 years ago by Harry and Eshter Snyder. They started it to "give customers the freshest, highest quality food and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment." This was all stated on my "lap mat". They asked me if I was going to be eating it in my car and I said yes so they gave me a "lap mat." I guess if I would have said no though, they would have put it in a bag, which would have made it easier to carry it into the house. Note to self to remember that for next time. The thing I like the best on this little piece of paper however, is that back in the day when they first opened burgers were only 25 cents! Craziness!

Crazy busy day

I had to go back to Gateway to get more paperwork today. I have more stuff to fill out to be a sub than I did when I was an actual teacher. Craziness. Then I had to skidaddle on down to Public Health to get a TB test. Next I inhaled some lunch before school.

We had a fire drill at school today. Then Ben Armstrong got up and told us about his daughter playing with glory bubbles all Saturday night. She stayed up all night popping these things and when she did angels would appear. How wild is that? She was playing with them up until the time they left for church. She even asked her dad if he could see them. Ben said she wasn't tired or cranky at all on Sunday. Cool. Danny Silk got up after that and gave a good talk on Identity and Intimacy. We rounded out the day with our last class of our first AMT. We even had some visitors from Japan who have had Bethel missions teams come to their church, so they were very gracious and complementary about the work we do. Next week, we'll start our next "elective" or AMT. I don't really remember what I picked, so it will kind of be like a surprise. I think I picked intercession, but I'm not sure. :)

In a few minutes I have to head back to Bethel for a Children's Ministry meeting. Hope it's good, I'm sleepy.

It feels like I'm forgetting to write about something, but if that's the case I'll just post later. :)

I'll be back

I had to find the Redding Police Department today so I could be fingerprinted. (I'm going to sub periodically for Gateway School District) Anyway, I turned on Carlos and hit Redding CHP. It was under the police menu, and it was only a couple of minutes away so I went for it. I pull in to the parking lot and it's the California Highway Patrol Office. Well, I figured they should be able to point me in the right direction of the police department and I was right. While I was waiting though, I was scoping out the place and I must say it's so weird that even though I know that Arnold Schrawzenegger (or however you spell his name) is the state governor, I guess I didn't really realize it. However, when you're standing in a California Highway Patrol office and Arnold's picture is on the wall and his name is on the door as the governor of California, suddenly it sinks in. It's just funny seeing him in a suit and tie instead of his Terminator get up.

Other tidbits from the day...I'm amazed at how many people don't know how to spell Cincinnati. In the last month or so, I've probably been asked to spell it at least 5 times. Strange.

Got to go get some milk, then eat dinner, then go back to Bethel (just in case you were wondering what I was doing with the rest of my day). :)

Open Heavens Conference

They're having an Open Heavens Conference out here this week so there's people everywhere! All the students had to sign up to volunteer, so I worked the book table from 9-10 today. Super easy and they have so much good stuff that I want. Anyway, Bill Johnson walks in so I'm having a freak out celebrity moment again. He walks right over to where I'm standing, looks at a tag and says, "This book isn't new (it was one of his), I'm crossing this out." Then he proceeds to take out a pen and cross out the part that says it's new. He was laughing the whole time, but I just found it funny that he actually crossed out the "New!" Then he mosied on along to see what else we were selling.

During the first announcements of the conference they were announcing countries that people have flown in from. It's insane. Here are a few: Egypt, Australia, the Czech Republic, Cypress, UK, Norway, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Iceland, New Zealand, France (!), and Switzerland. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but I was amazed that these people travel that many miles to come to Bethel. Bill asked if he forgot any countries and one lady stood up and said, "I'm from Texas." :)

Time for a quick bite and then it's back to school.

OH...

I passed Bill Johnson in the Hebrews lobby last night. It still has that awe factor of "Oh my gosh, I just walked by Bill Johnson." It is his church, but it feels funny seeing him there...surreal I guess.

I went to the Children's Ministry open house. Fantastic. Their children are learning and experiencing so much! I signed up to volunteer so I can't wait to find out what my job will be.

This may be the shortest post ever...

New pics

It's supposed to be sunny and 80 all week. Hard for me to comprehend considering we're nearing the end of October. Anyway, it looked like a pretty clear morning so I decided to go down by the river and take my camera. I ended up walking on the other part of the trail that I had never been on. Way better than the other side! But, my camera died. How I could leave the house with 3/4 of a battery and then have it die after only 3 pictures is beyond me, but I'll just have to go back later this week. I also want to go out towards Mt. Shasta when it's clear like this. So, hopefully later this week I'll have a chance to do that.

The first two pictures are actually of some clouds we had after it rained all day (last Friday). I'm talking pouring rain all day long and then the sun came out and we had these huge, puffy white clouds. This picture doesn't do it justice at all, but I thought I'd put it up anyway.

The other two pictures are the Sundial Bridge (it's actually a sundial) and the Sacramento River. I'll have way cooler shots for you soon when I get some new batteries in my camera. :)

Who wants to hear a testimony?

Some great testimonies this weekend!

