Walking By Faith

If at first you don't succeed, try again!

2010-02-15T10:41:00.000-08:00

So we are sitting here in a hotel room near San Francisco Airport. If things would have gone according to our plans we would be would almost be in Kolkata, India.

The team was scheduled to leave Fresno yesterday February 14th. Due to the fog at our connecting point (San Francisco) our flight was delayed. The question was "for how long?" If we left too late we would miss out connection to Frankfurt, Germany. The customer service rep in Fresno recommended we drive to San Francisco and she booked all 9 of our seats from San Francisco to London, then London to Kolkata. So 9 team members, 18 pieces of checked luggage, 9 carry-ons, one instrument, and 9 backpacks, and 3 rented vans later we were on our way to San Francisco. Our flights was scheduled to leave it 7pm, we arrived in San Francisco at 5:15 or so. Us 6 girls rushing through the airport to the ticket counter and the 3 guys racing to return the vans attempt to make the flight. As Melanie goes to the ticket counter we are behind her with ALL the luggage. The conversation looked pretty intense up there. Melanie turns back towards us and says "PRAY". The 5 of us in line come together and began to pray. A few minutes later Melanie and Kim start running. Come to find out our seats on the flight from London to Kolkata were not confirmed. Melanie and Kim race to the travel agency in the airport to try to get our seats confirmed. After about an hour and half of waiting, they had all 9 of our flights confirmed for today February 15th. We got a hotel rooms booked near the airport and we would be on our way to get some shut eye. so all 9 of us with all our luggage head outside to catch the hotel shuttle. We filled up the shuttle with our luggage(literally) and were on our way. We had a nice Japanese dinner across the street from the hotel. Then we were off to bed.

We tried hard to stay on our schedule, but God had other plans for us. So today is a new day and we are ready to try this again. Soon we will be checking out of the hotel and headed to the San Francisco Airport. We will sit there until our flight leaves at 7PM. On the bright side we have an 8 hour layover in London! Yay...

I have to say that things went a lot smoother than I thought. Leaving my husband and kids was going to be very hard and I thought it would be very emotional for all of us. The kids made it very easy. There were honestly no tears which was blessing. I believe that really set the stage for the trip. I thank God for that.

There will be no internet access until the last few days of our trip, but someone from our team will be updating the India Team Blog daily. If you would like to follow along our journey please visit our blog daily and read how God's amazing plans unfold. Please pray for our safe travels. Thank you. :)

How He Loves Us....

2009-10-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

So it has been a long, long time... almost three months since I have updated my blog. That is just way too long. As many of you may already know in February of 2010 I will be going to India to share the love of Jesus. Just months ago when a group went to India I felt a tugging on my heart the whole time they were gone. I became an obsessed woman reading their blogs. I could just close my eye and imagine myself there. At that instant God told me I needed to be there. There were people there who were broken who needed to feel loved and to be reminded of his love for them. Someone who could tell them they were not forgotten and that there was hope. During that time I would have never imagined the Lord had that same plan for such a dear friend of mine, Tina. Together with a beautiful group of 3 other women we will be teaching the beauty of the Lord to other women and bringing love and compassion to the people of Kolkata, India. It is going to be amazing.

Today we also start "40 Days of Love". It's a church wide campaign taught by Rick Warren on how to show love to the people God has placed in our lives. It is going to be amazing. I started reading this morning and with the first chapter I already realize I need this! I say I love you, but do my actions show it? Interesting how some things make you dig deep and actually reflect on your actions. Am I showing love like I should be? I will be honest the answer to that is NO... I think sometimes we get so caught up in "worldly" things and forget what really matters. I will use the next 40 days to become more like Jesus, to love the way he loves because that is what matters most. He doesn't just recommend it, he commands it!

"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40

Weekend of Family Fun!

2009-07-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Naiyla’s birthday this weekend. She will be turning 6 on July 15^th. She had a great time. It is a blessing to have so family and best friends. All of my family and closest friends were there to celebrate. For the last 5 years we have celebrated Naiyla’s birthday at Central Aquatics Complex. A high school and Fresno has a facility that they have made into a miniature water park. It is always good times. In the days leading up to her birthday party I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, her response, “I want a Nintendo DS and dresses, skirts, shorts and shirts.” The only kid I know that would ask for clothes for her birthday. She loves to dress up. She did get everything she wanted. It was priceless to see her face when she realized she got a DS. We got home at about 4PM and about 30min later Naiyla was asleep on the couch. She slept until about midnight, when she woke-up to play her DS.

Sunday afternoon we headed back out to Central Aquatics for NorthPointe’s Annual Summer BBQ where Anthony would be baptized. We attended an informational class (First Steps) at church because Anthony wanted to learn more about baptism. After the class he asked Joe and I if he could get baptized. He said now he understood what baptism was all about and he was ready to be on God’s team! It was very exciting. Our children’s pastor wasn’t there so he chose to be baptized by Travis (our JR High Pastor). We had a great time at the BBQ hanging out with the Salvador’s. It is great to have such great friends! We lounged, ate and went swimming. Good times had by all.

I am excited for what God has in store for me and my dear friend Tina. Our daughters are best friends which brought us together. We discovered that we had both been praying for a Christian friend, someone who shared the same heart for Jesus. We found out that we also had the same heart for orphans. This brought us even closer and now the Lord is doing some awesome things in our lives. We are praying that God allows us the opportunity to serve and share his love with the Children of India. Keep us in your prayers and I will also keep you posted on what come about.

Getting Started

2009-06-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

This will be the first of many posts to my new blog. I was introduced to blogging by a friend and I thought it might be a good idea to get started. It's rather unusually cool morning here in Fresno. I say unusual because of the 108 degree weather we experienced yesterday. I any event, "this is the day the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"