Treasure Hunt

As part of my class, we have to share the Gospel at least 3 times a week. I really don't enjoy convicting myself to go up to complete strangers on no urging but my own to share. My solution: Treasure Hunt. You wait on the Lord for peoples names, locations, articles of clothing their wearing, and things they need to be prayed for.

I hadn't done it before, but I wanted to, so I invited a friend of mine from class that hadn't done it either. So we're sitting in my living room before we go, waiting on the Lord. I am so convinced that I'm making up what I'm getting, but I decide to write them down anyway: Wendy's chocolate frosty, Ben, blue shirt, Carrie, left foot, cursive white writing with a red or black background restaurant sign. Also got a white T-shirt and left foot from earlier that I decided to add to my list. My friend got the name Sarah and flowers.

What happened? We started at Wendy's with chocolate frosty's, found no one there contained any of our names, so we moved on. Drove around for an hour stopping at random locations at which EVERY male was wearing a blue shirt, none of them named Ben. We even managed to hit Sonic where all employees wore blue shirts, again with no luck. Frustrated, we paused in a parking lot, asked Dad for more guidance, when my friend got a certain intersection. I got a picture of a building a lot like Walgreens, but discounted it because I was staring at one before I closed my eyes to pray.

At the intersection, I noticed immediately a CVS (which is another type of Walgreens), and eventually we hit it after more unsuccessful stops. We decided not to strive, and just walk around asking people's names. How many guys in that store? At least 5, all of which were wearing blue, and none of which were named Ben. No Sarah's or Carrie's either.

On our way out, we decide to ask the cashier what her name is. Before we could she ducked down behind a blue bin. She pops up, and what's her name? Carrie, who is also wearing a blue shirt. Of course. We struck up a conversation with her, told her about the Treasure Hunt, and that she was our treasure! We then asked her if her foot hurt. "Yes!" she says. "I know," I say to myself. "Which one?" I say outloud. "My left foot," she says. "I know," again to myself.

So we pray, "Holy Spirit come". That's it. "How's it feeling?" We ask. "The pain is gone!" she says. We asked her if she knew Jesus, got into a nice conversation, and left totally filled with faith. Yay Jesus!

EQUIP

Upon moving to Norman, I realized that growth would happen. What I didn't expect was how fast it would happen. With the encouragement/pushing of a wiser woman, I applied for and got accepted to Equip. What is it? It is a 10 month discipleship school meant to "establish a biblical foundation, to live a Kingdom lifestyle and impact the world". OK, so what does that mean?

In pursuit of Jesus, I am actively being discipled, actively looking for someone to disciple, doing weekly scripture memory and reading, spending at least an hour with Him a day, sharing Him at least 3 times a week, and these are but a few. Class started with a retreat September 12th, and already God has revealed himself to me in more intimate ways.

For starters, I am learning to daily hear from God, and look to him as a loving Daddy. I'm not fully there yet, but I will be soon. Just this past week, my friend and I went out to share our faith. She heard the word "Starbucks" and I got a pain in my leg that I haven't had before, so I considered it a word of knowledge. We went in, struck up a conversation with the baristas there, and one said she had pain in her knee, due to the fact that she blew it out. I took her aside and prayed over her knee 3 times. End result: pain free leg that Jesus healed!

It's a Girl!

My sister and I were so lucky this past Thursday: Our other sister was pregnant, due the beginning of October. We both really wanted to be there for the birth of their child, our first niece or nephew (that's right, they decided to not find out what they were having), but we had absolutely no idea when it would happen. We got a call last Tuesday telling us the doctor was going to induce her on Thursday! Yes! This meant we could actually plan to get down there and not miss it! Thank you Jesus!

Everyone got there with perfect timing. Five minutes after my dad walked into the room, the nurse came in, said my sister was dialted 10 inches, and ready to start delivery. Her response? "Nope. No. I can wait a bit. Really. No."

So, we left her and her husband to the care of the doctors around 5:30pm while we chilled in the waiting room, discussing what it would be. Then we waited. And waited. 7pm rolled around, and we are still waiting. Finally, our brother-in-law shows up around 7:10pm (of course the one time none of us were looking at the door) and says, "Oh, sorry guys. I texted my dad already, and I didn't want him to come down here and ruin it for you. It's a girl." An outbreak of cheering erupted, especially from my sister who really did not like the name they picked out for a boy. "Her name is Caylee Grace. I mean, I think Grace, I need to check with [my wife] to see if she likes that as a middle name. She was born around 6:45pm, 5lbs 11oz".

And then we had to wait another hour until we could actually see and hold her.