On Friday, the children's pastor here at Bethel (Deborah Reed) came to talk to us. She had us picture God pouring out His Spirit and revival on all the countries of the world. After a few minutes she had us open our eyes and said, "If you didn't picture children in your mind, there's something wrong with your view. 52% of the world's population is children." Her message was that we need to be equipping our children and calling them into their destiny. Anyway, Deborah travels to several countries to train churches on how to lead their children. She has developed a year long curriculum that includes topics like prayer, worship, healing and raising the dead. She has visited this one particular place down by Hawaii several times. Recently, she received a call from this island church and they proceeded to tell her that their children had raised an older, grandmother from the dead! This team of children had been going door to door to pray for people and while they were in one house, this grandmother died. So they prayed for her and then even followed her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. Not accepting this, the children continued to pray and alas, she awoke! Deborah Reed has teams of children here at Bethel that worship, prophesy and pray for the sick. They prayed for a lady with very bad breast cancer for half an hour and then they went back to their pizza party. Two days later, the lady reported that the doctors could no longer find cancer anywhere in her body.

The Call in Las Vegas was yesterday so they had some cool reports today at church. Bethel had sent a large team and as they entered Las Vegas they were reading the hotel billboards. These billboards often display who's signing or who has won the jackpot. The first billboard they say said "Jesus won". That was enough to stir them up. Anyway, there were lots of good healings and salvations throughout the day, but I'll share two favorites. First, 30 minutes into the event there was a lady running around the outside of the stadium. She hadn't even come into the event yet, she was outside. Why was she running you ask? She had been in a wheelchair for 20 years due to MS. Yesterday was the first time in 20 years she could get up and stand, walk, and run! Praise God. The other cool story was about a prostitute. Somehow she had found her way to the Call, a 12 hour prayer meeting. She came up and gave her life to Christ and to purity from that point on. I can only imagine the chills in the place when she did this. :)

Good stuff, huh?

There will be a Call in Cincinnati on January 12th (US Bank Arena). You can find out more information at thecall.com. Check it out for sure!

Hello White People

Another rainy day here in Redding, but a most excellent one.

The past two days they've been teaching on the Father's Love and we've been doing some soak times to have an encounter with our Papa. Today, they had some people come up and tell testimonies about what they experienced yesterday. They were SO good. A black student gets up there and says "Hello, white people." Everyone cracked up! It was hilarious. Besides a few foreigners, there are only a handful of black people at Bethel. Anyway, this student was hilarious throughout his whole testimony, future preacher on our hands I think. The best part was his transformation of course, but his revival group leader ended up praying for him yesterday and asked God to break this vow he had spoken over himself. The student was amazed because he hadn't told anyone about this vow, but the Holy Spirit revealed it to his revival group leader. By the time he was done with his testimony everyone was on their feet cheering him on and God for doing this amazing work. Another girl from his home state, Alabama, stood up to pray in the gap for his family, hometown, and the black community for what he's going to take back to them. Then a bunch of people stormed the stage to bless him. It was crazy goodness.

We also went out on our first outreach today. I carved pumpkins with some kiddies. They were so wound up because they were excited to see us, but it was good.

No free Chipotle. The line was sooooo long. And although I feel slightly poor, I didn't feel poor enough to stand in the long line in the rain. I had leftover instead. :)

Yay for friends

We had an excellent Bible class today. We were doing geography doodling and timelines-stuff I need and like! Dann Farrelly, our Bible teacher, is so funny too. You should definitely watch his video announcements online (welovethebulletin.com).

In other news, I received a package from home today from my beautiful, new mommy, friend, Barb. It was the perfect timing too. Yesterday and today I've kind of been in a funk missing all the people and comforts of home. Then during class today, I was like "Man, a Frisch's cheeseburger would be way excellent right now." So, I check the mail today and there was a package filled with all my Cincinnati favorites! Skyline chili, Montgomery Inn barbecue sauce, some cookies-like those yummy buttery ones from Busken, Frisch's tartar sauce, and some chocolate! When she asked me what I wanted I just suggested Skyline, but she definitely sent me some great stuff. Thanks Barb!

(I love everyone's e-mails and blog comments from home too, so keep those coming!)

Tomorrow is free Chipotle day. We have a new one in town and they're giving Bethel students a free burrito and a free soft drink. I'm not really a big fan of Chipotle, but hey if it's free it's for me. I will try it again. :)

Okay, off to SOZO training. For those of you who are like, huh?, it stands for saved, healed, and delivered. Learning how to get people free. :D

Update on prayer requests and Oil Story

A few posts ago I had asked for you to join me in prayer for a fellow classmate's mom who was missing in France and for a friend who is pregnant and has a spider bite. The mom has been found! Apparently though, she has the last stages of breast cancer and that is why she wouldn't contact anyone. So, please continue to pray for her. Also, my other friend, Sarah, who is pregnant is doing okay. She still has a weird rash, but the doctors assure her that the little one growing inside her is doing fine. And, of course we're believing that God is protecting the baby from the antibiotics!

You can add me to your prayer lists-I keep getting headaches at school. :(

Now, for a cool story. So on Sunday night, I wrote about how Pastor Bill laid hands on everyone at the church. Well, he also annointed us with this oil. The oil happened to be from the church in Puerto Rico where it has been dripping down the walls and out of Pastor Dennis' bible. Anyway, Pastor Bill annointed every single head on Sunday night, we're talking close to 1,000 people. And...when he was all done...none of the oil was gone! WOW!

Everyone can come

Yesterday afternoon Holly and I went to see Tyler Perry's new movie "Why Did I Get Married?". It was pretty good. When we arrived home Holly checked her voice messages and found a nice surprise. Our friend, Angela, had called and said, "I don't know if you heard, but Pastor Bill has invited everyone to come to service tonight regardless of which service you've been assigned." What! So we took a quick pottie break and jumped right back in the car. Holly and I thought for sure Bob Jones was going to be there because he was in California this weekend, but it wasn't him.

Worship was an hour and fifteen minutes long and it was electrified in there. I can't explain how it felt. Danny Silk was supposed to talk, but gave it up so Pastor Bill could. He gave this great message about Pentecost being more than just receiving tongues. It was about receiving a fresh fire for Jesus, a boldness to do whatever He asked. In Acts, 120 people had stuck around and pressed in for 10 days and then God came. (There's more, but I'm not typing the whole sermon) We also watched this really cool video from Patricia King where she was interviewing Pastor Dennis (I don't remember where he was from) who is seeing a ton of signs and wonders in his church. His church is dripping oil everywhere. It even drips out of his Bible. He's also received over 1200 gemstones. You can watch it on extremeprophetic.com. It will stretch you. :)

So, at the end of the message Bill said he was going to lay hands on every person who wanted it. Everyone got in lines; some in the hallway, the overflow room, we were in the cafeteria. We were about 6 feet apart in case people fell out in the Spirit. Then he just came around with his oil and quickly prayed for each person. Some of his staff we're praying as well, so we had more than one person praying for us. It was GOOD stuff. We left about 10:30 and people we're laying all over the hallways. It was cool that that many people stuck around for a touch from God.

I was hoping to sleep in today, but I awoke to hammering next door. 7:00 hammering away. Holly was not a happy camper. :) She even went over there, but they didn't answer her. Oh well, I got lots to get done. Laundry, cleaning, homework...

Sweatin' it out

When was the last time you were dripping because you were dancing so much before the Lord? Worship was crazy good last night again. Georgian Banov did the Friday night service so he was crankin' it up and bustin' out the fiddle. People were jumping and doing the dos-i-doe. It was way fun, but man I burned some serious calories. :) He also gave the message. We heard a little more about his ministry and it sounds phenomenal! He's going to Nicaragua over Christmas to feed the orphans. He'll go to Israel in February to do some supernatural conferences for the Palestinians. In July he's going to Romania, Turkey, and Bulgaria to minister to the gypsies. And, for the grand finale, he's going to Mozambique in September to help out at Rolland and Heidi Baker's orphanage. I want to go on all of them! I'm definitely going to connect with this ministry at some point, it's too good.

Homework and house chores today, then who knows. :)

Fiddlin' is cool

We had Georgian Banov come to school today. He led worship and he spoke! Worship was so good. The atmosphere is often thick with God's glory, but it was really thick today. He led with electric guitar, but every once in a while he would put that down and pick up his violin. He is a crazy good fiddler. I want to find out more about him. It sounds like he has a really cool ministry. He travels to Jerusalem and loves on the Palestinian refugees and at Christmas he goes to Nicaragua and feeds 10,000 in an orphanage!

I met my outreach group as well today. I got my number #1 choice-mentoring! I'll have a buddy at the California Apartment complex and it will be great fun.

Okay, that is all for now. :)

This is serious

Hola amigos!

I know my post sometimes ramble on about nothing, but this one is important.

Yesterday it was announced at school that one of our classmates, Jenny, needed prayer. Her mom is missing in France. We all stood and prayed, but I'm asking that you join us asking that her mom would be found quickly.

Also, a good friend of mine, Sarah, has an infected spider bite. Please pray for a quick healing! It's a little tricky for the doctors to treat her because she's pregnant, but our God is the master physician.

And as a testimony that prayer works especially in large numbers...last Thursday Beni Johnson announced that a hate group was coming into town to do a rally. All of the students stood and prayed against it and asked that these people would come to know Jesus. The hate group that was in town...KKK. The weekend passed without any hate rallies...praise God!

Got me a new pin

Well this weekend started with an apple festival in Paradise, California. Paradise was pretty, the apple fest was not so great. They didn't even have apple cider! The little town had some antique stores though, so we mosied through those for a bit. Paradise happens to be right next to Chico, so we stopped back at their big antique store too. Holly bought some more pewter-she likes that stuff. We also stumbled upon a Farmer's Market that was way fun. Holly bought all kinds of produce and flowers. Then we went to Pluto's for lunch. Way good salad. They just have a big bar of all these salad ingredients and they mix up a salad for you. After lunch we walked around a little bit in Chico. We hit one more antique store in Anderson on the way home where I made my only purchase of the day. Check out my way cute (and what a bargain) new pin. Antique stores are so great because you feel like you're shopping, but I hardly ever buy anything.

Sunday was church and more job applications. I think I've filled out 9 applications so far. Nobody likes that I'm coming home for Thanksgiving. Winter breaks seem to be acceptable, but not Thanksgiving. So, I'll just fill out some more.

Monday was highly productive. I got up early and did my laundry, wrote my book report, did my Bible reading, and cleaned! And that was only the morning.

It was back to school today. It was pretty good. Some lady came very close to hitting me in the face three times during worship with her flag, but I survived. :) I was sitting in the back on the floor, all content taking my notes, but someone made me move back to my seat. I'm going to have to find a new seat though because I can't stand being hemmed in for so many hours at a time. I like space, what can I say.

Holly and Jenny got trashed

Trashed by the Holy Spirit and the joy of the Lord that is. All these students get drunk in the spirit at school or they laugh (joy of the Lord) and Holly and I were just talking the other day that we hope it doesn't take all year to feel it. So Friday night services have been slightly hard to get psyched up since we're at school all day. We got there and worship was AWESOME. Then they introduced the speaker for the night, Kevin Dedmon, who imparts the ministry of laughter among other things. Sweet will take it. Some of the second years were wasted during the service. Holly and I started to taste a little of it during service. I had a few moments of extreme laughter, tears streaming down my face, the whole deal. Kevin Dedmon decided to end the night with a Joy tunnel. Those are way better than Fire tunnels. Oh my goodness. Holly and I laughed and shook down the whole thing. One lady touched my stomach and I totally lost it in laughter. It was sooooo fun.

Many of you are probably thinking we're crazy. We are. Crazy for Jesus. I hope the joy of the Lord hits you as you read this. It is so fun. I've never been drunk by alcohol so I don't know what that feels like, but this is WAY better. People just talk to you and laugh with you and prophesy over you. It's great.

Here's the best part. Some lady went through the joy tunnel and got out of her wheelchair. Yep, just an ordinary day in the Kingdom. Come on. That's a good word right there.

Interesting Talk Today :)

So everyone was excited today at school because Pastor Kris was going to talk. His talks are always super good. Anyhow, second year joined us so we had 700 and something people packing out the auditorium. Pastor Kris was taking his sweet, merry time telling this story, but it was intriguing. And then...before you know it...we are in the thick of a sex and purity talk. People may have been uncomfortable at first, but it was SO good. Every parent and teenager should hear this message. As soon as I can download it, I'm going to. He's actually writing a book with his daughter-in-law about the whole topic which should be fantastic.

Yes, another short post. I have homework. :)

School gets better and better

We got our mission trip list today! Scream, scream! We had to pick our top 5 choices because they have to sort 720 students into teams. My top five were:
1. Kenya
2. Israel
3. Nicaragua
4. South Africa
5. Cabo

All of them would be amazing. The Kenya trip is visiting a large orphanage though, so that really intrigues me. I should find out in November which team I'm on.

We also got a list of home groups today, so I have to pick one. That is a task for another day because my brain is already fried from all the other excitment today.

I also had my first Missions class. That just has me all stirred up. It was good stuff and it was just basic overview stuff.

Okay, short post. I'm sleepy. ;)

Whiskeytown Lake

Holly and I decided to do our Bible reading by a lake today. Someone had suggested Whiskeytown Lake and since it's only about 15 minutes away we decided to check it out. GORGEOUS! We stopped at several different sides of the lake, hence the differences in color of the water. The water was chilly, but it felt pretty good on my feet because the sun was warm. Lots of little salamanders or geckos or something running around. We also stopped at the visitor center and found out there are several trails that lead to waterfalls. When we have the proper shoe attire on we are going back to see those! Hopefully, next weekend because I do love waterfalls.

In other news, my Bengals are stinking it up once again as I type. So sad.

Back to school tomorrow. First day of Missions class too. Super excited about that!

The tears have started...they're good though

Couple of highlights from this week...

On Wednesday we had our first Bible class. Boy, did I feel lost. Dann Farrelly is one of our Bible teachers and he is absolutely hilarious. (He also does video announcements that are fantastic. You can watch them on the web for free at welovethebulletin.com.) Anyway, he created this super fun-fun quiz as he called it to see what we knew about the Bible. Yep, next to nothing. Good thing it wasn't graded. This should be an excellent class though. I should learn a ton.

Wednesday afternoon, we met our revival groups. I have two leaders, John and Laura, and our intern is Candice (she's a third year student). There's about 40 people in our group I guess, maybe a little less. Most of them are young, but there's a few older people that I haven't met yet. Anyway, they made us pair up and tell three things about each other to the whole group. The best one was about this man who had formerly been a drug dealer and was sentenced to life in prison. While in prison he found Jesus and Jesus set him free from all of his addictions and prison!

Spanish is awesome. Our teacher is very energetic and really knows her stuff. She's been going to Bethel since the 60 when Bill's dad was the head guy. It's strange being in a language class where the teacher busts into prayer and we sing worship songs, but it's great.

Onto Thursday. Thursday was a good day. Tracy Cooper was our first speaker and she was great. (I'm running out of cool adjectives for these people.) First of all, she had an amazing testimony of growing up in the church, which was encouraging for me. So many of these powerful preachers have come from really negative backgrounds and I rarely hear of people who come from fairly normal, church backgrounds. I was way encouraged that God does use people who grew up in the church. I mean, I know He does, but sometimes it just seems like the ones who have been delivered from serious stuff are used more. Her best line, was that God delivered her and protected her from experiencing the horrible things of life like abuse, drugs, etc.

Later on on Thursday we had some prayer time. I don't remember who led it, but it was good. People were laughing everywhere, shaking under His glory. Not me. I just cry. I was good until the second year students started trolling the room to pray for people. I had so many students touch me. Someone even hugged me. It was like being hugged by Jesus himself. I can't explain it. That's when the tears started. (And for those of you wondering if I love hugs now, No, that hasn't happened yet.) :)

Chris Overstreet, the outreach guy, was one of our last speakers on Thursday. He's an energetic speaker, very cool. We'll be doing outreaches every Thursday afternoon, so he was there to explain our options. There are a couple of opportunities with kids so I hope I get one of those.

We closed out Thursday with a fire tunnel, which is where a bunch of people make a tunnel and they pray for you as you go through it. They get really hot because the presence of God comes, hence the name fire tunnel.

Friday was a long day. I had Spanish, then class, a revival group dinner, and then Friday night service which ended up being 3 hours. I was good until about 9:15 then I was getting really sleepy. They were doing prophecy in the service which was awesome. No words for me, but other people from our class were getting blasted. I had already cried again during worship so it's probably good they didn't have a word for me. :) Holly and I were hanging out with this guy, Josh, from Manchester, England. He's really cool and of course the accent is awesome. I was telling Josh that Holly isn't a true representative of the Cincinnati accent because she's really from Indiana and she lived in Wisconsin too long and she picked up their accent. He just kind of looked at us like we were crazy, but Holly and I were having a good time. Holly was asking him how far away Scotland is from his home and he said, "Pretty far, it's about 4 hours." We were like "What! That's nothing." We then preceded to tell him we drove 34 hours to get to Redding and he just couldn't wrap his mind around it. Apparently, in England, they don't like to drive. Then in church, there was another guy from England who's actually in my revival group. He's a Steelers fan though, so we only talked to him for a little bit. :)

And lastly, Missions is going to be my first elective so I'm super, super excited about that. Job hunting and a Feast of Tabernacles dinner today. More to post about later I'm sure...

More Cool Kid Stories...

I started the day off with a walk down by the river. That's the best little trail. I spent a lot of it praying (I never seem to remember my iPOD anymore) and I actually went down to the river today, not just by it. It's an absolute gorgeous river. It bubbles up at this one spot by this tree out in the middle. The the current moves pretty swiftly towards the sunrise, but on the banks the water gently folds in. This description doesn't even do it justice.

Fast forward to school. It was kind of a duller day than any of the ones last week. My senses were on overdrive too so every little pen click, gum chewer, and typist were driving me crazy. I decided to go stand in the back for the last speaker, Ben. Let's just say he was the highlight of the day. He came out dressed in a full Scottish deal because apparently that's his heritage. Anyway, he was all fired up preaching about some good stuff. The kid stories are what get me though. Here we go...

His oldest child is an 8 year old boy. When this child was 5, Ben was saying goodnight to him before he went out for a night outreach. The son asked his dad where he was going and he told him he was going to hang out with the homeless. The little boy said, "Dad, where do they sleep?" Ben proceeded to tell his son that they sleep on the ground, sometimes on the concrete and it can be very cold. The little boy said, "That doesn't sound very comfortable. Dad, you take my mattress because they need it more than I do and you can buy me another one anyway." Ben was moved by his son's heart and was being taught by God the Father through his son. God always has enough.

Story #2. Ben has a daughter who is 5 and she came home the other day and said, "Dad, I was playing with the Holy Spirit on the playground today." Ben of course asked what they were playing. The little girl said, "I was on the slide and I asked Him if he would come and push me so I could go fast like lightning and He did! I felt Him push me fast like lightning and then we went up and did it again . We were playing and He made me go fast, but He was protecting me so I didn't fall."

Story #3. Ben also has a 3 year old. Sometimes when they're in the car they have soak time. On one particular drive they hadn't said that it was soak time, but the 3 year old got lost in worship. All of the sudden, she said, "Mommy." The mom said what. The little one said, "Mommy, I saw God." The mom said, "What did He look like?" "He was beautiful."

Ahhhhhh. These stories are so cool. There are so many young families raising kids like this too and it's so exciting!

Spanish starts tomorrow. More fun to add to the mix. :D

Week-end

Mom has requested an update. :)

On Saturday, Holly and I drove down to Chico which is about an hour away. It's a cute little college town with little shops and delis. It also had a fun antique store-25,000 square feet. I didn't find anything, but Holly did. It was kind of rainy and chilly, so we didn't do a whole lot. Apparently, they have some nice parks, but those remain to be seen.

Sunday we had church. I have the first service this month and Holly has second. It was good, but I was extremely tired on Sunday for some reason so I came home did some reading, actually took a nap, then watched some football.

Today was pretty uneventful as well. I interviewed with Kohl's (they're opening a new store here), but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a Dear John letter. They open the week of Thanksgiving and I'll be back in Cincinnati. I gave my resume to a family too who was looking for some childcare, but they never called. I was kind of getting a weird vibe there though, so I'm okay with no call back there.

I finished another book report today too. That feels fantastic. It wasn't due until next week, but I start Spanish this week and I'm not sure if I'll have additional homework, so I wanted to get ahead. I actually own the next book they're going to give us, so I may start reading that too.

Week 2 starts tomorrow...

Buckle up...this is probably going to be long

First week down, lots more good stuff to come. Let me fill you in on my favorites from today.

Pastor Bill spoke to us today (3rd time this week, which is rare, but good for us). His main message today was prosperity of soul. The best way to be healthy in mind, soul and body is to focus on what God has done and is doing and not on what he hasn't done. Anyway, at Bethel's staff meetings they always take 1.5-2 hours to talk about testimonies and the miracles they have seen in the last week. Pastor Bill had been at a conference in Texas where he had seen 82 people with deafness healed in about five minutes. There were many other miracles as well, but the 82 deaf people was the highlight. One man even had some kind of nerve that was completey severed be completey healed. Pastor Bill's oldest son, Eric, who is also on staff at Bethel is 85% deaf in both ears. He prays for people with deafness all the time and they are healed, but his condition remains. Pastor Bill said that he looked at his son during the staff meeting after he had mentioned the deafness being healed for the umpteenth time and Eric looked back at him and said "We're one day closer, Dad." Now, that's focus on what God is doing. Gave me chills.

Favorite story #2. Pastor Kris did a question and answer session today and at one point he was addressing someone's question on prophecy with a testimony. So good. In the middle of the service he had a word for this man in the very back row, so he gave it to him in front of the whole church. He told him he was a "Holy Man of God" and went on and on. Four years later this guy comes up to Kris and says "Do you remember me?" Kris needed a little reminding, but then he did. Apparently this guy had been a heroin addict since he was 13 in and out of rehab and jails (he was around 40 when this prophecy happened) and he told Kris that the minute he told him he was a Holy Man of God he was delivered from his addiction! Not only that, but he took his girlfriend up for prayer (who was also in a halfway house) because she had Hepatitis C. When she went to the doctor they couldn't find any evidence of the disease anywhere. (Apparently, even if you're cured of Hepatits C, you can still trace it in your body.) Amazing! God is so good!

So Holly and I were both assigned to Friday night service, so we came home grabbed some grub and headed right back to Bethel. There was a guest worshipper, Suzi Yarzei, I think was her name. She was crazy wild and it was really good. Then her husband got up to preach. Yep, he used to be a Shiite Muslim and now he's radical for Jesus. He has had so many God encounters and he's only been a believer for 7 years. His whole family has now been saved as well. His brother has only been saved for 9 months and he's been to Heaven. It was an awesome testimony.

Then we're walking out and we see these two little boys in the lobby. The younger brother is praying for his older brother. Try to picture this. The older brother, probably no more than 6 has his Batman pajamas on and he's sprawled out on the couch shaking under the glory. His younger brother, maybe 4 also in pjs, has his hands on his brother's eyes and he's babbling something and giggling. When he lifted his hands his brother would stop shaking, when he put them back on he would shake again. It was the coolest thing ever. A whole group of BSSM students stopped to watch. Oh, to have childlike faith...Speaking of childlike faith, one more quick story.

Pastor Bill was telling us about his grandchildren today and how they have prophesied about their siblings. His one grandson pointed at his mom and said mom "You're going to have a girl and you shall call her Bella." The mother had not told anyone that her and her husband had decided that if they were ever to have a girl they would call her Isabella. The mom took a pregnancy test and sure enough she was pregnant. One of Bill's granddaughter's had a similar experience. The Johnson sons so far had all girls and they were hoping for someone to have a boy so they could carry on the name. So little Haley comes in and says, "Don't worry, I talked to God and told him we want a boy, so that's what we're going to have." So, the mom goes to the doctor and finds out they're having a boy. Haley said, "See, I told you." Kids are so great!

I've got some great new favorite worship songs too. Everything is great. :) x10

2nd Day

Okay, so I'm not sure that I'll write everyday, but then again maybe I will. :) The second day of school was even more intense than the first. And when I say intense I mean your brain hurts because it's being expanded so much. It's crazy good in an exhaustive kind of way.

I began the day with what they call Prayer Encounter. It's 45 minutes of prayer before school starts. I get in there and Joaquin starts talking about praying from the third heaven. Just jumping right in and going for it from there. I'm still not completely sure what he was talking about, but I have some idea. I felt God's presence and everything, but I suppose I'm just not as charismatic as some people because it was crazy in there. When he asked us to brush anxiety off our neighbor's shoulders we did and then he starts yelling "Stop!" He didn't just yell it once either. He went onto explain that we had switched activities and gears. We had to start again only this time we were not to switch gears. When we switched activities we had to keep our hearts in the same place, the same gear. It was a very interesting learning experience. Crazy good.

We finally got to the rules and regulations on day 2. Those were not so fun. We have to park in the dirt, which there really isn't enough of so I'm not sure how that's supposed to work. So much for a clean car. :) We were assigned services as well. Not so fun either, but there's 500 of us and then all the normal church people. Bethel has never had a class this big. They had to order 5 trailers just to accommodate the other activities they have going on and the maintenace crew had to do some serious work on the plumbing after day 1 because the toilets were going crazy.

Pastor Kris also spoke yesterday and it was so good, again. I don't know how they do it. It was mainly about honor and how it has almost ceased to exist in our culture. Definitely changed my view on a few things. He was relating it back to laying on of hands too. I'll have to get my notes out and post about it, it was good stuff.

Last night, I decided to go to this prayer and worship thing at Breaking New Grounds. It's a Christian owned Coffee House that opens up to the Awakening 20 Ministry on Wednesday nights so we can have prayer and worship. I met some great people and the worship time was out of this world. I even met a girl from Columbus, OH, but I can't remember her name. oops. I hate small talk and going to places where I know no one, but I survived. :) This one girl even asked to pray for me as soon as she met me. That was good. Everything's good.

And lastly, I won my first item on ebay. Very exciting.

First Day

First day of school was glorious. :) They never did give us a head count of how many people are attending, but we filled the entire room where they have Sunday service. Pastor Bill said it was like a whole separate church landed in Redding on one day. Anyway, Mark Brookes got up to do the intro and he's so funny to listen to. He kind of draws everything out that he's saying, but he's trying to give this hyped up speech to get us all ready. You had to be there. We had about an hour and 15 minutes of worship to start the day off, which was phenomenal. Then Kris Vallotton got up to introduce the first year staff. BSSM has this tradition where you get up and clap to welcome each teacher to the stage. Let's just say I got up and down so many times that I shouldn't have to do squats for a few days. Next, Pastor Bill came out and taught. It was excellent stuff as usual. I think my favorite part of his talk was a story about a leader's conference he recently had...

There were about 800 leaders at this conference and they don't even advertise this particular event because so many leaders want to attend. Anyway, Pastor Bill through out the question one day of "How many of you saw miracles consistently every week 10 years ago?" About 3 hands went up. Then he rephrased the question, "How many of you saw miracles consistently every week 5 years ago?" 11 hands went up. Lastly, he asked, "How many of you have seen miracles consistently every week in the past year?" Almost every hand in the room shot up! Pastor Bill said that pastors who wouldn't even talk to him about miracles several years ago were now starting to experience them in their congregations whether they liked it or not. We are certainly living in exciting times.

One more favorite...Pastor Bill was teaching at some conference when all of the sudden this lady screamed in the middle of the message. When he looked over at her she kind of shrunk down in embarrassment. So, he sent his assistant over to see what had happened. Apparently, this woman had been very involved in drugs, but had been radically saved by Jesus. Over time though, her teeth had rotted and fallen out. In the middle of the message, one of her teeth had instantly regrown in her mouth and she was so shocked that she screamed. Over the course of the meeting God also healed many of her other teeth that were missing and/or rotting. Cool.

There were so many other good points as well. Kris Vallotton closed out the day and he was hilarious. There wasn't one particular story, he's just very funny.

It's still a little surreal that Holly and I are here, but we're excited. Pastor Kris asked who was anxious in the room and almost all the hands in the room went up, but he prayed and then assured us that in two weeks we'd be just fine. :) More adventures to come I'm sure...for now it's the adventure of having to write a book report, something I haven't done in a loooonng time. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Sunset

We had a pretty sunset last night. I couldn't really see the whole thing because of the mountains, but the sky was pretty.

Went for a walk down by the river this morning, that was fun. There's a good hill to get down to it, so I was feelin' the burn on the way back up. :)

School starts tomorrow! I'm beyond excited at this point, can't wait. :D

Bethel is fantastic already

This morning was the third service I attended and they just keep getting better. I went to service last weekend with my mom and Kris Vallotton spoke. It was really good and totally applicable to my current situation. He was talking about how David defeated Goliath and how he had to prepare to do that. He also mentioned that one often has to fend off his own brothers before defeating his own giant. (David had to deal with his brother's unbelief before he could approach and finally kill Goliath) You can listen to these messages online at ibethel.org.

Friday night before Holly got here I went to their Friday night revival service and was rocked again, almost to tears, but I held it together. :) Someone named Paul was preaching and he was telling his testimony about how he and his family moved to Redding 6 years ago during the same week as 9/11 (which happened to be the week he was preaching). Anyway, he was talking about how they didn't know if they would get out of the country on time, they only had 2 suitcases each, but they were taking this bold step for God. It was so good, I'm not doing it any justice. But then, he asked all of us who were in the same position, people who had laid stuff down, laid securities down, and perhaps endured criticism from others, to stand up. He proceeded to pray the most beautiful prayer over us. It was great.

Then today, Pastor Bill (have to get used to calling him this-I always just say Bill) was back. (He was quarntined last week for Hepatits A.) It was another amazing message on faith. And then one of the most dramatic kind of in your face altar calls I've seen. It was cool. I'd type it all out, but it would turn into a book.

After service Holly and I stood in line to register for class. It's a good thing we dressed for the occassion because they took our pictures. My admin self was re-organizing the process a bit, but other than that it was good. I even had some friendly banter with one of the volunteers about OSU and Michigan. The whole process took about an hour and a half, but we've already perused through our binders. :)

Okay post is long enough already, but I'm sure there will be more to come. I didn't even talk about our electives yet!

Holly's Here!

Holly made it here Friday night. Yep, she made the trek in 2 days...AMAZING. She said she felt so alert, like someone was holding here eyelids open supernaturally. So, she's busy getting settled in.

I went garage saling again yesterday morning and it was another animal adventure. I was sitting outside this one house while they finished setting up a few things and this cat jumps up on the hood of my car out of nowhere. It sat right in front of me and just stared. The neighbors probably got a good laugh as I tried to shoo it away from inside my vehicle. The goofy thing got down when it was good and ready, went across the street, laid down on the front porch and went to sleep. When I finally got out to look around this crazy chiuawa (I don't know how to spell it) kept following me around. I thought it was going to come home with me. And for the grand finale...I saw ostriches out in the country. Yep, Friday it was llamas, Saturday it was ostriches. It wasn't just one or two either, there were like 30 of them. I think I'm just going to start carrying my camera with me when I go garage saling. I didn't find any good deals at all so that was kind of a bummer. I did buy a glass of lemonade from an adorable little boy. He kind of spilt it as he started to pour it; it was so cute. It was an expensive beverage refreshment at $1.00 for approximately 4 oz of extremely sour lemonade, but it was worth it. :)

The rest of the day was kind of lazy. I took Holly to Target and the grocery store so she could get some essentials. We ended up having a good dinner though. One of those roasted chickens you can get at Safeway, broccoli salad, and angel hair pasta. Mmmmmm.

We get to register for class today after service. That's exciting, but slightly sad as we watch our checking accounts plummet. :) It will all be worth it however, so write the checks we shall.

Llamas

So I forgot the craziest part of my garage saling adventures today. I went to this yard sale on Cow Creek Road (of all places) past North Cow Creek High School and I saw llamas! They were in the side yard of this garage sale (fenced in our course), but it was just like a scene out of Napoleon Dynamite. I could have walked right up to the fench and petted the goofy things. I took a picture with my cell phone, but it's not very good and I have no way to put it on here. Redding has all kinds of amazing sights. :)

Garage Sales and Car Blessings

I have a new favorite weekend activity-garage sales. It's such an adventure because you never know what you're going to find. Last weekend, I found lots of great pieces to furnish the apartment. I continued my quest today in hopes of some end tables. Seek and you shall find. I found a great pair of nesting tables that look like I bought them with my chairs. I was so excited. I got the set for 10 bucks, which was great because the cheapest tables I saw in stores were 10 bucks a piece and not nearly as cute. I still haven't found my table for the foyer, but there will be more garage saling tomorrow.

In other news, I had a very pleasant experience at my local Honda dealer yesterday. I took my CR-V in on Wednesday to have the oil changed since we drove it across country. I also asked them to see if they could find what this gargling sound was. They found it. It was the water pump. Then they proceeded to tell me that it would be $400 to put it in and that I shouldn't drive it until the part was replaced. Both people in the shop were very nice to me and the one was even talking to me about Bethel. (People in general out here are really nice.) They had to order the part, so I had to take the car back down on Thursday. When I got there Thursday, they told me my total bill for the oil change, the water pump, and the rear differential was only going to be 238 instead of 500! God is good. They even had a shuttle service that took me home and picked me back up again so I didn't have to sit at the dealer all day long.

I wasn't able to go to the prayer and worship thing the other night because I couldn't drive my car, but I think I'm going to check out Bethel's Friday night service tonight. That should be good.

Off for a walk. The weather is gorgeous. The heat finally broke.

(Pics below of my kitchen and my new end tables!)

Falls

I had to take mom to the airport this morning. The security guard was being rude so our goodbye was really quick. I was a lot more emotional than I thought I would be, but I'm better now. :) We had a good time while she was here decorating and traveling around Redding. Below, is McArthur-Burney Falls and Lake Britton. We drove out to that Sunday...awesome.

The Apartment

Mom and I had to rent 2 U-Haul trucks this week. :) The first one was really more of a van so we could pick up the couch and ottoman. We found some great furniture and a washer and dryer at an estate sale later in the week. So on Saturday we had to pick up my bargain washer and dryer ($175 for the both of them!) with a small truck. Below you'll see some of my other pics from the apartment. (My cool shower curtain, my ultra chic bedside table made out of cardboard boxes, chair-there's actually 2, my BEAUTIFUL new table and chairs, and my new dresser which was also a garage sale find.)

We've Arrived!

Mom and I arrived in Redding at 12:30 yesterday! We saw lots of great sights as we drove out and at other times it was quite boring. :) On Saturday we drove to Kansas City to visit the International House of Prayer. I had never been there and it's about nine hours from Cincinnati so we made it our first stop. It was very, very cool. Because they do 24/7 prayer and worship, you can really feel the presence of God as soon as you walk in.

Sunday was our longest driving day because we were trying to make it as close to Salt Lake City as we could. We drove about 15 hours. We didn't quite make it to Salt Lake City, but we were close enough. We passed through Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming in one day.

On Monday we continued our trek through the last little bit of Wyoming into Utah, Nevada and finally California. Utah had these really cool Salt Flats. They looked like large lakes of snow. People were playing on them though, it was pretty wild. Nevada was quite boring. I-80 West through there was nothing but brown desert that went on for miles. Gas stations were few and far between as well. If you owned a Hummer I don't think you would make it between exits. By the time we fell to half a tank we had to start looking for the next gas station.

We arrived at Lake Tahoe around 5pm and quickly went down to the lake. INCREDIBLE! It felt more like a beach because the lake had waves and sand, but it was so much better because there were mountains all around us. :) I would love to see it in the winter time, so hopefully that will happen. :)

I'm sure there will be more adventures to come, but I'm just thankful to be out of the car.